Old Man

Mixed, Sir. Used them for a Morane 406, and in consequence gave theirs a pass and used XtraDecal for a peacetime Blenheim build. The big ID number under the Morane's wings was insanely tricky, and I figured the Blenheim's underwing serials would be similar trouble. The problem was that the numbers were 'naked', there was no surrounding film. Given how thin they are, and how prone they are to folding over, the experience was not pleasant. If there had not been some duplication in the various subjects' underwing numbers on the sheet, I wouldn't have been able to complete the run. For national markings, unit emblems, that sort of thing, they're good decals, but big alpha-numerics, and little serial runs and such minutia, not so much.

Perhaps, Sir, this is simply shadow on the uppersurface colors, given a crisp edge by stringer for most of the picture?

That's something special, Sir. My hat is off to you. I'd rather make both from scratch than try and match one, and I can't tell by eye which is yours and which came from the kit.

Here is the picture of the machine backing the profile in the Mushroom monograph. It obviously was taken at Gibraltar, when it was sunny.... About ready to get some paint on the model.

It's a fun kit to build, goes together very nicely. Can't speak to accuracy beyond the turret piece and that clipped lower rear corner of the glazing on the port side. I've read the decidedly conical shape of the turret piece owes to technical limitations, but I expect it could have been managed some other way. Airfix, I'm sure, has it more than beat for interior and such. If you do take yours up, I suspect it will prove best to glue the lower bit of glazing to the main piece, or put it in first. That's not how I did it, mind, but from problems I ran into putting the main piece in place first I don't recommend that. I'm glad they catch your eye. I wanted to stick close as I could to an OOB standard. The corner of the glazing seems a widespread error, the Warpaint number on the Blenheim has it in its Mk. I drawings. The old Profile got it right. Here's a look at the final turret piece (framing is some 1/64" striping tape): The white bit you see is the 'touch-up' on the port glazings: The glazing should actually go straight back to touch the wing root, but the mating arrangements rule this out without major efforts.

Very nice, Russ! It's sure got that lived-in in the jungle look about it....

Bristol's Blenheim, for better or worse, ranks as an iconic aircraft of the Royal Air Force. It once was seen, and promoted, as the fastest and most modern expression of air power. This was before hostilities with Nazi Germany commenced. Perhaps the true high point of the Blenheim's service career came shortly after its introduction to squadron service, at the Hendon air display of 1937, on the 26th of June, a Saturday. Here the Royal Air Force would show off its most modern aeroplanes, the first fruits of the program of expansion and re-equipment recently embarked on by the Air Ministry, before a crowd of tens of thousands who had paid sums ranging from a pound to a shilling for the spectacle. The program was planned to convey to the public the lesson that England's best defense was the bomber, able to wreak destruction directly on the foe. 114 (Hong Kong) Squadron, the first in the RAF to be equipped with the Blenheim, having received its first examples only in March, showed off the type's touted speed with a low level pass over the crowd by a vic of three. For this year's 'set-piece' performance, a 'Port Hendon' had been mocked up to be destroyed from the air. Blenheims of 114 Sqdn put in the first attack, outpacing the Gloster Gladiator fighters set to intercept them in defense of the port, though by script one was to fall out and dive away to represent a machine downed by anti-aircraft cannon. Heavier attacks followed on the port, most by other re-armament and expansion types such as the Whitley and Wellesley and Wellington. This model represents a machine of 114 Sqdn at the Hendon display of '37, with its turret in the retracted position. K7040 was the eighth production Blenheim, and was delivered to the squadron late in March. In February of 1938, it was struck off squadron charge and became, along with several other early arrivals to the squadron, an instructional airframe at No. 1 School of Technical Training. It was scrapped in the summer of 1943. It is a vintage Frog 1/72 kit, with a few small touchings up to give a bit more verisimilitude to the thing. The lower rear corner of the port side glazing is not clipped but square (if short), and a turret of more or less proper diameter and cylindrical shape contrived (by turning the kit piece upside down and capping it with a round of 1mm clear sheet). Decals are from the XtraDecal sheet, with a small hyphen added. This, and the outboard placement of the number, was a feature of the first dozen or so Blenheims delivered.

I am in your debt, gentlemen. It seems that however it was finished on arriving in the Mediterranean, L3049 would have been finished in standard high demarcation Sky when its career ended. I hadn't any idea about the blue/grey/camo scheme beyond the odd note in the monograph. It's quite interesting. You hear about such 'off-brand' finishes, which seem often to boil down to speculation turned to conclusion rather than hard evidence, but this one is solid stuff.

Thank you very much, Claudio. I appreciate the background, I'd only heard of the undersurface blue scheme in connection with the Mediterranean. Very interesting. It sounds like the scheme for L3049 boils down to whether it was with 800 Sqdn before or only after Trondheim. If the former, the blue undersurface would be appropriate, if the latter, proper high demarcation Sky would be. Judging by the losses incurred over Trondheim, that would be pretty much a coin toss. Would the higher serial number weight things towards the standard finish?

I found this in an old thread by Iang: Indeed, during the deployment in the Mediterranean, June 1940 -April 1941, 800 Squadron lost three Skuas: A6G: L2987 - escorting Hurricanes to Malta, S/D by AA fire, crash landed Sicily 17/11/40; A6B: (probably) L2954 - F/L 24/9/40 after attack on warships, crew rescued by HMS Echo; A6L: (probably) L3049 - F/L 3/2/41, crew rescued by ? So at least that is where the machine ended up. It would be nice to know when it began.

Thanks a lot, Grey! That's quite a model, I took it for a slightly colorized old photograph at first glance. You've set quite a conundrum. My previous Skua was an 800 Sqdn machine in the South Atlantic hunting Graf Spee, and I thought a machine of the unit when the type was retired would make a nice companion, a first and last bookend. But that camo/grey/blue scheme is odd enough to seriously tempt me. A distant cousin of the USN tri-color scheme. Did the FAA get any lend-lease finished in that manner? The photograph in the Skua/Roc monograph shows L3049 on the flight deck, with Ark Royal berthed at Gibralter. It's a sunny day. It's not clear whether the dark bottom of the cowling is a demarcation or shadow. Is it likely an 800 Sqdn machine in early summer would also have this colored undersurface?

I'm starting another Skua, and want to do one with high demarcation Sky rather than Sky Grey undersurfaces. The Mushroom Skua&Roc monograph has a profile (and photograph) of L3049 in this scheme, as 'L' of 800 Squadron on HMS Ark Royal. I am curious whether this machine was on Ark Royal when it arrived in the Med in July, and whether a Skua at that time would have had the Sky finish already. The Mushroom Skua&Roc monograph also mentions some possibility that in the summer of 1940, there were Skuas which had portions of their undersurfaces painted an azure blue, referencing stills from 'Ships With Wings'. Is there anything to this?

Thanks again, gentlemen, for your help. Here is the model, ready for a stand....

Glad you like it, Pat. I hope they do a new-tool 1/72 of the type. I work in the Gentleman's scale, 1/48 stuff is not for me.

We had some things happen in the family it would be definitely TMI to post up here, that put me off feed for a while. I've had some mobility issues with my right shoulder, that made rigging a pain, literally, as well. I'm getting more used to what I can and can't do, and hope to give it a try again one of these days. I'm just about finished with a Frog Blenheim I, and starting on an old Pavla/Octopus Skua currently. Hope all is well over on the old WWI models site.