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Found this link on hyperscale. It leads to a series of 'LIFE' photographs on facebook labeled as 'RAF Base 1940' http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_145686296745510&key=0eff82a158b9bcd735539ea921a97f93&libId=il9uf09l010009tm000DA7ma7u1s9&cuid=f-&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.network54.com%2FForum%2F149674%2Fthread%2F1456861218%2Flast-1456861218%2F%2528View%2BAll%2BMessages%2BIn%2BThis%2BThread%2529&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmedia%2Fset%2F%3Fset%3Da.1720244971554825.1073742292.1634742540105069%26type%3D3&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.network54.com%2FForum%2F149674&title=Plane%20Talking%20-%20HyperScale's%20Aircraft%20Scale%20Model%20Discussion%20Forum%3A%20LIFE%20series%20%22RAF%20Base%201940%22%20...&txt=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmedia%2Fset%2F%3Fset%3Da.1720244971554825.1073742292.1634742540105069%26amp%3Btype%3D3 Some great pictures and it would be nice to find out where it is and get some names to go with the faces. Thanks to the original poster 'Mark Allen M' Pete

Hello all! Well, my Mk.A Whippet is all done so now it's time to move on to me' Blenheim. I'll be modelling this as L1145 from No. 57 Sqn, RAF Upper Hayford 1938. This is fully and completely in thanks to Chris (bigbadbadge) who very kindly donated the decals. Though this represents an aircraft of the pre-war 57 Sqn. they in fact continued to use them until 1940 where they were replaced by Blenheim IVs and then Wellingtons within the same year. Here's my starting point: And the kit contents: I'm not planning to do a huge amount to the kit, for one thing I lack the skill, so this will mostly be an OOB build. With maybe a bit of detail added to the wheel wells and cockpit/turret. Cheers, Paul

Going through my photo's. I realized that I had some good photo's of the Blenheim (and Lysander) Mercury engine installation and cowl bracing. These might help anyone doing Airfix's or Classic Airframe's Blenheim kits. The engine is a Mercury XX on a stand, and it was photographed at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I apologise for the quality, but they were taken with a cell-phone camera. Hope they help someone, Colin

A link to the photo's I've posted elsewhere, Cheers, Colin http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992580-bristol-blenheim-mercury-eng-cowl-bracing-close-ups-photo-heavy/

Hi there, I've bought a recent edition of Classics Airframes 1/48 Blenheim IV... but instructions were missing! Does anybody have a scan, jpeg of pdf? Any help will be appreciated. Also, do you know any instructions repository on line? Cheers.

Hi Everyone, Here are some of my photos from the Eastbourne airshow, I've tried to pick my favourites out of the almost 1,000 photos I took, but still this is going to be very photo heavy. If you want to view the full 135 photos, they are in an album on my facebook, linked here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488656594634727.1073741851.100004711722357&type=1&l=0724244a56 Anyway lets kick off the photos, I hope you like them. I'm trying to persuade my missus to let me go to either Bournemouth or Shoreham airshow (preferably Bournemouth) this weekend. Chinook Jet Provost Breitling Wingwalkers Typhoon Spitfire MiG-15 Grob Tutor Bulldog Sea King Eastbourne's Tamar class Lifeboat (At High Speed) Hawk T.2 Blenheim Norwegian Vampires P-51 Mustang "Ferocious Frankie" Vulcan XH558 Dakota Patrouille Reva The Blades Red Arrows Anyway, thats all of the photos I'm going to post. You can view the rest on the facebook link at the top. These photos were all taken with a Canon EOS 20D DSLR body with a 100 - 400 mm canon lens stuck on the front of it. Boy was that heavy without a tripod, but made life easier when tracking the planes. They have all been edited to improve colour balance etc. Please let me know what you think. All the best, Rick

Hello All, I know we are a bit overrun with Blenheim builds at the moment (I know, we are all just practising for the Beaufighter!) but here's some photos of my current build. Hopefully this will provide a slightly different slant, so I beg your forbearance... I wanted to do a Blenheim 1F, with black and white undersides. The ejector pin marks in the nacelles were actually quite easy to scrape off with a curved scalpel blade. One down, one to go: The cockpit is a little gem: I followed the route of assembling the fuselage, and then added the cockpit as an assembled unit without the canopy. I cut off the little inset windows at the back and added them separately. When you add the cockpit to the fuselage you realise how terribly cramped it is. I've added some tape seat belts, stretched sprue slices for the instrument backs and some simple rudder pedals. The undercarriage bay is well detailed, but I also added a speculative wing rib with lightening holes in it to fill the void down the wing: I didn't have much luck with getting the bomb bay together either. I think it's not entirely my fault: I glued the two halves of the cockpit transparency together before sticking it on: I pinched the rather nice gun pack from a Frog (Revell re-pop) Blenheim. I filled in the slots to make holes for the guns: I masked and painted the codes I wanted because I didn't have anything that quite looked right: The codes come out a bit lumpy where the paint has pooled next to the tape, so you need to give it a gentle sanding with a fine finishing stick: Here's the codes against my chief reference photo and the Xtradecal codes set, in which the "A" is a bit narrow and the codes are pretty dark: Ironically (is it ironic? isn't it ironic?? I blame Alanis Morrisette...) the old Frog kit comes with markings "WR-E" so it's close but no cigar. However, they are off-white and around 30 inches tall. I used Xtradecals 32.5 inch "A" type roundels on the fuselage and 66.5 inch "B" type on the wings. Early Blenheims arrived with 66.5 inch "A1" type roundels above the wings, and these got painted down to 47.5 inch "B" type, but in the absence of a photo, I decided that this was probably a later Blenheim delivered with 66.5 inch "B" type roundels from the factory. I stuck to Xtradecals for the wing roundels because the Airfix red looks a little light to me. There are not serials, fin flashes or underwing roundels and apart from two W/T stencils below the starboard elevator, I can't see any other stencils on the photos, so decalling has been mercifully short! Thanks for looking, Adrian

Sneak attack by tony_inkster, on Flickr Vulcan B.2 XH558 by tony_inkster, on Flickr Vulcan B.2 XH558 by tony_inkster, on Flickr Air Ambulance by tony_inkster, on Flickr Rolls Royce Spitfire by tony_inkster, on Flickr Bristol Blenheim Mk.I L6739 by tony_inkster, on Flickr Bristol Blenheim Mk.I L6739 by tony_inkster, on Flickr Bristol Blenheim Mk.I L6739 by tony_inkster, on Flickr

I finished this last night; the new-tool Airfix Blenheim IV representing V6028 GBoD which was the aircraft flown by Acting Wing Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards on 04 July 1941 in the low-level raid on Bremen for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The kit is a nicely complex but pleasantly easy build so long as you go carefully and do plenty of test-fitting before you commit to glue. The join of the forward fuselage/cockpit to the rear fuselage and wings did not present any problems; I may just have been lucky but it worked first time and gave no hint that it could be troublesome - the bomb-bay interior however did not fit well at the rear join and would have needed work had I left the bomb-doors open. The kit includes both types of 'under-chin' turret for bomber variants as well as a full bomb-load as per the Mk.I kit, however it does not include the later modified bulged side windows for the pilot and navigator so you will need to consider your options if that is a major issue to you, or just do what I did and stick your fingers in your ears and loudly say "Lalalala I can't heeeaar you" if anyone mentions it. The kit was built OOB apart from the replacement of the exhausts, air intakes and fuel dump pipes with those from the Barracuda resin set (I really just wanted to see what they are like and for the record they are lovely) and the addition of an EZ-Line aerial wire. Other points - I have painted the navigation lights red and green when in fact they were red and green bulbs with clear covers. I don't even care. I also accidentally gave this one aircraft the exhaust staining of a whole squadron, then compounded it by trying to cover it up. I care a bit more about that because it is just embarrassing, but short of not posting pictures of the underside (which is not a bad idea now I come to think of it) there is little point in my trying to hide it. The paints used were Phoenix Precision Paints Interior Grey-Green, Dark Earth, Dark Green and Sky and various other bits and bobs for the detail painting. The decals were from the Airfix Victoria Cross Icons set and were fairly good though not quite up to the standard of the decals in the current boxing. Cheers, Stew

I think I must have Attention Deficit Disorder or something, because I was thinking I would take a break from modelling for a couple of weeks until the start of the French Fancies GB; however less than a week later I find that I am bored (and I used to work in Insurance so believe me I know bored when I see it)... So I thought I'd make a start on something I had been meaning to do for a while, and combine the decals from the Airfix VC Winners set with the new-tool Airfix Blenheim IV to represent the aircraft flown by Acting Wing Commander Hughie Edwards on the Bremen Raid on 4 July 1941 for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Here's the basic kit; labelled as a IVF (the fighter version) but it contains all the parts you would need to make the bomber variants too: I also got some aftermarket goodies which I accumulated over the last few months, the Peewit canopy masks being the most recent I think: Here are the decals from the Airfix VC Winners set - Question: surely by July 1941 underwing roundels too? ... and so I started assembly, the Mk.I I built following the instructions and it turned out fine, but this time I am starting with the cockpit because construction starts with the cockpit, Airfix - these are the relevant components awaiting clean up and later on, paint: It's worth noting that if you intend to build a bomber with either of the under-chin turrets, these are both supplied but you need to open a slot in the floor of the right-hand cockpit part. Cheers, Stew

Gentlemen, I have a couple of both the Airfix Blenheim Mk. I and Mk. IVF kits underway ATM. One aspect of the Blenheim kit I am unsure of is the dorsal gun turret options offered in the kit. I understand the single and double gun turret options and when the double gun option was introduced into service. What is unclear is whether the two clear parts - G3 & G6 (Mk. I sprues) and G3 & G4 (Mk. IVF sprues) simply reflect the stowed/deployed turret option, or is there a 'different' turret option for the Mk. I for example ? Many side profiles included either in books on the Blenheim or in aftermarket decals I have almost always illustrate the short squat turret. I suspect this is purely reflecting the 'artistic licence' adopted by the illustrators ? Many thanks,

I have a question regarding the colour of Blenheim wheel hubs. I ask because most of the painting references I have (Airfix, various aftermarket decal sheets) are 'silent' in this matter. The Airfix kit provides guidance for a single flat black/coal black shade. For many of the original Mk.I aircraft with the black underside this makes sense to me. As we know, Blenheims of other persuasions and colour schemes (Sky Blue, etc. under surfaces) exist and are covered pretty well by the range of decal sheets that have been released in recent times. I am wondering if the wheel hubs where ever matched to the under surface colour of the factory/service-prepared aircraft. Or were they predominantly black, including spare wheels ? Any assistance would be gratefully accepted.

Not done a group build for ages, but it's quite timely with my intention to start these. I planned this last year, but only just getting round to starting them. Whilst the Frog kit is obsolete, the Airfix kit isn't, but it should be !! The plan - Make a Mk.I - probably in desert scheme, a Mk.IV in night scheme Modifications planned: Falcon canopies Barracuda wheels Various airframe corrections - copy best bits from each kit ! eg. Correct rear nacelles and tail on Airfix kit by copying Frog Possibly stick a bomb bay in the Mk.IV Some scratch building of the cockpits A ton of filler ! A ton of sanding ! Some blood sweat and tears ! A healthy feed for the carpet monster ! What I've got so far: Note, I don't have the box for the Frog kit as it came in a bag, so box images courtesy of the net Aftermarket bits (I need to dig out the decals, but will be using aftermarket Extradecal): Some comparison shots of the two kits - Frog in white The Airfix has some noticeable errors, the tail looks so wrong and the rear nacelles in the wing are too long. The intention is to use the Frog kit as a template to correct the Airfix tail and too literally cut out the offending nacelles, fill the holes in the wings and remake the nacelles out of Miliput. I did this with a Halifax last year and it worked OK. As normal I'm sure loads of other things will crop up as I start and learn so it's open to influence where I can. Cheers, Neil

Hi All, Our latest set is out now: SBS Model 72017 1/72 Bristol Blenheim engine set for Airfix kit further info: www.sbsmodel.com Cheers, Csaba

The latest issue of Aeroplane has a full page advert for the new Blenheims, the Mk.I advertised for June and the Mk.IV for September. This seems to me to be a bit in advance. I know the cover date on the magazine reads May but that's just the sillies of the publishing trade. It is now March and at over two probably three months away from getting these beauties into hand (or another three if, like me, you want to hold out for the Mk.IV). Does this imply that Airfix have no other interesting new aircraft release planned for the intervening months?

First post on Britmodeller. Recently completed Blenheim 1F, purchased on ebay as a way back into the hobby after a 35 year break1 Thought this would be an easy one to start on but ended up replacing the nose glazing with a Falcon one having completely ruined the original, framing is decal strip. Tried my hand at weathering, wanted it to look well used, the paint finish has been sprayed using cans and then thinned with fine wire wool and top coated with weak black oil paint. Also my first attempt at a detailed cockpit interior. The finish depicts 25 Sq North Weald 1939 based on details from the Blenheim Warpaint book, still need to find a serial number to show L1257. Thanks for looking. http://s124.photobucket.com/user/neilh2/library/

Hi All, Since Airfix will be bringing us some new tool Blenheim aircraft kits, a few pictures that show the bombs as carried plus the bomb bays of various Finnish Blenheim variants may be of interest. Since I am putting up a lot of pictures I decided not to flood Mark Haselden's thread on the Airfix Blenheim with them. All of the 62 images which will follow below are sourced from the SA-Kuva website. To date I have examined around 144,450 images from SA-Kuva and have downloaded 4703 images of interest which include 3122 aviation pictures. Fortunately I am most of the way through what SA-Kuva has online. Anyway here are some pictures; More to follow, over....

While taking a break from decalling the Javelin I have cleared another hanger queen. This one fought me all the way. I picked it up at a Swap'n'Sell for $5, inside it had some additional photo etch to tart it up a bit. This was my first experience with photo etch (outside the occasional seat belt). It was not an entirely happy affair. I am at this point undecided as to whether it is (a) really useful or ( the spawn of Satan. Finished as usual with brush painted Tamiya acrylics. The decals were awful, but I managed to tease them more or less into place. Canopy was very cloudy as well. Still, if you stand far enough away it looks the part.

Not done a group build for a long while, so the desire to get these two done fell timely with the Obsolete kit GB. Obviously, the Airfix kit is still in production, but it shouldn't be and as I found out last week, they're releasing a new one, which is just so damn typical after suffering blood sweat and tears with these !!!!! Still, I'm rather looking forwards to it as the old one has served it's time. Used the Falcon sets largely to replace the clear bits, but also has to resort to some creativity to overcome deficiencies. Also used the Barracuda excellent resin wheels and Extradecals. big thanks to Sean for helping me out after cocking one of the decals up Everything else that isn't standard was scratch built. Build thread here. hope you like them... Frog Mk.I Airfix Mk.IV Thanks for looking, Neil

Hi All, Here are some Finnish Lysander and Blenheim aircraft pictures; 112709 112710 112712 112717 112712 153583 153584 23019 All images SA-kuva. More Lysander and Blenheim pictures that are greater than 4900 pixels wide can be found here at the Finnish Wartime Photographic Archive. Cheers, Daniel.