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My Airfix Blenheim arrived today!


Selwyn

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Double fantastic today.

1/Got home from work and My Airfix Blenheim was on the mat!

2/ My local shop has had a delivery of pontefract cakes!

Mission for tonight- not to get liquorice stains on the sprues.....................................!

V happy Selwyn

PS love the fact that they have given you two turret glazings, lowered and raised, definite plus point on the first glance.

Edited by Selwyn
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pics, or it didn't happen!

Alex

I could take pics but unfortunately I have little success posting them on this forum and have given it up as a bad job.

I could take them if someone else would be willing to post them?

Meanwhile some things I like;

Basically you get two Bristol turrets one with mounts for one Vickers K gun, and the other for mounting two guns not used on this kit but for the Mk IV I suppose. (3 guns are supplied in the kit, they look really good, (one is already earmarked for a lysander I am building!) as stated before two turret transparencies for lower and raised turrets.

Different power egg back plates with either open and closed cooling gills. different air filters for the engines.either RAF/ Romanian.

The nose assembly is a bit radical, the side transparencies are fastened to the nose halves, they have positive mounting points, you then glue both assembled halves together and the top panel / pilot sliding entrance panel is then glued on top. Plenty of excuses to be extra careful when using the gluepot! Saying that, it would be very easy to cut and mount the entrance panel open to display the cockpit open, a good excuse for the super detailer. decal supplied only for the blind flying panel.

Wings have a main spar across the wing assembly, positional flaps, the undercarriage mounts onto the spar just like the real thing. there are two sets of wheelbay doors for open and closed undercarriage, the ones for "closed" have tabs on them for positive location. the wheels have flats on them, when used undercarriage up the flats have to be positioned in the bays.

Seperate control surfaces, detail on rudder is gorgeous!

Detail is generally restrained but very nice, I have had a cursory glance against the only set of plans I have (Warpaint 26) and everything matches size wise but I am not sure of the plans absolute accuracy.

Bomb bay can be depicted open or closed,

2X 500GP bombs are supplied with universal carriers and two fuselage mounted light stores carriers with bombs.

Dislikes

Small red decal ring marking for the 500lb bombs actually incorrect, position wrong and needs a green ring too! (sorry, armourer head on again!)

No pilot seat straps.

Would have liked a opening fuselage entrance door, I can wish.

No IF gunpack supplied. Mounting holes are present in the bomb bay doors though,looks like a future release thing.

general first impression?

You thought the Typhoon was value for money? look at this!

Hasegawa are you listening!!

Selwyn

Edited by Selwyn
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Flippin heck, looks like another kit I will have to go search for this weekend as a priority, that way it can go into the stash in the garage for the next few years :mental:

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Is the choice of "air filters" the standard carburettor intake vs. the one with the Vokes tropical filter? From the assembled one in Airfix mag that's my impression, but the tropical one looked a little small in the photos. What does it look like for real? (I know I can always wait for the Mk.IV that I'll be buying, but I wanna kno NOW!)

The sprue shots showed both gun packs, and the blast plates under the fuselage for the Mk.I. So that suggests a third boxing - though we are still waiting for the implied Spitfire Mk.V after spare parts were provided in the Mk.I/II.

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The first IV boxing is listed as a IVf, so presumably they are planning to box bomber and fighter versions of each mark seperately. That would give a minimum of 4 boxings.

John

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Is the choice of "air filters" the standard carburettor intake vs. the one with the Vokes tropical filter? From the assembled one in Airfix mag that's my impression, but the tropical one looked a little small in the photos. What does it look like for real? (I know I can always wait for the Mk.IV that I'll be buying, but I wanna kno NOW!)

The sprue shots showed both gun packs, and the blast plates under the fuselage for the Mk.I. So that suggests a third boxing - though we are still waiting for the implied Spitfire Mk.V after spare parts were provided in the Mk.I/II.

Graham,

I'm at work, but if i remember one intake is just a "airscoop" type. I have looked at a picture of a prewar UK based Mk 1 and its of the same type fitted to it, the other was circular, (bit like a buscuit tin) with a rectangular intake.

Selwyn

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I am hoping that the correct tropical intakes are added. I too also think that the completed model pics I've seen so far (on first impression) appear to be a smidge undersized. I do hope I'm wrong here as the 62 Sqd RAF subject matter would suggest that these were fitted.

So no gun pack with this kit hey? That's another strange one, however one would think that a 1f Battle of Britian version may be on the drawing board for 2015. Perhaps we will also see a nice Mk.IV Battle of France bomber version as well. If I recall correctly the sprue shots so far published do show two gun packs. These may both appear in the IVf version due in a few months time.

Cheers.. Dave

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My Blenheim has just arrived, so I have taken a cursory first look. My initial impressions were that I was reminded somewhat of the Hasegawa Beaufighter, though with more detail and possibly even finer panel lines. The thought of what Airfix could do with the Beaufighter is almost too much to bear!

Anyway, I digress. I checked the transparencies with a 3x loupe and could detect a faint line on one panel of one canopy half and another faint line on one of the turrets. They aren't visible to the naked eye, so I consider it perfectly acceptable. Hopefully that'll be as bad as it gets.

If I didn't have so much on the workbench at the moment, I'd dive right in, but with a Tiger Moth, Harrier GR.1, Vampire T.11, A-4P, Gladiator, Typhoon Ib, five Fw 190A-8s (all Airfix) and two Hasegawa Fw 190D-9s all giving me evils, I think I should at least finish a few before giving in to temptation.

Oh, and by the way, Airfix: Beaufighter. You know you want to!

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I checked the transparencies with a 3x loupe and could detect a faint line on one panel of one canopy half and another faint line on one of the turrets. They aren't visible to the naked eye, so I consider it perfectly acceptable. Hopefully that'll be as bad as it gets.

Unfortunately it doesn't. The ones on mine are perfectly visible (without magnification) even to my ever deteriorating eyesight....

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