East Fortune's Bolingbroke

[Col.]

During a week off work I was able to get a visit to East Fortune and have a look at their Bristol Bolingbroke restoration. Pointed the phone camera at it and took some rather basic photos so thought some of you might like to see them.

[Col.]

There's a few more photos but I know the quality isn't great so haven't posted them all. Seeing this one inspired me to search out the Airfix Blenheim Mk.IV kit on Amazon as an addition to the stash with a plan to model this machine.

[occa]

Very nice, thank you for posting these !!

[Admiral Puff]

Many thanks - saves having to modify the Airfix kit back to a Blenheim!

[tonyot]

Thanks for those great pics,....... I`d love to get up and have a look at the Bolly.

I converted the recent Airfix kit into a Bolly and it was posted here on BM,...... note how the engine nacelles are different,...one is longer than the other, the longer left one has a liferaft enclosed and the other one on the right has a bulge on top for the larger oil tank. As your pic shows the instrument panel goes right across the cockpit with a small cut out underneath leading to the nose,.......it has a downward looking i/d lamp under the wing and by rights it should actually have clear bulges on the cockpit side windows. Of course you also have the porthole in the side of the fuselage in front of the turret on the right hand side,.....there was a radio ops position here with a desk and seat, unlike in the Blenheim where the radio`s were hard to get to on racks mounted behind the turret. Most,....but not all also had a clear acorn fairing for the DF loop,.....I`ve probably missed loads out but it isn`t as easy as you think to convert a Blenheim into a Bolly.

Thanks for sharing,

Cheers,

Tony

[72modeler]

Outstanding photos, especially the ones that show the type's different engine nacelle fairings! A true modeller's walkaround! I seemed to recall a very detailed description of the differences between a Blenheim and Bolingbroke on another modelling website, and I was able to find it and have attached a link. Sure wish Airfix had done a little better research before they cut the molds on their new-tool kit, but the mods aren't impossible, just not easy, in order to make a proper Blenheim. Hope the article will be useful for builders of both types!

Mike

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1336551020/Thanks+for+your+amazing+help+in+my+Blenheim+search

[tonyot]

Here is my Bolly model,......the thread;

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234983028-airfix-172nd-blenheim-to-bolingbroke-conversion-sea-scheme-rcaf-patricia-bay/?hl=bolingbroke

and one of the model;

Again,.....cheers for sharing your excellent photos,

Cheers

Tony

[Finn]

There is one at the Victoria BC Airport museum as well:

http://www.bcam.net/the-war-birds-1939-1945/

i had a chance to crawl around it a few years back, no camera though.

Jari

[Col.]

Glad the photos are of interest to you all. One day I'll buy a proper camera and learn to take better photos

There is a few more photos but I'll try getting them added to the relevant thread in the Walkaround section.

Thanks for posting the links and model lads. Inspiring stuff

[nuuumannn]

Lovely to see that aircraft as finished - or near enough to it and nice to see the museum maintaining the aircraft's original configuration and colours rather than converting it to a Blenheim IV, which has considerable provenance to East Fortune as they were there with 60 and 132 OTUs. Great photos, Col.

This is the ex-Strathallan Collection Boli that was being restored to flying condition and the engines from this, or that Strathallan was going to fit to it went to Graham Warner, who took the other Boli bits that Strathallan had and built his flying one from. It's been a long time coming for this aircraft to get to this stage and it looks grand.

Edited August 26, 2016 by nuuumannn

[Julien]

Nice pics Col, can I add them into the walkaround?

Julien

[Col.]

Lovely to see that aircraft as finished - or near enough to it and nice to see the museum maintaining the aircraft's original configuration and colours rather than converting it to a Blenheim IV, which has considerable provenance to East Fortune as they were there with 60 and 132 OTUs. Great photos, Col.

This is the ex-Strathallan Collection Boli that was being restored to flying condition and the engines from this, or that Strathallan was going to fit to it went to Graham Warner, who took the other Boli bits that Strathallan had and built his flying one from. It's been a long time coming for this aircraft to get to this stage and it looks grand.

Thank you and thanks for the information on this ones recent history. I wasn't aware of where it had come from prior to reaching East Fortune.

Nice pics Col, can I add them into the walkaround?

Julien

Yes of course Julien. I have plenty other photos of various aircraft that may also be of interest to you but will be in contact once they're in some sort of order

[nuuumannn]

I wasn't aware of where it had come from prior to reaching East Fortune.

No worries, Col. The museum at EF was the biggest single recipient of the Strathallan auction airframes and the Boli and the Anson (VM360) were the highest priced and largest aircraft the museum acquired. The Mosquito (RS712) was, of course top of the list, but the budget approved by the museum's masters in their headquarters in Chambers Street in Edinburgh was the same as the starting bid for the Mossie and the guys who went were told to buy more than just the one airframe. Still, £50,000 St in 1981 wasn't bad for a flyable Mosquito - Kermit Weeks acquired it for twice that, still a steal, really. The Boli was listed at £20,000 including engines. It has the wings of Boli RCAF 9949 fitted, which survives in a museum in Canada somewhere.