Contrail Blackburn Botha

[bristol boy]

Finally completed my Botha, or rather I can't look at it any longer! This is my fourth vacform, what usually happens is I choose a subject, Bombay for instance and then Valom produce a kit or Sparrow and...you guessed it. There is not much chance with the Botha. Out of my vacs so far this has been the most difficult, even the Iris for the Floatplane GB was easier. Not sure why this one has been so problematic but the main additions/changes are;

-total rescribing

-replaced cowlings with Halifax ones plus gills of plastic strip

-cockpit interior

-scratched landing gear

-I overcut the front glazing and replaced it with a plunge moulded one

-scratched gun turret detail

 

etc

 

Some pictures

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like it, very glad to move onto something else, a nice simple OOB Bristol Bulldog in the Airfix GB for instance, it will certainly be less Botha.

 

 

 

 

 

[stevehnz]

Brilliant, I'm really liking this, I enjoyed following you WIP in the knowledge it'll hopefully help me with mine someday 'cause I sure you're right, no one but no one is ever going to kit one of these in styrene.

Steve.

[RidgeRunner]

Now that is a lovely model

[bristol boy]

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Brilliant, I'm really liking this, I enjoyed following you WIP in the knowledge it'll hopefully help me with mine someday 'cause I sure you're right, no one but no one is ever going to kit one of these in styrene.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

Do you have the vac or resin version? Sorry the WIP petered out, but thanks for your interest. If you do build yours I will offer any assistance I can,

Neil

[bentwaters81tfw]

Definitely a silk purse from a sows ear. Probably better than the original.

[Maxidad]

Super build of a interesting aircraft.  Lovely grubby look you achieve.

[Buzby061]

Great representation of a rather unlovely aircraft. 

 

Pete

[spiton]

Very Rare plane. I like she

[stevej60]

A real beauty!

[cngaero]

That is superb.

The amount of work that you've put into this has certainly paid dividends.

[Luis Alfonso]

Hi Neil!!!

Congratulations for this great vac build!!! You are so fortunate to have this one and had taken the great chance to make a masterpiece with her.

It's nice and highly inspiring to take something vac and get some of your magic and have a go with a kit. Would you be so kind to share the link to the WIP???...seem an interesting work to be taken and enjoyed.

 

Thank you very much for sharing!!!

Cheers,

 

Luis Alfonso

[Amo Aero]

Fantastic work! So nice to see an old vac kit getting some love.

[kapam]

Wow!  Anyone who can do a vac-form (I never have) like that has my total admiration.

Not a familiar aircraft to me, but your build is impressive to say the least.

 

[stevehnz]

6 hours ago, bristol boy said:

Hi Steve,

Do you have the vac or resin version? Sorry the WIP petered out, but thanks for your interest. If you do build yours I will offer any assistance I can,

Neil

Hi Neil, I've actually got two vac kits, one a very early Contrail which was just pulled over a male mold & had virtually zero surface detail other than some faint indentations for control surfaces from memory, its a long time since I saw that, the other is more like yours with some decentish surface detail, pulled over a female mold I'd guess, a couple of generic white metal engines & crude injection molded wheels & undercart. I've seen the resin kit (Planet?) advertised but I'm not a fan of (scared of  ) resin kits & way to mean to afford it, so one of these days, when I retire maybe ( only a few years now) & I can persuade the hostages to leave home, I may well have a crack at it. I'll hope to remember your kind offer & be able to find this thread.

Steve.

[TonyW]

That's a very good looking model.

It's on my to do list and seeing yours has moved mine up the list quite a bit!  The real plane had a somewhat warm and friendly look about it to my eyes, not exactly what you want from a warplane I guess, but very British somehow.

 

Far too late to help you in any way, here's a bit of period reference, from an August 1941 copy of Aeromodeller.

 

 

I love the covers on these magazines, the contents can come in handy at times as well. This one came as part of a job lot, found on ebay.

[bristol boy]

2 hours ago, TonyW said:

That's a very good looking model.

It's on my to do list and seeing yours has moved mine up the list quite a bit!  The real plane had a somewhat warm and friendly look about it to my eyes, not exactly what you want from a warplane I guess, but very British somehow.

 

Far too late to help you in any way, here's a bit of period reference, from an August 1941 copy of Aeromodeller.

 

 

I love the covers on these magazines, the contents can come in handy at times as well. This one came as part of a job lot, found on ebay.

Wow, what a great magazine, didn’t think you bought it new!

The drawing looks pretty good, far better than the one Contrail provide, I used one from Aeroplane magazine, the photo you show was also in there and gives a good idea of how the glazing worked. The  original did have a certain charm even if it was a high risk training aircraft and was never used in combat,

Neil

[Spitfire31]

Totally impressive taming of a recalcitrant vacform! In fact, I'd dare anyone to guess that the origin of your beautiful model is sheets of second rate moulded styrene sheets.

 

Considering all the work that you've spent on the projects, perhaps some time in the future do something about the unfortunate decal silvering?

 

Amazing feat of modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[bristol boy]

51 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

Totally impressive taming of a recalcitrant vacform! In fact, I'd dare anyone to guess that the origin of your beautiful model is sheets of second rate moulded styrene sheets.

 

Considering all the work that you've spent on the projects, perhaps some time in the future do something about the unfortunate decal silvering?

 

Amazing feat of modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Thank you for your kind comments.

Despite glossing before the decals and spending ages flooding them with Klear I still couldn't get the ancient decals to work well, the '37' on the fuselage is the worst. The underwing decals are printed by me and worked much better so may do the same for the '37',

Neil

[bristol boy]

10 hours ago, Luis Alfonso said:

Hi Neil!!!

Congratulations for this great vac build!!! You are so fortunate to have this one and had taken the great chance to make a masterpiece with her.

It's nice and highly inspiring to take something vac and get some of your magic and have a go with a kit. Would you be so kind to share the link to the WIP???...seem an interesting work to be taken and enjoyed.

 

Thank you very much for sharing!!!

Cheers,

 

Luis Alfonso

Thank you for your kind comments.

WIP

 

[pheonix]

Very well built model from an unpromising beginning. I do like your vacform builds - all of them could easily pass for injection moulded kits.

 

P

[bristol boy]

1 hour ago, pheonix said:

Very well built model from an unpromising beginning. I do like your vacform builds - all of them could easily pass for injection moulded kits.

 

P

You’re very kind, lots of scribing seems to make a big difference. Something easier and OOB is needed next to restore my sanity, then there’s that Sanger 1/48 Beaufort that keeps calling me!

[tonyot]

Top job,...... very nice indeed!

 

Cheers

           Tony

[IanC]

Dreadful aircraft but a super model. I don't think I've seen one here before.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent build of a Rare type 

[JWM]

Impressive build.

One day I hope there will be injected Botha... With almost 600 build Botha is perhaps the most promoted airplane among absent kits for WWII Britt subjects (OK, after Warwick). There is hope mostly in Czech companies like Azur/SH/MPM, Fly, AZ, RS or Valom...Anybody read? There is a gap in market to fill ! 

Regards

J-W