Airfix Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV F 1/72

[BikingLampy]

Another one done. Airfix Blenheim MkIV F. Kind of an irritating kit - the main bulk of it moulded to extremely tight tolerances, so getting it to fit was hard work (horiz. stabs. excepted!), but ultimately successful, but a lot of the silly little ancillaries like aerials are just "glue on where you feel like" - no pins or sockets, even when trying to fit a flat edge to a curved surface. I was a bit sloppy on the masking too in places, but it doesn't look too shabby. Eduard zoom in the cockpit, Quikboost exhausts and intakes to replace the awful kit ones. Meant to have a go at replacing the wingtip lights with clear, but forgot until I was well into painting - doh!

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by BikingLampy

[occa]

Awesome result and paintwork, I simply have to come back to look at the photos again and again.

[binbrook87]

Brilliant! One of the best Blenheims I've seen. Your hard work has paid off 👍

[F-32]

Looks brilliant!

[Bangor Lad]

Great work. I'd heard that the tolerances were a bit tight on this kit. I'll have to bear that in mind when I build one.

[Aces High]

That's splendid! Very nicely done!

[adey m]

Superb, love the Munich Crisis ' Phoney War ' colour scheme and detail such as the external bombs, got to be the most interesting Blenheim I have seen in this scale.

 

Love it.

 

regards, adey

[stevej60]

Another fine British twin,excellent work all round.

[Sky Keg]

Now that`s a beautiful Blenheim!!!!! ( say that fast five times 😉 ).  Splendid results my friend. 

 

Mike

[Mig88]

Simply great!!

 

Miguel

[Mark Joyce]

Very well done, and I really like your subtle weathering on both the top and bottom.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Viking]

Now that is something special! lovely paintwork and interesting with the external bomb load.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Michael51]

Great work.

 

I have bemoaned the tolerance issue elsewhere on recent Airfix kits and having failed to persist with both Blenheims, have ordered two more: the Mks I and IV.

 

I enjoy suffering.

 

If they turn out half as good as yours, I'll be happy,

 

Michael

[BikingLampy]

Well, blimey - I didn't expect such overwhelming positivity  - I thought I'd been a bit slipshod myself! The joy of natural light, a decent camera and Lightroom trickery... Thank you all!

 

...also forgot I'd got a couple of cockpit shots...

 

The bombload is as supplied in the kit. Again  - one of the annoyingly sloppy addenda in comparison to the exceptionally tightly toleranced main kit. Trying to get the bombs square to the mounts AND each other was far more challenging than it should have been, and they're still a little more on the p*ss than I'd like...

[Wulfman]

Beautiful Blenheim , great modelling !

 

Wulfman

[dogsbody]

Lovely build!

 

One issue with Airfix's moulding is the little intake pipes on the two exhaust pipes. There were on Canadian built Bolingbrokes, to provide extra heating for the cockpit, during the frigid Canadian winters. As some of these were the only ones to survive WW2 intact, they were used for restoration in the UK. Airfix used these restorations to make their moulds. 

It's a small detail, so I wouldn't sweat it. If you should ever build another, sand that detail off.

 

 

 

Chris

[adey m]

What a coincidence that you should post a Blenheim IVF, the long-range fighter version of the Blenheim.

 

During our lockdown walks my wife and I discovered the beautiful old cemetery in the wooded Glen near our home in Scarborough which has a number of war graves. We found a grave to a lady and on her stone it also mentioned her son, a pilot officer who died on 1 June 1940 at Dunkirk. I discovered that he was piloting one of a pair of Blenheim IVFs of 254 Squadron which had been patrolling off Dunkirk for three hours, and just as they were about to return home to Kent for breakfast they were bounced by Me109s and were both shot down. Only the navigator in his aircraft survived by taking control from the dead pilot and crash landing on the sea near a ship. The pilot's body was washed ashore in France and is buried in France. The gunner must still be in his turret on the bottom of the English Channel.

 

Thanks again for posting your very interesting Blenheim.

 

regards, adey

Edited May 22, 2020 by adey m

[Greg Law]

Nicely done.  I wish they did a 1/48 one of these. 

[Xirurg]

Good work, nice looking model.

I'm building Mk 1F now and wondering about assembling the engines - did you assemble them first and painted after along with the aircraft or did you paint engine cowlings separately and assembled after?

[Shark444]

23 minutes ago, Xirurg said:

Good work, nice looking model.

I'm building Mk 1F now and wondering about assembling the engines - did you assemble them first and painted after along with the aircraft or did you paint engine cowlings separately and assembled after?

I'm working on the really old original 1/72 Airfix kit of the Blenheim Mk. IV.  I had to scratch-build the oil coolers and exhaust stacks since the kit is far more rudimentary than this newer release.  I built and painted the cowlings separately and will fit them afterwards - but since mine is a Bolingbroke and is painted yellow I didn't have to worry about camouflage demarcation.  🙂

[BikingLampy]

Quote

Good work, nice looking model.

I'm building Mk 1F now and wondering about assembling the engines - did you assemble them first and painted after along with the aircraft or did you paint engine cowlings separately and assembled after?

With faffing…

I assembled the 3 pieces of cowling into a ring (painful - there was ), so it would push onto the backplate/cooling flap part, then mounted that onto the wing, dry, using the intake spider thingy. Paint, then disassemble, add the exhausts, the engine itself and the collector ring. Remount back on the wing. 
 

Basically saved me having to try and mask the exhausts and the collector.