Ralph Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) Reading Alfred Price's The Hardest Day relates the first kill of the day at 3am, when a Blenheim of 29 sqn knocked down a Ju88 night intruder. Helpfully, Xtradecal have the marks for this 'plane, so off we go with Airfix's Blenheim Mk1F. Having built the MkIV, it's a fun kit to make. However, there are a few items to sort out which are hangovers from the Bolingbroke Airfix used as a pattern. These are the additional frame on the rear most glazing, the differently profiled engine nacelles, and the protrusions on the front the engine rings. So... some creative destruction before we get going with putting things together. Scraping away the canopy frame should be easy enough followed by a good polish; ditto the engine ring protrusions. The biggest job will be scrape and sand the engine nacelles into something more like MK1 engines using photos and the MK1 eyeball, but let's give it a go! Edited July 30, 2020 by Ralph 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 Ok... obligatory sprue shots, and the initial work on the corrections! Engine rings modified to Mk1 standard... Canopy minus the frame... And the modified engine nacelles. You can see how thin the plastic got by the sunlight shining through the by-now translucent plastic. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Making some good progress on this, with the cockpit all done. Here it is in situ, using belts made from left over Eduard fabric type belts - you know, the stuff around the edge of the sheet. Want not waste not! Am really enjoying this kit, not least because it is off my normal diet of conventional fighters. Have been reading up in the SAM Battle for Britain colours book, and have decided on the basis of this to paint the underside of this the 'rich' duck egg green eau de nil instead of the 'normal' sky. For this I will use the Mig Ammo duck egg green colour included in their Battle of Britain set. In the meantime, a quick shot of the completed cockpit - have also attached wings and rudder etc. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted August 23, 2020 Author Share Posted August 23, 2020 Right- back from holiday so some updates. I've spent a lot of time getting the glazing on. I should probably have put the forward fuselage and relevant glazing on each side first rather than adding them on at the end. It took a lot of fettling and sanding before I was happy, and you can see I had to add a replacement frame from white plastic strip sanded right down before application. There was a moment where I thought it was going to end up in the great bin in the sky, but perseverance paid off and things are back on track, You can see in the second picture that I have built up the cowl as recommended by another contributor on the forum, with a view to putting the engine in to that rather than building the cowling around the engine. A bit more sanding and it'll be ready for first coat of AK Eau de Nil for the undersides. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 It's really coming along great Ralph, and always glad to see a build of a Blenheim that got the better of an 88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 Very quick update... Eau de Nil undersides applied (aka duck egg green) which is a noticeable richer colour than the standard sky. Interesting for variation's sake if nothing else. Applied using the AK Duck egg green paint. Struggle with these paints, as they always seem to 'bead' (water on a windscreen effect if you get my drift) at the drop of a hat. Much prefer Tamiya for sheer ease of application. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 Looking great Ralph, she's coming up quite nicely and a 'Sky' bottomed Blenheim looks quite appealing to my eye. Can I ask did Xtradecal get this aircraft right? Just querying the 'Hardest Day' 18th August thread tittle and Xtradecals 'late 1940' decal instructions caption. Cheers.. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 Very nice. This is coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 On 29/08/2020 at 09:13, Rabbit Leader said: Looking great Ralph, she's coming up quite nicely and a 'Sky' bottomed Blenheim looks quite appealing to my eye. Can I ask did Xtradecal get this aircraft right? Just querying the 'Hardest Day' 18th August thread tittle and Xtradecals 'late 1940' decal instructions caption. Cheers.. Dave I think Xtradecal can be a bit iffy with their captioning... this plane was on strength with 29 sqn during August and have seen other references for this being the plane in question...think I am right in saying that 29 sqn had or were in the process of replacing their Blenheims with Beaufighters by the winter of 1940 so suspect Xtradecal is wrong in this regard! Cheers, Ralph 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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