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Baltimore bust - DNF


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I have FROG Baltimore and Maryland in the stash. Although I’ve got other GBs to finish, I thought I’d throw my hand in with the FROG Baltimore. The Baltimore is an early 1960s kit whereas the Maryland is from the 70s. To my eye the Baltimore is the nicer kit of the two TBH.

 

Bought on EBay from a very nice man who actually inspected the kit and described the kit’s problems (two broken cylinders, easily fixed, I might replace the engines anyway). EBay honesty seems to be increasingly rare these days, I’m finding:

14-C18679-ADBE-4885-AB26-289-B8-A284875.

 

Airlines boxing with dynamic box art. The kit canopy is very undersized and will need replacing, but the nose transparency (on the box) is a wonder of clarity and clean moulding even by today’s standards:

0988-F7-A7-AE5-D-43-F5-8-FD4-D5-C896-AC7

 

The FROG “modelling tray box”. Transfers are predicatably so-so but it has a classic early stand. Gorgeous:

D0800898-204-F-4-AEE-951-A-40-D2-EFF7-A9
 

And some early style instructions and a colour paint guide, the box bottom being taken up with a postcard/token scheme:

FAFA61-D9-E7-D5-4-EE2-843-C-A785-F578-E3


There are (at least) a couple of schemes I want to do, so I have been keeping an eye open on eBay for another one. After losing out on a couple that went beyond what I’m prepared to pay, I’ve actually bought an Azur one for very little extra money (free postage too), so that will join this one.

 

(...and sorry if you’ve been trying to get a FROG Baltimore for this GB and someone pushed the price up...)

 

I have two other GB builds to finish so I will be back in early October!

 

Thanks,

Adrian

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1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

replacement canopy?

I will be reaching for the balsa and clear packing materials for that one. Won’t take me long to get something acceptable, especially if I have an Azur one to compare with.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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On 14/09/2020 at 07:54, JOCKNEY said:

Great choice Adrian

 

3 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I really like the look of this one.

Thanks chaps, will try not to let you down! The Maryland and Baltimore were more or less confined to the MTO (although I think the Baltimore did some Coastal Command work out of Scotland?) so they seemed like fine candidates. I'm looking forward to seeing how the FROG kit stacks up against the Azur version, which should arrive tomorrow.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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hey, I live just outside of Baltimore (bawlmer* to locals)! :)

I'm curious to see this one go together.



Having grown up with flat Great Lakes accent, Baltimorese is painful to hear sometimes. "Ey, hon, owabout we goo donny ocean, swim in the woorder, and take sum pretty pixtures at don on toosdee? " 

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I have a feeling that I may have been one of those who were keeping an eye on that Baltimore kit... 😆

In any case, glad to see that in the end went to a modeller who's going to build it, and even better to be able to see the kit built here !

This is one of those types that rarely gets much recognition but did quite a good job in the MO, deserves to be included in a GB. 

 

Frog Baltimore kits pop up quite regularly on Ebay, one day I'll get one (if I can't find a SH kit, that of course would be my first choice). In the meantime, I'll watch your build with interest, I'm sure I'll find some good tip to use when I'll build mine.

Edited by Giorgio N
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@Giorgio N The shop on EBay that sold me this 1/72 Azur one still has some left :wicked:. In fact, they have even dropped the price by a quid since I bought mine! 

 

The FROG ones are fetching silly prices on EBay at the moment, and the Azur boxing is now only £4 more than the last FROG one that I saw sold including p&p.
 

The Azur and SH boxes have the same plastic.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[Edit/PS: the FROG one I have, I actually bought for under a tenner a couple of years ago...]

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First, choose your plans... I found these plans on the web as a huge composite picture, which I chopped up into a Word document and printed to scale measurements:

336-DB83-B-8-DD4-4414-8503-E06-BA9-F5-E6

 

The tracing paper overlay is a tracing of a profile photo that I scaled up on my monitor to match the length. So I’m happy that these plans are accurate, at least in profile.
 

The dashed pencil lines you can see on the profile show where the plan in Wikipedia differs from this plan - the Wiki profile does not match the photographed shape.

 

The FROG match is not too bad.
Fuselage: 1-2mm too deep all the way along; fin is 2mm too short/low; the cockpit front edge is 2mm too far back and 1mm too high (canopy is waaaay too small); the nose is about 4mm too long; and the tailplanes are about 2mm too far forward.

Rudder: too low/short and too long front to rear.

Wings: ailerons are about 3mm too short outboard.

Tailplanes: pretty good and have the right amount of sweep back for the elevator hinge line. 

Picture:

91179-E7-C-75-E1-4-EBE-ABC3-41668-F8-D0-

 

The Azur has issues too.

Fuselage:follows the dashed lines  for a skinny underside step and fat rear fuselage; fin and rudder 1-2mm over-rounded and too broad; cockpit rear edge is 2mm too far back; nose 1-2mm too short.

Wings: engines 1-2mm too far out, nacelle trailing edge fairing too small; ailerons are about 3mm too short outboard.

Tailplanes: undersized all round.

0-E6-EAD63-A9-ED-4-D5-B-B5-FC-DC6-E5085-

9-EB45-A08-19-F0-454-C-9-DF7-C9-B71-A2-D

C62-C24-CD-C0-A3-4-BFD-B54-F-32-E0-C611-
 

Food for thought there. Hmmm

 

 

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Hi Adrian.  I have the Frog Maryland and the Azur Baltimore, both of which I considered for this GB But got loads of others I want to do. (an MTO IV perhaps?).  To be honest I think I wouldn't be worried too much about the inaccuracies, if they look OK fine by me, but that's just my opinion, and who says the drawings are correct in proportion anyway?

 

Looking in with much interest.

 

Davey.

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1 hour ago, DaveyGair said:

who says the drawings are correct

That’s why I checked them against photos :)

 

The FROG kit doesn’t “look OK” at all around the canopy out of the box and the nose is too long by a big margin over a short distance, so I will be doing something there. I can sand down the rudder to the right proportions, and I probably won’t bother with any other dimensional stuff.
 

But I do like to know what’s wrong so I can take an informed decision about whether to ignore it or not.

 

It’s actually some of the other things that give the aircraft it’s true character. The opening of the cowlings is too big on both kits, and the giant tropical over-cowling intakes need replacing on the FROG kit for sure, and I think they are too small on the Azur kit, even though they offer two types.

 

Haven’t thought the Azur build yet. You can place bets on whether it will still be in the box when the FROG gets finished!


Regards,

Adrian

 

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4 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

That’s why I checked them against photos :)

 

The FROG kit doesn’t “look OK” at all around the canopy out of the box and the nose is too long by a big margin over a short distance, so I will be doing something there. I can sand down the rudder to the right proportions, and I probably won’t bother with any other dimensional stuff.
 

But I do like to know what’s wrong so I can take an informed decision about whether to ignore it or not.

 

It’s actually some of the other things that give the aircraft it’s true character. The opening of the cowlings is too big on both kits, and the giant tropical over-cowling intakes need replacing on the FROG kit for sure, and I think they are too small on the Azur kit, even though they offer two types.

 

Haven’t thought the Azur build yet. You can place bets on whether it will still be in the box when the FROG gets finished!


Regards,

Adrian

 

Must have missed that bit 🙄. I haven't had a good look at either of the kits I have but normally compare to photos as well. I'll keep quiet now 😁

 

Davey

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi,

Finally I have found this thread... I think that for all early years of Czech modelling boom they were taking mostly Frog kits and improved forms to high accuracy and modern standard. So there must be a set of drawings, to which the Azur/SH kit fits perfectly. Frog kit is from time when not that much attention was paid to accuracy, I a sorry to say. The canopy is obvious that has wrong shape there. However the air intakes are that huge in late variants. Of course the whole cowling in Frog kit is too cylindrical, very simplified. I will watch with interest on progress.  

There are of color profiles of Baltimores in web like that

Martin+Baltimore+Mk.IV+-+AST+ENG+SAF.png

4b73c0215631bebfb130547004da366b.jpg

5f4c43d62843ad10c3c973491b73a498.jpg

 

So - good luck! :)

Regards

J-W

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On 09/11/2020 at 15:31, JWM said:

Frog kit is from time when not that much attention was paid to accuracy

I certainly agree with that.

On 09/11/2020 at 15:31, JWM said:

So there must be a set of drawings, to which the Azur/SH kit fits perfectly

I agree with that too.

 

I think that neither kit is particularly accurate. The fuselage of the SH/Azur kit is off when compared to photographs and I am suspicious about the wings and tailplanes too. The SH kit has much more realistic cowlings and fuselage detail, but the over-engine tropical intakes are too small, even though they are miles better than the FROG ones.
 

I think there is a more accurate model to be had with some mods, but I predict that it will take a lot of work to get there!

 

Still pondering my options...

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  • 5 weeks later...

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to here Adrian as I`m a big fan of the Baltimore and have built quite a few over the years. The old Frog kit is let down by its engines and canopy while the turret is more like the Boulton & Paul 4 gun turret of the Mk.III,.....  the Azur kit is not deep enough in the fuselage to my eye and the fuselage too fat,...... neither kit replicates the triangular like cross section of the real thing with the lower fuselage at its widest and tapering to a relatively narrow roof. 

 

We do need a decent Maryland in 1/72nd and 1/48th scales,

 

Good luck mate,

                            Tony

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19 hours ago, tonyot said:

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to here Adrian

I'm hoping that I can get to it before the end of the GB! I've got a KUTA FROG Whitley on the go, and a Heller Vampire, and I should really build the Heller Dewoitine 510 to go with the 501. Maybe I will have to combine it with the Christmas blitzbuild? (note to self: bad idea!)

 

First world problems... :)

Adrian

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