L393 1/72 Bloch 174 A-3

[fightersweep]

This is just cracking stuff. Great work so far, and if I may say so, inspiring too. I've gone the OOB route myself purely to try and squeeze as many builds into the GB as possible (and also because that's how I built them as a kid). However, after seeing this brilliant work, I feel tempted to do something similar with a Heller kit myself.

 

This is going to be a stunner once finished.

 

Steve

[Courageous]

Thought I'd take a trip into GB world and noticed your build. Very much off piste for you Martin and what you're doing is fantastic, you've never really conveyed your scratch building abilities 'till now. Just a 'heads-up', I have vac machine if you remember and if you need a vac canopy done and you're willing to use the kit option as a plug, I'll do one for you.

 

Stuart

[Lightningboy2000]

12 hours ago, Courageous said:

Thought I'd take a trip into GB world and noticed your build. Very much off piste for you Martin and what you're doing is fantastic, you've never really conveyed your scratch building abilities 'till now. Just a 'heads-up', I have vac machine if you remember and if you need a vac canopy done and you're willing to use the kit option as a plug, I'll do one for you.

 

Stuart

Hi Stuart, kind offer with the vacform machine! I remember you bringing that along to the club now! Next time something comes up, I'll let you know.

The last time I needed to make a canopy I very briefly held a sheet of acetate over one of the cooker hotplates & quickly crashformed a Harrier canopy! It worked! 

I actually ended up using part of a Fairey Fulmar vacform canopy for this one which worked. 

I thought it was about time I went back to doing older stuff without jets & stripes again. Aren't you currently in one of these group builds?

[Lightningboy2000]

On 11/12/2020 at 7:39 PM, fightersweep said:

This is just cracking stuff. Great work so far, and if I may say so, inspiring too. I've gone the OOB route myself purely to try and squeeze as many builds into the GB as possible (and also because that's how I built them as a kid). However, after seeing this brilliant work, I feel tempted to do something similar with a Heller kit myself.

 

This is going to be a stunner once finished.

 

Steve

Cheers Steve, looking at my subjects from the past couple of years this is a total departure so I'm glad it's of inspiration. 

As for just building kits as they come from the box, I regard that as the ultimate skill of self control! 😆

I admire anyone that can do that!

 

Martin

[fightersweep]

2 minutes ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

As for just building kits as they come from the box, I regard that as the ultimate skill of self control! 😆

 

That was something I chose to do for this GB as I tend to get a bit nostalgic as far as Heller is concerned. Sure, I'm the same with Airfix, Matchbox et all, but I remember being really taken by Heller's kits and the subject choices back in the day. Hence the reason I opted for the OOB/hairy stick approach for the GB, and I haven't enjoyed my modelling this much in ages. No pouring over references, checking plans and spending a fortune on aftermarket. I'm having a blast and it's refreshing to be so focused! No doubt I be back to my old stressed out Mr Acurracy/Aftermarket Obsessed modelling self once the GB is finished....which probably means I'll be back to getting nothing finished again! 🤣

 

Steve

[Lightningboy2000]

12 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

 

That was something I chose to do for this GB as I tend to get a bit nostalgic as far as Heller is concerned. Sure, I'm the same with Airfix, Matchbox et all, but I remember being really taken by Heller's kits and the subject choices back in the day. Hence the reason I opted for the OOB/hairy stick approach for the GB, and I haven't enjoyed my modelling this much in ages. No pouring over references, checking plans and spending a fortune on aftermarket. I'm having a blast and it's refreshing to be so focused! No doubt I be back to my old stressed out Mr Acurracy/Aftermarket Obsessed modelling self once the GB is finished....which probably means I'll be back to getting nothing finished again! 🤣

 

Steve

Totally agree with you about Heller's subjects, Matchbox as well! 

I should do an OOB, might be good therapy for me! Haven't got any other Heller kits but there's a nice Matchbox Buggati in the stash. There's a thought!

 

Martin

 

 

[fightersweep]

2 minutes ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

Totally agree with you about Heller's subjects, Matchbox as well! 

I should do an OOB, might be good therapy for me! Haven't got any other Heller kits but there's a nice Matchbox Buggati in the stash. There's a thought!

 

Go for it! I liked those Matchbox cars. Think I built the Buggati, Aston and MG many moons ago. Agree about Matchbox's subject choices. I can't imagine I would have discovered what a Siskin, Provost or Wellesley was by the time I was 12 otherwise. Always wanted the Heyford too, but that was beyond the stretch of the pocket money.

 

Apologies! I'm swerving your thread off topic! By the way, love the decal bleaching method. Beats my window bleaching, and would save the strange looks I get from the neighbours. I must have ten or so sheets stuck all over the man cave window at the moment.

 

Steve 

[Lightningboy2000]

Just a rundown of todays progress...

Cleaned up the mating surfaces on all of the clear plastic parts & took a sharpie permanent black to the edges. This helps a lot with thick plastic parts as it reduces refraction of light or something like that. Anyway once they're attached you can't see how thick the clear plastic is especially when looking at the nose glazing. They appear thinner & you don't get as much reflection of light within the plastic. Also cut out the sliding canopy section for the pilot. He's going to be using a second hand Fairey Fulmar sliding section in vacform, but he's never going to know because it looks the same so there!

Another view into the cockpit & you can see the rotating radio compass loop antenna added from steel wire, plus there's another reciever looking thing that i've made up from scratch plastic rod etc. Ignore where the paint has lifted, all that's been rubbed down & primer reapplied. All down to my grubby fingers.

Canopy glazing masked plus the pilot has been consumed by the oozing blue alien again!

Renaissance supply FS numbers for all four colours in their decal instructions, which I went with & sourced the available paints that corresponded. I've painted the underside which is a pale blue grey FS36473 but the Vallejo equivalent of the suggested FS35237 upper grey doesn't look right - after I've gone & painted it!

After looking at the Heller instructions, they say use Humbrol 96 for the upper grey, which is RAF Blue. So I have the Vallejo equivalent which is way too dark. What I will do when I get the time is add a bit of Vallejo 71.005 to 71.114 & go over it lightly which should do the trick.

That's it for now hopefully I'll get the motivation to do more in between workeatsleap!

 

Martin

 

 

[Lightningboy2000]

28 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

 

Go for it! I liked those Matchbox cars. Think I built the Buggati, Aston and MG many moons ago. Agree about Matchbox's subject choices. I can't imagine I would have discovered what a Siskin, Provost or Wellesley was by the time I was 12 otherwise. Always wanted the Heyford too, but that was beyond the stretch of the pocket money.

 

Apologies! I'm swerving your thread off topic! By the way, love the decal bleaching method. Beats my window bleaching, and would save the strange looks I get from the neighbours. I must have ten or so sheets stuck all over the man cave window at the moment.

 

Steve 

Haha! I haven't yet had any comments from the neighbours about my old decals taped to the inside of my windows yet! It does work though!

[Courageous]

Looking very nice Martin. Is the canopy masking AM or done by your own fair hand?

 

Stuart

[Lightningboy2000]

6 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looking very nice Martin. Is the canopy masking AM or done by your own fair hand?

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, all cut by hand. 👍 

[RidgeRunner]

Nice work, Martin

[TonyOD]

14 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

took a sharpie permanent black to the edges. This helps a lot with thick plastic parts as it reduces refraction of light or something like that.

I've found that a good trick. The interior of my Amiot (as well as the insides of the window frames) is beige and when I test fitted the transparencies it looked all wrong. Bit of black Sharpie made all the difference.

 

Your Bloch is looking the business, it has the same sleek  lines as the LeO 451. It's the only Heller French twin that I've resisted adding to the stash so far but it's only a matter of time!

[Lightningboy2000]

The Bloch has got its paint on!

Managed to do a half decent job of painting it free hand instead of masking everything off, & I'm quite pleased with myself.

After going through all the paint manufacturers own respective colour matches I've more or less made up my own colours mainly using Vallejo.

The shade of green is niggling me though. Can anyone give me some opinions on the green?

 

 

[Heather Kay]

The green looks about right to my ColourCoats trained eye - allowing for lighting, of course.

 

I need a Bloch 174 in my collection, yet it’s such a close cousin to the Potez 630 family in looks.

[Jinxman]

The green looks a little bright to me - but with a clear coat, some decals and a touch of weathering I reckon it will look fine. 😀

[AdrianMF]

Looking marvellous! I'm amazed how clear the canopies look, especially the nose one. It will show off your interior work nicely.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Lightningboy2000]

7 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

The green looks about right to my ColourCoats trained eye - allowing for lighting, of course.

 

I need a Bloch 174 in my collection, yet it’s such a close cousin to the Potez 630 family in looks.

Thanks Heather, that sounds reassuring. The green I've gone with is one of the better matches to the FS numbers that I've sourced. My local only does Mig & the colour that Mig suggest is very similar. 

So I'm going to leave it & add as much weathering as is reasonable.

 

Cheers

Martin

[Lightningboy2000]

6 hours ago, Jinxman said:

The green looks a little bright to me - but with a clear coat, some decals and a touch of weathering I reckon it will look fine. 😀

Thanks Jinxman, that's what I thought, but I've decided to leave it. I might post shade it with a darker shade of the same colour, oh and it will get nicely weathered & oil dot filtered.

[PeterB]

Hi,

 

The green reminds me of the old Humbrol Authentic "vert" and might be just a little on the light side, but it looks alright to me. There seems to be some possible confusion over which planes actually used one of the shades of Vert, and which had the OD like "Kaki" - most of my single seat fighters have ended up in the latter..

 

Pete

Edited November 26, 2020 by PeterB

[Lightningboy2000]

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

Hi,

 

The green reminds me of the old Humbrol Authentic "vert" and might be just a little on the light side, but it looks alright to me. There seems to be some possible confusion over which planes actually used one of the shades of Vert, and which had the OD like "Kaki" - most of my single seat fighters have ended up in the latter..

 

Pete

Thanks Pete, I've got photos of a MS-406. Do you reckon it should be more like this?

All my references, & instructions indicate FS34128 or FS34096 which is a lot lighter than the above. 

As there was a limited production of these Bloch 174's that joined 11/33 Group I would have thought they'd all be painted with the same paint.

I originally thought it should be like on that Morane, but not according to Humbrol, Vallejo or Mig. Vallejo's equivalent of FS34128 is what I've painted, but looking at their new Armee De Lair paint set, they say the equivalent is NATO green????

Just drives one bonkers! 🤣🤣🤣

I'll give it some thought, I might still change it, depending on how I feel! 

The coin is currently wobbling towards repainting it!

 

Martin

[Lightningboy2000]

13 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking marvellous! I'm amazed how clear the canopies look, especially the nose one. It will show off your interior work nicely.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian, yes the clear parts were pretty nice & clear. The nose glazing also fitted perfectly which can't be said very often with kits of this vintage.

 

Martin

[Jinxman]

14 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

Thanks Pete, I've got photos of a MS-406. Do you reckon it should be more like this?

 

That looks like a Duxford grey sky to me! Nice photo as well. 😀

[Lightningboy2000]

Decided not to overpaint & change the green paint. Spent the majority of the afternoon painting test swatches, sprayed various options onto already primed plastic spoons & none of them looked right to me. All the greens that Hataka, Mig & Vallejo suggest (that they provide in their French paint sets) didn't look right. Out of all the paints I tried, Hataka AO50 European Green FS34092 looked the nearest but even then I wasn't comfortable. Would most likely use that on a future build of a MS-406 for example.

Got the Renaissance decals on. Really nice decals in that the white print is nicely opaque. Was wondering if I was going to need a white undercoat on the tail fin markings, but didn't need it at all. Nice colours as well & set nicely with some Daco strong decal set.

Main wheels are just temporarily put in place for the photos. Will add everything only once all the weathering, washes & final matt coat have been applied.

[Rabbit Leader]

Wow.. I’ve missed some of this recent progress so am really pleased to see this wonderful 174 in its current guise. Absolute top marks from me... that’s a thing of beauty. 
Cheers.. Dave