Airfix Blenheim MkIV - the new one

[John]

Back in the late 1980s I worked for a while with the local Enterprise Trust, which had been set up to help and advise start-up businesses. We had a number of volunteer business advisors who came in for a couple of days a week. One of these was a retired mechanical engineer called Andrew, who had been the site manager for a large local manufacturing company.

Andrew knew I was interested in local history, and one day he came in to my office and handed me a book. 

"This belonged to Frank Barnwell" he told me.

That got my attention!

Andrew went on to tell me that he had served his engineering apprenticeship with The Grampian Engineering Company in Stirling. Grampian Engineering had been founded by Frank and Harold Barnwell in the early 1900s and was where they built their pioneering aeroplanes. The book had been lying about the building, and Andrew had "rescued" it from the bin.

The book was a Flight International publication on aerodynamics dated, I think, 1909. On the flyleaf, in pencil, were the initials "FSB".

Andrew gave me the book. I kept it for a number of years then I decided it should be in a public collection, so I donated it to the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling.

I'm also a graduate of the University of Stirling and I passed the site of Grampian Engineering and the Barnwell's first powered flight every day for 4 years. There's now a memorial to the brothers at Causewayhead in Stirling:

 

 

The University also has the MacRobert Centre which has a display on the MacRobert family

My entry will be arguably Frank's finest achievement, the Blenheim.

 

John

[John]

The 10-year-old me loved the Airfix Blenheim. It was one of the most striking images up there on the Woolworths wall of kits, and when you got it home you found optional parts, rotating turret and - wonder of wonder - retractable undercarriage. Most of my friends had one often packing both gun installations, which could have got messy.

I got this one from KingKit a while ago - check the price:

 

 

 

50 years later, and several box sizes larger, we have the excellent new Airfix series of kits. This one cost me....nothing 😃 I got it directly from Airfix with Flying Hours.

 

John

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice choice John and both the new and old Airfix box-art have always been very tempting to my modelling budget. I once had the old mould kit, now have the new mould kit and am so undecided which scheme to do it in? Best of luck with either or both of these kits. 

Cheers… Dave 

[John]

I'm not sure what scheme to go for yet. Apart from the kit sheet I also have the one from the Victoria Cross set. 

Decisions, decisions...😀

Anyway, it's going to be a week or two until I can start so there's plenty of time to make up my mind. 

 

John 

[rob85]

Great to have you along, and a nice reminder I need a Blenheim IV in the collection, why don’t I already? Will be good to see the scheme you go with.

 

Rob

[John]

Alas I've had almost no time for kitbashing over the last couple of months, beyond the occasional fettle sitting at my computer. I'm afraid there's no way I'll be anywhere near finished by the end of the GB so Blenheim is going to have to wait for a more auspicious time.

 

At this rate I'd be doing well to start...😃

 

John

[TonyOD]

1:1 scale life, eh, gets in the way.

 

I'm a late arrival to this GB (well a possible anyway, I feel I may be setting myself up to fail with only a month ago) and picked up this Blenheim kit yesterday, it looks like a beauty. I'll look out for your eventual crack at it.