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Coastal Command's Battle of Britain pt1 (Blenheim)


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Hi everyone,

 

My first entry for this GB (I'm planning at least two if time permits) will be the Airfix Blenheim Mk.IV (using Eduard photo-etch and canopy masks, and an AML camouflage mask).

 

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I built one of these last year for the Battle of Britain Group Build in Bomber Command colours. This time I'll be focusing on a Coastal Command machine from the same era. I'm yet to decide on a particular aircraft to represent but almost certainly one from 53 Sqn or 59 Sqn, which undertook coastal patrols, night raids on occupied ports, and daring daytime shipping strikes. Along the way if there's interest I'll relate the details of the raids the Coastal Command aircraft participated in during the Battle of Britain.

 

As I already have several aircraft on the go (Bf109s for another ongoing Group Build), I'll delay getting started on this one until my workbench has a bit more room - probably mid July.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Matt

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Great to see the ‘Cinderella’ service represented in Blenheim form and look forward to the accompanying text as you progress through this build. It seems many modellers have many GB kits on the go, so hopefully you can clear the bench in good time to finish this one off. 
Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, the hobby room has had a clear out (after being inaccessible for a while due to renovations) so time to get cracking!

 

I decided to start with one of the tricky sections of this kit to get this out of the way. If you read through the Battle of Britain GB last year (for which I built another Blenheim) you may remember I have a different approach to assembling the engines, which are too big for the cowlings. 

 

The instructions have you assemble the engines then build the three-piece cowlings around them. I have used this approach previously and found that I was never sure how much to sand off the engines until it was too late and ended up with cracks.

 

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Instead I started by assembling the cowlings, then sanding the engines to fit and dropping them in, as the below sequence shows.

 

First, here is the rear part of the cowling with step 39 (the bottom third of the cowling plus the exhausts) fitted. Here I'm using Quickboost exhausts which are far nicer than the kit ones.

 

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Then I added the two upper parts of the cowling (C23, C24). Had un unsanded engine been in place, there would have been cracks around 2mm wide between each of these parts. 

 

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Next, I assembled the engine and sanded it down, probably about 1mm off each cylinder head.

 

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Finally I dropped the completed engine into place, securing it at the rear with a drop of cyano.

 

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Not a crack in sight, and minimal sanding will be required before painting. Result!

 

That's all for now. More to come soon as I continue with the cockpit and fuselage, and I research Coastal Command Blenheims for an aircraft with an interesting history to represent. This is proving an interesting task, partly because I always find Operations Record Books fascinating reading, and partly because Coastal Command's data entry is, shall we say, different!

 

Comments welcome!

 

Matt

 

 

 

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Thanks @rob85 and @Greg Law! Yes, those engines are a bit fiddly so it would be nice to think the above method will save someone a lot of frustration. It sure caused me a bit of grief the first time I tried one of these kits.

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Hi all,

 

A little more progress to report on. I have started adding photo-etch parts to the cockpit from Eduard's Blenheim Mk.IV interior and RAF Seatbelts early sets, and have assembled the cockpit seat area. Hopefully the rest of the cockpit won't take too long, but here are a few progress photos.

 

The first shows the assembled port fuselage side with a few bits. I'll need to be careful adding the glazing as the PE goes over one of the canopy alignment notches.

 

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The next three pics show the seat and pilot's control console assembly coming together.

 

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This was all fairly straightforward and went together quite easily, although I did have to open out a couple of alignment holes due to the usual Airfix tight parts fit.

 

That's all for today, I hope to show more progress in the next few days.

 

Matt

 

 

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Matt

If you look at my Beaufighter IF thread. You will see i just made a comment on the Revell Beaufighter engines. This is just the engines and the front part of the cowelling. It is really easy to get them wrong. Of cause I did. I still have to do the cowelling assembly. Even now I don't know is they are right.  It was all about the alignment of each part which isn't shown clearly in the instructions unless you study the drawings carefully and use your experience to fill in the hidden information. 

 

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Great work Matt and I’ll definitely follow that engine build up sequence advice when I eventually tackle my two kits. Funnily enough, I cut away and did a  quick dry run on the 1/48 Blenheim engine parts last night and am happy to say they look like a great fit - just like the rest of the kit so far. 
Cheers.. Dave 

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Thanks Greg and Dave!

 

@Greg Law, I'll have to come back and look at your build and other Beaufighter builds if and when I get to the Beau in my stash. I'm hoping and planning to for this GB. It will be 1/72 Airfix though so will no doubt will be differently engineered to your Revell and Tamiya ones!

 

@Rabbit Leader, totally agree, the Airfix 1/48 Blenheim fits beautifully, I had no problems building mine. The 1/72 one requires a lot of care but many have proven it can be built really nicely with a few challenges along the way. I'm sticking with the 1/72 because then there's room for a second one in my display cabinet - the 1/48 is big!

 

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In the past few days I've been busily adding more detail in the cockpit. By the way, here's what the fuselage halves (well quarters actually) looked like to begin with. The port fuselage is joined here, the starboard is not. You have to be careful handling the halves after joining them as there's not much to hold them together, don't ask me how I know! It'll be much stronger when the wing is fitted.

 

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And after detailing:

 

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Eduard do provide a photo etch fuselage side for the starboard side, and I have used this on a previous build. I've omitted it this time as you can't really see it very well anyway with the canopy on; and by leaving it out the two fuselage sides will look consistent, rather than one detailed and one not.

 

The wash is thinned dark grey. I've been experimenting with this instead of thinned black and find this looks much more subtle, which I prefer. I'll go over the starboard side again before closing the fuselage up, as it came out a lot more subtle than the port side - I must have done it with extra thinners!

 

I've also added the photo etch instrument panel and detailed the other cockpit parts:
 

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Not much more to go before closing up the fuselage halves. Then I will probably slow down a little with this build and catch up a bit with my next Battle of Britain related Bristol for this GB ... a Coastal Command Beaufort.

 

That's all for now, thanks for your comments and likes so far!

 

Matt

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The Blenheim has progressed a bit in the last few days despite my Beaufort getting most of my attention, so here's what I've been up to in the past few days.

 

First, I added the side glazing to the fuselage sides, then mounted the cockpit assemblies. It sure looks nice and busy in there now.

 

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Here comes the test - do the fuselage halves still fit with the cockpit installed? Phew, yes they do. I did a bit of extra sanding first around the sides of the bulkheads just in case, but the joins look OK to me - a little cleaning up needed but no disastrous cracks!
 

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And now here's the top wing installed too. When building this kit with "side" fuselage halves rather than "front and back" halves as per the instructions, I've found it easier to mount the wing parts one at a time (this also helps align the trailing edge), so here it's just the top wing half installed.

 

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And here's the view underneath. I'm also planning to add PE detail to the wheel wells, which will be the next step.

 

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And that's where she's up to now. 

 

Thanks for looking - I'm sure enjoying seeing everyone else's builds coming along so well and am thoroughly enjoying this Group Build!

 

Matt

 

 

 

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That’s an interesting method being used, however looks like quite a good way to solve one of the kits common issues. Really nice work on the cockpit and nose section areas, looks fantastic. 
Cheers.. Dave 

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This is looking the biz mate,..... excellent internal details. Would this Blenheim have been fitted with the clear blisters on the side windows rather than the earlier style windows? If so,... I`m not sure if you are aware but Alleycat do a set in clear resin;

https://www.alleycatmodels.co.uk/blenheim-cockpit-side-windows-with-blisters-for-airfix-kit-6519-p.asp

 

It just sems a shame to go to so much effort and then not have the correct windows fitted, hope you don`t mind me bringing this up and if it doesn`t have the blisters,.... then great. 

Cheers

          Tony

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1 hour ago, tonyot said:

This is looking the biz mate,..... excellent internal details. Would this Blenheim have been fitted with the clear blisters on the side windows rather than the earlier style windows? If so,... I`m not sure if you are aware but Alleycat do a set in clear resin;

https://www.alleycatmodels.co.uk/blenheim-cockpit-side-windows-with-blisters-for-airfix-kit-6519-p.asp

 

It just sems a shame to go to so much effort and then not have the correct windows fitted, hope you don`t mind me bringing this up and if it doesn`t have the blisters,.... then great. 

Cheers

          Tony

 

Hi Tony,

 

Good point! This is something I was vaguely aware of but had forgotten about so I appreciate your taking the trouble to mention it. I will check my references before finishing the cockpit windows and may well do what you suggested.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

 

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2 hours ago, tonyot said:

Would this Blenheim have been fitted with the clear blisters on the side windows rather than the earlier style windows?

 

How early is early Tony? Are you aware of an approximate date where these side blisters possibly first appeared? 

From memory, those sent across to France in support of the BEF had the flat sided panels. however that's as far as I know. 

Cheers.. Dave  

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2 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 

How early is early Tony? Are you aware of an approximate date where these side blisters possibly first appeared? 

From memory, those sent across to France in support of the BEF had the flat sided panels. however that's as far as I know. 

Cheers.. Dave  

They started to fit the blisters in the summer of 1940 mate and retro fitted them to the older ones,.......  but some probably soldiered on for some time? I just mentioned it in case the Matt wasn`t aware of the Alleycat parts and before it was too late........ in case the machine he has in mind had them, especially as he`s gone to so much extra effort.  

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1 hour ago, MattG said:

 

Hi Tony,

 

Good point! This is something I was vaguely aware of but had forgotten about so I appreciate your taking the trouble to mention it. I will check my references before finishing the cockpit windows and may well do what you suggested.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

 

No worries Matt,..... you`ve put so much extra effort in,... I thought I would mention it,..... thanks for taking it the way it was meant,....... looking wonderful so far!

 

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Hi all,

 

First, many thanks for your encouragement and comments @tonyot and @Rabbit Leader!

 

I have looked into this cockpit glazing more and found the responses in this thread (started by Tony actually!) helpful. The "blisters" on Coastal Command Blenheims are from "Modification 473 dated 22/04/1940, Observation Panels, Port and Starboard". So, Blenheims from before late April 1940 wouldn't have had them, and after this date these would have been gradually fitted over time, presumably as each particular aircraft required servicing.

 

From what I have seen, some Blenheims known to have flown operationally in Summer 1940 appear to have observation windows and some definitely don't, which fits in with this. Photos of Coastal Command Blenheims from 1940 are rare and some are taken at an angle that conveniently obscures the cockpit. The clearest I've seen (courtesy of a free preview in Google Books of Larry Donnelly's "The Other Few") shows flat side panels on one particular aircraft. This is a 53 Squadron aircraft in September 1940. The crew are P/O Muspratt, Sgt. Smart and Sgt Cole. The identity of the aircraft is unknown, as this crew flew in eight different Blenheims in September 1940 - 53 Squadron's Operations Record Book clearly shows that crews didn't have their "own" aircraft. 59 Squadron is the same.

 

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A clearer view is at the bottom left of the below photo (see the red arrow), showing that these panels can slide open, hence the colour variation.

 

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Compare this to a late Coastal Command Blenheim with observer's window.

 

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Maybe the below 59 Squadron Blenheim has one too? Hard to tell. Photo from Aircrew Remembered.

 

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So I am not sure there is clear evidence either way and I could go either way and be correct depending on the time period. I did look at buying the Alleycat windows but I could buy another Blenheim for the postage they were charging. So, for my build I'll leave the glazing as it is but will represent an early Blenheim (L, N, P and R series were all flying operationally by May 1940), safe in the knowledge that it would almost certainly would have looked like this early on and possibly even still in late 1940. And if someone can prove me wrong, bearing in mind I am not an expert on the subject, I will gladly stand corrected and build another Blenheim later!

 

I hope this is useful to others too!

 

Matt

 

Edited by MattG
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Excellent post @MattG, this type of research is always welcomed and confirms my assumptions that Battle of France Blenheim's also had the flat side panels. The 'to Australia' postage saga is always something we poor souls have to contend with. 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

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11 hours ago, MattG said:

Hi all,

 

First, many thanks for your encouragement and comments @tonyot and @Rabbit Leader!

 

I have looked into this cockpit glazing more and found the responses in this thread (started by Tony actually!) helpful. The "blisters" on Coastal Command Blenheims are from "Modification 473 dated 22/04/1940, Observation Panels, Port and Starboard". So, Blenheims from before late April 1940 wouldn't have had them, and after this date these would have been gradually fitted over time, presumably as each particular aircraft required servicing.

 

From what I have seen, some Blenheims known to have flown operationally in Summer 1940 appear to have observation windows and some definitely don't, which fits in with this. Photos of Coastal Command Blenheims from 1940 are rare and some are taken at an angle that conveniently obscures the cockpit. The clearest I've seen (courtesy of a free preview in Google Books of Larry Donnelly's "The Other Few") shows flat side panels on one particular aircraft. This is a 53 Squadron aircraft in September 1940. The crew are P/O Muspratt, Sgt. Smart and Sgt Cole. The identity of the aircraft is unknown, as this crew flew in eight different Blenheims in September 1940 - 53 Squadron's Operations Record Book clearly shows that crews didn't have their "own" aircraft. 59 Squadron is the same.

 

spacer.png

 

A clearer view is at the bottom left of the below photo (see the red arrow), showing that these panels can slide open, hence the colour variation.

 

spacer.png

 

Compare this to a late Coastal Command Blenheim with observer's window.

 

spacer.png

 

Maybe the below 59 Squadron Blenheim has one too? Hard to tell. Photo from Aircrew Remembered.

 

spacer.png

 

So I am not sure there is clear evidence either way and I could go either way and be correct depending on the time period. I did look at buying the Alleycat windows but I could buy another Blenheim for the postage they were charging. So, for my build I'll leave the glazing as it is but will represent an early Blenheim (L, N, P and R series were all flying operationally by May 1940), safe in the knowledge that it would almost certainly would have looked like this early on and possibly even still in late 1940. And if someone can prove me wrong, bearing in mind I am not an expert on the subject, I will gladly stand corrected and build another Blenheim later!

 

I hope this is useful to others too!

 

Matt

 

No worries Matt,.... I wasn`t trying to catch you out,....... it was just because you were putting so much effort into the model, I wasn`t sure whether you were aware of the bubble windows, thats all,...or that there were aftermarket options available.  

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8 hours ago, tonyot said:

No worries Matt,.... I wasn`t trying to catch you out,....... it was just because you were putting so much effort into the model, I wasn`t sure whether you were aware of the bubble windows, thats all,...or that there were aftermarket options available.  

 

Actually you've helped out narrow down my choices - now I can represent a Blenheim that took part in the Battle of France and soldiered on right through the Battle of Britain. I think I've found one too. Working out its operational history will be a challenge due to the way Coastal Command squadrons record their data in ORBs, but I'll give it a go!

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  • 2 weeks later...

A quick update with this week's progress.

 

The tail is now on, so it's now looking very Blenheim-like.

 

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The wheel wells are also all pretty much done. This was a fairly easy process as the photo etch parts are (for a change) fairly large and easily bent to shape. At this point I decided to also start on the landing gear, just as it's easier to install before gluing the wing halves. I'm brush painting the camouflage, so the black and aluminium paint won't be affected when I do the Sky undersides.

 

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A small amount of filler will be needed under the forward fuselage but the rest looks like it will be ready for painting with only a small amount of sanding.

 

I'll add some more in the next day or so, when I hope to present a bit of history on the particular aircraft I'm building, which I've had a lot of fun researching!

 

Matt

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