Valom 1/72nd Bristol Type 130 Bombay MkI

[Heather Kay]

 

I'm going to have a bash at this. 

 

I have had this kit in the stash for a number of years now. It's been living with the same manufacturer's HP Sparrow and DH Albatross. All three will be built to represent the aircraft in service with No 271 Squadron in the first half of 1940, when used for transport duties up and down the UK and beyond. This Bombay boxing supposedly lets the builder make L5813, which crashed during a landing run in France in May 1940. It seems to be a popular choice, too, but I rather think I shall be finishing somewhere slightly off where the kit designers expected.

 

I've read around a couple of other builds of this kit and its variants, so I think I have a fair handle on what to be wary of. The main undercarriage strut work is a bit off, apparently. Equally, the tailplane struts also need some care. Fitting the engines and cowlings may also be a problem. Whatever, my aim is pretty much OOB, and I'm fairly sure I may well miss out on some of the interior detailing where it won't ever be seen.

 

 

Inside the box is the standard Valom light brown plastic. Everything looks nice and clean, sharp and crisp - at first glance.

 

 

For such a large aeroplane, there don't seem to be many parts. I'm not going to fall into the trap of expecting a quick build, though.

 

 

 

I acquired a masking set, but I think I may need to be a bit careful about how it fits. There may be some assumption about frames on turrets I might usefully ignore.

 

 

The engines are resin, and there are two Vokes filters in the bag which won't be required for this build. 

 

 

Another thing not required will be the bomb cradles. They were more often used with aircraft in the Mediterranean and North Africa, which is a whole other theatre of operations I haven't even begun to explore properly for my 1940 kick.

 

 

The transfer sheet is basic.

 

 

It is also out of register. I shall substitute from aftermarket sets. I also think L5813 would have carried squadron codes (BJ-P if memory serves, but I will confirm that), so that will need thinking about.

 

So, other issues?

 

 

Damaged wing root fillets seem to be standard fare. 

 

 

Warped wings are also normal for this kit.

 

 

Other problems arise from the instructions. Poor research leads to Sky undersides on a 1939 aircraft. I don't think so.

 

 

Likewise with my selected build. The question of the underside colours is debated at some length in most of the build threads I found. I know officially transport planes should have yellow undersides, but there's a fair amount of evidence that aluminium would also be correct at the period I'm modelling. So, I'm essentially going to ignore the instructions and go with aluminium undersides, and add the squadron codes.

 

 

For some reason, Valom thought the kit really needed more parts. Loads of ammunition drums. Mmm, Bits Box fodder. 

 

I'm not sure when I'll begin this build. As I hope this will be the only entry from me, I can take my time. Meanwhile, I shall gather more research material.

[rob85]

Nice to see a Bombay. Strong choice heather, looking forward to it.

 

Rob

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see a Bombay represented here.

Always been tempted to buy this one or do I make the Contrail version I've had for years 

Best of luck Heather 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Greg Law]

Great choice Heather.  This one will be interesting to watch.

[stevehnz]

A nice idea for a build Heather. This is one kit I've lacked the confidence to buy, as well as being too mean , I'll follow this build to see if I should revise the former & conquer the latter.

Steve

[dogsbody]

Chair pulled up to  see this, Heather. One small painting detail that I think Valom got wrong is the prop hubs. I'm fairly certain these would have been the same black as the blades.

 

 

 

Chris

[Prenton]

Best of luck with this one -  I have it in the stash, but having seen some builds here on Britmodeller, including a huge one a couple of years back, it has stayed there.  Hopefully you will nudge it closer to the take-off time...

 

Philip

[Rabbit Leader]

Well done Heather, looking on with eyes wide open. Now I'm yet another modeller who has this same kit in the stash, however funnily enough I acquired mine by shear accident. My intention was to buy the Valom Harrow for myself as a Xmas pressie, so ordered one online from some local eBay seller. When it arrived in early December, Mrs RL wrapped it all up before I could see it, so you can imagine the shock I had when come Xmas day I unwrapped this Bristol Bombay kit instead! I contacted the seller who admitted his error and apologised profusely. It appears that my Harrow was mistakenly sent to some other chap who had gone overseas for about three months just prior to Xmas... I slept on it for a few days, acquired quite a liking to the parts inside this Bombay box and accepted this incident as just one of those innocent things that happens.  Now I've yet to build my kit, nor pick up that Harrow either! 

 

Anyway.. I've waffled on long enough, cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

[Heather Kay]

12 hours ago, rob85 said:

Nice to see a Bombay. Strong choice heather, looking forward to it.

 

12 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great to see a Bombay represented here.

 

11 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Great choice Heather.  This one will be interesting to watch.

Thanks Rob, Pat and Greg!

 

10 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'll follow this build to see if I should revise the former & conquer the latter.

The Valom range isn’t the cheapest, but they do cover some types rarely seen in model form. 
 

9 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Chair pulled up to  see this, Heather. One small painting detail that I think Valom got wrong is the prop hubs. I'm fairly certain these would have been the same black as the blades.

You may be right. I’ll check some reference piccies.

 

9 hours ago, Prenton said:

Hopefully you will nudge it closer to the take-off time...

Like you, Philip, I’ve been reading up on how others have tackled this kit. The thing that’s worrying me most is struts. Experience with other short run kits tells me that struts can be problematic, usually too short or moulded badly, or both. The undercarriage on the Bombay (and Harrow) will worry me until I get to it. I tend to take the view these days that most kits have issues of varying degrees. Things like the damaged wing root fillets are fairly easy to deal with. Things like struts might need some actual modelling! I have seen a Harrow build where the builder replaced most of the styrene in the undercarriage with brass rod for strength.
 

4 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Well done Heather, looking on with eyes wide open.

Thanks Dave! As I’ve already hinted, I have the Harrow kit as well. Both types served in 271 Squadron, alongside the Albatross and numerous other impressed civilian types I’ve not managed to source kits for. Oh, how I wish I could get a decent 1/72nd HP42 that wasn’t an iffy vac form and at a price that meant I kept both kidneys! I’m sorely tempted to break my single scale rule and buy one of the Airfix 1/144th Classic HPs just so I have one.

 

Here in Blighty we are having some unseasonable summer weather where the sun is actually shining. We’ve been threatened with temperatures up to 30 Celsius, so I’m not sure how much bench time I may manage. I think today should see me give all the parts a good once over and making a list of things to deal with during construction.

[Heather Kay]

Right, I’ve had coffee and chocolate digestives. My brain cell is firing on at least half power, so let’s make a wish list.

 

I took the precaution of looking up how others have tackled this kit. Forewarned, as they say. I settled on @CedB's WIP from 2015, reasoning that his insights and solutions would suit my skill level better than some others. You can read all about it on this link. Over a couple of sessions, I managed to winnow the wheat (actual building) from the chaff (enjoyable banter) and I’ve made some choices about how I will approach my build.

 

• I shall leave out most of the invisible interior detail, such as the WT installation and all the ammo drums. I also think I might paint the fuselage side windows black inside, as you can’t really see anything through them, and there’s nothing to see in there anyway.
• The broken wing root fillets will be dealt with by grafting styrene in place after the wing assemblies are attached to the fuselage. The job then becomes part of the gap filling and sanding process.
• I must be aware of the canopy and turret masking.
• I should work out location points for external PE detail, like the DF loop and pitot tube. These should be located with pins where possible, or replaced by something sturdier if necessary.
• Work out fitting the engines and cowlings at an early stage. They do seem to cause the most bother for most builders.
• Consider whether the weapons need to be installed, such as they are, or indeed if better ones can be sourced.
• Make brass wire location pins for the main undercarriage. Also, note the correct orientation of the various parts, as noted in Ced's thread.
• Make a replacement brass tail wheel oleo. I don’t think the moulded one will last long.
• Decide whether to make the tail struts as single pieces passing through the horizontal stabilisers.
• Work out whether the missing "celestial observation" hatch and window is supposed to be on top of the fuselage.
• Acquire replacement transfers.

That's a fair list to be getting on with. I think I’ll print it out and pin over the workbench!

 

Careful study of my parts tree shots will show I’ve written the part numbers on the runners, as well as parts themselves. This is a habit I’ve started for this kind of kit where the numbers aren’t moulded for me. It helps me keep my head sort of in the right direction, especially once the trees get denuded of parts later in the build, and saves me having to continually flip back and forth in the instructions.

 

Okay, should I make a start? I think I may. More later.

[DaveyGair]

I will also follow this build Heather as I have the 'African Campaign' boxing of this kit daring me to get on with it!

Hopefully your usual methodical and detailed build thread will help. I like the idea of writing the parts numbers on the sprue, never thought of that before but then I suppose I like to make things hard for myself! 😁

 

Davey.

[roginoz]

 

 

@Heather Kay, I usually print off a copy of the parts tree, to save the irritation of having to ".......flip back and forth......"

 

Works for me !

Rog

[theplasticsurgeon]

Nice one Heather,  same kit as I built in May 2020.  

A great idea inking part numbers onto the sprues, something I didn't realise the value - until afterwards.

I hope you saw my ready for inspection comments from the time.

Best of luck with your build. 

[Heather Kay]

49 minutes ago, theplasticsurgeon said:

I hope you saw my ready for inspection comments from the time.

I hadn’t, but I have now. 

 

I have made a slow start.

 

 

Using Birchwood Casey metal blackening fluid all the brass PE has been made less shiny. I use this stuff in my day job, and I find it gives a fair key for paint. It also means, should I damage any paintwork, it won’t show shiny brass through. Well, that’s the plan.

 

 

I also spent a fair while inspecting parts on the trees. Sharp blades and fine files have removed the slight mould registration issues. Doing this while stuff is on the tree makes it so much easier to handle. Trying to hold tiny parts while filing and sanding them can be a trial.

 

As I was working through the tidying phase, I was checking parts against the instructions, identifying which bits went where and so on.

 

You never know, I might even glue a few bits together soon.

[Heather Kay]

 

Here we go. The pilot's seat gets arms - belts after paint - and the control column gets the really fine bow tie control. Again, leaving it on the tree makes it easier to handle and align the PE, but I’m sure the latter will ping off into the stratosphere when the time comes to cut the column off. After painting the reverse of the IP acetate, I’ve used canopy glue to fix it behind the PE parts. I don’t normally bother, since it’ll never really show in the cockpit, but I thought I’d try and make an effort.

[Heather Kay]

 

The cockpit bulkheads and floor really need to be assembled in the fuselage halves so the various angles and alignments can be fixed. As you can probably see, there is precious little point in applying all the PE for the WT setup, since it will be utterly invisible. The IP and control column need detail painting, but you can absolutely guarantee the subatomic particles that form what I assume to be throttle controls will not be attached to the quadrant. There are limits, and mine is deploying an electron microscope to attach parts! 
 

So, the next phase is painting the interior, adding the PE belts and attaching the various sub assemblies. A job for another day, I think.

[Mr T]

A good start on this kit, Heather. Valom kits always have surprises, its seems. I have the kit in the stash and so yours and other builds will be a useful reference.

Regarding the kit schemes. Not sure about the undersides apart from them not being sky. Aluminium could be a good bet, at least as early as when you are building. The aircraft in Ireland in 1939 has more wrong than just the Sky under surfaces. The  roundel types would have been different dependent on when in 1939. 216 Squadron was never in Ireland. It received its first Bombay's in October 1939 when based in Egypt.

[Heather Kay]

33 minutes ago, Mr T said:

The aircraft in Ireland in 1939 has more wrong than just the Sky under surfaces.

You're not wrong! I don’t know if it shows in my snaps, but the 271 scheme also has the wingtip position light colours reversed on one of the profiles.

 

Once I’ve done the paint and fitted the final bits, I’ll be close to closing up the fuselage. 

[Heather Kay]

A final roundup for today.

 

 

It's not brilliant, but it’ll do. You will note I have glued the fuselage glazing in. That’s a tale, because each aperture needed a tickle with a half-round needle file to clear out a tiny rim of flash. Then, the clear parts would just be a push fit, held in with a tiny drop of MEK run round the edge. The rectangular panels needed quite a bit of fettling to fit nicely. As for those teeny tiny iddy-biddy panels on the starboard nose … I dropped both of them on the floor, but managed to find them. I’ve glued them slightly proud, and will sand and buff them another time to make them flush.

 

 

While the fuselage halves are somewhat banana-shaped, I have to say I’ve had no problem with fit now the interior is in place.

 

 

You can just make out the instrument panel. I doubt it’ll be visible with the canopy on.

 

 

The co-pilot seat on the starboard side sits at a slight angle. I have no idea whether it should, and it’s glued in solid now anyway.

 

So, a fairly successful session. Closing up the fuselage is the next job. Not sure when that’ll be, so thanks for watching!

[tonyot]

Looking great so far,.... I built one of these in a Mediterranean War GB and really enjoyed it. 

[dogsbody]

On 12/06/2021 at 15:29, dogsbody said:

Chair pulled up to  see this, Heather. One small painting detail that I think Valom got wrong is the prop hubs. I'm fairly certain these would have been the same black as the blades.

 

 

I wish to change my comment! 

 

I've just gone through the IWM Bombay photos and it looks like they all had unpainted prop hubs.

 

 

 

Chris

[klr]

I got the RAAF Air Ambulance version a few months ago, with a view to possibly building it for this GB. The key word is possibly ... I think discretion dictates I leave it for another day, once I know how it ought to be built.

[JOCKNEY]

8 hours ago, klr said:

I got the RAAF Air Ambulance version a few months ago, with a view to possibly building it for this GB. The key word is possibly ... I think discretion dictates I leave it for another day, once I know how it ought to be built.

You know you want to build it...

 

 

[Heather Kay]

17 hours ago, klr said:

The key word is possibly ... I think discretion dictates I leave it for another day, once I know how it ought to be built.

you know you want to. Go on! Short run kits tend not to have the niceties of location pins and can often be a bit tricksy to put together square, but there’s nothing a competent styrene basher can’t deal with. I’m still pleasantly surprised by this kit, as you’ll see.

 

 

With the glazing hopefully secure, I joined the fuselage halves together. They had formed a bit of an outward curve at the rear, but nothing judicious tape and clamps couldn’t deal with. I took care to align the upper nose area and the turtle back for the rear turret. Even so, the joins were a bit off, but nothing disastrous. 
 

So, I settled in for some filing and sanding. First, though, I went over the joins with a dry marker pen.

 

 

 

After some time creating dust and mess, the marker pen tends to remain in dips and hollows, handily highlighting where some filler might be useful.

 

 

So, after slapping filler on the suspicious bits, more sanding commenced.

 

 

A couple of rounds of sanding, finger nail tests across the joints, more marker, more sanding, more filler, more sanding, I began to think it was getting close enough. A blast with primer will tell, but before that I must fit glazing and mask it all up.

 

 

I went all over the circular portholes and those teensy rectangular affairs in the nose with various grades of sanding block until I was reasonably happy with the finish. I’m not after ultragloss, as this is a working plane, and there’s no need to see in to the empty space inside.

 

 

I hate having to sand cockpit transparencies. In this case, I dry fitted the greenhouse and had a good old peer at where it touched the fuselage. I worked out some subtle sanding of the fuselage sides, and some gentle filing of the mating surfaces, would give me as good a fit as possible. Once happy, I committed to Revell Contacta so I had a bit of wiggle room for adjustment. I could have used PVA or whatever, but I don’t really want to take the glass off again. The nose glazing will need some work. It’s a teensy bit deeper than the fuselage shell. I think I’ll get the top to fit as smoothly as possible, and file/sand the underside. This area is actually meant to be fuselage anyway, so I may get away with it. Before the nose goes on, though, I need to assemble the exercise bicycle frames that are the counterbalanced gun mountings. 
 

Once the bike frames are installed, the final glazing can be fitted, and then I can mask everything to get some primer on. I suspect the worst area for filler will be the wing hump. I think that’s an area that may best be left until the wings are in place.

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

You know, I really should just be getting on with the day job.

 

 

There's four of these O gauge coaches I’m working on. They’ve reached the fiddly detail stage. All the interiors are done. All the lettering is done. I need to fit the brass castings for the door furniture, work out some complicated handrail-cum-filler pipes for the ends, and sort out some weathering and they’ll be done. Only I can’t seem to gather the wherewithall just at the moment.

 

So, a Bombay calls me.

 

 

The cockpit canopy has been masked. I bought in a Peewit mask set, and very good it is, too. The little dots on the tape are my doing. To make it easy on myself I put a little spot in each tape panel so I can find the beggars in the sea of yellow tape! The wing spar has also gone in. Ced encountered issues with his build, but I’ve checked and can’t find anything obstructing the wings themselves. I am toying with the idea of drilling through the tailplane/fuselage mounting points and fitting a spar across there, too. I’m not a great fan of butt joins, especially on models this size.

 

 

Once the instant caffeine had kicked in from my mid-morning coffee and choccy biccy, I worked out what the gun frames are supposed to look like. Hint: they don’t look much at all like the Valom illustrator drew them. It took a minute or three for me to clock the rectangular block was the gun breech, the barrel of which pokes out through the slots in the bubble and fuselage drilled later. Identifying the breech, and recalling someone said the Vickers unit was mounted sideways on, the other plastic parts made a bit more sense, including what I take to be a used cartridge collection bag. I may yet install one of the spare ammunition drums for the effect. I am also wondering if I have any spare VGOs in my bits box that would be willing to donate their barrels to the cause.

 

Once the glues have set, I’ll get paint on these frames and fit them in their required locations. Then I can close up the fuselage properly, make it primer tight and cover it in grey stuff to see what further filling and sanding may be needed.