Bristol Bloodhound SAM

[Colin W]

Hi Chaps

A bit of a change from all the aeroplanes and stuff listed so far, here is a missile. I've had this in the stash since at least 2002 so I reckon now is a good time to get this built. In fact I've had it so long I cant remember the manufacturer and its not noted on the box or the instructions (or on Scalemates) so if you can remind me then I'd appreciate it.

 

 

As part of the 20 years research for this build I have visited preserved missiles at Duxford, Dubendorff in Switzerland, Fishermans Bend in Austraila and the Singapore Air Force Museum. Only Sweden to visit and then I can decide on a scheme.

 

Hopefully a quick build as there are a few other Bristols in the stash

 

Colin

 

[Rabbit Leader]

The Bloodhound SAM is a very welcomed addition to this GB. I didn't know a 1/48 example existed until now. 

Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

[rob85]

Cool choice Colin, we really are including all aspects of BAC’s catalogue in this GB!

 

Rob

[Colin W]

Well not quite at the bottom of the list but certainly not much progress so far. I built a 'quick' Fuel tanker which took waaay longer than expected.

I made a start on this over the last week and got to here over the weekend. Here's the launcher. All white metal assembled with CA. Its quite well detailed despite being completely wrong at the base of the missile. There should be a structure at the base of ehe missile with 2 supports at the bottom to hold the missile. The kit ignores all of this and provides a sturdy support to the rear of the center body. A bit of fettling required!

 

 

The missile seems to be much more accurate. Location holes cut for the main engines and the fins but the boosters have to be located and drilled.

 

 

Still a bit to do.

 

Colin

[Colin W]

The trouble with these resin kits is they go together very quickly and once you're busy building them things like pictures get forgotten.

Here's how the Bloodhound loked after assembly and a coat of Grey primer. I forgot the assembled and unpainted pictures!

 

 

The engines were painted silver and metaliser then maskedbase coat of Green. I have pictures of missiles in Australia, Singapore, Duxford and Switzerland with all being different colours. This is based on the Duxford one but in green. 

I'm not sure whether to weather. Were these left out all the time or just fitted to the launchers at times of heightened tension? In the 'Britain on the Brink' account of the Cuba missile crisis there is much discussion about dispersing the V-bombers but no mention about loading the Bloodhounds so I suspect they were left loaded. However probably under a tarp or similar to keep off the worst of the weather. Probably I'll stick to some shading only.

 

 

Detail painting and final assembly to do.

 

Colin

[rob85]

That looks really smooth paint work. Love it’s little launch pad… can you tell I’m a middle expert?

 

Rob

[bigVern1966]

I knew there was a 1-48 Scale kit of a Mk 2 kicking about, but have never seen it before. Mountford was the maker if memory serves. Quite a few errors on the Launcher and the Missile, mainly being a mish-mash of Mk 1 and Mk 2 parts. 

 

The Missiles lived on the Launchers 24/365. The RAF Mk 1 Squadrons had 32 launchers and a total of 40 missiles on the Squadron. The 8 spare missiles allowed missiles to be swapped out for servicing. They were suppose to have 8 Launchers at 10 minutes readiness to fire (one half of a Fire Unit), another 8 at 30 minutes (the other half of the duty fire unit) and the remainder (the other fire unit) at 2 hours from the sounding of an alert. There is some evidence that the missiles couldn't be fully prepared for firing in peacetime due to design flaws in the firing circuits that lit the boost rocket motors which meant that the cable that connected the missile's explosive igniters (Ramjets and Rocket Motors) could only be fitted in time of war (the Firing circuits could not be checked for induced electrical currents (from RF signals from the sites Radars and alike) with the missile connected to the firing chain.

 

The Firing Chain problem was fixed on the Bloodhound Mk 2 and they could be fired as soon as the missile section was run up. The Missiles were quite badly weathered and after a couple of years tended to be a mish-mash of various shades of Olive Drab around the panels where they had been removed and refitted and had new paint brush painted over the panel joints. The Radome was gloss black when new, but weathered to a dull dark grey over time as the gloss coating eroded and was replaced with a wax coating brush painted over the fiberglass of the structure.