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RAF 21 Sqn Lockheed Ventura Mk.II, 'Hell's a Poppin'


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Had a bit of a Hiatus from aircraft modelling for a while, just lost the old 'mojo' plus I did a fair bit of War-game stuff.

Trying to get back it with hopefully a simple, OOB build with this Minicraft Ventura, not using the kit decals but ones from a 'DK' set I picked up from somewhere. I've never used this manufacturer's decals before so we'll see how it goes.

I've no idea if this kit is accurate or not but I've seen a few Ventura's done on here and they look Ok. The only addition will be seat belts from Tamiya Tape.

 

Opening pictures showing the parts still bagged and decals which look like for another machine from 21 Sqn.

 

DSC_0001 DSC_0002 DSC_0003

 

More soon.

Davey.

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Glad you're joining us Davey and hope your mojo returns to full flow with this one.

For some reason I thought the "Hell's a poppin" artwork was applied to a four-engined heavy such as a Halifax or Lanc but happy to be proved wrong and see it here :speak_cool:

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54 minutes ago, Col. said:

Glad you're joining us Davey and hope your mojo returns to full flow with this one.

For some reason I thought the "Hell's a poppin" artwork was applied to a four-engined heavy such as a Halifax or Lanc but happy to be proved wrong and see it here :speak_cool:

 

Thanks. Hopefully will get going soon on this.

I had a quick look at the turret transparency and sure enough it's not accurate, just a conical lump so there'll be some filing and polishing done to get the slight 'off-set' angle to it on the gun mount side.  

Does anyone know for sure this didn't have the 'bulges' on the cockpit canopy? Or maybe just on the port side? The photo of the actual aircraft doesn't show them.

 

Davey.

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Hi Davey,  Here's a link to a Ventura that I built in 2017.

Alerting you to a difference in the profile, between the main fuselage parts, and those for the transparent nose section.

I described how  fixed it in the thread,  but wishing you the best for your build.

Academy-PV-1-Ventura-FP.jpg

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Right! Got to get on with this, and thanks for the info @theplasticsurgeon.

I've started looking at the bits and pieces, cleaning stuff up and cementing the cockpit bulkhead and floor in place.

Research shows that early RAF ones had a single seat and controls so will do that for this model, but I'm not going to add anything else in there!

 

DSC_0055 DSC_0056

 

I've gone for cementing the forward glazed sections to each corresponding half separately and have masked off the inside of the front side windows ready for airbrushing.  There is a slight step at the joins but doesn't look too bad when being offered up against each other but you never know until the first coat of primer goes on if the join is a good one!

 

DSC_0057 DSC_0058

 

More soon.

Davey.

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I had a rummage in the spares box, and sure enough I found a Boulton-Paul type turret I had left from a Revell merlin engined Halifax I did a while ago. Much better shape and size than the hopeless kit one!

 

DSC_0003

 

I did a bit more today, after painting the interior and adding the seat-belts and fuselage windows, I got the fuselage together, ready to fettle the joins. The engines were given a bit of paint as well, the wings have yet to be joined together. 

 

More soon.

Davey.

 

DSC_0001 DSC_0002 DSC_0004

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Very slow progress at the moment. As I have said previously, after building nearly 40 model aircraft during lock-down (rather than the couple a year previously!) and getting back into Warhammer gaming stuff it's been difficult getting the old mojo back, but I've soldiered on.

This kit isn't as good a fitting kit as I thought it would be, requiring lots of filling and sanding.

I filed down the spurious raised edges at the turret mounting, these being part of the turret itself but totally inaccurate.

The cockpit transparency is a very poor fit, will require some jacking up to line up with the upper fuselage.

The engine nascelles needed a lot of fettling, I need to get some primer on after getting the airframe together to see where we are.

More soon.

Davey.

 

DSC_0001 DSC_0002 DSC_0003 DSC_0004

 

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