Ju-88 and Blenheim

[Heraldcoupe]

I had a look through the loft to see what Finnish subject were available to me. After a couple of minutes, I emerged with this little pile:

About 6 months ago, I made a decision that 1/72 scale really wasn't for me, so that's an ominous looking pile!

Nevertheless, I selected these to proceed with:

I usually like to provide a fair amount of detail in my models, hence the decision to move away from 1/72. This time I'm working towards a small collection which is airforce specific, so I don't feel so compelled to add every whistle and bang. There will be a bit added under the glass as both cockpits are quite visible, but other than that I'm treating them as canvases for Finnish colour schemes,

Cheers,

Bill.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Heraldcoupe

[Heraldcoupe]

I've spent a couple of evenings cleaning up and adding a little detail to the cockpit of the Ju-88. The kit parts are a bit crude and not very accurate, so I made and modified a few parts, ending up with this:

So how would it look under the distortion of the kit canopies?

Not great, that righthand seat is even tinier than it should be! So a bit more plastic carving and bending, plus a few bits of wire got me here:

With the fuselage taped together I think it looks a bit better now:

I'll get some etched belts and an instrument panels, the Eduard Zoom set for the Hasegawa 88 should yield what I want. Not something I haev to hand unfortunately, so that will put a bit of a delay on this. I'll see if I can get the rest painted and buttoned up, then I can carry on with the airframe while I wait for the etched bits to show,

Cheers,

Bill.

[ta152h]

Hello-if you want rid of the Blenheim 1V let me know, and the PE-2!

[Heraldcoupe]

Hello-if you want rid of the Blenheim 1V let me know, and the PE-2!

I might be tempted.

I've already slimmed down the 1/72 stash substantially, leaving the subjects which interest me most 'just in case'.

Cheers,

Bill.

[Deacon]

Looking good Bill.

Deacon

[Iain Ogilvie]

Looks like a very neat start on an old kit - good luck!

Iain

[Heraldcoupe]

With the Ju-88 awaiting some etched belts and an instrument panel (on order from Hannants), I made a start on the Blenheim.

This is an ancient kit, the moulds originated with Frog, mine is a ZTS Plastuk release from the mid 1990s. It's also appeared under every imaginable Eastern European brand, and briefly made an appearance in a Revell box.

Here's what I started with:

Old as it may be, it's a pleasant enough kit. I've built plenty of them down the years, but this time I though I'd put in a bit of effort to dress things up around the cockpit. There's not much there to begin with....

Knowing the glazing fit was going to be terrible, I sanded and added shims from plastic card as appropriate. I then set to the canoppy with progressively finer sanding sticks, until I lost all the glazing bars and ended up with a pretty smoothj and clear canopy. Thasnkfully, this ZTS moulding has quite soft pliable canopies, so not prone to crazing like most clear parts.

I also cut out the recess for the leading edge of the wing, shimming again to move the wing back by about 1mm. This sounds trivial, but the port side window shouldn't have the bevelled edge visible in the first picture, it should be a 90 degree angle meeting the edge of the wing. That's not possible with the wing sitting slightly forward, and quite frankly the wing only needed very slight slimming down to slide further back in the recess.

With the sub assemblies taped together, I checked everything for fit before starting work in earnest.

I added cursory detail under the gun turret. Little will be visible, but I will add the seat and basic turret mechanisms later - these can be inserted from above once the airframe is largely complete.

I decided it would be easier to add the cockpit detail with the fuselage assembled, so that was bonded with EMA Plastic Weld, and the semas cleaned up.

Being a long term favourite of mine, I have a number of books on the Blenheim. I found one image showing Belnheims being built in Finland, invaluable for showing up all the extra windows in the fuselage, which aren't represented int he kit. A steady hand and some twist drills sorted those out, to be glazed with PVA at the end of proceedings.

The white stucture in the last picture is a representation of the wing spar, to sit directly behind the cockpit.

Now I'll move onto the cockpit details and wheelwells, all of which will be essentially scratchbuilt.

One query I need to address is going to be the interior colours. With these Blenheims being built in Finland, I've no idea how the internal colours should compare to those of the British built aircraft,

Cheers,

Bill.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Good start on both

[Heraldcoupe]

After an Easter holiday spent on DIY, followed by a few days in London (museums of course!), I've finally got back to some modelling. The Blenhiem airframe is now largely together, photos to follow this evening. I've also received some further decals and etched detaisl so no excuses now for either of these stalling!

Cheers,

Bill.

[Heraldcoupe]

Here's the progress I made before Easter, just got the images off the camera.

I scratched up some basic wheelwell structure.

I could have gone mad here, but I really didn't want to get dragged sown the route of scratching the whole undercarriage, so a basic representation will have to do!

Meanwhile, I got the basic fuselage interior painted, with some basic structure added:

Still a bit to do up front, of which more later.....

Cheers,

Bill.

[Heraldcoupe]

Here's where I've got to in the last 24 hours.

Some basic detail added to the front face of the wing spar:

I scratched up a pilot's seat from bits of sheet and strip:

It's very difficult to get a good impression of how the seat goes together from photographs, though some images of Blenheims and Bolingbrokes mid-restoration have been helpful. Back of the seat has a tubular frame, square section in some images, round in others....

Still lots to do up front, including an IP and navigator's seat(s).

God I would love to build one of these in 1/32, so much scope for detail!

Cheers,

Bill.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good Bill

[Max Headroom]

Bill!

Following your Blenheim build with interest. One comment though - have you glued the wings together yet? In plan view the trailing edge outboard of the wing break is wrong - very. I have a piccie on my laptop where I have marked out what's wrong on my Revell boxing of the kit. If I can get to grips with Photobucket (forgotten my password) I will post it. Oytherwise, the fix I am planning involves a cut from the trailing edge to mid chord, another from there to the wing tip, slicing a wedge out and glueing back what's left. I think it's simpler to do than describe!

Stand by

MH

[Heraldcoupe]

Following your Blenheim build with interest. One comment though - have you glued the wings together yet? In plan view the trailing edge outboard of the wing break is wrong - very. I have a piccie on my laptop where I have marked out what's wrong on my Revell boxing of the kit.

I'll be interested to see that. The wing tip shape is certainly incorrectly tapered along the trailing edge, but I intend to reshape that with the wings built. The wings were completed with this fix in mind, so any other fixes will have to be addressed without major surgery, or otherwise studiously ignored........

The shapes overall aren't bad overall, yet I've needed to do quite a bit of adjustment around the cockpit and wing roots to get it looking right. I've not put it against plans, (which I rarely trust in any case), but there's constant reference to photos.

Cheers,

Bill.

[Max Headroom]

Problem.

I've tried twice to upload the picture and I got this message

THE FOLLOWING ERROR(S) WERE FOUND

You have entered a link to a website that the administrator does not allow links to

MODS HELP! Have you blocked Photobucket?

MH

[Max Headroom]

..........and then Firefox goes off line.

You can see where the surplus plastic needs removal and the aileron repositioning. I've not done the deed myself yet, but I don't think that vigorous sanding is an option and you will have to make the cuts and slice out the wedge.

Hope this helps

MH

(sorry the pic is a bit on the big side but I'm just relieved to have it uploaded, downloaded or whatever)

Edited April 14, 2010 by Max Headroom

[Troy Smith]

One query I need to address is going to be the interior colours. With these Blenheims being built in Finland, I've no idea how the internal colours should compare to those of the British built aircraft,

Cheers,

Bill.

Hi Bill

the Finns used a light grey for interior use, matched by RAF medium sea grey. (I mentioned this on the colour chart in the references section BTW, and was stated by somone like Kari Stenman IIRC as a colour match)

I presume Finnish built Blenhiem would be this colour. A quick look here

http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Finland/finnish.htm

gets this.... Mk1 nose, nicely backlit..

MKIV

this is Finnish built as well, bit bleached out by the flash, the Humu

HTH

T

[Heraldcoupe]

the Finns used a light grey for interior use, matched by RAF medium sea grey. (I mentioned this on the colour chart in the references section BTW, and was stated by somone like Kari Stenman IIRC as a colour match)

Thanks Troy,

I'd found the colour referenced in one of the links you provided, which was happily confirmed by this image.

The Finnish Blenheim IV pictured on the same site has a lot more green to the interior, but there is substantial overpainting in that case.

this is Finnish built as well, bit bleached out by the flash, the Humu

Very nice, I'd been looking for Humu references but I'd failed to find anything of the cockpit.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Heraldcoupe

[Heraldcoupe]

You can see where the surplus plastic needs removal and the aileron repositioning. I've not done the deed myself yet, but I don't think that vigorous sanding is an option and you will have to make the cuts and slice out the wedge.

Having taken a look at what plan-view photographs I can muster, I'm not fully convinced. This image is about the best I could find, enlarging it on screen with the Frog airframe held at the same angle, the chord doesn't look like much of a problem. To my eye, the error looks lie it starts with the front of the wingtip, rather than the back edge.

It's all perception though......

Cheers,

Bill.

[Vesa Jussila]

Hi,

Colour of Blenheim can vary, some planes can have british interrior colour. I think basic rule is: Those that were licence build in Finland had grey painting and those planes that were made in UK had interior green. Green was changed to gray when planes went to major rebuild.

Br. Vesa

Edited April 15, 2010 by Vesa Jussila

[Max Headroom]

Having taken a look at what plan-view photographs I can muster, I'm not fully convinced. This image is about the best I could find, enlarging it on screen with the Frog airframe held at the same angle, the chord doesn't look like much of a problem. To my eye, the error looks lie it starts with the front of the wingtip, rather than the back edge.

It's all perception though......

Cheers,

Bill.

I've not had the benefit of running a tape measure over a real Blenheim - pity, but I photocopied the wing planform from SAMI and MAP plans (both corellate to within a gnat's thingy) and overlaid a cutout onto the Revell wing. I marked out the difference and you see my conclusions in the posted photo. Incidentally the Airfix wing matches the plans. I had originally bought an Airfix IV with the intention of cross kitting them onto the Revell fusealge but there is no match-up at all and have concluded that there is no possibility of pursuading A to fit B.

So which is right, FROG clones or Airfix - dunno to be frank but one is certainly out. I have convinced myself that Airfix got it right. However, be wary of plans! If anyone on this forum can give facts and figures please help - please!!

MH

[Heraldcoupe]

So which is right, FROG clones or Airfix - dunno to be frank but one is certainly out. I have convinced myself that Airfix got it right. However, be wary of plans!

I've just pulled an MPM Blenheim out of the pile to compare. Wing planform is very, very close to the Frog kit, except for the wingtip, which is more rounded in MPM's rendering. This correlates pretty well with the mods I've planned for my build, though initial impression is the wingspan of the MPM kit works out a little short - hard to be certain though with an unbuilt set of parts!

The Airfix kit has one particularly glaring shape error, the rear of the engine nacelle is far too long and pointed - it wouldn't surprise me if they're a perfect match for the plans in Aircraft of the Fighting Powers.

Cheers,

Bill.

Edited April 16, 2010 by Heraldcoupe

[Max Headroom]

I've just pulled an MPM Blenheim out of the pile to compare. Wing planform is very, very close to the Frog kit, except for the wingtip, which is more rounded in MPM's rendering. This correlates pretty well with the mods I've planned for my build, though initial impression is the wingspan of the MPM kit works out a little short - hard to be certain though with an unbuilt set of parts!

The Airfix kit has one particularly glaring shape error, the rear of the engine nacelle is far too long and pointed - it wouldn't surprise me if they're a perfect match for the plans in Aircraft of the Fighting Powers.

Cheers,

Bill.

Now I'm confused!

Well at least the fuselage shape of the mk.1 is ok - I think. The only shortcomings I can figure out are as follows:

• no cockpit detail except for the serene Frogman withid hands on his lap!
  
• small slit type windows to the rear of the cockpit glazing
  
• missing wingspar/bulkhead aft of the pilot
  
• vague guiderails for the dorsal cockpit hatch (on my model the hatch is a 'short shot' so I will have to cut it off and open the cockpit and remodel them anyway)
  
• vague dorsal escape hatches - modelled as indentations
  
• oversimplified turret
  
• thick rudder trailing edge
  

However the basic shape is there and if you remember it's an early 1970's model it should be ok.

MH

[Heraldcoupe]

I've managed to fall a few days behind with my progress reports, so here's what was achieved over the weekend.

With photographs to hand, I decided that the wingtip shape needed to be more rounded, while maintaining the span. First move was to add a strip of styrene around the tip, with the area inside the strip backfilled with cyano:

Once that was set, it was roughly sanded to approximate the desired sahpe in plan view:

Plenty more sanding, until I ended up with this:

Since then I've moved back to the cockpit, of which more later,

Cheers,

Bill.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Nice work Bill, any progress on the 88? I'm interested in that one as I have the later boxing of the same kit.