CLASSIC AIRFRAMES 1/48th BLENHEIM build.

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

hi all,
i’ve been wanting a blenheim now for about 2 yrs and now its begun.
the fit of this model is alot better than the FM hampden, all though it’s not fault free !.
you have to be very careful in the construction of it as there are a few mistakes in the build sheets as to where parts go this applies to the front cockpit/seat/ table, on a review of this kit it said about the rear gun mount is a good fit and won’t require any fillering, there is !! have a look at picture 3

there is alot of resin parts which are a bit distorted but when they are together it can’t be seen so i’m not messing about trying to straighten them :shock:

the under carriage is very difficult to build up if any one builds this don’t follow the instructions,but build them up as one whole thing then put the undercarraige into the wheel well,

link to review…

http://www.kitreview.com/reviews/blenheimivreviewbg_1.htm

any way here go’s…


for anyone that does not know what a blenheim is


some fillering is needed here, the rest of the fuselage is a good fit.


rear gun mount a mixture of resin and plastic,turret cannot rotate


plasti card inserted into the so called no gaps at all review !


side walls had to be thinned down a hell of a lot so it will fit into cockpit area.


rear shelf had to be trimmed down, too wide to fit into the fuselage.


the side walls where twice as thick as what you see now,lots of dry fitting required.


use the wheel well as a jig to hold the little parts.


there are six parts to each undercarraige,all with NO mounting holes


when the undercarraige is complete put it into the wheel well, beware here there are no mounting holes for the supports and the put the whole thing into the wing and glue down the resin with cyo glue


rear tailplanes made up, these were a good fit.


engines are resin and require 9 exhaust collectors fitting to all the cylinders which point towards cowling, this is going to be fun !.


the props are going to be a nightmare to align up straight

more to follow !..ian.

2

Looking good so far Ian! Those exhaust collectors and landing gear parts sound like a nightmare! [xx(]

3

building this model is quite enjoyable compared to some other limited run kits i’ve done in the past, heres a few more pic’s of the blenheim so far…


there are sink holes on both sides of the nose, these have now been filled.


some very careful glueing of the two halves needed here one slip, bang its ruined


the navigators table has been repositioned three times before i got it right and the resin sides had to be broken and re-aligned


nice veiw from the back, it’s a tight fit in there.


test fitting nose to fuselage, looks like there won’t be any fit issues here.


fillered and sanded the rear turret ring, looks a bit neater now


pilots glass area needed alot of test fitting and cleaning, before it sat correctly.


engine fairings now on also drilled out the resin pieces for the props to go on.


engine covers where a good fit, unlike the hampden which where oval !


my evidence of hand brushing

made up the props, i thought this was going to be hard in aligning them up but it was very simple to do…


the finished props


painted the wheels silver with a hint of smoke onto them to give it a worn look, tyres are painted in dark grey, resin gun cleaned and painted up the vac’ formed part is the rear ward facing gun which will be going underneath the navigators position.

4

Definitely not an easy build, but you are certainly making some great progress. Looks like you’ll have a winner.

Regards, Rick

5

I see you’re up to the usual Ian…working your magic on another nice bomber! Looking forward to more.

6

If it’s anything like your Hampden, it’ll look stunning when complete.

Keep those in progress shots coming.

Karl

7

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to see more.

Roy

8

[#ditto] Fantastic so far.

…Guy

9

Great work, so far. It definately will be a masterpiece

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

10

She’s lookin really good!

11

been painting the wings/ nose this week, the nose piece needed a far bit of fillering to get it all to align up straight, but got there in the end.
on one of the wings there is a deep sink mark, this had to be filled which can be sen on the second pic’.

still going together quite pleasingly

i was going to cut open the landing light and scratch build a new one, but i put some foil in instead looks OK.

12

Ian, I like the map that you have in the front area, gives it that little something special.

13

Lookin good, keep us posted.

14

THats an easy build…

Just joking[(-D] looks impossible keep up the good work.

15

very impressive build! Another one to bookmark for future reference, cheers!

16

well i had a PM yesterday about the props being too long and strike the nose , well i fitted them today and guess what they do hit it !!

i was going to try and remove the prop blade from the hub but being resin i think it would shatter ,so i cut 8mm from the tips and re-profiled them back to a point, they look OK now and don’t touch the side of the nose.

i’ll put some pictures of the problem later

i just wished that this person told me about the problem… seeing as i’ve put up pictures of the simple prop build and he had allreay built several in the past so maybe he could have told me before hand !.

i thought this was all the point of forums as being together and sharing our experiances in modeling ! does’nt seem that way

i just wonder if the manufacturer knows

yours a wassed off… ian.

17

well i came across a problem as to which the prop blades are too long and strike the nose i only noticed this when the wings where attached.[ via late PM [:I] ]

dry fitting the props was not an option here as the hub is resin and the prop is a seperate part and trying to hold four parts is like trying to balance four marbles on top of each other ! you would think there would be nothing wrong, but looking at actual pictures of a blenheim these props are too long


prop blade hitting side


cutting tips down and trimming to shape.


both props now shaped and sanded.


props now mis the fuselage

…ian