Funny how there hasn't been much talk of the new 1:72 scale Airfix Blenheim mk.I kit around here yet.
In the middle of other builds, I started dabbling with the kit with the idea of starting a build log.

I've alredy made quite a lot of progress, so this first post will be quite picture-heavy, not to mention long...

To first (somewhat) briefly sum up the kit: a very welcome new mainstream kit of an iconic aircraft - not without some flaws, though.
Very nice recessed panel lines (I guess the trench digger was either fired or re-educated ), nice & deep landing gear wells with internals structures and wing spars, quite complete engine and exhaust system, cockpit much more realistic in arrangement than MPM/Special Hobby, but with some rather clunky and simplified details.

The biggest problem however is the unfortunate inclusion of some features I think shouldn't be present on a Blenheim, the most problematic being the shape of the upper engine nacelles. This seems to be based on restored Bristol Bolingbrokes, bulging out more than on the Blenheim.
Supposedly Airfix genuinely intended the nacelles to depict a Blenheim since the nacelles on both sides are the same shape (Bolingbrokes' right nacelle had an extra bulge that housed a liferaft), but it's a quite a bummer how they seem to have only looked at restored Bolingbrokes for reference. Didn't they care for scale drawings, wartime photos, or the sole surviving original (albeit license-built) Blenheim put on display in Finland back in 2008?

The real McCoys: Blenheim (the aforementioned sole survivor, BL-200) ->

Bolingbroke ->


Model kits: MPM ->

Airfix ->

Note that I'm not claiming the MPM kit to be 100% accurate or anything, but I do have to say that the side profile of the upper nacelle half looks much more like the real thing. On the other hand, the shape of the bottom half of the nacelle is better on the Airfix kit. I hope the plastic is thick enough on the nacelles to allow some sanding to tone down the bulging.


Now, finally onto building the kit itself!
Due to the parts breakdown, this is one of those kits where you don't have to start with the cockpit. In fact, that could be the last subassembly I'll complete!

One of the first things I did was to sand down the rather pronounced control surface detail. A few swipes with a sanding stick followed by a light application of liquid cement takes care of that.


Sorry, no pictures of the insides of the landing gear bays, I got so carried away just painting and gluing things together. Here the wing's already assembled, with lightening holes drilled to the back of the landing flap bays.


The fuselage halves fit together well, only requiring a bit of filling on the bottom front. The wings and fuselage also fit together nicely and sturdily, but there were a couple of spots where I glued in shims of thin styrene sheet.



Not absolutely necessary, but I guess I'm just a bit pedantic.

If one intends to build the fuselage bomb bay opened, the gap running across the bay will need some careful filling, otherwise filling just the side gaps is probably enough.


I'm not sure if it's just my sample of the kit or something, but dry fitting the ailerons revealed gaps on the underside wider than on the real thing. Also, the outer side trailing edge of the ailerons needed some slight sanding.


After sanding the ailerons and gluing styrene sheet in the wing. I still need to trim and/or sand the shims back a bit to show a slight gap as on the real aircraft.



Moving on to the engines. The kit includes optional parts for closed or open cooling gills, and they have cutouts for air outlets on the engine nacelles. Depending on the aircraft you're building, you may have to remove them. Check your references!
The particular aircraft I'm planning to build didn't have the air outlets, so they and the cutouts in the gills had to go. Simple: styrene sheet and trimming for the gills, just trimming for the outlets themselves:


Cutting off the air outlets on the nacelles leaves a gap in the panel line running down the side of the nacelle, but it's not necessary to fix if you choose to build the kit with closed gills, since the whole panel line ends up covered by the closed gills. (the part with the gills is not dry fitted in all the way)


The engine cowlings are a multi-part affair, but fit together very well. I dry fitted the engine parts inside the cowlings while the cement dried to ensure proper alignment. A couple of engine cylinders have locator bumps at the ends, so it's advisable to cut them off so it's possible to assemble and paint the engines and cowlings separately. I also drilled out the exhaust pipes.
The cowling rings have two [url=https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3802/9280639387_5f87abb4cc_b.jpg]cabin heating intake pipes[/url - a Bolingbroke feature that needs to be removed.



Phew! That's about it for the first post.

Edit: Oh, Photobucket. Goonight, sweet prince.

Eetu,

I will be watching. Great start!

Excellent kick-off Eetu,I like it,

Hi Eetu

Great stuff! Can you submit this for our Reviews section when you're done?

All the best

Rowan

Hi Eetu

I'll be watching with interest!

I gotta admit that I'm a big fan of the new tool kits in 1/72 from Airfix.

For sheer bang for buck, not to mention fun, they can't be beat IMO! For this reason, Airfix have certainly re-ignited my interest in aircraft...

Look forward to watching your progress...

Thanks everyone, gland you like it so far!
During this week I've been making some more progress getting the cockpit started and adding some details to the exterior and the engines. More WIP pics to come soon.



I got a couple of these newer kits and I've liked them too, especially now that their panel lines have been getting more refined.
I'm looking forward to the Blenheim mk.IV, and I can't wait for the Dornier Do 17Z!



Sure, I think I could write a few lines. Should it be more like a review or a build article?
I could have done an in-box review, but I expected this to be a kit that would have gotten reviewed very soon after release, so I just got started with the build.

Okay, WIP picture time.

Initially, it seemed the four-part (back part w/ cooling gills + 3 side parts) engine cowlings would have several seams requiring filling, but in the end, if you are careful, you only need to hide the top seam. The two others fall on actual seams found on the real aircraft.

^ The aforementioned cowling seam and the previously filled gap in the gills have a coat of Mr. Surfacer on them to highlight possible pits and other stuff possibly needing more work.

Keeping with the engine-related compononents, the other engine:
So far, I've added bolts to the rim of the crank case and replaced the main cowling ring support struts with brass rod. The moulded-in struts in the gear reduction housings were OK, but I replaced them because cutting them off made it much easier to clean the mould seam running around the lower edge of the housing parts. I'll be adding the two smaller support struts later, same for the tube running to the top edge of the gear reduction housing.

The kit prop hubs seemed undersized to me, so I replaced them with leftover resin parts from MPM's mk.I kit.



To close this update, here's the control surfaces at the moment:

While the shapes of the trim tabs where all moulded-in in the kit, some recessed lines were missing, so I scribed those in.
Also, the aileron trim tabs protrude from the aileron trailing edge, so check your references if the aircraft you're building had tabs of that type. For the plane I'm building, I trimmed them down.
The trim tab actuators are made from brass rod. While the rudder had the trim tab actuator fairing moulded-in, the horizontal stabilizers didn't, so I made those from styrene rod.

Cheers Eetu

I don't think this one will appear as an In-Box, so if you can do us a Full-Build Review that'd be fantastic - truth be told, I'd like to gently shift the balance more towards builds anyway.

Many thanks in advance, and all the best

Rowan

Time for another update. Hmm, this thing's coming along pretty fast!

Continuing with the stabilizers, I pinned the control surfaces with copper wire to make the joints a bit sturdier and ease posing them down a bit. I also pinned the fuselage-to-stabilizer joints, as the stablilizers attach to recesses in the fuselage, and the fit isn't that snug. Probably to prevent the builder to mix the left and right stabilizers, the right stabilizer has one locator pin, left one has none. Not a big deal to add your own pins or whatever, but I still hope Airfix had designed proper non-symmetrical locators to the stabilizers.


Although not probably necessary, I pinned the rudder-to-fuselage joint too. The kit has attachment points and fairings for the rudder actuator wires, so they only needed drilling out wire adding the wires. The kit didn't have an antenna wire attachment point in the fin leading edge, so I drilled a hole and glued in a piece hypodermic needle cut down to suitable length. I also cut off the bulges depicting rear navigation lights and drilled holes for mounting clear lights later.


Then it was time to glue in the stabilizers. Based on dry-fitting the parts, I was expecting gaps on both sides needing putty, but it turned out better. Still needs a bit of putty though.



Here's the how the airframe looks at this point.


I guess it's soon finally time to start putting the cockpit together.

Excellent work Eetu, looks great so far,

Eetu,
An excellent build blog for sure.

It's very easy to follow along and understand your thought process, and how you solved each problem. Your control rods are a perfect example. Very nicely done. Once painted, no one who hasn't been following your build would know that it's added detail, and that's the highest compliment you can get.

The only area that I see somewhat lacking in crisp detail is the engines. I'm quite sure you'll get them to look like these.



Looking forward to your next update.

Joel

Thanks! Glad to hear you've been enjoying it!

While the kit engines aren't near as detailed as the resin items in the MPM kits, I hope the missing details I added will bring them up to snuff. Here they're pretty much finished and ready for painting. The air intake pipes will be added later, of course (and more than likely replaced with metal tubing):

What a nice build to follow! Great work and great step by step explanations.

Thank you!
/Fredrik

Brilliant work, Eetu! Your judicious use of styrene is the mark of an expert. I'm thoroughly enjoying this post!

Thanks for the compliments! Good hear you're enjoying the build.

Painting of the props and engine parts underway:



I've also gotten started on the cockpit. So far I've added fuel control wheels (leftover Bf 109 trim wheels) to the left cockpit wall, detailed the control stick (resin yoke from MPM kit, lever is brass wire flattened at one end), and replaced the moulded-in details in the control column.


The Airfix kit comes with a blank instrument panel and one decal depicting only the six center instruments. While the center section of the IP being raised and angled is accurate, it's located too high. Also, I have no idea why the panel is left incomplete like that.


Time to cannibalize that MPM kit some more!
When the cement has dried, I'll drill out the backs of the instruments for the wiring.

Watching this build with a lot of interest Eetu. This kit's been on my wish list since it was announced.
Those bulged engine nacelles are very strange. Out of curiosity I just dug out my unbuilt old tool Mk.IV, and it has correct nacelles with no bulges. Did Airfix not think to check?

That's been puzzling me as well about this kit. The only explanation I can think of is that the designers based the nacelles on the Bolingbrokes restored in the UK, and then simply decided to call that part of the model done.
Now I don't know how the design process of model kits usually goes, but I'd think the use and comparison of multiple references would be norm.

Magnificent Eetu, the new instrument panel is fantastic,

Thanks! Now I'm looking for reference photos that would where the IP wiring goes. Not much luck yet, though. In general, there's surprisingly little cockpit photos of the Bleneheim around. At least there not a lot o really good ones.

Another thing about the instrument panel. The width of the kit part is good, being half of the cockpit inside width at the point where it's installed. The MPM photoetched panel is a little wider, but I decided to just live with it, since it can hardly be cut any narrower without cutting into the instruments themselves. I'm not certain which one is more correct, but I suspect the thickness of the Airfix cockpit sidewalls might play a part in the width of the panel.

Eetu! You really do have a thing for Blenheims !

Following this one with great interest, that Airfix kit is on my shortlist as well!



Magnus

For your information Montex have released a mask set and it will be available at A-to-Zee and Hannants. Speaking of the latter they have just re-released the Airwaves set for the Blenheim 1 for use with the Frog moulds, and finally, Pavla are releasing some upgrade sets which are mentioned elsewhere on this site

Eetu,
Both engines and props turned out exceeding well. Just the right amount of detail for 1/72 scale.

Nice start to the interior. The IP update is so much better then the kit supplied one.

Joel

How goes the build Eetu? My local shop finally got the Mk.IV's in today and I had to get one. Very impressive kit with some nice options. I was surprised that the kit included twin Vickers guns in the turret as I always believed that Brownings were fitted on the twin-mount.

thank you for your detaled story and nice photos!

It goes (or should I say went) quite nicely. I had the build on hold the rest of the year and it didn't progress at all until now. Busy with studies, the usual stuff. However, I managed to work like mad during the recent break week and got the model finished. I didn't update this build thread because at that time I was stuck with my slow mobile internet, the most bare-bones kind there is, that comes with my phone plan with no extra cost (average download speeds around 30 kilobytes per second). Shared over to my laptop, it was sufficient for the most basic stuff, but not really for anything picture-heavy.

So, the mk.IV kit doesn't include Brownings at all? Funny, I would thought it would have been reasonable to include such an option, even if they're not used in the particular marking options offered in the kit.
While searching for references for my build, I came across a mention of twin-Vickers turret armament. Unfortunately it's in a Polish publication, so I can't tell what the actual text says; there's drawings illustrating the turret weapons used: single Vickers K, twin-Vickers K, and twin-Brownings. I can't say my research has been all-encompassing since I've been concentating on the Finnish Air Force use of the Blenheim, but I can't off the top of my head remember seeing pictures of twin-mounted turret guns other than Brownings.
Thinking about it, cramming two drum-fed machine guns side-by-side in the already cramped turret would feel like a recipe for disaster when the time came to reload in a tight situation. Could they have been experimental or in limited use only? This article mentions the twin-Vickers, though.

So, the build. Here's some WIP pictures first. I'll make it more comprehensive for the actual build article then.


Seats ready for painting. The seatbelts are from the MPM kit I bought for the sole purpose cannibalizing parts from.


Cockpit interior painted. If I build another one in the future, I'll get rid of those big and ugly canopy half locators. I don't know Airfix decided to make them that hefty (and they don't even work that well, either); the locators along the vertical seam are wonderfully subtle and work great.



I sanded down the engine nacelles to get rid of the humped Bolingbroke appearance, then scribed in new surface details. Perhaps I could have sanded a little bit more, but I trying to meet a deadline and wanted to be absolutely sure not to accidentally sand through.


Front fuselage/cockpit module seams needed some styrene shims.


Ready for painting. Canopies masked. LHS was out of ready-made masks so I had to do it myself - took hours... The white fields on the wings are to make backgrounds for the troublesome, less-than opaque AML decals I used for the large Finnish Air Force wing insignias.


Standard RAF camo painted. Night black, RAF dark green, and RAF dark earth - all from Xtracrylix. Masking tape circles removed from wing insignia backgrounds.


...And ready for final assembly.