ok, so far i have managed to coat the kit in a good dose of tamiya spray can gloss coat and have began to add the after market decals. I still have a few more to add but i need to check my references as to how and where they are situated

Torsten and David. Really like what I am seeing guys.

Torsten, I'll take your word on the gap, you are seeing it real life!

David those AM decals do look nice and give it that well used look.

Sorry for the little delay of my weekly update but I attended a nice model show last weekend in Luxemburg, so no work on my Blenheim last week. But now I can show you some progress on it from this week. First of all, my "favourite" work - masking, masking, masking. Took me several evenings ....

.... yesterday I airbrushed Dark Earth 71323 from Vallejo. Here after the first coating ....

.... and after a few more layers it's opaque ....

.... this afternoon I started with Dark Green 71324 ....

I have to go over it again and again to get it also opaque. It's still a way to go but I hope to have finished the camo by the end of next week. There are no model shows for me until March 2020, so I have a bit more time for our great hobby.

Stay tuned!
Torsten

I cringe at all that masking. That is one part I hate about our hobby. The other is cleaning up tank road wheels...

Oh yes, cleaning and painting tank wheels is also a fun job, Peter ....
Here the wheels of my K9 from this summer. And it has only 6 road wheels per side, the Leopard has 7, which makes 28 parts just for the road wheels for both sides ....



Masking the Blenheim was nothing compared to the masking job of my K9 ....

Torsten

Hi folks!
Here comes my weekly update of the Blenheim. Painting Dark Green is done in another 3 evening sessions ....


.... but I noticed a difference in the Dark Earth tone of Vallejo compared to Revell, which I have used on various RAF bird, like the Hurricane, Defiant or Ventura. Here you can see the difference. I made the photo yesterday afternoon under cloudy daylight without artificial light. At left you see Revell 82 DE which is a bit more reddish, at right Vallejo 72323 DE which goes a bit into greenish. I personally think, Revell's DE looks more realistic. What is your opinion?

.... this morning I took the masks off the underside ....

There are a few touch ups to do, especially where paint went under the mask. But that's no big deal. Have already painted wheels, flaps and propellers. So there's still some work to do before this bird can cross the finish line.

Have fun!
Torsten

Hi mates,
highly impressive builds on the way I can see
I started my entry three days ago and completely forgot to post my starting picture
Here it is:

Just glued and painted a few...

(of the many ) parts.
Good luck for all of us, see you on New Years Eve

Oh, the good old "Nato Diesel". Haven't build one in years .... Good luck for your build, Peter!

I'm a bit further with my Blenheim than Peter and have assembled nearly all parts to it. Only the props, the top turret and the antenna are still missing ....


.... and fresh from the workbench this afternoon, everything is highly polished with Bodenglänzer ....

I'll start with the decals tomorrow and hope everything is done by next weekend.

Have fun!
Torsten

[quote]Oh, the good old "Nato Diesel". Haven't build one in years .... Good luck for your build, Peter!
[quote]

Thanks Torsten! Your Blenheim looks great already, good luck for the final stages!

Thanks Peter! Progress went well on my Blenheim in the past days. This will be my final update before the end of this build. All decals are on. There are not many stecils coming with the kit ....

.... part B34 is a little jig which helps to build the top turret ....

.... no glue to the jig, otherwise you'll experience a surprise ....


.... the finished turret ....

I wanted to finish the build today but when I had sprayed Matt Varnish from Vallejo all over the Blenheim and waited a few minutes to dry I noticed an ugly grey "dust" all over. I tried to correct it with a bit of Bodenglänzer but the dust didn't fade away. So I had no other choice but to gloss the aircraft again. Tomorrow I give it another try with Marabu Matt Varnish. Let's see how it works. I'll let you know.

Torsten

Looks great Torsten. Sorry to hear about the Vallejo. I have had the same issue so do not use that anymore.

Thanks Peter! The session today went really well. I bought a new glass of Marabu Matt Varnish and within 1 hour everything was done to my satisfaction. I will leave the model to dry overnight and peel off the masks tomorrow. Will show the result in a few days.

What Matt Varnish do you use for your models? I have tried a few like Revell, Gunze or Vallejo but it seems as if Marabu works best for me, though it has to be thinned with water or something similar. I use 1/3 window cleaner and 2/3 Matt Varnish. It does the job ....

Cockpit is ready, now I can starting mating the bigger parts

Somehow I totally missed this one. I have been hammering out ICM's brand new Dornier Do 217N1 which I have converted into and N2/R22. Some great work so far!

Torsten,
The paint on your Blenheim looks great! I would have said to go with the Finnish markings.

Gaz

Thanks Gary! In the end the Blenheim turned out really fine, except the fitting of the canopy, which is bad. I hope that Airfix fixes that in further releases. You mentioned the finnish markings. I hope that Airfix will give us a Mk.IV in quarterscale in not too far future and that will become a finnish one then for sure. But I can also build another Mk.I in Ilmavoimat dress.

On the other hand, I have here the Do 17 from ICM and when I visited the FiAF Museum in Tikkakoski last summer I guess you can imagine what I found in their souvenir shop ....

Torsten

Done!
Bristol Blenheim Mk. IF of No. 23 Sqn, RAF Wittering, England, February 1940




More and better photos soon in my Assembly Line Thread ....

Happy modelling and good luck for all your builds!
Torsten

Looks phantastic again! Congrats to another fine build, Torsten

Some progress with my Brit-Phantom

My contribution to this campaign

Excellent finish Tortsten. It looks fabulous. I use Gunze at the moment, but I apply it very thinly in coats after each has dried. Being mainly an armour modeller, the thin wash over the flat coat usually kills the satin finish. I had a bad experience with Dullcoat a few years back and swore off that. I found Vallejo separates too much leaving the spotty effect, or worse a white film around detail if you apply it in a heavier coat to prevent spotty finish.

I have experimented with Future and Tamiya Flat base, but can't seem to get the right balance.

Peter the Phantom is coming along nicely too.

Now one can recognise a Phantom...

This was a simple but frustrating build because while the part count is low, locating the gondolas is guess work. Even tho there are dimples that seem to indicate where the gondola struts should locate, none line up with those struts. The decals were also hard to put on and some did not settle down well.

Beautiful build, Steve!