MPM 1/72 Blenheim Mk1/1F

[stillp]

The fuselage sides look better with a splash of paint on:

I'll do a bit of dry brushing on that switch panel later on.
I've also been working on the turret. There's an etch piece with the lower 'windows' in - you can see what it should look like here https://www.aircraftrestorationcompany.com/blenheim but I've had several tries to get the etch to stick to the clear moulding. Problem is that the clear part is tapered but the PE part wants to be a cylinder, so the etch pulls away at the upper edge. After several attempts, I think it's as good as it's going to get, but how am I going to mask and paint it? My solution is to mask the parts that remain clear, paint the whole turret Dark Earth, then mount the. I'll just have to arrange the camo so that the Dark Earth section covers the turret. turret so I can close up the fuselage.


I understand the Government are going to 'ask' all those over 70 to stay at home for 4 months, so I guess there'll be lots of modelling done!
Cheers
Pete

[stillp]

Thought I'd take a pic of the cockpit, this is the last we'll see of it for a while.

The fuselage is closed up, and has developed a step along the join, that I'm sure wasn't there when I dry fitted it. a few days of filling and sanding needed I think. :disappointed2:
Cheers
Pete

[scottie3158]

Pete,
Nice work.

[Guest]

I don't know about the Frog kit - it might be a copy. I don't know anything about MPM, or Cooperativa, the name on the instructions.

Cooperativa was a Russian subsidiary of Czech company, MPM. According to Scalemates, your Blenheim’s lineage goes back to the Frog kit from 1969.

[colin m]

That's a great improvement over standard Peter. Nice job.

[stillp]

Cockpit is closed up and I've started adding some of the bling:

It looks messy as I brushed some black primer on the check the fuselage seam. The canopy was a pretty awful fit so there's a lot of Mr Dissolved Putty around it.
There are a few more bits of etch that I probably won't fit, because they'll certainly get knocked off, and I can't see them on this photo from http://warbirdsnews.com/wp-content/u...uonetjarvi.jpg

That photo seems to show the prop blades as having white tips not the usual yellow, and also a white band on the lowered u/c doors. Can anyone confirm this?
Pete

[Guest]

Yellow seems to be an option for the propeller tips:

[ATTACH]377149[/ATTACH]

Though it’s a black and white photo, the tips are clearly darker than the white of the roundels, so most likely yellow.

Also, this one has clearly yellow tips:

[ATTACH]377150[/ATTACH]

Of course, none of this proves that the tips were never white

[stillp]

Thanks Jakko. I'll go with yellow, since the first deliveries of Blenheims to Finland were in standard RAF colours, so that probably applied to the props too. The apparent white stripe on the u/c doors must just be a trick of the light.
Pete

[stillp]

I've added the last bits of bling that I'm going to - there are several bits left on the fret, but they can stay on the fret. As well as being certain to get knocked off, the instructions are vague about how to fold them and where to place them. I did add these tiny bits on what I assume is an access hatch:

Oops! The part that looks like a locking lever has moved a bit. Have to try to fix that.
There were some PE spoke discs for the main wheels, which I fitted, but them decided the wheels looked better without, so took them off again. That left some cured CA behind - does anyone know how I can dissolve that without attacking the plastic?
Also added a couple more bits of plastic, the pitot and the venturi for the vacuum-operated instruments.

Next, at long last, some paint. Blenheims were delivered to the Finns in standard RAF colours, so I'm using my Hataka RAF paint set, along with the yellow underside wingtips and the band around the fuselage in Tamiya XF-4. Here's the plane with the Sky undersides done:

Another job that needed redoing was the props. I tried the opposite way round to my usual, so painted the blades black first followed my masking then painting the yellow tip. That didn't work very well, so left them in Dettol overnight to get the paint off then repainted them in the more usual sequence, tips first then masked for the black:

I used Tamiya tape for curves for a change.
More soon.
Pete

[colin m]

Prop tips. I've changed how I do these. I now spray yellow over black, this tones down the yellow quite nicely.

[stillp]

That's what I did Colin, but messed it up. I went the 'conventional way' the second time.
Pete

[stillp]

A few things in the real world have got in the way recently, but I managed to get the upper colours on:

Done freehand and a bit patchy, but it'll look alright under a matt coat. Next stage is to unmask the underside and build up the undercarriage, which didn't go so well:

Quite a few patches of the Sky lifted off when the masking was removed. Surprising, as I haven't had that problem before with Hataka acrylics. Maybe some contamination on the surface, although I did wipe it down with alcohol, I might have missed a few bits.
A bit of creepage onto the yellow band, but that'll be easy to deal with.

Off to do some touch-ups. :disappointed2:
Pete

[stillp]

Touchups (mostly) done, and she's got legs!

Also added the gun pack for the fighter version.
The props came out alright the second time:

Gloss coat later, then decals tomorrow! Then what am I going to do until April 6th?
Pete

[Steven000]

Nice progress Pete! :thumb2:
She looks good with some paint on
Steven

[Guest]

Such a shame about the paint lifting Pete, but she's looking good after the touch ups.

Not far off now by the looks of it, do you have anything else stashed away to keep you occupied?