1/72 Blackburn Firebrand Vacuform kit

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fastmongrel

1st Sergeant
4,527
3,623
May 28, 2009
Lancashire
I had never built a Vacform kit before I remember them as a kid and they were flimsy things that only vaguely looked like the aircraft pictured on the box. However I was browsing eBay and I spotted a Rareplanes firebrand for quite reasonable money and thought what the hell you have to try something different occasionally.

So a sheet of slightly yellowed Polystyrene, a white metal propeller and an A4 instruction sheet arrived, its a 40 year old model and it shows with raised panel lines and not a lot of interior detail.

This is going to be an OOB build "out of the bag" because it came in a Jiffy bag.

I forgot to take a photo of the kit before I started only remembering when I had cut out the fuselage sections not that this is a kit more of an aid to scratchbuilding. I outlined the parts with a 0.2mm black gel pen. Cut out the part till I had a 2mm rim around it then scraped with a Stanley knife blade till I could see the black line showing through the Styrene then changed to an assortment of tools, files, emery boards and so on. It was quite easy to pop out the setions I think the first fuselage half took me about 45 minutes but by the time I got to the wings I was flying about 15 minutesper part. I had everything chopped out in an afternoon though I needed to vacuum up the shavings and dust twice.







Amazingly the fuselage halves almost matched only a mm or so out on the length though the front which is supposed to be round to fit the Centaurus radial is a bit egg shaped. The wing photo shows the 2mm waste section parting off nicely.
 


Its starting to look like a plane but lots of shaving filing and cutting to go



I cut out the cockpit and built a roughish interior but you cant see much so its okay



My phone wouldnt focus on the centre section. Where the wing and fuselage go together there was a mahoosive gap which I had to fill with strips of 1mm Palstikard.



Non radial radial engine cowling fitted the fuselage is egg shaped horizontally and the cowling is some sort of pear shape I think. Lots of filing and filling required but it is starting to look okay and I am beginning to realise how big the Firebrand was, its the same size as my Polikarpov Pe-2 twin engine dive bomber and the forward vision must have been like driving a school bus from the back seat.
 
Fitted temporary U/C legs just to try and work out what length the proper scratch built ones need to be. I have ordered some Albion Alloys brass tubing to make the legs. I was just going to build them out of bits of sprue but decided to go swish and build something fancy.



Working on the canopy it's incredibly flimsy I think it will need several coats of varnish to beef it up a bit



Fitted some seatbelts

 
The undercarriage doors didn't look anything like the originals and I spent a while trying to file to fit till I thought blow this and scratched some out of plasticard. They look huge but the real things were huge.
 
As a FAA freak I'll watch your progress on this one with interest! I did a Firebrand years ago, Valom kit I think? the Firebrand didn't enjoy a reputation for prettiness but I think it's a lovely looking plane - I remember thinking it was a 1/72 model with the proportions of a 1/48 model. Sadly it was damaged then lost during my 10 years off and all that remains is the pics.

 

Looks like a Battleship and built like one. Unfortunately I think Battleships flew better.
 
An ambitious project, but you're doing a great job.
They may be basic, fiddly and sometimes tiresome, but I've seen some fantastic models built from vac-form kits.
 

I love those dark blue schemes too, as well as looking great, quick spray all over with Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue acrylic - boosh! None of that fiddly masking or camouflage painting or waiting for enamels to dry. I'm just finishing a Corsair in that scheme.
 
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