From the S.O.D. 1/48 Classic Airframes Bristol Blenheim IV,Finished!!!

[Ohm-men]

Hi All. Now the Big heinkel is done and before grabbing the Fw 189, I decided to do another Shelf Of Doom project.
The Classic Airframes Bristol blenheim Mk. IV. as Airfix is releasing a new mould of this early RAF bomber soon, I want to get mine out of the way.

The kit was bought as "started, but complete" model ages ago for a song. I delved into it for a G.B. here only to find out that is had some damaged parts (turret, beond repair) and that I was way in over my head with other non modelling related stuff at the time + I managed to glue the wings at an odd uneven angle, so enough reasons to put this one on the S.O.D.

After checking some online references I found a 1/72 Owl decalsheet with a overall black Blenheim Mk IV F from 600Sq. which had it's turret removed for Night Fighting and Intruder missions.
Very interesting indeed!

The reviewer at Hyperscale stated that the 600Sq. Blenheim Mk IV F was flown by F/O Moore in 1939 and that Moore was later killed at the Battle of France.
This is however not the case. F/O More and his Gunner Lawrence isaacs were killed on the 10th of May near Waalhaven (Holland) during the Battle of the Low Lands. Flying a Bristol Blenheim Mk I F coded BQ-W after straffing a German occupied Dutch airfield. They were intercepted by Me 110's (on of them flown by the future "night fighter ace" Werner Streib")
Both men and another crew were listed as MIA only to be idendified in the early 80's as a result of research done by a Dutch air history enthousiast.
This mission was an extremely costly one for 600 Sq as from the 6 dispatched Blenheim's, only one returned to base heavely dammaged. One was crash landed in a Dutch moor and it's crew was able to escape to Dutch held possitions.

So I guess this Mk IV F. was a replacement for the earlier lost MK I F. bearing the same codes.

I have no idea on what actual pictures Owl have based these decals, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

I post some "in progress" pics later on as I did some work already.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool!

 

[Wurger]

 

[SANCER]

Hola Jerry
It will be an interesting project to follow, and will be fun to accompany you in the rescue of this ex-S.O.D.

Saludos

 

[Crimea_River]

Interesting subject.

 

[Ohm-men]

As prommesed some pics of the model. The first ones are of the cockpit, which I did last year.

And these are as the model stands now. After opening the box again, I realized that I build the Mk IV as a young teenager from the ancient Airfix model in 1/72nd scale. I had quiet some fun with it as I made my first diorama with it. A crash landed Blenheim, riddled with bullet holes (a red glowing compas needle made very convincing bullet holes back then...) I clearly remember the models surface decorated with loads of rivets. (as were most Airfix models back then) Though actual pictures of the real thing show quiet some rivets. I dedided to replicate these on the CA kit's surface using a rivet wheel.

These are the results (my excuses for the poor pics)

So this is where the model stands now. Next will be closing the turret opening and add some aluminum tape to simulate the covered opening.
I already managed to get the wings and tailplanes straight onto the fuselage. I also bought a new airbrush to accompany my Iwata. I found a rather cheap chinese copy of the Iwata (€ 30,-) including two heads 0.2 and 0.3 and the needles for these. I did not expect a lot of it, but to my surprise it works really good. Ofcourse it's far from the iwata airbrush, for it's price the copy can't be beaten. Though time will tell...

 

[Crimea_River]

Should turn out well.

 

[SANCER]

It looks very good that riveted, ... it's a relief to see it finished (I'm less than half of mine! ... )
It is a good progress so far.

Sigue así!!

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Nice work on the riveting. Been through all my Blenheim books and nothing on your aircraft. "British Military Aircraft Serials 1911 - 1979" just states the fact that its a Mk.IV

 

[buffnut453]

The book "Gentlemen in Blue" provides the history of 600 Sqn and includes at least one photo showing an overall black Blenheim with the turret removed. The code letters (MSG not red) are BQ-V with BQ-W visible on another aircraft in the background. I'll need to dig a little deeper to find serial number tie-ups (if they exist) but at least you have confirmation that turrets were removed and that code letters were MSG.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff.
I have a couple pf shots of the MkIV nose and cockpit, removed from the Duxford Blenheim, if you need some internal detail pics.

 

[Ohm-men]

Thanks for all your kind replies! I'm very interested in seeing an actual pic of the 600Sq Blenheim IV with their removed turrets.
Also shots from the cockpit/Nose section are most welcome too, thanks for offering!

I did a little bit of research for the actual "night black" shade and it turns out to be a hornets nest...
Though I found some usefull colour guide for the correct shade. I never knew the RAF did use that manny different shades of black for their nightfighters. Though since the Blenheim together with the defiant and the Hurricane were the first NF's, they had a very matt black finish that tended to progress to a dark mat black grey somewhat chalked look.

So a little more progress on the modem (and hopefully better pics.)
I covered the turret on the fuslage with plastic card cut with a compas cutter and filled some untwanted blemishes.
I think that the Classic Airframes Blenheim Mk IV has the best cockpit detail o.o.t.b. I have ever seen. The resin is so detailed, so I'm thinking of opening the sliding hood, if I can cut the sliding part out of the clear part, which are unfortunatly not as good as the cockpit detail imho.

Though, thats for the future of this build.

This is where the build stands now;

As you can see on the first pic, where the cockpit aft bulkhead is dry fittet, it has lots of detail. (I doubt the new Airfix kit will be better in this era)
Since there is rivett detail on the cockpit parts, I just had to try it as well on the fuselage. It's not perfect, but a good trial for a first time fully rivetted model try out. I think it adds intrest to the model as a whole.

I also took a a stab a pre-shading one underwing with the new Chinese Iwata copy airbrush. I did this straight out of the package without making any adjustments to the airbrush. So far I'm pleased with it. It is in no way as good as the Iwata, but decent enough and perfect for what I intend to use it for. It's not a carbon copy, so most parts are not interchangeble, though very close.

Next will be some rescribing for the lost detail after the sanding session as the turret insert part provided by CA was ill fitting and somewhat oversized.
Then I'll probably move on with the cockpit and hopefully be able to glue the two clear parts for the nose together without to much drama.
I have an older Montex Super mask set for the CA Blenheim Mk I. Even though the cockpit masks are of nu use for the Mk IV, the roundel masks etc... will prove very usefull.

 

[Ohm-men]

And this is what the " Air War Over Holland" site has to say about the early actions of 600 Sq

We already memorised the arrival of a British demo-party at Pernis. This was not the only contribution our new Allies would offer. In the morning of the 10th six Blenheim 1F fighter-cruisers [Manston airbase, No.600 squadron Auxiliary AF - SL James Wells] had been directed to Waalhaven. These planes were equipped with six machineguns [7.7 mm]. The planes left Manston at 1030 hours. They would never reach Waalhaven, for the Messerschmitt Bf-110's of 3/ZG1 [Cmdt: Oberleutnant Streib] would intercept the British planes over Pernis. Five of the six Blenheims were shot down; the sixth plane escaped with heavy damage. (*)


(*) Our source gives the following register:


(+) = KIA, (POW) = Prisoner of War, (e) = escaped from Holland by HMS Hereward
- BQ-R: S/L Wells (+), Cpl Kidd (+) and Sgt David (e) - crash Pernis
- BQ-L: P/O Anderson (+), LAc Hawkins (+) - crash Hoogvliet
- BQ-K: F/O Rowe (POW) and P/O Echelin (+) - crash Piershil
- BQ-N: P/O Haine (e) and P/O Kramer (e) - crash Herkingen
- BQ-W: P/O Moore (+) and Cpl Isaacs (+) - crash Waalhaven
- BQ-O: F/O Hayes and Cpl Holmes - returned to Manston

So, I'm still a bit confused. Owl's decal sheet seams to give a correct air frame number for their markings of BQ-W as a Mk IV.
But it seams that P/O Moore crashed with a Mk I coded BQ-W, so he probably never flew the Mk IV, unless (as stated on the 600 Sq's website, 600 Sq flew Blenheim Mk I F's and a few Blenheim Mk IV F) Though no source states if the Mk IV was operational with 600 Sq before they were reformed to a NF Sq after it's great losses on day time operations.

Also of intrest is to note that BQ-R flew with a 3 man crew, where the other Blenheim's flew with a 2 man crew. (though easy to explain as BQ-R was the commander's aircraft) Though as the reccord stands, all aircraft were MK I.F's. No Mk IV's are mentioned.

600sq was an Royal Auxiliary Air Force Squadron made up with Londeners. These men initially only trained during week-end, hence their "weekend-flyers" nickname during the early stages of WWII. Though during WWII these men proved to be quiet good at their job with a pretty incredible mission status.

I'm pretty sure that the MK IV had their turrets removed to save weight and have more speed for night intercepting german bombers. 600 Sq was also a pioneering Sq for early radar guided interceptions, another reason to increase speed, I guess. I also think that the gunner position proved quiete useless for intercepting, hence the removal of these turrets.

Ofcourse any insights, thoughts, etc... on these mathers are greatly appreciated!

 

[Airframes]

Some good progress.
Yes, the turrets would be removed to save weight, and when the early A.I 'radar' was fitted this was in the center section, with the WOP/AG acting as operator, making the turret redundant.
Note that at the time, 600 Sqn was Auxiliary Air Force the 'Royal' was added to the title post war, in recognition of the service provided by all the AAF Squadrons.
Here are the cockpit and nose pics from the Duxford Blenheim, in this and the following post.

 

[Airframes]

Next set of pics.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Just done a quick check in my references, and found the following.
The Squadron was equipped with the Blenheim Mk1F from January 1939 to February 1941, and also had the MkIVF from November 1939 to April 1940.
At the outbreak of war, day and night patrols were flown,and experiments with airborne radar began in December 1939. When the Germans invaded Holland, a few patrols were flown over the Low Countries but, due to the inadequacy of Blenheims (for daylight operations), the Squadron was allocated to night defence duties, only a few days later.
The Squadron also started to receive Beaufighter Mk1F aircraft for conversion training, in September 1940.
Representative codes and serials for the Blenheim are :- Mk1F, Serial No.L1251 ,BQ-Y, and MkIVF, P4846, BQ-W.
Information from 'The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth,1918-1988' By James J Halley, Air Britain.

 

[fubar57]

Looking good. I went through my Blenheim books again and found only one photo of an all black Mk.IVf though this one being from 68Sqn and couldn't see the turret area. The caption is interesting for you though..."....The overall Flat Black camouflage paint used by night fighters weathered rapidly especially around the wing leading edges and engine cowlings."