The Classic
Airframes Blenheim MkIV was used to build these two Canadian built
Bolingbrokes. This particular model was built for John Higginbotham
whose grandfather bought the original aircraft after WW2 and towed it to
their farm. Modifications done to the kit included cutting the
elevators free and repositioning them; cutting out the landing/taxi lights;
cutting out the navigation and formation lights and using clear plexiglas
for the light covers.
The aircraft serial numbers were produced on the
computer for both models and printed using a laserjet printer.
I did have
problems with crazing and cracking of the nose section of 10254 but thanks
to Jules B., I was able to finish the model. The prop blades had to be
shortened and recontoured as they were cast for a North American engine
instead of the Bristol engine which of course rotates counter-clockwise.
This was
the first Bolingbroke attempted and although there are some errors in it,
the finished product is not too bad. You can see the landing/taxi
lights here. Each section was removed individually leaving the wing
rib in between, then a light was added by first chucking some plastic rod
into my battery powered drill and cutting off a thin piece with a scalpel
held against the slowly turning plastic. This gave the cut-off the
look of a lens with a bulb in the centre.
The
Bolingbroke instrument panel and cockpit layout differs from the British
Blenheim in that the engine controls are in the centre console and the
engine instruments are to the right of the main panel over the tunnel into
the nose. Most of this work is hard to see once the fuselage is put
together but at least it is reasonably correct.
The
tear-drop shaped blister on the sides of the cockpit were prominent on the
coastal patrol Bolingbrokes and these were vacu-formed and applied with
Krystal Kleer. And if anyone is curious enough, the windows were
masked using a combination of Tamiya Masking Tape and Gunze Mr Mask liquid
masking. The leading edge de-icing boots were produced by using strips
of black decal.
I was pleased with both of the Bolingbrokes and I'm
looking forward to more classics from Classic Airframes.
