At a recent PlayDay Kevin said "I've got something for you" and handed me a tin inside of which was an unmade kit of the Blenheim Mk.1, thanks Kevin. The kit appears to be a copy of a copy of a copy of the original Frog kit, which I'd built many years ago and is still in a box somewhere in Finnish markings, identified by it having the Finnish ski undercarriage option. Made in white plastic it has minimal parts and some flash, I'll replace some items with those left over from my made Airfix kit. There is no kit canopy but vacform options are in the box. I've decided to model the kit as one of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force Blenheims the Germans gave to the Croatians after invading Yugoslavia.
Nice to see it in a good home. Hope those vac canopies work out alright.
This should be interesting Chris.
All the glazing has been masked and painted with the Cockpit Green interior colour. The cockpit has minimal detail so to hide some of the 'see through to the tail' I made some more flooring/bulkhead using the Airfix Blenheim plans as reference. The wing tabs will represent the spar as this was visible in the real thing. I also carved a representation of the bomb aimers positon seat as the kit is missing this. Next up was working out which base would fit for the dorsal turret. As there's no kit glazing the kit base sits too low for the glazing I have and so a spare was sourced that the glazing fit followed by some carving out of thr fuselage halves to get it into position.
Another labour of love Chris.
Nice to see an old kit being given some much awaited TLC.
Will be great to see it in Croatian markings, not oft seen.
Good work Chris.
You seem to attract these difficult builds Chris - but you always make a good job of them. Good modelling skills 😊
Thanks Wizzel. The cockpit vacform canopies were made to convert the old Airfix Blenheim IV into a Mk.I and as supplied would have meant cutting parts away from this model to get them to fit. I went the other way and cut them out individually and trimmed to size, any gaps will be filled with PVA later.
Via Scalemates I tracked this kit down through it's logo. It's a product of the Donetsk Toy Plant, DZI, and is a 1980s copy of the 1979 Novo copy of the original Frog 1975. There are lots of other copies of copies out there too!!
Plenty to keep you going Chris.
The main canopy has taken a lot of work to get it something like, it's not perfect and will still require a bit more work. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that the port side glazing is angled, this isn't the case in the real aircraft. It's because of the recess Frog put in the fuselage to accept the wing, both of which required some carving and sanding to fit and even then I had to resort to CA to get them to hold. The model has been primed mostly with not-Halfords auto primer, so we'll see how that goes.
Getting there Chris, keep plugging away it's looking good so far.
There's a lot of variation in suggested colour schemes with some showing aircraft in the retained three tone upper camoflague of the ex Yugoslav Air Force whilst others show an overall dark green upper. I've gone with the one described for the decals so Vallejo Sky has been applied underneath with Vallejo Dark Brown and Dark Green uppers. The Vallejo green looked too bright so I resprayed with Tamiya RAF Dark Green. The wing tip undersides and the fuselage band are Vallejo RLM 04 Gelb. Removing the blue tack and tape masking showed that some touch ups are required.
Quote from: cph64 on December 04, 2025, 03:53:20 PMThe eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that the port side glazing is angled, this isn't the case in the real aircraft.
Well well well I never noticed yoho yoho yoho ;D ;D ;D ;D I expect you thought I would not, thats why you mentined it.
If any of the parts are in the correct postion or angle on my Sea Ork - then you know its by mistake ::) ::) ::) ::)
Nope, didn't notice that either.
Just caught up with this Chris.
Beginning to look very nice indeed. I always find the odd 'touch up' is needed no matter how careful I try to be.
Will look good in those Croatian markings.
The yellow fuselage band has taken a lot of work to get it to where I'm happy, I'll know next time to ensure that the lengths of masking tape overlap to stop any bleeding. The engines were removed from their temporary fix so I could fit the propellers. The accumulator ring and exhausts were first painted Gunmetal then a coat of Citadel Seraphim Sepia was applied. Whilst the rings are initially brass after use this 'fades' to a greyer colour and that's what I'm trying to achiev With those on and the undercarriage fitted it's starting to look more like n aircraft. Croatian Blenheims were fitted with German machine guns in the turret so a pair of these have been sourced and repaired.
Getting there Chris.
Flying soon ;) ;) ;)
Coming along nicely Chris.
I changed my mind re the fuselage band and made it narrower. Decals on and weathering powders used, I'll have to wait until after Christmas before I spray with satin varnish (Tracy's bought me a spray booth but don't tell anyone, lol!!!) as it's too damp to do the usual and spray outside. As such the masking will remain in place until then. Markings are the early Croatian type and are for 1941.
Looking very neat in those markings.
Roll on Christmas day so you try out the ssssh paintbooth.