The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

I made a start on the Blenheim today - no pics yet, but did some small things, like glueing the wings and tailplanes together, painting the interior bits and other sundry tasks.

Here's the box art I'm aiming to reproduce:




I'll take an enlarged image of this and Photoshop out the main aircraft, until I end up with something like this:



The Blenheim will be mounted on an acrylic rod, which will be attached to the base. The smaller aircraft will probably be 2D cutouts attached to the backdrop on fine wire.

Right off the bat I'm impressed with your Photoshop skills

Some good progress, helped by the fact that little of the interior will be seen! I painted the crew with sand coveralls, as depicted on the boxart. The prone bomb aimer is actually a German figure, as I couldn't find a suitable RAF type! The interior was left as per the box - little can be seen through the rather thick transparencies.





The fuselage was closed up - with just a little sanding required, as this early pressing fitted very well - and some Stone painted around the edges of the canopy area to aid in masking later. The idea is to lose as little of the surface detail as possible - the rivets are actually quite restrained, though I did sand them down a bit to minimise them.

The wings were a simple glue and fit, with some minimal sanding of the wing roots done after this photo was taken.....



I've cut away the bomb bay doors in preparation for fitting a simple bomb bay, from which a couple of 500lb bombs will dangle.

Simple but effective. Nice work

Great to see this one underway Paul.

This has been on the back burner over the past few weeks - as has most of my modelling, frankly - but I started work on the base today.

I bought an oval of wood at the local craft store and varnished it last week. This morning, I mixed up a batch of scenic groundwork powder, along with a little white glue (to prevent cracking), and some red, yellow and tan acrylic paints for colouring. Now, you'll notice the curving coastine on the boxart, and this was roughly drawn onto the wood. The plaster mix was spread over the base up to the coastline, and shaped as per the boxart - there's a small cliff/wadi area in the right foreground that is covered by the kit name on the boxart, but, trust me, it's there on the original painting.

The sea was painted with a medium blue, and is a fairly close match to the boxart, and this was covered with a coat of Future. A little playing around later and here's a rough mock-up:



And with the model:



The backdrop will be the top half of the boxart - I'll print this a little larger and longer on thin cardstock, rather than this paper mock-up. The background aircraft will not appear on the backdrop - I'll use 2D cutouts that will stand out from the backdrop.

That is simply fantastic. I'm loving this one. Keep up the great work.

Nice choice of base Paul. I've been really glad to see different shapes and ideas from everyone.

Paul what a great way of displaying it, clever man.

Cheers
Jim

Cheers, guys - I hope to finish the base htis weekend, and the model during the next week or so. Then I can pack it off to James.

Ugh - I've been having all sorts of trouble trying toget these finished......

But the model is now done, and the base only needs the backdrop - the ones I've printed have been either too small or too large, so I'll have another attempt tomorrow.

Here's where it's at:



The smoke is cotton bud tips, some plain, some soaked in paint. The bombs are dangling from fishing line, the prop blurs are printed from James' excellent file.

THAT IS SHARP!!!!!! Very impressive

Lovely detailing in that base Paul.

Thats great Paul , unfortunately i dont have access to printers and photoshop etc
so haven't been able to take part but im looking forward to seeing the displays in the flesh .

Cheers guys - I've just noticed a couple of minor things to do on the model.....

I'm hoping to get this in the mail to you tomorrow, James.....