The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

I thought about a Battle Trainer but while researching, I ran across the Battle Turret Trainer - same sort of cockpit mod as the Battle Trainer plus a Bristol Type I single-gun turret behind. Not very elegant but I guess it worked.

I have a resin nose correction and the Aviation USK canopies. The turret on the FROG Blenheim I is a match. I have a few references.



I understand the Battle isn't one of Airfix' finest. The nose I'll fix, the rudder maybe, doubtful on much else.

The 2nd from the bottom is my target color scheme ...

Come on John...forget the Merlin...put on a Cyclone!



Jim

Interesting choice...looking forward to it

Now this is going to be interesting.

David

Yes, Jim, that was also an option, and I did just cut the engine off .... NO, this will go from a project to Project if I'm not careful ...

Anyway, I did remove the engine, the rudder, the 'tween cockpit decking, and started on trimming to front vac-canopy.
Next is fit & fuss over all this to get it to blend ...

Darn!, now I want to add a cyclone Battle to my collection!!.

Very cool choice John. Looking forward to this.

Very little progress; a busy week and a nasty "cold" which has me drugged up and not wanting to spend my days in plastic dust from sanding .... Still I think I have the replacement canopy/hump basically "fit" so I need to look at closing up the fuselage so I can reconstruct the rest of it to fit the turret. Not thinking real clearly ....

Trying to get healthy so I can be course marshal for a marathon this weekend in diving temps and maybe rain ....

Looked (& felt) a bit better after noon, so made some progress ....

Here's the fin/rudder mismatch; here's the rudder separated from the fin and over laid on the plan - quite a gap.



After fiddling around, I decided to fill the gap rather than make a new rudder ....

So here we are ....



I have used some plastic strip to fill out the rudder along the leading edge and will sand that to shape. Also shown is the resin nose removed from the pour sheet and squared off. The cockpit pieces are assembled and glued into the right half. The stabs are glued together as are the wings.

Motion matters ....

...in modeling and in marathons....

Good start, John.

I've been battling a bad cold for over a week - there's definitely a bad strain doing the rounds...

I glued the fuselage halves together and they're clamped & drying.
I continued shaping the rudder and took down much of the wing & stab rivet detail.
Did enough sanding to set off my coughing and figured that was enough for now.

A great leap forward ....



The resin nose is on, some filler, and a bit of sanding to flare it all in.
The broadened rudder is on; needs a bit of work at top front and bottom rear to smooth it out.
The fuselage center has been filled with a balsa block, roughly shaped and needs more work after it is well dry.
Then the rivet detail will be taken down a tad and drill a hole for the turret.

Progressing .... but not as fast as I would wish if I will finish by the 18th.

Good progress...Thinking about getting the turret installed and fabricating the fairing behind the cockpit...seems a little more complicated than it sounded at first.

Actually, the cockpit & fairing are easy as it appears to be close enough to the front cockpit of the 2-seat trainer for which I have a vac part. I probably should have prepared the turret hole before hand, but we'll see if I can gently do this ...

airjim wrote:Come on John...forget the Merlin...put on a Cyclone!



Jim

Now that's different