Bristol-Fairchild Bolingbroke Mk IVT by realworkingsailor - Kitbashed from Airfix Blenheim Mk IV - 1/72

[realworkingsailor]

For my next build, I've decided to take on a bit of a challenge (although, one starting with a reasonably simple kit).

 

The Bristol-Fairchild Bolingbroke was a Canadian licence built version of the Bristol Blenheim light bomber by Fairchild Aviation Canada. Originally conceived as a maritime reconnaissance and patrol aircraft, it went on to fulfill other roles, most notably in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Of the 626 built, over 450 were built as Bombing/Gunnery/Navigation trainers.

 

The Bolingbroke (or "Bolly") had numerous subtle features that set it apart from its nearly identical stablemate. As it was conceived as a maritime patrol airplane, provision was made for a 4th crew member, fulfilling the duties of the Radio Operator. To provide some light for his workstation, a window was added on the starboard side of the fuselage, just forward of the dorsal turret. As it was designed to operate in colder climates, it could be equipped with anti-icing boots on the wings, it also featured enlarged engine oil heaters. This last feature is only noticeable the starboard side engine nacelle as a beetle-backed hump. The port engine nacelle was enlarged in its entirety to accommodate a dingy, giving the Bolly a distinctly asymmetrical look when viewed from astern. On the Blenheim, the dingy had been stowed in a valise inside the fuselage, requiring the crew to wrestle it out, in the event of ditching. Most other changes were found inside the airplane, such as the instrumentation, although one Bolly was converted to a float plane.

 

Numerous Bolingbrokes survive in museums around the world. Many were sold to farmers after the war. Shorn of their wings, they found new purpose as storage sheds or chicken coops. Many would later find their way into salvage yards, where they remained for many years until local civics groups and enthusiasts "rediscovered" them.

 

Some basic history of the airplane can be found here, and some nice prototype photos can be found in this discussion thread here.

 

The Airfix 1/72 Bristol Blenheim IVF will serve as the basis for my build. 

 

 

Keeping it short and sweet, this kit comes in the usual packaging from Airfix. 

 

 

The plastic is the typical blue-grey fare from Airfix. As this is the Mk IVF variant of the Blenheim, there is an extra sprue with parts specific to that variant, in addition to the basic components for building a Mk IV bomber variant.

 

 

Pretty much bog-standard instructions and Cartograph decals are included in the kit.

 

As for extras, I've picked up a few odds and ends to help me with this build.

 

 

The Xtradecal set features lettering for Bolly 10103, in brilliant trainer yellow. I plan to build this version! I've also picked up the Eduard PE Blenheim interior set, as well as the Yahu models instrument panel. While it may seem odd that I've duplicated some things here, the Bolingbroke had duplicate instruments across the entire front of the cockpit. The extra parts should come in useful to model this feature. Finally, a necessary masking set, as this airplane features a ton of glazing, and I don't fancy masking that all by hand.

 

I've begun work on the external modifications, and I will be posting a build update soon. 

 

Andy

 

[Old Collingwood]

Airfix new molds  are very very good  - even down to the research  the company now does  before  releasing a kit.

 

OC.

[AJohnson]

Airfix are a world away from where they were in the 1960’s & 70’s, they now use lidar scanners of the real subjects for their templates, so combined with CAD and modern mould tech, you know it will be good. 
However some of the “old school” knowledge and research has lapsed with the passing of the old guard.
This kit is a case in point, Airfix used a Bolly as the scan template, so among other issues the shape of the engine fairings behind the nacelles is of the Bolly; more fulller and rounded than the Blenheim, so at least for this build that is a plus!  😁

Another example is their recent 1/72 Mosquito I did a build log on here a while back. Airfix used a post war Target Tug version for their template and faithfully recreated the target towing equipment at the end of the bomb bay and most heinous of all they also scanned and included the museum stands holding up the undercarriage so the tyres didn’t deflate. That lot all needs filling and or sanding off! 
All nit picking, “rivet counting” comments I know, but as Andy does with his builds, a little research can still pay off in these high tech times. 
 

[realworkingsailor]

Agreed! Although to give Airfix a little benefit of the doubt, it's perhaps possible that they couldn't get access/permission to scan the sole surviving Blenheim in Finland, and had to go with what they had. But the mistakes on the Mozzie.... 🙄

 

Time to crack on with the build!

 

Of course my first job has been to work on the modifications to the engine nacelles and fuselage. The latter was fairly straight forward. Although I could find no accurate drawings, I was able to locate the extra window reasonably well using photographs. I first scribed the panel line representing the window frame, before I drilled and filed the window.

 

 

A little bit of cleanup yet to do, but I'm fairly happy.

 

The engine nacelles were next. Both the port nacelle extension and the starboard hump were created using layers of 0.015" styrene sheet.

 

 

I started with the starboard side, as this seemed the simpler side to work with. The styrene has been sanded fair, but I think I need to make the hump on this side a little more prominent, so I will probably add one more layer of styrene over the whole thing, then fill and sand to shape.

 

The port nacelle extension was fabricated using three pieces of styrene sheet, cut roughly to shape.

 

 

It's still pretty rough looking, but some more filler and some careful sanding, and things should begin to look passable. To my eye, at least, the asymmetry is beginning to look somewhat correct for a wartime Bolly.

 

Thanks to everyone for looking in and your "likes"

 

Andy

[Dave_E]

I’m in! 🍿🥤

[Canute]

Interesting mods, Andy. Looking forward to this build.

[realworkingsailor]

Well, this is proving to be an..... interesting... build. 

 

Since my last post I have done a good bit of work. 

 

 

A bit more styrene and filler on the engine nacelles, followed by a coat of primer. I'm fairly happy with the way things are turning out. The primer has revealed a couple of obvious areas in need of further filling and sanding, but overall I think the modifications are looking ok.

 

Since the remaining work seems to be minimal I decided to press on with the first bits of assembly. The kit starts off with the aft fuselage, followed by the landing gear base and wing spar. 

 

 

I assembled about as much as I could, before giving everything a coat of interior green. So far so good, although the kit is definitely beginning to show its age. I think the mould halves are beginning to "bed in" as there are considerable mould seam lines on the edges of parts, in certain areas, that required a fair amount of sanding to clean up. The edges of the wing spars, for example, had a small ridge running down them that had to be removed.

 

 

I had quite a bit of fun with the green paint. Prior to assembling the aft fuselage halves, I fabricated and installed the windows glazing for the additional porthole. A little canopy glue to hold it in position was needed. 

 

The wing halves went together fairly reasonably, however a bit more tape and a few clamps were necessary than on other projects I've build. This seems to be a trend with this kit as I will discuss further on.

 

 

It took a fair degree of sanding and filing to get the fuselage and wings to sit correctly. Aside from being naturally snug, the fit was less than perfect. there is a small nub that has to sit ahead of the wing spare, in order to allow the front fuselage halves to sit properly. Getting that little nub in position required far more work than it should have. The lower wing halves needed filing to fit, and despite getting every other surface to line up as close as humanely possible, I am left with a very noticeable step in the sides of the bomb bay, as well as a very prominent join line.

 

 

Ugh... more work. Personally, I think this kit is over engineered. I understand that Airfix wanted to be able to produce both the Mk I and Mk IV Blenheims at a reasonable cost, but I think it would have been a better idea to mould two separate complete fuselages and design a better wing connection than trying this overly complicated, half-backsided approach. The fit here is, honestly, very poor. I am determined to see this build through to completion, regardless, and I hope things begin to improve from here. 

 

Thanks for all the kind comments and likes!

 

Andy

 

 

[AJohnson]

Andy you are making great progress. I have built this one a couple of time, once as a NF Mk.1 and then. Mk.IV the first was fine as the bomb bay was closed up for the gun pack, but as you have found my Mk.IV I did with open bomb bay and found the same issues. Lots of surgery and filler!  🤣

You are over the “hump” looking forward to seeing your Bolly take shape! 😀

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks Everyone! Work has slowly been progressing.

 

 I needed a bit of a break from the sanding and filing, so I started work on the cockpit. There are a few differences from the Blenheim.

In a Bolly, the throttle quadrant was on the pilot's right. Thankfully, Eduard includes a replacement for the cast on quadrant, so it was simply a matter of removing that moulding from the canopy half, and glueing the PE replacement on the right hand console.

 

 

The next noticeable difference was found in the instrument panel arrangement. The Blenheim featured a single set of instruments directly in front of the pilot. The Bolingbroke had a second set located below the right windshield. I used an appropriately sized strip of styrene to act as a backing, and used the PE instruments designated for the navigator's table to represent these.

 

 

Arguably, there should be two rows of gauges and dials, but this will do as a representation.

 

 

I left myself ample room for adjustment when fitting the greenhouse windows, but otherwise things fit well. 

 

 

For the navigator's instrument cluster, I used the panel that came with the Yahu IP set.

 

 

The cockpit was then partially assembled and dry fit to the fuselage. 

 

 

Ugh.. looks like yet more gaps! I'll see what more tweaking I can do before glueing things up and adding the greenhouse.

 

 

Speaking of which, doing some checking with the closed bomb bay door casting, it seemed the easiest course of action was to raise the middle section slightly with a piece of styrene, and sand that back down until the bomb bay piece fits properly. I do plan on having the bomb bay doors open, and a couple of "practice" bombs inside. I'm making a trainer Bolly, so I will need something to break up all that yellow!

 

The fun and games continue!

 

Andy

 

[king derelict]

Shame about the gaps but you are doing a terrific job of the cockpit 

Alan

[AJohnson]

On 1/31/2025 at 4:56 PM, king derelict said:

Shame about the gaps but you are doing a terrific job of the cockpit 

Alan

Agreed, the cockpit detail is outstanding in 1/72! 

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys, and all the "likes"!

 

After fettling the nose section on to the fuselage, I managed to get the gaps down to an agreeable (to me) minimum separation. I followed this up by adding the greenhouse thus fully enclosing the cockpit.

 

 

The fit was....ok. Not the greatest. It required some very careful use of styrene cement, and pressure applied just the right way to get it to sit. After setting, I began masking the windows, in preparation for paint and priming.

 

 

I used the Eduard masking set for this job. There were a couple of small gaps (what more gaps?!) where the angled step of the nose rises to the level of the bottom of the windscreen that I filled with a little canopy glue.

 

Afterwards I gave all the now masked glass a coat of interior green. This was followed by a full coating of primer. Finally I applied a thin layer of white.

 

 

Hopefully this will help with the yellow top coat. I'm using Vallejo acrylics, and I've noticed that the yellow doesn't cover very well. I'm hoping that this player of white will help with that.

 

 

So that's where things are at the moment. 

 

Thanks again for all the kind comments and likes!

 

Andy

[Canute]

Yellow always seems to be the most troublesome color to apply, followed by red. Your efforts will pay off soon, Andy.

[realworkingsailor]

First coat of yellow:

 

 

Not bad. A little blotchy, but the white seems to have done its job. 

 

 

I was prepared for far worse than this. A second coat should go a long ways to evening things out, otherwise I'm happy with progress so far.

 

Thanks for all the support and kind comments and "likes"!

 

Andy

 

 

[AJohnson]

Wow Andy, I struggle with prop tips and you doing a whole bird in it (yellow)  😆

[realworkingsailor]

On 2/8/2025 at 5:40 PM, AJohnson said:

Wow Andy, I struggle with prop tips and you doing a whole bird in it (yellow)  😆

 

Thanks Andrew! I think there's a very good reason I can't seem to find many models of trainers, yellow is definitely not for the faint hearted!

 

Well, two coats seems to have done it reasonably well enough! Some little tiny bits of touch up here and there, but nothing major!

 

 

She's a yellow bird!

 

(Can you tell me how to get......)

 

 

The second coat went a long way to smoothing out the variations in the first coat. 

 

 

I will be modelling this bird with the flaps down and bomb bay open, if only to add a little variety to the overall yellow paint scheme.

 

Thanks, as always, to all the kind comments and likes!

 

Andy

 

[AJohnson]

Well that came Real nice!  

[king derelict]

Very nice work with the yellow paint. It looks really even and unblemished. Congratulations. I hate using yellow or red.

alan

[realworkingsailor]

Good morning everyone! Time for another little update!

 

I've spent the last few days working on the engines and cowlings. For the most part the engines are ok, detail wise. 

 

 

I painted the air intake ducts (behind the engines) silver, as opposed to the black called for in the instructions. I dulled this down with some dry brushed  Humbrol gunmetal. The engines were painted black and the cylinder heads picked out in silver. I then dry brushed again with gunmetal to highlight the details and dull down the heads a bit.

 

 

More fit issues cropped up with the cowlings 🙄

 

Unlike for my Beaufighter build, I couldn't hide the gap under an exhaust pipe. I had to carefully fit a bit of 0.020" square styrene stock to fill the gaps and paint accordingly. It's far from perfect but it will do. The exhaust collector rings and pipes were first painted silver, then dry brushed black, followed by a dry brushing of Floquil rust. I'm planing on drilling out the ends of the oil cooler intakes to make them look a little better.

 

In the mean time, the engines have been mounted on the airplane.

 

 

 

Before prepping the plane for decals, I am aiming to also do some work on the bomb bay.

 

 

As of now I have the central bomb beam in place. I am planing on using the small bomblets included in the kit to represent a load of practice bombs. I'm currently hunting for any photos that may show how these were mounted. I'm thinking of just using the kit supplied exterior mounts and modifying them to fit. We shall see.

 

Thanks again for the kind comments and likes!

 

Andy

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks, as always, for all the "likes", everyone!

 

My main hurdle over the last couple of days has been figuring out the loading for practice bombs used in Bolingbrokes. I was able to establish that they were painted white, so that's a start, but I was unable to determine how exactly they were loaded in the bomb bay, and how many. I was able to find some pictures of the loadings used on Fairey Battles and other airplanes used for training, so I used a bit of modellers license to come up with something that sort of looks plausible.

 

 

The Airfix kit includes some small bomblets as well as a bracket that is meant to be attached to the fuselage behind the bomb bay (as on the model there is a gun pack in that space). I first cut the brackets in half, so that each would hold two bomblets in the bomb bay cells. I initially trialed just gluing these to the bomb bay, but the bombs seemed to be too far recessed. Looking at as many Bolingbroke prototype photos as I could find (especially photos of post war scrap piles of partially disassembled Bollys), it didn't look like there were any special modifications made to the roof of the bomb bay. Taking this as a hint, I then used the bomb rack that was included in the kit as part of the bomber variant, and mounted the half racks on those, before trial fitting in the bomb bay.

 

 

I was much more pleased with this look. The bomblets are not too recessed into the bomb bay, and I think it makes for a plausible load out.

 

 

Now glued in place, I think it will work well enough for me.

 

Once everything has had a chance to cure and dry, a coat of gloss and then on to lettering this yellow bird.

 

Thanks again for the support!

 

Andy

[Canute]

Your loadout is very plausible, Andy. Modern day training ordnance has a shackle in the widest point of the practice bomb, just like yours seem to do.  👍

[realworkingsailor]

8 hours ago, Canute said:

Your loadout is very plausible, Andy. Modern day training ordnance has a shackle in the widest point of the practice bomb, just like yours seem to do.  👍

Thanks Ken!

 

About the closest I could find online, image-wise, was this picture from the Australian War Memorial (image catalogued as being in public domain):

 

 

It depicts some practice bombs as loaded in an Avro Anson. I’m guessing a similar kind of set up was used in the Bolingbroke.

Judging by some of the photos taken of some salvaged Bollys at the Warplane Heritage Museum (if you scroll the the photo gallery), there doesn’t seem to be any kind of noticeable special modifications to handle any kind of practice ordinance. The only thing I can figure is they must have used off the shelf standard fittings.

 

Andy