Bristol Blenheim Mk1V

[Tony Bennett]

smashing.

cant wait to see it flying.

[Lindsay Todd]

Me too Tony, a bit of a dream model this one but its a while off yet and to be honest I sometimes find the flying a bit of an anti-climax compared to the design and build stage. I guess it's that end of a project feeling. But then again I get to start something new after she has flown successfully. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

i prefer the build to the flying too.

[BOB GADD]

HI LINDSAY.

I have been watching this build for some time now.

This reminds me of watching the first Blenheim restoration at Duxford, I use to go and see it each weekend, when I was Working on the Catalina there.

Have you read Graham Warner's book 'The Forgotten Bomber'? it's well worth the read, it is all about the restoration.

BOB.

[Jeffrey Spring]

There is also a DVD of "The Forgotten Bomber" with lots of great aerial footage, including the crash. Apparently completely pilot error, which compounds the tragedy. If you read about the Blenheim crews early in the war, their courage is unbelievable. It was nothing to send a a squadron in to attack without fighter escort and have as many as 11 of the twelve shot down. And then they would send in another squadron.

Lindsay, your build is in many ways quite a tribute.

Regards,

Jeff

[Lindsay Todd]

Hi chaps, I've not read 'The Forgotten Bomber' yet, sounds like a worthwhile purchase, I do have a copy of Spirit of Britain First also by Graham Warner which also covers the restoration of the Duxford based aircraft. I have a couple of DVD's and a host of reference material. In fact since I started posting the amount of contacts offering information has been incredible including a chap from Toronto who sent me a DVD of photo's he had taken of a Blenheim in Canada, there must be hundreds of shots, most with a scale rule in shot. Such kindness is rare and I am truly grateful and only hope I can do the aircraft and some of the memories it seems to provoke justice with the model.

Some more build updates later. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

3 days to do the first panel, 3 hours to do the other, well nearly to the same position. Hope to get both up to the same level with the undercarriage blocks bonded in place and the leading edge and possibly a section of sheet at the trailing edge so I can look at checking the incidence before anything else gets to far ahead.

No need for spacers this time, much easier to mark out on the spar, temporarily fit the sub spars then set each rib with a set square a glue to the sub spars, as there are five of them it sets the geometry quite nicely and then the sub formers takes away the movement. Why did I not do this with the first wing? Good progress tonight though.

More soon. Linds

[Danny Fenton]

Really starting to look the business Linds. Nice one
Cheers
Danny

[cymaz]

Oh NICE....don't forget Lindsay - do you have to get it through that door behind you ?

Keep building like that and you might have to knock a wall down to get it out of the room

[Lindsay Todd]

Fortunately double patio doors on the other side Cymaz, amazed how many times I manage to hit them though!

[Lindsay Todd]

Just a quick update on progress, the undercarriage blocks have now been located and bonded in place. The rear spar tube has been cut down to the correct length so it buts up against the 4th rib on both sides, the underside trailing edges have been fitted to both panels, the first length of 6mm leading edge to one panel and the first couple of lengths of 2mm sheeting to the top wing starting from the trailing edge forward.

The sheeting can now be continued across the top surface of the wing, the I will check/set the incidence and then bond the tubes into the wings permanently. I might also temporarily fit the retracts to the bearers just to make sure all is good before I get too far on. Could not resist a shot out side since the weather was brighter today.

More soon. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

fantastic sir, just wow.

keep going.

[cymaz]

Well done, brilliant

Congratulations on getting out of the house to!

[Lindsay Todd]

A bit of an update since last time, mostly this week has been about getting the top 2mm balsa sheeting in place and some strategically place triangular section around the engine bulkheads and retract blocks.

With the top sheeting done I decided to measure up and locate the retracts into position in the nacelles, all be it temporary at this stage but did give me a chance to measure the location to make sure the build did not throw in any nasty surprises. The distance from the rear of the forward former to the front of the stub on the retract should be 41mm, I read 41.05 and 41.07 on the diital vernier, that's close enough I recon.

Simple job now of pilot drill and descent screws to fix. The twin oleo mounting assembly will be a block of aluminium with two holes to carry the oleos spaced at the correct distance, these will have slots and bolts to clamp the oleos securely. This block will mount onto the stub on the retract but that's a project for later.

I have also decided to order a longer main tube spar at 47 inches that will allow the outer panels to slot into place and effectively make the wing a 4 piece wing,the two inners including nacelles which can stay fixed to the fuz generally and the outer panels which can then be bolted on. In effect this means I have to drill some extra holes in the ribs for the outer panels pretty accurately as they also fix the dihedral geometry but hopefully that should not prove to difficult. More soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Progress has been a bit slow this week with work commitments but I have managed to get at least one important job done and that being the 6mm balsa top face to the nacelle hatches, these span between a couple of formers and form the natural split position for access into what will be the tank bay and throttle servo. The fiddly bit was getting the curve correct on the outside edge as this will also be a fixing and define the shape of the outer sheeting. A simple enough looking job but takes a little time to get it set right.

I have also added the 6mm square balsa supports that locate around the first two formers on the nacelle, these add strength and act as additional gluing area for the sheeting which is the next job.

I always find sheeting areas such as this rather fiddly but by making a card template first aligning with the centre line on the middle nacelle former and using the 6mm square supports as centre lines for the joints the first two sections of sheeting are now in place on one of the nacelles.

Having plenty of clamps is he way to go and each part has been soaked in warm water to assist bending, clamped whilst the water evaporates off then glue applied and re clamped to dry. Its a slow process but hopefully will get both nacelles top surfaces finished this weekend given the weather.

More soon. Linds

[Colin Leighfield]

Beautiful job Lindsay, I pay my respects. Seeing this take to the air for the first time will be a breathtaking experience.

[Cliff Bastow]

One word WOW.

Respect to you, what a stunning build

[Lindsay Todd]

Your very kind guys and certainly helps keep the motivation going.

Few updates from todays efforts starting with more sheeting around the nacelles, and also getting the top rear nacelle former in place. This is actually quite a key element as it dictates the strongest part of the curve so has to be accurately positioned or will look really odd later so it was out with the ruler to make sure the location was accurate before gluing in place. Once done I could crack on with the 2mm balsa sheeting to the sides and make a start around the top section aft of the tank bay hatch area.

Once the sheeting is trimmed back to the formers the rear will be made up from soft block and sanded to shape. I guess this bit is taking a while as I have two parts to do all the time at the moment and I am not a fan of cyno so waiting for aliphatic to dry can sometimes seems like years when your in the mood to crack on.

More soon. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

looking beautiful linds.

going to be a majestic sight in mid flight.

[Lindsay Todd]

Just one last picture to finish off the top of the nacelle general construction.

Well at least the weekends objective has been achieved. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

A bit more work done on the inner wing panels including the 6mm leading edge doublers and the first 50mm of 2mm sheeting on the underside of the wing panels. This will allow the leading edge to be shaped next in preperation for checking the incidence and fixing the phenoic tube into the wings using ply disks cut in half and bonded on the inside faces of the ribs. I'll do this in sections so that the tube can be cut to size each time so that I end up with everything staying in alignment.

Once the wing tube is fixed I can start looking at the inner flap linkages and the underside sheeting and lower nacelle structure, maybe look at the wing to fuselage fairing aswell. Loads to do yet. I also need to finally decide if I should bond the inner wings to the fuselage or keep them as removable items. If removable I need to decide on a fixing method that is suitably discreet. More soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

After much measuring and checking with incidence meters it was time to fix the main spar phenolic tube in place with a mix of epoxy and micro balloons filler. The Phenolic outer tube has now been cut into sections, a centre that is bonded into the fuselage and for now the inner wings. The ply disks were tack glued first then bonded permanently. I also added the additional leading edge 6mm sheet and 2mm underside sheeting back to the 2nd former of the nacelle, the whole leading edge was then sanded to profile.

Once dry it was time to get some work done to the underside of the nacelles. The first job was to add a connecting stringer, this showed up an error on the centre former, basically I had cut the curve 6mm undersize, can only think this was nothing more than my fault as the cut out for the string was missing and looks like I have struck the line of the curve from the underside face of were the stringer would run rather than the top, quick check on the plan seems to ratify this so a little balsa was added to make up the shape and top (or should I say bottom) stringers were added. These form the line at which point the wheel door will close too and add more strength for the sheeting.

2mm balsa sheeting was now added to the front section of the underside of the nacelles, There is a subtle curve along the nacelle as well as around so plenty of clamps and pins including a pre soak of the sheet is the way to go.

Whilst the glue is drying I decided to crack on with the inner flaps, to start with simply 2mm medium / hard balsa cut to size and a medium 6mm balsa leading edge added. This will be hinged in three places and have an internally mounted horn and drive rod linkage so that little lot needs to be sorted before any more sheeting can be done to the underside of the inner panels.

Run out of 2mm sheet now dohh!

more soon. Linds

[Tony Bennett]

looking fantastic sir.

a real pleasure to watch your work.

[Lindsay Todd]

Just a quick update on progress but a most important one as I managed to get the incidence checked today before finally bonding the rear spar tube phenolic outer into the fuselage. Using a pair of Robart incidence gauges which clamp or locate on the leading and trailing edge of the wing and tail plane you get a very accurate reading that tells you how good or bad the build has gone. I was looking for 1 degree positive on the main wing and the gauges by some fluke read 1.25 degrees, close enough for me.

I also checked the engine firewalls at the same time with a level and by some miracle they seem to be vertical and square as well; this model might actually stand a chance of flying. Since the scales were also on the bench I thought I would check the weight and she currently shows a tad over 8lb, not sure if that is good or bad yet but hopefully means we are on target for 25lb ish when finished. More soon Linds.

[Lindsay Todd]

Finally good to get some time back on the Blenheim project after a couple of weeks.

The top nacelles are now largely finished and have now had all the seems touched up with some light weight filler to make good. Having made a decision to run the main spar tube through into the outer panels there is no longer a need for the ply spar extensions so these have now been removed. This means the wing can actually be broken down into four separate panels for storage eventually if necessary although the plan is to leave the centre sections attached generally.

The inboard panels are secured to the fuselage by two M6 bolts that pass through the fuselage between the two spars pulling the wings tight. The bolts locate into some machine threaded inserts with large flanges that will be bonded to the inside facing rib, the bolt being accessed from within the fuselage bay.

For a while I have not been convinced with aspects of the glass house canopy, some new drawings and photo's helped highlight a couple of issues so I have now modified the structure again and now will put in writing that THIS IS THE LAST AND FINAL TIME I will review the glass house front! Not looking forward to the glazing yet either, in fact beginning to think a home made vac forming machine is the way to go and make up a blue foam mould, time will tell I guess.

I also decided it was time to make a start with the cockpit interior, lots and lots of work to do here, most of which will need to be done before much of the glazing happens so I made a start with the basic main instrument panel. This is made up of plasti-card laminates marked up and drilled for the main flight and engine instruments which I will scale from images and print onto gloss card and bond behind the panel. I'll build up the other elements around this key component over the next few weeks.

More soon. Linds