[no4mkit]

(Originally posted on the UK forum while MHII was down)


Afterall, who can forget that opening scene?



And those memorable air battles pitting Spitfire IX's against Buchon's and Casa 2111's??



Well, knowing the possibilities of a set being produced by anyone was nil I struck out on this hair brained scheme well over a year ago and had hopes of finishing before the big BOB movie event at Dux last year. Somehow I forgot who was doing the work and how little free time his life alots!! :LOL: Well at long last it's done and I'm so relieved that I'm pushing 3am trying to finish up the photo's and get this post done! It has to be all the Testor's model glue I inhaled as a kid. :wacko:

It all started with the Buchon which actually took the longest to finish.





Then the He111/CASA 2111 idea hit, and thanks to a Lancaster engine donation from R2 the plan developed quite nicely (and surpisingly quickly)



And then I soon realized this simply had to be a 4 plane set, so I settled on the liveries of Squadron Leader Skipper's (Robert Shaw's) Spitfire, and Jamie's ("For God's sake Jamie, give your brain a chance") Hurricane from the opening scene in France.





So there you have it, the BOB Movie 4 plane set! :cool In the next post I can go into some details of the modifications since I know some of you guys love that stuff.

[no4mkit]

So here's a quick look at 'the making of' the BOB set.

The Buchon started life as Dragon's 'Yellow 7' Lemke Bf-109G (50524). Using an 'E' model would have been smarter, but at the time I was looking at Buchon drawings with standard Buchon rounded wingtips, and the fact the movie Buchon's had clipped wings didn't dawn on me until much later. So much for doing your homework!

So with 50524 stripped of all plastic parts the modification of the nose began.



Through filing and the use of metal filler and metal epoxy the basic Buchon nose profile began to take shape.



More filler and epoxy were used to build up the distinct Merlin bulges on the top of the Buchon's nose. These were a challenge! Another 'movie mod', the fake nose guns were added at this point using styrene rod.



With the hardest part of the modification over, the nose was drilled out for the prop bearing and painting and decaling began. The markings came from various Me-109 sheets, but the ficticious JG 418 badge was a custom job. The prop (Spit IX) and merlin exhausts are Aeroclub white metal, the prop having it's spinner tip flattened and drilled for that other movie mod making it look more Messerschmitt-like. The tailplane struts were another addition for the BOB movie and since I used a G rather than E '109 I added these with custom sheet styrene parts.

[no4mkit]

And now for the He111 to CASA 2111 conversion!

Compared to the Buchon this one was a peice of cake! After sourcing a very reasonably priced AA33706 the model was stripped of engines and most plastic parts.



The lower half of the Heinkel engines still protruding from the wings were cut away and the Lancaster engines cut to mate in their place. With the fit confirmed the Merlins were glued in place with metal epoxy.



Metal filler was applied to blend the joins and after masking it was off to the spray booth.



The BOB movie 'Heinkels' wore authentic BOB He-111 camo patterns...



One of the biggest challenges for the CASA model was the markings. After hours of scanning the BOB DVD I settled on the livery of the fictional KG637. After an exhaustive search of available 1/72 sheets, both online and flipping though decal books at the local hobby shop, I found a 1/48 Me110 sheet that fit the bill. As with the Buchon though, the unit badge was another custom job.
The props were shortened a few mm as the Lancaster blades seemed a bit long when mated to the model, so I made them closer to the blade length of the original Heinkel prop. Since I found nothing in the way of documentation of Merlin prop length on the CASA 2111, close enough would have to do.



As for the Spit and Hurricane, they're simply repaints of a Gemini Spit IX and Corgi Warbird Hurri. The challenge here was the decals again - the codes specifically. The serials are correct per the movie aircraft depicted and came from the Tally Ho RAF unit codes sheet. The problem was sourcing the white squadron and aircraft codes. The 'A's on the Spitfire were finally found in a 1/48 Mustang sheet after another exhaustive search just like the Heinkel decal hunt. The others were 'borrowed' from sheets in my own collection. 'Skipper's' kill marks are 1/300 Luftwaffe crosses and slightly oversize for the job but the best I could come up with from my inventory.

So that's the story! I'm taking a well-needed vacation now.

[Captain Eddie]

Very cool, no4mkit, always a pleasure to see your work in progress till completion.

Hardly needed, really, but, as always.........WELL DONE!

[11SQNLDR]

I totally agree with Captain Eddie - well done that man!! This is a brilliant display of workmanship & I really like the Buchon.

[flyXwire]

Originally Posted by Captain Eddie

Very cool, no4mkit, always a pleasure to see your work in progress till completion.

Hardly needed, really, but, as always.........WELL DONE!

I'll second that! That Spanish Bf-109 from BoB reminded me of a framed poster I use to own a long time ago given to me by a Japanese modeler.

You just keep on hitting the ball outa the park with these superbly done models, no4mkit!

[smartd]

Facinating pixs,... job incredibly well done.

[Tyler109]

Awesome work I'm very impressed!! I'd be all for a BoB set if someone made it

[JustPlaneNuttz]

Most impressive! By following along and understanding what you were altering, I actually got an insight to how much some of the aircraft used in the movie were different from the real thing! (It's been YEARS since I've seen BoB.) Previously, I just hadn't paid attention. FIRST-RATE!!!

JPN

[no4mkit]

Many thanks for the compliments guys - most appreciated.

JPN - yes, it was a learning process for me too. As I worked I kept going back to the movie to answer detail questions that kept popping up, especially when it came to researching the fake unit badges on the German aircraft. I spent countless hours reviewing the DVD to find a decent view of them (which are very rare and brief moments), pausing and making sketches.

On a side note, the 2 disc set of the movie is highly recommended if you don't have it already. The bonus material on disc 2 (including a long segment on the aircraft in the movie) is very interesting stuff, and it was a big help in my research.

Getting back to the models - the Buchon wings caught me off guard, because I used 3-view scale diagrams in the early stages of the mod, and much later found out the wings were clipped for the movie to look more like Me-109E wings. Still, I'm not sure if I had started with a E rather than G model '109 that the wings would look quite right, but at least I wouldn't have had to custom make the horizontal stabilizer struts! There were other challenges too, like boring out the hole for and hand making the bearing that would allow the Aeroclub white metal prop to spin, which it doesn't do all that freely but it does turn.

All in all it was a lot of fun and a unique experience relative to any of the other mods and repaints I've done.