The Bristol 'Bocage' Inter-War Light Bomber

As mentioned in a previous post, a recent game set in the Bristol 'bocage' prompted a Pendraken forum member to comment that this sounded like the name of a British Inter-War aeroplane. This set the old grey cells a whirring and after a bit of thought, I decided to somehow convert a suitable model into something with the right 'look'. So after quite a bit of searching I settled upon the German WWI 'heavy bomber' AEG G IV kit from Red Eagle Miniatures as the basis for my design.

A delay caused by Covid meant that there was a delay in receiving my order, which in the grand scheme of things is no big deal, but last week the kit finally arrived. The model itself is really rather nice but like all kits for this period, the big issue is getting the struts to fit, which even for a former pro-modelmaker such as myself, is a challenge. I had no plan on how I wanted the plane to look like, so simply settled upon assembling it in stages, making decisions as I went along.

The final result can be seen below. In the end all I did realy was to alter the wing and tail ends as well as the rather obvious monoplane design, to give it a developmental look common to many Inter-War designs. This was largely as a result of it being damned tricky to get the struts to fit, as I had planned on keeping it a bi-plane design. I actually loved the look of it with the engines mounted above the wing, so I simply added some additional supports to tie them to the wing itself, which I think looks rather nice.

 

The finished build which has about a 12cm wongspan.

I did toy with the idea of making an enclosed cockpit and or turrets, but actually preferred the open look as I felt it was more in keeping with the design.

A Pendraken Bristol FE2B for size comparison.

 

The next major decision is what camouflage scheme to give it as well as what markings to use. At this period the British bombers were rather dull with a dark green top and black undersides as they were intended for night time operations. I will have a trawl through my old Airfix magazines as they have a whole host of superb articles on aeroplanes of this period, to see if anything a little different was used.

As for other gaming related activities, things are beginning to look up as as the weather is improving and warming up (famous last words!) so I am able to enjoy my other hobbies, so i'm enjoying my 'wargaming time' much more, rather than that being the only show in town. More updates to follow soon, all being well. So until next time, stay safe!