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Here we go again. Are you sitting comfortably? back in October at the Lincoln model show, I was taking a slow march around the tables in the company of @general melchett. Under one of the tables I spied a Revell Rotodyne box, the reissue one, up for a tenner. I'd wanted one for some time, so... Of course this won't be built as intended. But then you knew that didn't you? In one of the Star Wars films a sort of flying bus lands and out steps Ewan Mc Gregor. Hmmm A couple of years ago at the car boot I picked up a display type pod racer for a quid. Hmmm The disassembled pod racer. I've wanted to use the engines on something since I bought it. But, I thought they may not be space going engines, hence the pod racer use. All I needed was a suitable fuselage... How to disguise the fuselage source? Well, I had this 1/32nd P-38 nose piece.. So I sawed off the Rotodyne nose. A bit. The nose cone was slightly too narrow, so I sanded down the fuselage halves at the front to fit. But it was then under strain. So it also got sawn behind the door and card inserted . Much better. You can see here the start of trial fitting fairings, The main rotor fairing had to go, of course. These two black bits are ex SR-71. This will not be a bus, but a fast planet bound freighter. Sort of a much much faster DAF 7 1/2 tonner. Here I'm starting to fill in the windows. There's a 1mm card backing plate glued inside them. Filler has since been used. The card inserts seen here save filler and mean that when sanded I should get a fairly smooth finish. The rivets are going too! The fuselage half locating pins were hopeless. I've added card tabs like on a vacform for strength. And, just to prove that I do like the Aircraft. This hangs in the manshed. Rescued from a Calendar almost 40 years ago! The original is signed Hardy and dated 1984. A lovely picture IMHO. Obviously more is to come. I hope you were able to follow my ramblings and will return sometime soon. If only to try and make more sense of what I'm trying to do here. Given the weather, there could be an outdoor bar by then. Who ordered the cheeseburgers from the barbie? Comments and a more exotic cheese in the burgers are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Just had an e-mail from my LMS saying that the Rotodyne will be re-issued in the Vintage Classic range. Anyone else heard this? I would certainly welcome such a release as it fits nicely into my 1950's /60's civial aviation themed build

Hi guys, Fairey's oddball Rotodyne is all finished. I tried to build the type of model that possibly would have been seen at Fairey's trade shows. Adding the electric motors really presented no problems and gives a bit of realism to the model when it's powered up. I hope you all like this aeronautical trip down memory lane.

Lost British Projects aka Rikki Wolfe (link & link) - [email protected] - is to release very soon a 3D printed 1/48th Fairey Rotodyne kit . Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/695711033832473/permalink/2649776965092527/ V.P.

My first 'ready for inspection' on Britmodeller, this a model I started over the Christmas break and just about finished a few weeks ago (although there are still a few tweaks I could do to it): A Westland Rotodyne FA-1, i.e. the larger Rolls-Royce Tyne powered potential production variant, also previously called the Fairey Rotodyne 'Z'. I've chosen to model it as if it entered RAF service in the late 60s, perhaps to meet NATO Basic Military Requirement 4 (NMBR-4) of 1962 for a V-STOL Tactical Transport. I've designated it a 'C.1' on the basis that the RAF would have classified it as a fixed-wing aircraft, thus allowing me to use the fixed-wing tactical transport colour scheme of Dark Earth/Light Stone over black which I prefer to the then-current helicopter scheme of dark green and dark sea grey. I used the David Gibbings book on the Fairey Rotodyne as my main reference - most of the design follows the proposed plans for the FA-1, except that the wings are slightly stubbier and less tapered than that design. This was because the wings use parts from the Revell Transall C-160, which is also where the engines came from. The rest of the model is based on one-and-a-half of the Airfix kits (the half being an incomplete kit I bought on eBay!), with the fuselage suitably lengthened (the easy bit, using a section from the spare fuselage), and also made a scale foot wider (4mm plastic strip between the two halves) and taller (two 2mm strips, above and below the windows), to give the right size fuselage. The interior was also detailed with parts from the C-160, including hanging seats on the fuselage walls that obscured most of the view through the windows. The nacelles are a combination of the Revell ones melded into the Airfix parts at the rear. The rotor blades are suitably lengthened, and at the tips I've portrayed the nine-jet silencer system that was tested at White Waltham before the project was cancelled. I used the Airfix cockpit, although the plans for the FA-1 showed a slighter bigger cockpit. after loading trials in the early 70s for the then-new 105mm Light Gun and Forward-Control Landrover: and a few more photos here: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/TimV69/library/Models/Airfix%201-72%20Westland%20Rotodyne%20C1%20XS744?sort=3&page=1 Tim

These are a couple of builds which in terms of construction/modelling quality are not amongst, or even close to my best efforts (both fuselages opened up after painting and needed repair and repaint), but I loved the colour scheme and developing the back story behind it. The Story: In the early 1950s, SwissAir, the national carrier of Switzerland wanted to tap into the developing trend for luxury holidays amongst the richer Europeans and the desire for Skiing Holidays. They bought a Superfrighter to fly holidaymakers and their cars into Switzerland, bypassing the unpredictable tunnels and mountain passes; Plus the Fairey Rotodyne to take guests right from their originating airports right into the resorts in luxury, avoiding the need to use slow coach transfers from local airports. The new airline was called MooveAir, capitalising on people's vision of Swizerland and cows, as well as the play on words with aircraft and transportation. 1/72 Airfix Bristol Superfreighter 1/72 Airfix Fairey Rotodyne Not my favourite build by any means, but a unique aeroplane and at least I know what to watch out for the next time I build her. There will be more additions to the MooveAir fleet as time goes on