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Pyro 1/48 Bristol Boxkite


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New year new project now that my contribution to the floatplanes GB is complete. My first GB and great fun it was, huge variety of flying boats and some excellent reults, so if you don't normally do GB's I can highly recommend them, I will certainly be doing more.

Anyway decided to go right back to the beginning and have a go at a Bristol Boxkite, the choices are a micro photo etch one in 1/72 (quite expensive too) or the ancient Pyro/Lindberg one in 1/48, I've gone for the latter.

The first problem is that picture on the box, the major wing ribs are underneath not on top, the model doesn't have any at all so this needs addressing. I think the first thing will be to sand the wings to remove all the ribs, I did consider replacing them entirely but the whole model would become very flimsy.

So here's what you get.

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More soon.

Considering using Bob's Buckles for the rigging, any one had experience of using them?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gosh, that is an old, old kit! 

First introduced by Inpact in the 1960s following the success of the film "The Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. 

The range included Bleriot XI, Martin-Handasyde, Deperdussin, Avro Biplane & Avro Triplane, they then released 4 inter war biplanes. 

Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Fury, Bristol  Bulldog and Fairey Flycatcher. 

 

It was a brave venture that failed, with the tooling going to Pyro in 1970.

Given their vintage the tooling is of remarkable quality! 

I built most of them, and still have a Hawker Fury to build!!

 

Good luck with the rigging....

Edited by 224 Peter
Typo...
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Those sprues look familiar, still the same plastic as the Inpact kit I built back in the 60s? I think I chose this one as it looked simple, just some wings and tail planes... Rigging? I think my Flycatcher lurks in the loft somewhere.

Edited by Teuchter
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I too remember building the 6  Magnificent Men machines in around 1968 - and very good they were too. I have never used turnbuckles on a model as i only build in God's Own Scale but if you go to ww1aircraftmodels.com you will find plenty of comments on Bob's Buckles there. From what others have written and from a fellow modeller they seem to be very good.

 

P

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  • 1 month later...

Still working on this. I removed all the ridge and furrow from the wings and then built back the framing positions with rod and filler, plus taped joints over each rib, still thinking about further shading.

40633781671_e66dfbd4bc_c.jpg

 

I assume the prop is one piece of wood, too early for laminate so had a go at wood effect. Never done this before so quietly pleased with the outcome.

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Rigging...aah...

The frames are very thin but need micro drilling frequently.

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And then fishing line threaded in and superglued.

25763115587_14d8ecf5ab_c.jpg

 

Lots more rigging to do, particularly as the two frames are added to the wings etc.

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The wood effect looks super, and on the cockpit too (which is nicely in focus in the background of that last shot :) ) I think they are still marvellous kits - I built the Lindberg/Bleriot re-pop Christmas 2017 and really enjoyed it, although looking at yours I could do with repainting the wood!

 

Regards,

Adrian 

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Nice start and as Adrian says, the wood effect is wonderful. I remember building this kit back in the 70s...well my dad did all the painting and I stuck it together...well sort of. It will be nice to see it given a proper build.

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Nice to see some more progress, lovely job on the wood effect. The corrections on the wing details will make a huge difference!

 

Ian

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  • 3 months later...

Work has continued on my Boxkite off and on but now the Botha is out the way I'd like to get it finished. Unfortunately I've hit a bit of a snag, the rear framework is so thin and flimsy it can't be rigged without distorting it and to be honest it was pretty warped anyway so I'm going to put this one to one side for a bit and think about how to remake the rear framing more robust. I found some bamboo skewers in the kitchen drawer the other day that I'm going to experiment with, it should be possible to shave them down to the correct profile and for them still to retain some rigidity... any other ideas let me know.

Here's where I am up to...

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A Spitfire would be so much easier!

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When I did mine, I used functional rigging to be able to pull any distortion of the struts and booms back into line.

 

Martian 👽

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1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

When I did mine, I used functional rigging to be able to pull any distortion of the struts and booms back into line.

 

Martian 👽

I was hoping to do the same, but the frames as so warped that i just don’t think that’s possible. Do you have any photos, would love to see some.

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Nice work!

 

Haven't used Bob's Buckles, but a local master modeler of early aircraft uses RB Production's 1/32 PE buckles to great effect! He claims they're well sized for 1/48 scale. He threads the turnbuckle onto the thread so he can carefully reposition the turnbuckle along the thread to get preferred alignment. 

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25 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Nice work!

 

Haven't used Bob's Buckles, but a local master modeler of early aircraft uses RB Production's 1/32 PE buckles to great effect! He claims they're well sized for 1/48 scale. He threads the turnbuckle onto the thread so he can carefully reposition the turnbuckle along the thread to get preferred alignment. 

Thought about Bobs Buckles but that would have pushed my patience too far, at some points there 6 rigging wires arriving at the same point! All drilled into a flimsy bit of plastic. I would need treatment after that!

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1 hour ago, bristol boy said:

I was hoping to do the same, but the frames as so warped that i just don’t think that’s possible. Do you have any photos, would love to see some.

I don't have any pictures. I would put some up but I'm not even sure where the model is stored. I think it might be at a friend's place.

I would love revisit this kit as it was 20 years ago that I built it and would like to see what I could do with it now.

 

Martian 👽

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I built this kit in the '70s  when it was initially issued by Inpact. Alas I no longer have it, but have the Pyro boxing version in my stash in the loft, along with the Avro Triplane and the Bleriot.

The wheels were issued as transparencies, so you had to paint the spokes on, but I have a set of etched brass after-market wheels for my second build made by Akia, or something like that. These are much more realistic and wonder if you have found any of these sets? 

 

It's also very worthwhile getting down to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden and taking detail photos of their Boxkite replica, built for "Those Magnificent Men" film. A second example is hanging in the Bristol City Hall.   

Edited by AMB
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5 minutes ago, AMB said:

I built this kit in the '70s  when it was initially issued by Inpact. Alas I no longer have it, but have the Pyro boxing version in my stash in the loft, along with the Avro Triplane and the Bleriot.

The wheels were issued as transparencies, so you had to paint the spokes on, but I have a set of etched brass after-market wheels for my second build made by Akia, or something like that. These are much more realistic and wonder if you have found any of these sets? 

 

It's also very worthwhile getting down to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden and taking detail photos of their Boxkite replica, built for "Those Magnificent Men" film. A second example is hanging in the Bristol City Hall.   

My kit has solid plastic wheels so plan to make some spoked replacements. I grew up in Bristol so the one in the museum is very familiar,

Neil

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22 hours ago, AMB said:

I built this kit in the '70s  when it was initially issued by Inpact. Alas I no longer have it, but have the Pyro boxing version in my stash in the loft, along with the Avro Triplane and the Bleriot.

The wheels were issued as transparencies, so you had to paint the spokes on, but I have a set of etched brass after-market wheels for my second build made by Akia, or something like that. These are much more realistic and wonder if you have found any of these sets? 

 

It's also very worthwhile getting down to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden and taking detail photos of their Boxkite replica, built for "Those Magnificent Men" film. A second example is hanging in the Bristol City Hall.   

I had heard that the Pyro/Life-Like kits were actually models based on the Film replicas rather than the originals. Whether this is true I can't comment.

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