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Novo 1/72 Bleriot XI - finished


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I picked this up for a fiver on Ebay. As with most of the kits I've built recently, I have no idea what I'm 1

doing, or how it will turn out - except that I'll do my best too not squash the damned thing.

WP_20151006_21_00_07_Pro1_zpsopcf11hw.jp

The plastic is more like the stuff Hornby & Peco make sleepers out of for their railway track - so I have no idea what glue works with this.

Looking at the few attempts at this kit on Flickr, the wooden frame is certainly a little thick, so one of my first tasks was to start filing it down a little. This was going well until one of the struts pinged off & got swallowed by the carpet monster, so at some point I'll have to replace that with something out of the spares box.

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The kit is certainly very basic & also fairly inaccurate - the number of struts making up the rear section of the fuselage doesn't match photos of the real thing - probably because they're so thick. I've decided to use Vallejo "aged white " for the fabric colour. Most pics of the real thing that I've seen show the shadow of the wing structure through the fabric, so I'm using revel reddish brown to mark out the frame inn the hope that it will show through the white without being too dark. So long as I can get it all together in a reasonably tidy fashion I reckon rigging it with ez-line will make look reasonably good, even if it isn't all that accurate.

after three short evenings here's where I've got to...

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I reckon it'll take about two weeks to complete using my ham-fisted methods.

Edited by andymoore
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Don't go by photos as to 'accuracy'; the Bleriot was hand built and no two were the same.

well that's useful to know. I did find reading about the channel flight fascinating - the man was absolutely nuts to attempt the crossing given the visibility on the day, but it seems he was desperate to win the £1,000 rather than go bust. Or maybe he was just mad !

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This kit is not even close to being accurate, I'm afraid. I ended up scratchbuilding mine and didn't use one single piece of the kit.

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Here's the full build log if you really want to see what you're in for....

http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2013.0

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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  • 3 weeks later...

A little progress this week - all there is left to do is the rigging on the wings, the entire tail section & the pilot. I've managed to lose his steering wheel - but that won't show when it's hanging from the ceiling.

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WP_20151031_17_00_37_Pro_zps6pazs0zt.jpg

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