Unkempt Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Well, it's official - I now have the inter-war civil aircraft bug, and next up is this little guy - Avis' 1/72nd Bristol Racer. 'What the heck is a 'Bristol Racer' I hear you cry? Well, wikipedia says The Bristol Type 72 Racer was a British racing monoplane designed by Wilfrid Thomas Reid and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, England. - and who am I to doubt them. More to the point, it looked like this: Who couldn't love that? Well, apparently the pilots who had to fly it because according to wiki it was terrible and scrapped just a couple of years after it was built. Still, it looks good, doesn't it? Anyway, thanks to Avis for making a kit of such an obscure piece of aviation history. Apparently they're only making 500 of these kits, but I've got one so let's hope I can actually finish it and make it look halfway decent when I do. As is traditional, here's the box: And here's the bits: Moulding is definitely short-run, but I've seen worse. Next time: The amazing invisible cockpit! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 I've one of these on my Christmas wish list, so I'll tag along. 2 hours ago, Unkempt said: Moulding is definitely short-run, but I've seen worse. It's half the fun. I've never seen a sprue shot of this a/c and looking at that cockpit hole, I'll not be worrying about the detail within it! I think as you build this, it would be a good idea to use something for scale as this looks tiny. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 LOVE it! Got one too, in spite of having built the ancient horrid vac kit of it long ago. It's such an unmistakable shape! AND red! Yes, Avis has to be congratulated on these releases (I also got other of their civil releases, the De Havilland DH60, Short S.1 Cockle and the Short S.4 Satellite, and have built their Crusader and Mig Utka), refreshing! As a racer, the Bristol reminds my of the dancing hippopotamus of Disney's "Fantasia" 😁. Glued to the screen to learn from this build. Cheers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 Erm, no, it does NOT look good! (if it looks right, it flies right!). But full credit to Avis, and for their Bristol M1.C and M1.D releases, the only 1:72 D I know of, and the only C since Pegasus' rather poor effort. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 I’m a big fan of the Bristol Company so I’ll follow along if I may. Tempted by the kit but I’ll see how you get on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 I've always thought the kit should have included a Gromit figure! Mike 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 18 hours ago, Moa said: Short S.1 Cockle Also on my Christmas list. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristol boy Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 Interesting, not seen one of these yet, I still have an old vacform awaiting its fate! Your build will be a useful reference should I ever get around to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 12, 2019 Author Share Posted July 12, 2019 OK, here we go. On 7/11/2019 at 10:40 AM, Courageous said: looking at that cockpit hole, I'll not be worrying about the detail within it! Oh yes - hence the 'invisible cockpit' I mentioned above. More on that later. Moa, mate, I've seen your builds - you're not going to learn anything from me. 22 hours ago, 72modeler said: I've always thought the kit should have included a Gromit figure! Mike He's a little beaten up and sadly not to scale, but... For a start, I think this is only kit I've seen where the fuselage is divided horizontally. I assume there's a moulding reason for this, but it works out fine for me. (Actually, way back there might have been an F14 that did that? Or something?) So, starting on the cockpit. Fairly simple; there's a forward bulkhead thingy with what looks like a moulded in instrument panel, a floor, a stick and a seat. It all fits together neatly enough. The bulkhead goes in the lower half and there's a smaller blanking bit behind the cockpit hole in the top half.I'm assuming all this stuff bar the stick and the panel is wood, for which I use Tamiya deck tan with this stuff over the top: It's actually an acrylic but it's got an oil-paint like consistency and it dries a lot faster. That gets us this: I've added a PE belt I had spare from something or other, but otherwise OOB. I painted the panel black. The floor is attached by sliding it through that bulkhead and gluing in place. This needed a bit of fettling to get it through the holes. Useful to try fitting the top half when you're adding that as you want the seat to be directly below the hole; I actually move it forward a couple of mm, but that may just be me misaligning something. Either way, as we said earlier you're not going to see a lot... Yes, it is in there, honest. With the flash: Look! A seat! I think if I was trying to smarten this up then I might look for a replacement seat; It's practically the only thing you can see once the fuselage is buttoned up. Next up: sticking that together and some front-end engine type gubbins. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 Good progress! and I am always learning or relearning. It looks so far like sound engineering, it will be seen as the build advances. Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 Nice wood effect - good job and thanks for the tip i've just done an Airfix Tornado where the fuselage is divided horizontally - I don't know why either but I guess you're right that the mold works better that way. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 13, 2019 Author Share Posted July 13, 2019 15 hours ago, CedB said: Nice wood effect - good job and thanks for the tip i've just done an Airfix Tornado where the fuselage is divided horizontally - I don't know why either but I guess you're right that the mold works better that way. I think that might actually be the one I'm thinking of; it would've been the old MRCA kit with the swing wing stuff. And looking around I can see that a few modern jet kits do it too, I suppose I just don't build any these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 13, 2019 Author Share Posted July 13, 2019 Meanwhile, back on topic: Fuselage together, seams dealt with and primed The real plane has a slight chequerboard surface detail on the fuselage - see this photo, for example. I'm going to attempt a bit of pre-shading to simulate that. No idea if it'll work but might as well give it a go. The rudder slots in the back. Not a great fit and I've got some filling and sanding to do there. Probably should have done that before the shading to be honest. And I've got one wing on and drying. It's a butt joint and I'll probably squirt some superglue in there to try and strengthen it up a bit. And now, the engine. On the sprue: Details are a bit soft and no doubt there's a resin replacement around somewhere, but once again you're not going to be able to see much of it when we're done so it'll do for me. The engine sits on that block, the cowling on the right goes over that and then the front end goes on top of that, so: It mostly fits, but there's a big ugly seam between the two cowling pieces and it's just a one piece thing in real life. Unfortunately getting rid of that will obliterate the exhaust detail on the top cowling bit so I'll have to redo that somehow. Anyway, getting started on that. Things should progress fairly rapidly now, especially since the postie brought me this 'get it done' incentive this morning: More soon. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 23 hours ago, Unkempt said: Things should progress fairly rapidly now, especially since the postie brought me this 'get it done' incentive this morning: More soon. Darn! so that's why there were none left when I went to order it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 On 7/13/2019 at 2:42 PM, Moa said: Darn! so that's why there were none left when I went to order it! A quick look in the box is very promising, I'd definitely recommend it. Love to see what you can do with it. These guys have it in stock if you're still looking. I'll have a proper update in an hour or two, I said I'd mow the lawn... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 (edited) I too have a Bristol racer in progress. lovely work btw. And yes even in 1/32 the interior is all but invisible. Edited July 16, 2019 by Marklo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 That Bristol must be the original ' egg plane' well before Hasegawa! 🙂 Looking forward to seeing the end result. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 Thanks guys. Yes, Marklo, I've seen your build, looking forward to seeing that finished. Proper update. The instructions for I think my last three updates look like this: which had me thinking Those rods in the middle aren't provided in the kit so I suppose I have to make them. Luckily I had some 0.8mm brass rod so I cut 11mm lengths of that. I filed the ends down and drilled a little ways into the front of the bulkhead to have somewhere to stick them They're now glued on there with superglue; it's a butt joint, so they all fell off at least once. I think they're on OK now though. I only did six rather than the eight in the instructions as the only way you'll be able to see these is through the wheel wells and there's absolutely no way you can see the bottom pair. Plus it's easier... I finished redoing the cowling. I got rid of the seam and drilled the exhausts out. In photos it looks like there's a very short pipe attached to each exhaust which presumably the detail I just sanded off represented but I don't have any pipe of a small enough diameter to represent it and I can't think of any other way of doing it so it'll just be holes on here. And so: Together at last. Let's have a look up through that wheel well: ...worth the effort. I guess? Hmm. Anyway. Nest up: The Reddening 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 You are doing a great job sorting out the rough spots on this one, well done! Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 Not illustrated in this update: - me deciding that the engine cowling wasn't on straight - breaking off the cowling that I'd superglued on - much filing & fettling to get i to fit like I wanted - breaking off all those brass rods I stuck on earlier - actually managing to lose two of them - deciding that four brass rods is a fine number for something only visible through the wheelwells - finally getting it back on how I wanted, after an enormous amount of sanding and filling and sanding, obviously. Illustrated in this update: It's red! I can see the end from here. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Very nice paint job 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Lovely job. Those interior and underside shots will be a big help with my build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 On 12/07/2019 at 22:18, Unkempt said: OK, here we go. Oh yes - hence the 'invisible cockpit' I mentioned above. More on that later. Moa, mate, I've seen your builds - you're not going to learn anything from me. He's a little beaten up and sadly not to scale, but... For a start, I think this is only kit I've seen where the fuselage is divided horizontally. I assume there's a moulding reason for this, but it works out fine for me. (Actually, way back there might have been an F14 that did that? Or something?) So, starting on the cockpit. Fairly simple; there's a forward bulkhead thingy with what looks like a moulded in instrument panel, a floor, a stick and a seat. It all fits together neatly enough. The bulkhead goes in the lower half and there's a smaller blanking bit behind the cockpit hole in the top half.I'm assuming all this stuff bar the stick and the panel is wood, for which I use Tamiya deck tan with this stuff over the top: It's actually an acrylic but it's got an oil-paint like consistency and it dries a lot faster. That gets us this: I've added a PE belt I had spare from something or other, but otherwise OOB. I painted the panel black. The floor is attached by sliding it through that bulkhead and gluing in place. This needed a bit of fettling to get it through the holes. Useful to try fitting the top half when you're adding that as you want the seat to be directly below the hole; I actually move it forward a couple of mm, but that may just be me misaligning something. Either way, as we said earlier you're not going to see a lot... Yes, it is in there, honest. With the flash: Look! A seat! I think if I was trying to smarten this up then I might look for a replacement seat; It's practically the only thing you can see once the fuselage is buttoned up. Next up: sticking that together and some front-end engine type gubbins. The Airfix vulcan divides like that. Most vulcan kits do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 ... and the transfers are on. Just the three per side. They went on very easily, which is a good thing as I was four Naragansetts into a six-pack when I decided to do them last night. However, if I had screwed them up, Avis thoughtfully provided duplicates of everything - three codes and four of the others. Nice of them. Still to go is this lot: Prop, spinner, wheels. Also a tiny bit of rigging and the windshield. And that'll be it. Maybe next update? We'll see. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Getting close! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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