1957 - Fairey Rotodyne -Like the real thing, xxx 'Cancelled' xxx

[Ray S]

Hello all. Well, this old codger was born in 1957, and the subject I have decided on is the venerable Airfix Fairey Rotodyne. I intend to build it fairly Out-of-the-box, but with a more interesting colour scheme than it had worn in real life. Mr @Rabbit Leader  has given me permission to do this (thanks Guv!).

 

One thing I must say is that one thread from last year's Airfix:the Golden Years GB has given me loads of inspiration:

 

 

@Heather Kay, If I may, I will borrow some of your ideas on how to improve the model (but not all!).

 

Anyway, here is what the box and contents look like:

 

 

As you can see, it is a rather battered box, and brought to life by the 'Beatties £5.97' sticker on it. Beatties was a place I never got too. The contents of the box were a bit mixed up and separated in many cases:

 

 

Quite a few bits have come off the runners (some were still in the bag when I photographed this), but on the whole it looks quite well moulded with very little in the way of flash. It is a grey plastic, rather than the streaky silvery grey from when I last built one, in 1981.

 

Next up is a shot of the transfers (which will be unused) alongside the inspiration for the colour scheme:

 

 

Yes, I know it is not a Rotodyne, but the scheme should be transferable onto the much sleeker Rotodyne. Whether I put 'Empire Test Pilots School' on or not will be decided later. I have been modelling since about 1964/5, and it is only recently that I discovered they 'joys' of masking, and am no longer in terror of it, so this should hopefully be less daunting. I have also only just bought a scriber, so am in two minds as to whether to keep the retro feel and retain the rivets, or remove them and do some heavy duty scribing for the first time (I have dabbled with a sharp needle for scribing but did not get very far).

 

The main thing about this build is that the Rotodyne took the maiden flight on November 6th, 1957. What a fabulous year that was, for two reasons...

 

All the best, and cannot wait to get started on this one.

 

Ray

[Heather Kay]

Borrow away! I shall look forward to seeing this come together. 

[Ray S]

11 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

Borrow away! I shall look forward to seeing this come together. 

Thanks Heather!

 

Ray

[Hockeyboy76]

This looks like a great little project.

 Not much left of the Test Pilots Andover. IIRC it was cut up at Boscombe Down and the front fuse and cockpit used and transported by JARTS for crash exercises. Moved it a few times myself. 

I did recall correctly!

Found them, this was on way back from a crash ex at Brawdy 

And this was what they have done to one of the runways at Cottesmore, painted a full motorway on it. This was a major exercise for Civilian rescue services, but the Army didn’t have a forklift or crane bid enough to remove the fuse, so pretend the trailers not there!

Edited August 1, 2019 by Hockeyboy76

[Colin W]

Ahh the nostalgia. 

There were 2 Beatties selling models in my youth. A department store chain from Wolverhampton which had a branch in Dudley where I actually bought most of my kits. There was also a large chain of proper model shops called Beatties, the nearest of which was in the Bull Ring centre in Birmingham. This was really upmarket as they stocked Tamiya. 

Both chains seemed to disappear in the 1980's.

The department store owner died and the model shops moved into computer games then went bust. I'm not sure which your Rotodyne came from but appropriate either way. 

 

Colin 

[Hockeyboy76]

13 minutes ago, Colin W said:

Ahh the nostalgia. 

There were 2 Beatties selling models in my youth. A department store chain from Wolverhampton which had a branch in Dudley where I actually bought most of my kits. There was also a large chain of proper model shops called Beatties, the nearest of which was in the Bull Ring centre in Birmingham. This was really upmarket as they stocked Tamiya. 

Both chains seemed to disappear in the 1980's.

The department store owner died and the model shops moved into computer games then went bust. I'm not sure which your Rotodyne came from but appropriate either way. 

 

Colin 

I spent quite a few hours in the Beatties in Wolverhampton as a sprog. 

[Rabbit Leader]

Great to see this WIP thread started and I do most approve of your scheme of choice. This should be another one to watch and just emphasises the diverse range of kits that can be modelled within this GB. 

 

Cheers and warm welcome.. Dave 

[spitfire]

This strangely interests me as I bought an Airfix Rotodyne when I was a sprog on holiday in North Wales, this was in the days when the kit was bought and built straight away, no paint involved. However sadly I never got to build it as a fuselage half was missing, so it will be interesting to watch the build.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[PeterB]

On 8/1/2019 at 3:52 PM, Colin W said:

Ahh the nostalgia. 

There were 2 Beatties selling models in my youth. A department store chain from Wolverhampton which had a branch in Dudley where I actually bought most of my kits. There was also a large chain of proper model shops called Beatties, the nearest of which was in the Bull Ring centre in Birmingham. This was really upmarket as they stocked Tamiya. 

Both chains seemed to disappear in the 1980's.

The department store owner died and the model shops moved into computer games then went bust. I'm not sure which your Rotodyne came from but appropriate either way. 

 

Colin 

The sticker matches items I bought from the Beatties store in Cardiff and yes, they were a great loss. I am probably wrong but I seem to recall they had something to do with Richard Kohnstam who imported of many different "foreign" models and things like Lima trains and also the owner of the Riko brand.

 

Later, Wiki confirms Kohnstam bought it from the original owner - Beattie- who had a couple of stores in the London Area. I think that his company must have sold the business on at some point (I believe he died and they shut down his various businesses) and the new owner put it into administration in 2001 according to Wiki.

Edited August 3, 2019 by PeterB

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

I am afraid this one is going to have to wait for a while to be done, other things have cropped up which need doing first.

 

I am sorry about this!

 

Ray

[Rabbit Leader]

15 hours ago, Ray S said:

Hello all!

I am afraid this one is going to have to wait for a while to be done, other things have cropped up which need doing first.

I am sorry about this!

Ray

That's OK Ray, it happens to all of us (including GB hosts?) so thanks for letting us know well in advance. 

Make sure you post it on here as an RFI, whenever she gets built. 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

[Ray S]

6 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

That's OK Ray, it happens to all of us (including GB hosts?) so thanks for letting us know well in advance. 

Make sure you post it on here as an RFI, whenever she gets built. 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

Will do, I still intend to do it in Raspberry Ripple colours and will definitely post it when done!

 

Thanks for being understanding,

 

Ray