lasermonkey Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) I received a couple of eBay purchases last night, both coming from the same seller. One was a bundle of decals and the other was a big pile of various parts, which I bought mainly as there were quite a few Aeroclub props and engines amongst the bits and bobs. What I found most intriguing were these: It's a huge number of beautifully made wooden cowlings, spinners, wheels and other parts. I haven't shown all the cowlings, but I estimate there must be several hundred in total. Some are marked (I can see Beaufort, Ensign, Warwick and Hastings amongst them) but most aren't. The photos don't really show how exquisite these are in the flesh. There's also a few vacform or plunge mould canopy formers, including a Bf 109, what looks like a Lincoln "bay window" and possibly a Bristol 138. According to the seller, these belonged to a professional model maker who had passed away. I can't help but wonder who he was and what these parts actually are. Are they masters for castings, or are they used on the models? The lots came from the Manchester area and many of the Aeroclub items have The Model Shop, Manchester price labels. If anyone has an inkling as to what exactly I have here, I'd love to hear it! Cheers, Mark. Edited October 4, 2019 by lasermonkey Swapped photo hosting. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Dammit! Photobucket have taken it upon themselves to blur all my photos and stick a bloomin' great watermark on all my photos. I need to find an alternative that will work on my ancient Mac (which rules out Flickr, which I can't even log into any more, SmugMug by default, Imgur which never worked with my Mac and Village Photos). Harrumph! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Just tried a different approach. I would be most grateful if someone could verify that the photos are appearing ok. Cheers, Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) Yes Mark, no problem my end. Those look a bit interesting, I'll be keen for someone to unravel the mystery, maybe ex Contrail? Their early stuff was quite crude. Steve. Edited October 5, 2019 by stevehnz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 @stevehnz thanks for confirming the photos! I did wonder about Contrail, as there are a few Contrail decal sheets amongst the pile and those long nacelles remind me of those found on old flying boats. I seem to remember that Contrail had a penchant for those. I'll probably use some of those nacelles to make moulds. I have an old Novo Beaufort that could really do with replacements. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Whats written on those wheels ? Tudor and Albamare ? Could that be The Avro Tudor and AW Albemarle ? Not enough room to write it ? What else you got with writing on ? How many questions ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 They would have to be casting masters. I bet John (ex-Aeroclub) @John Aerocould identify many of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilneBay Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Look like some form of casting masters to me also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Right, then! Amongst the cowlings are: Airspeed Ambassador Rock (sic- I assume that should be Roc) DC-3 Beaufort Beaufighter Argus Bu-59 R8 Waco Con (Constellation, I presume) Ensign Warwick FXXXVI (Fokker?) DC54 (C-54/DC-3?) Wirraway Hastings Avro 636 DC-6/7 Vought O3U-6 and amongst the wheels are: Albemarle Overstrand Vulcan (Vickers airliner) Gipsy Moth (I think this may be 1/48) DH 51 (also 1/48) York Botha Tudor Wessex (airliner) Certainly not the usual suspects! Cheers, Mark. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Pictures are nice and clear, up here, on the Backside of Beyond. A most interesting collection. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I wonder if they are for solid models? For someone who knew what they were doing rustling up a whole pile of turned details would only be a few days work. These might even be spares or rejects? If they were masters for (say) vacforming I would expect an engineered split so the two halves could be separated. If masters for injection moulding they would (usually) be to a larger scale and then pantographed down when cutting the mould. Possibly for softmetal casting, though all I've read is that masters for whitemetal are usually in brass, I thought because of the heat (nowadays there are room-temperature vulcanising rubbers, maybe they can't cope with repeated heating for the metal casting?) when creating the rubber mould. Anyway, interesting to see these parts. Notably all the types you've identified effectively predate the appearance of Airfix kits. In the old books of solid modelling it appears that scratching the Overstrand (in your list) and the Southampton would be marks of the true believer! Cheers Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 The most striking are Towdent rings inside big box of cowlings. How difficult was to made them due to structure of wood and their small thickness. If they are forms for vacu should be a bit too small (by the thickness of plastic sheet). Maybe 14C AMS dating to know how old they are? Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 9 minutes ago, JWM said: Towdent rings PMFJI but what are Towdent rings, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 5 minutes ago, bhouse said: PMFJI but what are Towdent rings, please? Apologize for misspelling: should be Townend ring... J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Thanks - that makes much more sense 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 1 hour ago, malpaso said: masters for (say) vacforming (?) masters for injection moulding (?) (masters for) softmetal casting (?) Probably for resin casting but they do not yet have the support structures associated with this sort of casting procedure. Maybe @lasermonkey should go into business (:>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viscount806x Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Very interesting load of bits there. Did you have to 'fight' hard for them? I know that Aeroclub parts are quite difficult to nail in an auction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 @viscount806x the two lots were both Buy It Now listings and possibly because they were listed later in the day, I got there first. They were priced low enough that I thought it was worth taking a punt on the Aeroclub stuff, as it wasn't particularly obvious what exactly I might be getting. As it is, there's certainly enough in there that I can use and I will be listing the remainder on my for sale thread later. I'll do the same with the decal sheets that I either already have or aren't subjects of interest to me. I guess the next thing is what to do with these wooden parts. I might keep a few bits that I could possibly use for my own projects but I don't realistically have any use for them. They are lovely objects in themselves, but I can't help think that they should be used for their intended purpose, whatever that may be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brown Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 The third picture down is a little disturbing. If they're quite small I'd say cowlings etc, but if about 6-9" long I think I'd off load them a bit quick.... Rick. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 12 hours ago, lasermonkey said: FXXXVI (Fokker?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_F.XXXVI I've googled for any trace of model of it and have not found... So maybe it is for all-wood model builders as a kind of "after market" part rather then any limited mass production (resin/vacu) form? J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Aero Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 A most interesting purchase. The wood appears to be Box, Lime or Beech . I don't think that they are masters but that they are turned up for particular models probably solids, by someone quite skilled with a wood lathe. They remind me of the stuff that the late W.O.Doylend used to make for his beautiful solids. His book Aircraft in Miniature (not to be confused with a modern company) is one of my treasured possessions. He was a customer of mine many years ago but I seem to recall he lived then in the south. Turned hardwood, wooden parts also featured in a number of balsa "Solid" model kits in the early 1940's so equally they might be old stock from such a company, when I get time I'll try and look through Aeromodeller for any Manchester based model kit manufacturers. John 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 These are the Aeroclub bits that I bought the lot for: I haven't included some of the duplicates. For instance, there's an awful lot of the EP010 Jupiter VIII & prop sets. I just need to sort through everything and set aside what I think I will use. Cheers, Mark. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Aero Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Mark I'd start a shop, you've got more than I have. John 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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