Uncle Pete Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) I've not been able to build anything for a while having moved house in the Summer from London to Flintshire but finally managed to get a workshop set up in the spare bedroom. I stumbled upon Revell's Wright Flyer in a bits and bobs shop in Mold, paid far too much for it (don't ask) and took it to my new home in anticipation of a relatively easy build. How wrong could I be? This was an absolute ig-pay to put together! I'd looked at the plans and the parts and thought, I can handle this, I'll have a look at the Britmodeller site and see if anybody's done it so I can pick up a tip or two. Right now I have to give many, many thanks to Bengalensis who put his excellent build on the forum abut 5 years ago and without who's help mine would have been in the bin after the first few sessions at the bench. As I looked through his procedure and the way it varied from the instructions I saw the logic of his process and decided shamelessly to copy as much as I could. With a confident cry of "Onward and upward!" I donned the magic glasses... When I got this far... ... I began to suspect a phone call had been made... ...but I soldiered on. I've never tried to rig a biplane before but I thought, this is a big scale, 1:39 (Excuse me? 1:WHAT??? What kind of wacked out scale is 1:39?) so how hard can it be? By the time I got this far I'd stretched my vocabulary, honed over 40 years in the music business, 20 of them at sea, to the limit and the cats were wearing earmuffs lest they die from shock. Fortunately the missus is a working class lass from Liverpool so she was unaffected... I couldn't make head nor tail of a lot of the rigging despite having several pictures and diagrams available at my googletips and the excellent pictures on Bengalensis' build so my attempt went progressively from "I wanna rig this right on the nose" to "Let's get it really close" to "Maybe I can get it reasonably convincing" finally settling at "Well, it's near enough for rock n roll". All in all it's the hardest build I've attempted to date but I think it can get through the "Two Metre Test", even with clean glasses. I've never attempted any sort of diorama work before either so I used a bit of hardboard for the base figuring it was a decent facsimile of sand colour and did a bit of Jackson Pollock to mucky it up. Here she is, all done and dusted. Wilbur came out looking like my dad, although I can't picture the old boy running with so much energy. I think the last time dad ran at all would have been in RAF boot camp in 1940. I'd thought a successful engineer and businessman like ol' Willie would have worn a watch but when I considered my chances of painting a fine chain across his waistcoat I decided he just kept it loose in his trouser pocket. And is it my imagination or does Orville bear more than a passing resemblance to Super Mario? That moustache gave me a lot of headaches and went to the point of "Stop, Pete, before you make it even worse!" I know it won't win any prizes at the model shows but I'm betting it's the best Wright Flyer on my street, if not all of Buckley. There are four kits waiting for me in the shed including the new(ish) Airfix Wimpy that's supposed to be the cat's pajamas but the workshop has to get removed from the guest bedroom for a couple of weeks in anticipation of a visit from my sister so you're all spared from viewing more of my bodging a little longer. A table cluttered with paints, glues and the other various accoutrements of plastic sticking is not the sort of thing an old lady likes to see in the morning before she's had the first cup of tea. Cheers, lads, as usual I hope the prose gave you more to laugh at than the pictures. Edited October 22, 2019 by Uncle Pete 42 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo Aero Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Looks great! I enjoyed reading your description of the challenges you overcame, laughed out loud at the thought of your cats wearing headphones. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Nice work! I built one of those when it was first released, and it's still a favorite. I have an unbuilt one stashed away somewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) 8 hours ago, Uncle Pete said: I've never tried to rig a biplane before Brave or stupid, you've done a good job and with it's base, puts into context. Now you can empty your 'Swear Jar' and buy yourself another 'bargain' . Stuart Edited October 22, 2019 by Courageous 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinnie Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Amazing perseverance too finish up with such a good looking model. You are braver than me, Pete. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Nice, nice nice. I laughed a lot at the prose, but didn't notice your clear plastic stand until the final picture which shows how well you've constructed and composed this little scene. Looks great! SD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatFlyHalf Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Great modelling. Wondered where you had got to lately, missed your posts. Croeso y Gymru. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Thoroughly enjoyed the "build read" and a nice job well done. Hope the cats recover soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 That is a very nice little diorama, and I really enjoyed your write up. (and I used to live in Buckley, there even used to be a model shop in Mold. I still have kits in the stash that I bought in the 80's and haven't got around to building yet!) Cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Pete Posted October 22, 2019 Author Share Posted October 22, 2019 13 hours ago, Amo Aero said: challenges you overcame Not so sure I overcame them... Beat them into submission is more like it! 13 hours ago, Space Ranger said: I have an unbuilt one stashed away somewhere That's where I should have left mine... I might still have hair! 9 hours ago, Courageous said: Now you can empty your 'Swear Jar' and buy yourself another 'bargain' This kit put enough in the jar that I could buy an F 35... A real one! 9 hours ago, Vinnie said: perseverance I don't know if it's perseverance or simply being a dam fool about it! 7 hours ago, SafetyDad said: didn't notice your clear plastic stand I'd like to take credit for the stand but it came with the kit. 29 minutes ago, FatFlyHalf said: Croeso y Gymru Thanks... I think I'm going to like it here. The scenery and the warm people remind me of Scotland where I spent all my summers as a kid. 26 minutes ago, JohnT said: Hope the cats recover soon Pidsley is okay now but Popsie will be in therapy for months. 21 minutes ago, Viking said: I used to live in Buckley Any time you visit your old stomping ground, give me a shout... The kettle is always on here. Thanks, guys, for the kind words and encouragement. I like to spread a few laughs around if I can. I just need to get out of the habit of trying to make cops laugh when I get pulled over... They can be such grouches! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Good build of a classic, Well done! Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Lovely, dynamic model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatFlyHalf Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 19 hours ago, Uncle Pete said: I like to spread a few laughs around if I can. I just need to get out of the habit of trying to make cops laugh when I get pulled over... They can be such grouches! In particular North Wales Police are not noted for their sense of humour. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Great post and a good looking Flyer too! I enjoyed the tale! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadMax8 Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Thanks for sharing your trials and tribulations with this kit. I believe 1:39 is what’s referred to as “box scale”, ie the box was designed before the kit was! Building models like that would irritate me to no end, as one of my quirks er personality flaws ah “endearing qualities” is that I refuse to mix scales (I’ve got two 1/48 B-1 bombers now my stash). For as much gruff as it gave you, you were able to make a respectable rendition of the Wright Flyer. As mentioned before, you did a nice job of distracting viewers from the shiny plastic stand with your simple, yet extremely effective, diorama base. Thanks for the laugh, and thanks for sharing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Pete Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 2 hours ago, RadMax8 said: I refuse to mix scales Me too, mate... I've encountered "Fit The Box" before. I'm a 1:72 man but this puppy only comes in 1:39 and I've wanted a Wright for a long time. It's getting its own stand alone box and will be separate from the Shepherds Bush Air Force, although I suppose that will have to be renamed the Buckley Air Force now. I'd asked my daughter if she still had her daughter's old hamster tank for the purpose and she showed up with a snake tank (sans snake, of course) which, with a few modifications and the addition of some LED lights will fill the bill nicely. Trouble is, I now have to cut everything off the base and make a new one to... erm... "Fit The Box"! 🥴 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now