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Bristol Scout 1/32 first scratch build attempt


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After seeing this little beauty at Old Warden aerodrome and wanting to have a crack at scratch building something I decided it was time to dip my toe in the water.

 

50084360171_914b5942f3_b.jpg_V5A6869 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The first hurdle was making the cowling, I don't have a rotary tool so making cylindrical shapes is somewhat challenging. Luckily the top of an Encona Hot Pepper Sauce bottle is pretty much the perfect size.

 

50072416661_ab82f73e36_b.jpgBristol Scout 1264 Cowling by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

A bit of thinning with a milling head in a pin vice and removing the raised grips and it's there. I found a cheap resin Le Rhone engine on evil bay, a little surgery was needed to 

get it to fit but very little will be visible. 

 

50077042532_276a8ae6c9_b.jpg20200704_225156 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The frame took many efforts before it was usable, the tail feathers even more so. I think they're still a tad too thick so another attempt may happen.

 

50109743452_2611e8fe5b_b.jpgScout framework. by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

 

Unfortunately I broke my thumb playing cricket last week so progress has stopped until I can handle tools again but I'm healing fast for an old bloke so hopefully I can whittle a prop, add some turtle deck formers and start detailing the interior next week.

 

I am a total scratch building newbie so any advice would be very welcome. Thanks for reading.

 

Richie

 

 

 

Edited by RichieW
forgot to add picture
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What a brilliant start! I`m hoping to get down to the Shuttleworth in a few weeks myself as a 50th Birthday treat!

Cheers

          Tony

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If you click on any of the photos Tony you can take a virtual tour of the WW1 hangar in my Flickr albums.

 

When you visit I hope you can get a Tiger Moth flight. I loved your 1/48 build. :)

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A hot sauce bottle top for a cowl.  Very resourceful, I doubt you’ll be having many scratch building problems.

 

Dennis

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12 hours ago, RichieW said:

There was gnashing of teeth and many expletives.

Sounds familiar...

 

Brilliant work so far. Great subject, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this progresses (probably faster than my current project, which keeps getting pushed into second place by Real Life!).

 

Jon

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13 hours ago, RichieW said:

After seeing this little beauty at Old Warden aerodrome and wanting to have a crack at scratch building something I decided it was time to dip my toe in the water.

 

50084360171_914b5942f3_b.jpg_V5A6869 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

 

That's an old photo because it's beautifully 'patinated' now! Great work too - watching with interest.

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Thanks so much for your interest chaps, I'm a very slow worker but I will do my best to keep this moving along.

 

15 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

That's an old photo because it's beautifully 'patinated' now!

It's actually a picture I took 2 weeks ago. When I visited in February the castor oil staining was truly something to behold!  Looks like it got a new skin in lockdown. :)

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Hi Marklo, I'm aiming to replicate this one. For the sake of simplicity I will be basing it on how it was first built with the two small cut outs in the cowling.

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15 hours ago, RichieW said:

The first hurdle was making the cowling, I don't have a rotary tool so making cylindrical shapes is somewhat challenging. Luckily the top of an Encona Hot Pepper Sauce bottle is pretty much the perfect size.

How about that for a solution?

 

I'm following this, it's going to be awesome.

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Well it's a shame that the 'old' skin has gone, but it's how it would have been done in period. I see also that it's reverted to the initial 'union jack' colour scheme. Incidentally I have the book and the DVD and what the Bremners have done (including the Imbros mission) is incredible. It's an incredible story too.

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Agreed 100%, the patination was glorious and was what made me want to model this one. 

 

Like you I have the book and DVD, it really is a superb account full of history and engineering details. If anybody doesn't know it, Sabrejet and I are waxing lyrical about 'Bristol Scout 1264, Rebuilding Grandad's Aircraft'. It tells the tale of how the grandson of a WW1 pilot found the control stick, magneto and rudder bar in his granddad's workshop and vowed to rebuild it. For aviation enthusiasts and modellers I can't recommend it highly enough. 

 

Richie

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1 hour ago, RichieW said:

Agreed 100%, the patination was glorious and was what made me want to model this one. 

 

Like you I have the book and DVD, it really is a superb account full of history and engineering details. If anybody doesn't know it, Sabrejet and I are waxing lyrical about 'Bristol Scout 1264, Rebuilding Grandad's Aircraft'. It tells the tale of how the grandson of a WW1 pilot found the control stick, magneto and rudder bar in his granddad's workshop and vowed to rebuild it. For aviation enthusiasts and modellers I can't recommend it highly enough. 

 

Richie

My wife was flicking channels on the skybox last week and spotted this and recorded it for me, unfortunately the showing had problems and the sound kept cutting out, it was unwatchable. I was gutted! We did a program search and it is being shown again tomorrow (Sunday 26th) on PBS America, 10.40am. It's set to record again!  🤞 Even though I only watched 20 minutes, I couldn't agree more, a great story. Thanks for the heads up on the book too.

Following this build with interest Richie, such a good looking aircraft.

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4 hours ago, Quiet Mike said:

My wife was flicking channels on the skybox last week and spotted this and recorded it for me, unfortunately the showing had problems and the sound kept cutting out, it was unwatchable. I was gutted! We did a program search and it is being shown again tomorrow (Sunday 26th) on PBS America, 10.40am. It's set to record again!  🤞 Even though I only watched 20 minutes, I couldn't agree more, a great story. Thanks for the heads up on the book too.

Following this build with interest Richie, such a good looking aircraft.

Hope you get a good recording Mike, it's a beautiful film.

 

 

Managed to do a little for the first time in a week today, simple tasks only while my thumb is still giving me grief. The ribs didn't line up very well on the last effort, I must be improving because it only took 15 minutes. Next job was the rudder, again this was pretty problem free. The ribs were embossed with a ball point pen, with the rib lines drawn on the rudder getting things lined up was a very simple job. I will tidy the edges up another time and start detailing the interior once my bashed up hand is up to it. 

6 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I'm following this, it's going to be awesome.


That's very kind of you Tony, please don't expect too much from me though. This is way out of my OOB comfort zone, it's a heck of a lot fun to have a bash at though!

The shape of the forward fuselage is really confusing me, I have plenty time to figure out how to make it but there has been much head scratching!


50152047482_0491eb5e87_b.jpg20200725_150947 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

50151261068_ecea23bab4_b.jpg20200725_152742 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 


Hope to have a more meaningful update sometime soon.

Thanks for watching
Richie

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1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Wow a scratch building newbie, you look like an old hand at this. What a great start will have to look out for that film. 

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

Thanks Chris, much appreciated. In a way I am a bit of an old hand because I've had to make 3 attempts at making the frame and another 5 attempts at the tailplane. This may turn out to be a very long project! ;)

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28 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Found the book for my Kindle on Amazon. Should be an interestin

Really pleased for you, I think you're going to love it. 

 

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Just a little update, I have been doing a lot of head scratching while trying to figure out how to shape the front end and have strong enough attachment points for the undercarriage struts and cabanes. In the end the answer was pretty obvious and simplicity itself. Once the formers were attached I just filled the gaps with scraps of balsa and milliput and sanded to shape. Balsa blocks were added to where the undercarriage legs will be attached by pins. This made it all very nose heavy so I added milliput to the last cell which will hopefully give me a strong attachment point for the rudder and tail skid. The lower fuselage is not open where the tail skid attaches so this is not a problem.
 

50163363497_8934799faf_c.jpg20200728_164158 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 


The top panel behind the engine cowling has numerous rivets that are quite a prominent feature.
 

49864141697_5169009b31_c.jpg20191116_104554 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 



 I made a paper template and then had a play at embossing rivets on styrene sheet. I first drew the lines and attempted to dot them in individually with a broken micro drill bit. The result was predictably and comically appalling!

 

50162576253_916abf2205_c.jpg20200728_164602 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 


A few years ago I bout a riveting wheel which had never even been out of the packaging, a quick little play and we have nice evenly spaced rivets. The tool even comes with 3 different wheels to produce differently spaced rivets. This is definitely the way to go!
 

50162576218_b709d80c89_c.jpg20200728_164527 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Next step is to finish shaping the nose then I can start thinking about adding the interior detail and making the wings before skinning starts.

Many thanks for reading, I hope my first attempt at adding the rivets wasn't too disturbing!

Richie 

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