Bulldog spirit

[Muddyf]

This will be my little entry (probably the first of a few) for the GB. May follow this up with a Beaufort and possibly start my long in planning Superfreighter.

 

Always liked the look of this beauty, but never made one, even as a kid. Picked this up whilst perusing a model shop for something different . This model will be my mojo restorer as i havent built anything since a paint disaster on a Halifax (still on my shelf) at the start of January!

 

Obligatory shots:

 

Box

 

Sprues in bag

 

Just waiting for the kick off.

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see a fellow Bristol biplane in the mix.

Good luck with this one.

Cheers Pat

[Marklo]

Nice choice; I like the Bulldog and it’s a pretty significant fighter in RAF history but I always think it’s a bit ugly, not Blackburn ugly but I’m torn. Anyhoo look forward to following this one.

Edited June 5, 2021 by Marklo

[Greg Law]

Never ugly. One of my favorite biplanes. Wish they did a quality 1/48 version. 

[TallBlondJohn]

Funny, I just bought one too - the mouldings look very nice. Will follow with vested interest,

[Marklo]

2 hours ago, Greg Law said:

Wish they did a quality 1/48 version. 

This is the Smer 1/48 i built a year or two ago, it is possible to coax a pretty good build out if it and the decal sheet is really good.

 

[Rabbit Leader]

11 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

the mouldings look very nice

 

That's good to know. I'd always thought that although these Vintage Classic's have nice new decals, the moulds themselves have seen their best days. If that's the case I really should pick one of these up, however would still love to get my hands on an original issue one day. Good Luck @Muddyf, I'll look on with interest. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[rob85]

I love the look of the bulldog, though I remember this kit frustrating me when I was a kid. Really cool choice though!

 

Rob

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, rob85 said:

I love the look of the bulldog, though I remember this kit frustrating me when I was a kid. Really cool choice though!

 

Rob

I remember it frustrating me last year… All things considered still a great choice. It was me not the kit BTW, Im not a very good biplane builder. 

[rob85]

On 6/6/2021 at 8:56 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I remember it frustrating me last year… All things considered still a great choice. It was me not the kit BTW, Im not a very good biplane builder. 

Same her, it’s getting that top wing on and level, gets me every time!

[Muddyf]

I’ve still not taken the kit out of the bag yet, waiting to see what ‘interesting’ things will pop up in the build.

 

I was tempted to build like I did 35-40 years ago, that said gluey fingerprints, wonky decals, upside-down wings and so much ordnance it would sink up to its wings, let alone take off, would probably make for an interesting build, but look awful. 😁

[Tweener]

On 6/5/2021 at 8:11 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

 

That's good to know. I'd always thought that although these Vintage Classic's have nice new decals, the moulds themselves have seen their best days. If that's the case I really should pick one of these up, however would still love to get my hands on an original issue one day. Good Luck @Muddyf, I'll look on with interest. 

Cheers.. Dave 

Having done a VTG Classics Bulldog and 2 Demons (With 2 more in the Stash) I can say that they seem to have held up pretty well. The Demon varies a little from box to box however, my first was very clean but the second had a modest number of scratches and the injector marks were very prominent. Inspection of the remaining two yields a result in the middle, but closer to the first than the second. I plan to pick up a few more.

[John Masters]

I've got one of these in the stash, and it's 19th Squadron, so I'll be joining in eventually.

[Muddyf]

I have opened the bag and looked at the contents. 

 

 

So the plastic is actually looking good. A bit of flash around a few parts, easily cleaned up, most of the flash though is around the sprues themselves.

 

One small sink hole in the lower wing, but easy to address with a splash of filler.

 

 

So i have slapped some glue on the main components and blasted some primer. Some minor cleaning up of filler on the upper wing joints.

 

 

Just need some free time to break out the airbrush before i proceed.

 

Thanks for looking.

[AdrianMF]

It’s looking very nice. The fabric effects are much more realistic than on the Demon.

 

In the photo it looks like the tailplane halves are slightly swept back. I don’t know if you could run some liquid cement in to soften the joint and ease them into line?

 

On the original version of this kit the front of the propeller was concave and the back side convex, like they moulded it back to front. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but if so it might need a bit of filler and scraping.

 

Regards,

Adrian