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Fairey Rotodyne


BritJet

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Firstly if I don't get this finished by the end of this Group Build I'm blaming @Adam Poultney - he told me to do it! I never got away with that one as a kid but it's worth a try!

 

The Rotodyne has always interested me and over the years I've managed to collect copies of the different kits from Airfix, Frog, Revell and Kader. The Airfix kit has probably always been the easiest to get hold of but for years they sold for relatively high prices. When Airfix re-released the kit in 1996 I bought one to build as it had new and better decals compared with the earlier releases . As often happens, other things got in the way and whilst looking for a second subject to enter in this GB, that might actually stand a chance of completion, I pulled this out of the stash....

 

The parts are probably very well known but here they are anyway. A few sink marks and lots of fairly restrained rivet detail, not bad for a kit originally from 1959.

 

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My main reference for this build, I'm not going to be doing anything drastic to the kit but it's useful to check the details.

 

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Steve

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5 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Good luck. I think @Heather Kay built one on here not too long ago, if you need more references.

 


Indeed, and I even managed to find the thread in the Airfix Classic GB of 2018! :shocked:

 

It was fun, and I could have done an awful lot better, but it looks great on my display shelf. I recall I had a lot of problems with the transfers, possibly due to the way the kit was stored.

 

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Thanks everyone.

 

Progress has been fairly swift as there's not a lot to the kit. The doors are the worst fitting parts and the sink marks need some work but it's not too bad. The rivets won't survive the filling and sanding process so I'll take them all off. The airframe was pretty smooth anyway and it will help the decals to bed down. Seeing Heather's build again, I've decided to scan the decal sheet before use just in case it all goes horribly wrong. I might do the slightly later scheme with the blue and white lines on the engines, different titles on the pylon and without the Fairey logos. I can use the scan to cut some window masks and/or to draw the extra Fairey titles and the correct black serial numbers.

 

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Plasticard shims and lots of filler to make the doors fit
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Thanks for looking.

 

Steve

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Cheers Mike, I put lots of glue on the clear parts so hopefully they'll be ok. Have you done any more on your Rotodyne or shouldn't I ask?

 

I primed everything a couple of days ago and fixed a couple of problems

 

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Managed to get some gloss white on last night and masked that and applied a coat of gloss black ready for the Alclad tonight. With a bit of luck I can get the Alclad on tomorrow evening and then the blue over the weekend.

 

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Steve

Edited by BritJet
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Cheers Mike, it has been pretty easy so far - something is bound to go wrong! How far did you get with the interior and engines? I've got some spare cabin window masks so I'll save them for you.

 

I took advantage of the dry weather to get the Alclad and blue on. After removing the masking there are a couple of touch-ups to do but no major issues. Also decided to do a slightly later scheme than the kit decals with the blue/white trim on the engines and white fins. I've drawn new artwork for the decals but haven't printed them yet, the kit decals are ok but I didn't want to have to mix the blue to match them.

 

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Steve

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On 6/25/2022 at 10:29 PM, BritJet said:

Cheers Mike, it has been pretty easy so far - something is bound to go wrong! How far did you get with the interior and engines? I've got some spare cabin window masks so I'll save them for you.

Good progress, Steve, it looks smart in that scheme.

 

I finished the interior and started on the engines. I will hopefully pick it up again this year once a couple of other builds have vacated the bench. I should be OK for masks as I got the KV Mask set, but not seen how well they fit yet...

 

Keep up the good work!

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Cheers, I thought it looked even more like an airliner with the extra cheatlines and white fins.

 

No problem with the masks, I'll keep them anyway. I've changed the cockpit framing as the white should be parallel with the bottom edge of the window and not angled. Hope to see yours progress soon, should look very different to most Rotodyne models.

 

Steve

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A very nice build. The Rotodyne book is really quite good. The thing that really bugs me about the Airfix kit is, due to its age, the wheels are a bit weedy in terms of detail. Of course had it been a what if Luftwaffe plane we would have had a couple of kits and a shed load of aftermarket. Funny how the kit market works. 

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Thanks, it's not a bad old kit to use as a starting point. There's lots that could be done with it if a cabin interior is added and the doors opened, not to mention the numerous colour scheme and fin variations.

 

Steve

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