Bristol M.1c, Blue Max 1/48.....FINI...

[Allan31]

What beautiful lines. Reminds me of something Geoffrey de Havilland would do.

My much better half Su leaned over my shoulder while passing the display cabinet and commented "You have a lot of German stuff...". She's right. So in keeping with my passive efforts at keeping the balance of power between Axis and Allied, Cross's and Cockades, the next few builds have to be with roundels.
After taking down and then returning several kits to the stash, I heard the sirens' call of the Bristol by Blue Max.



I have contemplated starting several Blue Max kits in the past and I'm looking forward to jumping in on this one.



When I opened the box I was surprised to find a second kit tucked in the box by the previous owner. No decals but I'm sure I can find something to fit 1/72 scale.



Those sprue gates are thicker than some of the parts.
I'm looking forward to doing standard colors of PC-10 or PC-12 (which, I've read both..) with grey cowling and CDL under.



Richard Williams posted some wonderful reference photos that I will be using for added rivets and lacing.



What has struck me from poking through these several kits in my stash is the obvious care and passion Chris Gannon put into making these kits. Life dictated some changes in his life and he had to sell off his model companies. Last the www knew he was teaching math. I hope he realizes the efforts and passion he put forth more than 20 years ago are still appreciated and providing pleasure and satisfaction today. If you need a decent and accurate 504 or Snipe he is still the only and best game in town.

More soon......

[DaddyO]

Funny I was just reading an article about building one of these earlier today and it reminded me that I started the 1/72 AVIS version a wee while ago; some fabulous training schemes about for this one so looking forward to following along

Paul

[Dirigible-Al]

I have fancied building one, I don't have a kit but bizarrely I do have the BM engine from the kit (purchased at a model show). Your right, it's a beautiful aircraft and I'm looking forward to seeing you build this one.
Alan.

[Allan31]

My first "Blue Max" kit and it will not be my last.
It's not fall together but there is no correcting inaccuracies.
sanding, fitting then white primer and paint.



Apparently Bristols were painted in PC-12. The average truth for that seems to be described as a reddish brown. FS 10166.





I had to come up with my own recipe. 3 drops each Mahagoney and Wood and 1 drop red. In the airbrush it's 30/30/10.

The kit was missing rivets around the cowling and cockpit. I added those decal rivets I discovered for my Pup and they worked out great.



Painted and Futured, ready for decals. The rivets on the nose look a little over-scale but they may stay ythat way.



More soon...

[NigelR]

That's looking really good so far Allan. I like your PC12 and this all appears to be coming together very nicely indeed! Looking forward to more....

[Allan31]

Toooooooot,...Toooooot..........That's the sound of the mojo train leaving the station.....



I saw the tiny cracks and applied "Microscale" decal film over everything. Good thing I did, at least I was able to save some of them. Fortunately I was able to mix up some blues that exactly matched for touch-up. After A LOT of touch up for all 3 colors, the rudder stripes completely vanished and were hand painted, Futured, this is as good as it is going to get.



Oh well. It is unreasonable to expect decals to be ready and waiting to be used for so many years. If aftermarket were/are available, I would get those and my only other option is cutting circular masks and airbrushing. That said, I love the BlueMax kit and will be building many more.



Looks good from a distance. Much castor oil and weathering should distract some.

[NigelR]

Oh dear, how annoying. Bad decals can really ruin a build and cause the mojo train to leave the station. But you recovered it well enough to finish things off, well done!

[macsporran]

I had that problem with a WNW Camel and eventually pulled the decals back off with sellotape and used some beautiful Fantasy Printshop roundelsinstead. They do a sheet in 1/48 that should include ones to fit the Bullet.
S

[Dirigible-Al]

You did very well to match the colours, especially the blue. I have had to do the same and ended up with a slightly different blue which had to be repeated on all the other roundals.
Alan.

[Allan31]

The red was Vallejo 71.003, RLM23 and the blue was mixed.



Missed the blue on the first try, too dark but placing a drop of each apart and blending to something in the middle got me what I needed.

[Allan31]

Some drama but a fun build. More photos over in the "Completed" section soon.

[Dirigible-Al]

Really outstanding  work.
Alan.

[bobs_buckles]

Lovely work, Allan.
One of the best looking aircraft to come from the Great War.

Cheers!
Bob
 

[Tim Mixon]

Nicely rendered Allan. Great paintwork on the roundels.

[2996 Victor]

Lovely work on the Blue Max Bristol, Allan, she looks superb in PC12 over CDL! What did you use for your rigging and the cowling rivets?

I've got one of these kits in my stash - I think it may be bumped up the build list!

Cheers,
Mark