Pegasus Bristol M1.C, 1:72

[IanB]

I have finally managed to complete this much neglected bird - a very attractive addition to the cabinet, I must say. The basic kit is exactly that and needs a lot of work to get a decent representation, but it's well worth it as I've not seen the Airframe vac on the market often and the only other offering I know of is Czechmaster resin.
 
 The aircraft modelled is C4906 of 150 Sqn, RAF which was formed on 1st April 1918. "A" Flight of 17 Squadron became "A" flight of 150 at Marian, Macedonia, and "A" Flight of 47 Sqn became "B" flight of 150 at Kirec on the same date. C4906 was credited with kills on June 26th, piloted by Lt JJ Boyd Harvey, and June 28th, piloted by Lt KB Munday.















 There is now only one more shelved project to finish before I return to the Muromets - the Airfix Hannover I started a couple of years ago will be back on the bench next!

Ian

[Des]

Even though it required a little extra effort on the kit it turned out to be a very attractive model Ian, congratulations on presenting us with a superb Bristol M1.C and what makes it even more spectacular is that it is in 1:72 scale, well done.

Des.

[Rob Hart]

A 1st class scale replica.  I like your choice of colors too. Move this one to the top shelf.

[coyotemagic]

What a little beauty she turned out to be, Ian.  I really like the colors and your subtle shading makes them pop.  Brilliant work all 'round.
Cheers,
Bud

[RAGIII]

An absolutely impressive build all of the way around Ian! Your construction additions and extra details have really paid off! The painting and shading is awesome!

RAGIII

[IFF1418]

Tremendous build Ian, very nice painting, wonderful 1/72 and all my respect! Congratulations.

Kind regards
Patrick

[lcarroll]

Very pretty little beast, Ian. Great choice of colours and it's 1:72 Scale makes it all the more impressive.
Cheers,
Lance

[Bolman]

Excellent job Ian!

Funny, mine looks exactly like that except... It's not assembled... And it's not painted. Other than that, they could be twins!!

Keep up the good work!

John

[lone modeller]

That is really good Ian - a splendid model and in God's Own Scale too. I am about to start on the Pegasus Etrich Taube and that too looks basic but you have demonstrated that a very good model can be made from a basic kit. I will now try to follow in your footsteps…. Thanks for showing it to us.

[IanB]

Thanks all, much appreciated!

@John - looking forward to seeing yours soon!
@LM - I'll definitely be following that build as I have it in my stash too....

Ian

[Squiffy]

That is a very nicely finished model, Ian. Out of interest, what types would these have been up against in action?

[IanB]

The machines mentioned in the Datafile are LVGs, Rumplers and Albatros D.III. The only action they saw was in the Middle East.
 It's one of the great questions of the Great War - why was an aircraft that was so far ahead of its time relegated to an out of the way theatre? The M1.C was introduced in 1916 and actually out performed both the Camel and SE5 which followed it!

Ian

[lone modeller]

One of the reasons (among others) why the M1C was not deployed on the Western Front in 1916 was the prejudice of the top brass against monoplanes. The RFC had suffered their first fatal casualties before 1914 in monoplane crashes as a consequence of pilots not being used to landing at the higher speeds and this seems to have been the basis of the mistrust. Many pilots found difficult to handle and consequently suffered from accidents which I suspect was partly caused by the poor quality of the training at the time - frequently pilots only had 12 - 15 hours in their log books when they were posted to the front, and these hours would have been in relatively slow and docile biplanes. The M1C was by contrast sensitive to the controls and needed some experience to lean how to handle it. Macedonia was a backwater as far as the top brass were concerned, and like other theatres in the Eastern Mediterranean and middle east was low on the list of priorities for equipment. The machines that were sent there were considered to be old by the time they arrived, yet they could still give a good account of themselves when flown by competent and experienced pilots.

The prejudice against monoplanes (fighters and bombers), in the RAF continued until the mid - 1930's by which time the technological limits of biplanes had been reached and monoplanes came into their own, at last. Of course training was much better by this time too.

[Epeeman]

Great job on a basic kit, Ian - Well done, mate.

Regards

Dave

[Alexis]

Didn't even know you had this in the works . Turned out really well Ian 





Terri