Bristol 170 Mk.32 Superfreighter

Hi Gooney Bird
Thanks very much for your kind comments, As to the Vickers Viking “no chance” Lifes to short, It’s taken me almost four years to get this far with the Superfreighter two years drawing the plans and two years so far building the aircraft and it’s still a long way from being finished so after this one I will be looking for something with a little less work.

She’s beautifull

She certainly is – a fantastic bit of workmanship!

How about tackling a Vickers Viking next in the same scale?

She’s beautifull

Must be you! I was thinking exactly the opposite. 😉

Is it just me or does the short nose variant look sort of attractive whilst the 32 looks wrong from start to finish.

Greedy! No wonder I can’t find one! 😉

In case any of you don’t know what an Airfix Superfreighter looks like here is one I made in the nineties when it was briefly re-released.

Colin

What an excellent job you have made of it Colin. I have converted two of these kits to Mk.31s and have another five kits set aside all with decal sheets for Silver City, British United and others.

I had an Airfix one too, till it had a misfortune :(. Will have to get another…

In case any of you don’t know what an Airfix Superfreighter looks like here is one I made in the nineties when it was briefly re-released.
Colin

I still have an unmade one still in its unopened box! One of these days I shall sit down and make it!

Airfix Superfreighter

In case any of you don’t know what an Airfix Superfreighter looks like here is one I made in the nineties when it was briefly re-released.

Colin

I used to hang over the fence at Lympne and watch the original Silver City operations. I well remember an occasion when all three of the fleet returned in formation to Lympne one evening and performed a very smart break and landing. I believe the crews were all ex night fighter people, anyone know the truth of this?

Sounds the business Dave, thanks. I look forward to seeing how things progress, she’s a beaut already.

Engines are RCV 90’s so about 30cc’s in all, Model at the moment weighs 30lbs so I’m hoping these will be man enough for the job, Took delivery of the props yesterday these are 15.5ins dia.x 12ins pitch, four bladed so really look the part. With the engines being geared they tend to rattle a bit so may sound authentic.

what type of engines will you be using?

I hope its a couple of miniature Bristol Hercules but thats unlikely, then electric with a good sound system.

Richard

Looks great Dave, very well done mate. Do let us know how things progress! Out of interest, what type of engines will you be using?

Very good job look amazing.

Hi all,
It’s been a while since my last post so a quick update, The model was displayed at the Large Model Association static display at Gaydon in October in the bare bones, since then I’ve been working on producing the glass fibre mouldings for the nose doors, undercarriage fairings and engine nacelles these are now finished and I have started this week to skin the model with glassfibre cloth and epoxy resin, I am now turning my attention towards a colour scheme and I must say the Sabena one painted with Dulux seems to be favorite at the moment.

I’m coming into this a bit late, but here goes. I worked for Aviation Traders in the 1960s, the firm being part of the Air Holdings empire, which also included British United (and its Air Ferries offshoot). So, we were responsible for servcing both the B.170s and Carvairs at Lydd and Southend. The Southend-Ostend route was formally a joint operation with SABENA, but as the later did not actually contribute any aircraft, one of the BUA Superfreieghters was always painted in SABENA livery and used as far as possible on that route. G-APAV, the 212th and last B.170 built, was one of four so painted. Lacking the correct SABENA blue, it was painted at Southend in the ‘best match’ Dulux shade that we could find! Hence, the blue does not quite match the official SABENA colour. Whther the previous three aircraft were also painted with Dulux colour I cannot say.

I have a rather nice photo of G-APAV lifting out of Southend in volume 1 of the second edition of A J Jackson’s ‘British Civil Aircraft Since 1919′, pubvlished by Putnam qwuite some years’ ago now. I will try and locate it in my collection and put it up here shortly.

Very interesting John, I always wondered why it was a lighter blue. Here are a couple of Kodachrome slides in my collection I have scanned taken at Southend in August 1964.

Air Ferry opersated Mk 32 G-ANVR leased from BUA

Air Ferry didn’t operate 31’s

Check them out;)

Garry

Check THIS out!

More likely it being just a hot day.

Richard

25th November?:D