Bentley Blower 1930, Airfix 1:12

[primabaleron]

Kit Airfix invented in 1970. Very poor, but like other cars from before IIWW, they have a specific beauty and potential for valorisation. My set comes from 1990 and is characterized above all by green brittle plastic ... Over 500 items added ....

 

DSC_0428 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0430 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0439 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0443 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0454 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0461 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0463 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0470 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0474 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0479 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0480 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0481 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0485 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0488 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0492 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0499 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0501 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0504 by Tomasz, on Flickr

DSC_0515 by Tomasz, on Flickr

[maysula]

A fantastic dirty beauty ? great attention to detail and the weathering is very good! Be proud Tomasz ?

[Anglia105E]

Tomasz...... very good build of your Airfix Bentley Blower......... weathering and detail is brilliant !

David

[DonW]

Lovely! Well done.

[sjordan2]

Superb. My favorite kit. You obviously did your research.

[Gramps46]

Outstanding build and the weathering of the detail is amazing.

[primabaleron]

4 hours ago, sjordan2 said:

Superb. My favorite kit. You obviously did your research.

He was supposed to remind a bit about the 1930 Grand Prix of France.

[Bugatti Fan]

Nice model Tomasz. The old Airfix Bentley is not poor but just showing its age compared to modern kits 50 years on. It is still a good basis for doing a lot of extra work and detailing like you have done on it. More fun than building a kit that just falls together out of the box, and for developing modelling skills.       The annoying thing about this kit is the flying B emblem is in the wrong place on the radiator shell. I do not know how they got this so wrong as they had access to the original car to work from at the time. Even more annoying is that on a fairly decent re release of this kit they changed the number plate but completely ignored the glaring error on the radiator shell when doing this modification. As it is on a plated  part of is difficult for a modeller to correct.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Bugatti Fan

[sjordan2]

On 2/13/2020 at 5:00 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

Nice model Tomasz. The old Airfix Bentley is not poor but just showing its age compared to modern kits 50 years on. It is still a good basis for doing a lot of extra work and detailing like you have done on it. More fun than building a kit that just falls together out of the box, and for developing modelling skills.       The annoying thing about this kit is the flying B emblem is in the wrong place on the radiator shell. I do not know how they got this so wrong as they had access to the original car to work from at the time. Even more annoying is that on a fairly decent re release of this kit they changed the number plate but completely ignored the glaring error on the radiator shell when doing this modification. As it is on a players  part of is difficult for a modeller to correct.

I communicated with a person at Hornby/Airfix about what changes there may have been to the reissued kit, and he told me that the only change was to the registration number, dictated by the registration owner who was an executive at Bentley. I don't know if there was any issue with licensing from Ralph Lauren, owner of the original registration number, UR6571.

[Belugawrx]

Very nice work Tomasz.. very realistic look to the extra details and weathering.. I like the dusting to the lower parts ??

[Rich Chernosky]

Amazing attention to detail, a superb model of a great car. 

[Bugatti Fan]

The word 'players' now reads 'plated' in my post. I have corrected it with the edit function, but it is still incorrect in Skip's post where he copied my first original over with this typo in it.

With regard to the change of registration number. British registration numbers are owned solely by the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority) so UK government owned, and not by any individual such as a Bentley executive. Ralph Lauren's blower retains the UR6571 number plate that I would guess he keeps registered with the DVLA although the car is not in the UK. When a car is either scrapped or becomes unregistered the DVLA can transfer the number to any other vehicle. There is a healthy market in the 'sale' of personal registration numbers in the UK, but the buyer is actually only buying the right to use that number on a particular car and not buying the number itself outright. A Bentley executive may have requested or sponsored Airfix to use another Reg. No. but certainly could not dictate its use.

Airfix as I said before would have better used the change to sort out the glaring error of the position of the flying B radiator badge instead of changing a number plate.

The short chassis blower UR6571 was the car that owner Neil Corner who at that time made tha car available to Airfix to research for the kit back in the 70's. The car was sold on to Anthony Bamford of JCB and subsequently later to Ralph Lauren. 

I heard that Airfix were planning to make a 1/12 scale kit of the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu as a follow on to the Bentley but the project was shelved.

[sjordan2]

On 2/15/2020 at 10:44 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

The word 'players' now reads 'plated' in my post. I have corrected it with the edit function, but it is still incorrect in Skip's post where he copied my first original over with this typo in it.

With regard to the change of registration number. British registration numbers are owned solely by the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority) so UK government owned, and not by any individual such as a Bentley executive. Ralph Lauren's blower retains the UR6571 number plate that I would guess he keeps registered with the DVLA although the car is not in the UK. When a car is either scrapped or becomes unregistered the DVLA can transfer the number to any other vehicle. There is a healthy market in the 'sale' of personal registration numbers in the UK, but the buyer is actually only buying the right to use that number on a particular car and not buying the number itself outright. A Bentley executive may have requested or sponsored Airfix to use another Reg. No. but certainly could not dictate its use.

Airfix as I said before would have better used the change to sort out the glaring error of the position of the flying B radiator badge instead of changing a number plate.

The short chassis blower UR6571 was the car that owner Neil Corner who at that time made tha car available to Airfix to research for the kit back in the 70's. The car was sold on to Anthony Bamford of JCB and subsequently later to Ralph Lauren. 

I heard that Airfix were planning to make a 1/12 scale kit of the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu as a follow on to the Bentley but the project was shelved.

My correspondence:

From: Customer Support <customersupport@hornby.us> 
To: sjordan47@comcast.net 
Sent: Wed, 29 May 2013 15:28:55 -0000 (UTC) 
Subject: RE: 1/12 Airfix Blower Bentley kit 
 

Hello Skip, 

 We contacted Airfix UK and got an answer to your question.

 “Quite simple really.  Bentley insisted on the change, due to the new plate being owned by someone in the company.

Everything else is the same.”

 Now you can let the others know the reason for change. 

Regards, 
Steven Lesh

Hornby America Inc. 
IT / Technical Support / Airfix
Telephone: 253-922-7194 or 877-358-6405 ext 101
FAX: 253 922-7203
www.hornbyamerica.com 

[Bugatti Fan]

The 'insistence'  by Bentley on the number plate change is probably because since the original kit was produced back in the 70's Airfix have probably become subject to a licencing agreement to make the kit. Just like many other model kit manufacturers are being forced to by corporate bean counters (accountants and lawyers) in these days of corporate litigation.

[peteski]

While I find this discussion about the license plate amusing and informative, I also have to chuckle.  The superbly-built model featured in this thread doesn't even have that plate.

[Bugatti Fan]

You are absolutely right Peter! I can understand why you had a chuckle about the number plates of rather the lack of them. This does not detract from Tomasz making a superb model from an elderly kit, and full credit to him for all the work he has put into it

[Twokidsnosleep]

An amazing model. You have made some fantastic additions 

[DonW]

On 2/12/2020 at 10:17 PM, primabaleron said:

He was supposed to remind a bit about the 1930 Grand Prix of France.

And it does. As you probably know, he finished in second place in that race, in a stripped down 4-seat touring car amongst a field of single-seat Grand Prix racing cars.

From Wikipedia: 'The Bentley driver used his horn to warn the Bugatti to move over, surely a unique occurrence in Grand Prix racing! With seven laps to go Zanelli made another pitstop and Birkin was up into second place. '

Also from Wikipedia:  The car’s outright speed was proved when Birkin set a new 135.53mph lap record at Brooklands.

Thanks for re-awakening these memories.

-Don.

[iamsuperdan]

Stunning. I love your builds.

[LaughingIndian]

On 2/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, primabaleron said:

He was supposed to remind a bit about the 1930 Grand Prix of France.

 

.... this was one of my favorite builds and I had full intentions on weathering it like the vintage race pics ... but once done, i didn’t have the guts 

 

... bravo sir

 

 

[MAGIC MUFFLER]

It's amazing the patience one has to go through this type of detailing.  It's outstanding what you've done!  

I've worked on several real ones so I really appreciate the skill you have to build this kit with such amazing detail.

[primabaleron]

Thank you for your kind words from colleagues. I watch a lot of much higher level work here.

[Bugatti Fan]

Tomasz, your model making skills are well up there with the best of them!

[geordie]

Bloody marvelous !!!

[slusher]

Absolutely stunning!!