1930 Bentley Blower by Aifix 1/12 build log [COMPLETED BUILD]

François

François

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Apr 18, 2022
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Location
Lorraine, QC, Canada
Hello, I recently purchase an Airfix 1/12 scale Bentley Blower. I'm starting this log not because I'm starting the build, that's many months away but because I wanted to talk a bit about the ground work I'm doing and the route I intend to take. This is an old model dating back to the 70's. Airfix keeps moulding the kits using the same mold and keeps selling them. It's a very popular kit and has been done in a multitune of way, from the plain 'follow the plan' way to some major work of art with major scratch built add-ons. I started to research a bit on what had been done and fell on a Topgear article that explained how in 2020, Bentley decided to fabricate 12 brand new 'old' Bentley Blower using the original 1930's plans. They spared no expense and did a fabulous job. But what caught my eye were pictures of the body work. Like may cars of that era, the body was made of wood but unlike many others who's wood frame was then covered in sheet metal, the Bentley was covered with a material called Rexine. A flexible and water-resistant manmade material. Cheap back then, but very expensive today.

On Bentley build I found, the builders will, depending on their skills, either simply paint the plastic body, texture paint it or cover it with a fabric. I intend to go one step further by scratch buiding a wooden frame and then covering it with a fabric to be determined. So the first step was to 3d model the body using the Airfix plastic parts for dimensional references but also the pictures of the new 'old' Bentley I found. The operative word here is 'intend', I have no clue as to what kind of result I'll get but if worst comes to worst, I'll still have the plastic body to work with. Here a picture of one build in particular that is simply mind blowing and that I will be using as a reference along with some pictures of an actuel wooden Bentley frame and finally my 3d model whitch is not 100% complet).20230505_194531.jpg

Mind blowing buildBentley Blower model_1.jpg

Actual wooden frame0_BlowerContinuationSeries-10-AshFramewithoriginalbody.jpg0_BlowerContinuationSeries-12-AshFrame.jpg

My 3d model
20221104_063947.jpg20221104_064020.jpg

So it's a start. You might not hear from this log for a while since I've got a few other projects I wish to do first.

Thanks
 
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One of these older dream kits - Great - I will follow your project with big interest
 
François said:
Hello, I recently purchase an Airfix 1/12 scale Bentley Blower. I'm starting this log not because I'm starting the build, that's many months away but because I wanted to talk a bit about the ground work I'm doing and the route I intend to take. This is an old model dating back to the 70's. Airfix keeps moulding the kits using the same mold and keeps selling them. It's a very popular kit and has been done in a multitune of way, from the plain 'follow the plan' way to some major work of art with major scratch built add-ons. I started to research a bit on what had been done and fell on a Topgear article that explained how in 2020, Bentley decided to fabricate 12 brand new 'old' Bentley Blower using the original 1930's plans. They spared no expense and did a fabulous job. But what caught my eye were pictures of the body work. Like may cars of that era, the body was made of wood but unlike many others who's wood frame was then covered in sheet metal, the Bentley was covered with a material called Rexine. A flexible and water-resistant manmade material. Cheap back then, but very expensive today.

On Bentley build I found, the builders will, depending on their skills, either simply paint the plastic body, texture paint it or cover it with a fabric. I intend to go one step further by scratch buiding a wooden frame and then covering it with a fabric to be determined. So the first step was to 3d model the body using the Airfix plastic parts for dimensional references but also the pictures of the new 'old' Bentley I found. The operative word here is 'intend', I have no clue as to what kind of result I'll get but if worst comes to worst, I'll still have the plastic body to work with. Here a picture of one build in particular that is simply mind blowing and that I will be using as a reference along with some pictures of an actuel wooden Bentley frame and finally my 3d model whitch is not 100% complet).

Mind blowing build
Actual wooden fram
My 3d model
So it's a start. You might not hear from this log for a while since I've got a few other projects I wish to do first.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hallo @François
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Hello everyone, I recently finished my Alfa Romeo built and my intent was to take a brake from model making till next fall. But, the pool is up and running, the lawn is looking good, the deck is freshly stained... what else I'm I suppose to do!! So I decided to slowly start the Bentley build. This kit is old, very old. The fit is lousy and the details not so great. Nowhere near the fit and detail level of the Italeri kit I just made. But that is actually a good news, it means that I can modify and add to it to my heart's content without feeling guilty of modifying a very nice base kit.
Here is a condensed list of modifications/add ons that will be made:

Fully detailled fuel tank
Wire wheels
Fully detailled engine (and yes, I'll try to create working pistons in this one also)
Leather seats
Cloth rag top (possibly with working frame)
Batteries (not in kit)
Real wire mesh where possible
Adding bolts
Creating the wooden body frame (I might investigate 3d printing the frame)

So first thing on the to do list of about 1 zillion things to do on this build will be the gas tank.
Here's the kit's tank20230511_073656.jpg20230511_073648.jpg
Every moulded feature will be sanded down and redone to eventually look like thisBlower Continuation Series - 4 - Fuel Tank.jpgBlower Car Zero - 8.jpg
 
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Am all agog; looking forward to another masterpiece from you, thank you for sharing your secrets.

Can you please tell us who built that 'mind blowing model' you illustrated?

Thanks for that link, Francois.

My brother built the Airfix kit when it was introduced (their most expensive kit at the time).
Back then it was molded in green. The quality of the plastic was excellent, but today I think it includes re-cycled stuff; whatever, it ain't the same.
 
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Thanks pugwash,
The guy's name is John Teresi. I don't know him personnaly, I found is build log while doing some research for my build. He is one hell of a modeler!! His build dates back to the end of 2011 and the kit he used is from MPC, mine is from airfix. Apart from the fact that the MPC kit is moulded in green plastic rather than the gray of the Airfix, I don't think it was any better in in fit or detail. The only thing that I think he should have done considering his talent are the wired wheels but that's just me nitpicking. For those interested, here is the link to his build. As you will see, is built, along with the many photos of the new bentley blower I found will be my reference. The 2 pictures of the tank are not from his model but are from the actual new bentley, just though I'd clarify that.
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/50534-mpc-112-1930-bentley-racing-car/
 
Yes, followed up that link to John Teresi's build, which is tremendous.

Such a shame his photo's are hosted on photobucket and or Webpage images, it would be nice to have them on my data-base but only do jpeg images.
If this forum took that rout, that would finish me here.

For those into car models, the late great Gerald Wingrove did a fabulous scratch build of one of these Bentlley's.

Though yours are kit builds, your attention to detail puts you up there.
 
Thanks Dean,
The picture of the real tank I posted Is of a bare metal, still to be painted tank. I've seen some finished tanks with the wood strips left bare and some with the wood strips painted. That's what I will do since, in my opinion, adding bare wood strips to a painted tank would have been quite difficult to do without damaging the paint. I haven't decided what color the car will be yet. Every scale model I've seen of this car is the traditional green. When making the new ones, Bentley made some greens, but also blue and black. I'm quite partial to the black one with a red Interior.Bentley-Blower-Car-Zero-11.jpg
 
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