Bristol M.1D racer -Avis, 1/72nd scale, with a few touches

 

 

The Bristol M.1 monoplane was an advanced concept for its time, perhaps not appreciated as it should have been (suffering the curse of the monoplane fear of early times).

Once its bang-bing-poom-paff role was over, Bristol sought to re-introduce it as a sports machine. Part of their strategy was having it compete as a racer, a role in which it was quite successful.

Very happy to see that Avis released this spunky racer as an alternate boxing to their Bristol M.1 monoplane variants.

Another civil, privately owned machine (Spanish M-AFAA) is also an alternative scheme in their boxing of Red Devil (but the Spanish version needs a couple of small tweaks to be accurate).

Adventurous modelers and after-market decal-makers may like to have a look at other civil possibilities for this nice little kit:

G-EASR (A company demonstrator that can be seen in photos with two schemes, a light and a dark one)

G-EAVO (That used both engines, the Lucifer and a rotary Le Rhone-, no wing cut-outs)

G-EAER (#12 racer on the 1919 Aerial Derby, piloted by Smith, with wing cut-outs, small faired headrest)

VH-UQI (De Havilland Gipsy four-inline engine conversion, fuselage re-worked)

This kit of G-EAVP can be finished with and without the race number 2 or a G (as per decals supplied by the kit), but also as number 4 (if you scrounge those decals from somewhere), of which I found only a few images.

If you are building this kit you will find a number of comments and what I hope are useful tips in the step-by-step construction article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/10/bristol-m1d-racer-avis-172-injected.html

Things you may like to adjust if building G-EAVP (the kit's provided version):

1) There were no carb air intake holes on the fuselage sides, nor its associated part inside the cockpit (those are for the rotary engine version).

2) The tail feathers need rigging, missing in the instructions, look at photos of the plane.

3) The long exhausts that go under the nose meet at a heat-exchanging sleeve that surround the new carburetor air intake (that comes downwards from the nose) and continue as a single pipe for a little while. Again, find photos on the Net that show that.

4) The fuel cap behind the pilot is somewhat present in the mold, but better make a good one, and since you are at it, also add the oil cap, ahead of the pilot

5) Add the Pitot to the left wing leading edge

6) Add the wind-driven fuel pump to the right landing gear strut as per photos on the Net

7) Make the windscreen smaller and the correct shape

Be sure to install the double flying wires, as correctly depicted and even marked on the undersurfaces of the wings.

Of these last new four Avis civil delightful little kits, this is the only one that gave me some little trouble. The plastic was a tad different and harder, the fit wasn't comfortable in some instances, and, in spite of having been carefully washed, dried, primed and handled properly, when I masked the red to paint the tail, as I removed the masks, huge chunks of paint and primer were lifted leaving the bare plastic. This has not happen to me in a long, long time, being always very careful about cleaning and avoiding contaminants.

I can assure you that my day was utterly ruined.

So you are warned: really, really wash the plastic.

I am not sure why this last Avis kit was different, may be it was jut my sample.

But if they changed something, please change it back, it did not help at all.

I am looking forward to -and indeed I pre-ordered - their soon to be released -as I write this- Lee-Richards Annular Wing.

I have scratched the monster long ago when my skills were far from good, and this time I may end up with a better replica.

And, since we are at it, what were, you may have thought, the chances that ANY manufacturer would release that?

The last four models from Avis -to whom I have no relation whatsoever (other than being a happy customer for their recent civil releases)