AIRFIX 1:72 BRISTOL TYPE 192 BELVEDERE
Reviewer: Gavin Dore (rec.models.scale)
The Belvedere is a fairly rare and unusual type of helicopter. It's long skinny fuselage underneath two tandem rotors is recognisable as a late 1940's design. It had a limited role in UK service before later being replaced by Chinnooks.
Airfix have reissued this kit after a few years in the wilderness and essentially nothing has changed since it's las appearance on the market - or so I have been told. However the instructions have been revised into its current and easier to read booklett-style format and the first thing that you notice is that the box title and instruction title differ - the instructions claiming assembly for a "Westland Belvedere HC.1", in otherwords the production version. I can tell you now that the Bristol prototype is a bit different to the production version and really the Westland Belvedere is one of three trials aircraft before it became the production HC.1 variant. The kit can really only make the Bristol version as it appears on the box, because the Westland trials aircraft had different tailplanes - longer and wider - than those supplied in the kit. The instructions say simply to leave the vertical fins off the tailplanes to make the trials aircraft, but this is still inaccurate.
This is also quite easily discernible as an old engineered kit. It has soft grey injected moulded plastic consisting of 50 parts including 5 clear and a tiny bit of flash that needs to be cleaned off. Panel lines and rivets are raised, the latter being a bit large and excessive, these will need to be filed down before main construction work commences - commonplace for early Airfix kits. The Instructions provide paint references from the Humbrol range including numbered references for individual parts. Another task of finding Humbrol x-reference numbers if you use another companies paint range.
Construction is generally simple and straight forward, parts fitting reasonably well considering the age of the tooling. The fuselage halves need to be rubbed down a bit to allow an easier fit and some putty for the hole where the old see-through stand would be attached to (remember those old Airfix kit stands?!). A bit extra care and attention is needed for the tailplanes and the vertical fins attached thereto as you affix it to the rear fuselage. The only real stumbling block is the nose glazing and windscreen assembly (as is often the case with Airfix helicopter kits for some reason) and a perfect fit is hard to achieve. To compound the problem the underside window is one sheet of glazing on the real aircraft yet Airfix have seen fit to make it a two-piece in the kit. So, no matter how you do it you will have a small join line at the very best. Absence of detailed frame lines for the side windows, roof windows, windscreen and door just hamper the whole exercise as you have to paint these on yourself - instructions and box art will give you some idea to what is required.
All up in general assembly is relatively easy with only the points above causing problems. Apparently there is a resin update set to correct the differences between the prototype and trials aircraft versions and perhaps even have the bits needed to make a production HC.1, but since it's word of mouth I can't confirm if this is really the case. It might be worth making some enquiries to see what the set contains, if it exists. The model itself therefore can only represent what the box title says "Bristol Type 192" - that is, the prototype. The dimensions in its scaled down form are spot on.
Only one colour option is provided which is indicative of the scheme the prototype (& trials aircraft) wore. This being white upper surfaces - basically above the windows, and lower natural aluminium finish with a thin blue line separating the two colours. These lines are supplied on the decal sheet which contains a large number of stencilling, roundels and fin flashes. The decals are very thin with a semi-gloss (or 'Satin') finish to them and they conform very well to the surface using Humbrol Decalfix. Depth of colour for all but the blue lines is quite good, sharp and nice register - the lines appear to have a shallow and ragged look about them but are still okay to use.
For its price this kit is well worth the effort and I'd highly recommend it. Just be wary of the problems noted above, that the model can only replicate the prototype, that perhaps there's a resin update set on the market and rivet lines are excessive and you should be able to get a very good finish to this unusual helicopter. Suitable for all but the beginner.
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