Airfix 1/72 Bristol 192 Belvedere Full Build

When the Bristol Belvedere was announced by Airfix I was interested. I liked the look of it and sometimes it is nice to build an old kit, that I would have built terribly as a child, to see what sort of job I can make of it now. It's an Airfix Classic so you can expect some difficulties. I was wary after I saw a couple of terrible reviews but is it really that bad?

The front fuselage glazing is a significant part of the kit and Airfix would have done us a big favour had they created a new mould. However they didn't so it needs some work to get a decent result. If you are not comfortable with sanding and polishing canopies then it's probably not for you. After much effort I got it to fit but it is very thick so you can barely see anything through it. I made up some cockpit detail but I needn't have bothered.

The rest of the kit goes together as you'd expect of a kit from this era, except the fuselage halves, which went together almost without filler. There's a lot of plastic to remove but once I got through it the joint was practically perfect.

I was looking for a bit of nostalgia, a different type of building challenge and a funky looking helicopter to add to my collection. I got all of those so for me it was worth it.

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