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[Dan.Lord]

Hi all, managed to get my Bluebell    as you can see it's an old Matchbox kit, I've been through the contents, & all appears to be present, apart form 2 glass ( plastic ) portholes, but I'm sure I'll be able to use something else. nice to see it as some crew, & the flags are sort of cloth material, so that's good.
I've brought the necessary bit's n bobs from SHG, to make her R/C so that should be fun   
All the mouldings look to be very clean & crisp, from what I remember of matchbox they were always a nice fit, so lets hope this one is too 
I think I'll upgrade some of the parts like the railings etc, as they look a bit lifeless.
Cheers Dan.

[Martin (Admin)]

Pour some glue into the box, seal it up, shake it up for 20 minutes and  voilą!
.... obviously, add paint for colour.

[Plastic - RIP]

Wow - you're very lucky! I'd LOVE to have an original Matchbox Flower Class model.

I bought the Revell re-issue back in 2003 (brand new for £40 from Revell Germany) and it was very poor quality. The 2 halves of the moulds were badly aligned so nothing fitted properly.
I was really diappointed in the early Revell model after many years of coveting the Matchbox model from afar in Beatties model shop - it was WAY too expensive when I was young.

I've built another couple of them since and the quality is better, but still not a good as the originals.

[Dan.Lord]

Pour some glue into the box, seal it up, shake it up for 20 minutes and  voilą!
.... obviously, add paint for colour.

Lol sounds like a plan    I'll throw in the motor etc & hope they find the correct place to live    Watch this space 

[Dan.Lord]

Wow - you're very lucky! I'd LOVE to have an original Matchbox Flower Class model.

I bought the Revell re-issue back in 2003 (brand new for £40 from Revell Germany) and it was very poor quality. The 2 halves of the moulds were badly aligned so nothing fitted properly.
I was really diappointed in the early Revell model after many years of coveting the Matchbox model from afar in Beatties model shop - it was WAY too expensive when I was young.

I've built another couple of them since and the quality is better, but still not a good as the originals.

Cheers Plastic, I paid 60 quid for this one, not cheap, but cheaper than getting a Revell one    some one's written on the back of the box purchased in 1980, so she's been stored a while    I think i'll start her this weekend esp if this weather keeps up    Can't mow the grass if it's wet now can I !!!!

[essex2visuvesi]

Wow - you're very lucky! I'd LOVE to have an original Matchbox Flower Class model.

I bought the Revell re-issue back in 2003 (brand new for £40 from Revell Germany) and it was very poor quality. The 2 halves of the moulds were badly aligned so nothing fitted properly.
I was really diappointed in the early Revell model after many years of coveting the Matchbox model from afar in Beatties model shop - it was WAY too expensive when I was young.

I've built another couple of them since and the quality is better, but still not a good as the originals.

I remember this one being in My local Model shop when I was a kid.... I remember the price as well... 29.99.  This was back in 1982/83

[warspite]

ahhh the good old days, bought mine in '82 £26.00, its main engine was powered by 4 D sized batteries - yep that bad, I aint got any better 

RC was a acoms 2 channel, still got her, shes had a couple of updates in the early 20 years, but not for a while, still have the two books, mine has an airfix bofors replacing the pedestal gun as the kit gun is atrocious, the main 4" is original but its hidden under the canopy so the detail is easily overlooked, was going to convert the gun to a german 88 back half to improve the look but decided to keep the original with a bit of moulding canvas.

mine also has the two bridge guns replaced with 1/35 Tamiya willys MB jeep 50 cal machine guns as these were better looking than those in the kit.

[Dan.Lord]

Managed to start the hull, glued both sections together & fitted the main prop shaft. This had to be done very carefully, as there wasn't much hull left by the time I'd drilled & filed it out to get the shaft to fit. In the end it went in with a nice tight fit & I've dropped some epoxy all over it to seal any small gaps that might be present. I've also smoothed off the edge where the hull joins, but I reckon it'll need some filler finish it off .

[Capt Podge]

It's difficult to tell from the photos Dan, is there sufficient clearance between propshaft and hull, on the inside, to attach a motor or would you use a small pulley system ?
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 

[Netleyned]

Does look a bit close to the hull.
Maybe it's the camera angle.

Ned

[Klunk]

Wow - you're very lucky! I'd LOVE to have an original Matchbox Flower Class model.

I bought the Revell re-issue back in 2003 (brand new for £40 from Revell Germany) and it was very poor quality. The 2 halves of the moulds were badly aligned so nothing fitted properly.
I was really diappointed in the early Revell model after many years of coveting the Matchbox model from afar in Beatties model shop - it was WAY too expensive when I was young.

I've built another couple of them since and the quality is better, but still not a good as the originals.

the revel kit IS the matchbox kit. I have 3 revell issues and 4 original Matchbox versions.
Earlier this year a Mr Dave Abbott was talking to me as he had just made a corvette that had been left on his bin outside his house for him by someone. He had been trying to source the decals for it for 6 months  to finish it off but had had no success from Revell. I mentioned that I had a few bits left and delivered him an original set of Matchbox decals and a Revell set. He used the original set......from 1979! and they came out perfect. no silvering or fragility!! He was more than impressed that I had a spare set of original decals and that I would let him have them for free!

[Capt Podge]

a corvette that had been left on his bin outside his house for him by someone.

That will have me checking my bin on Monday morning
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
 

[Klunk]

Well your not getting your hands on any of mine!  Lol

[Dan.Lord]

Ive measured the distance from the end of the shaft to the bilge, its 19mm so plenty of room for the coupling to meet the motor 

[Capt Podge]

Thanks for that Dan.
 
Must have been the camera angle, as suggested above.
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 

[Plastic - RIP]

the revel kit IS the matchbox kit. I have 3 revell issues and 4 original Matchbox versions.
Earlier this year a Mr Dave Abbott was talking to me as he had just made a corvette that had been left on his bin outside his house for him by someone. He had been trying to source the decals for it for 6 months  to finish it off but had had no success from Revell. I mentioned that I had a few bits left and delivered him an original set of Matchbox decals and a Revell set. He used the original set......from 1979! and they came out perfect. no silvering or fragility!! He was more than impressed that I had a spare set of original decals and that I would let him have them for free!

Yes - it's the same moulds - but the care of their alignment and the quality of the pastic are nowhere near as good as the old Matchbox version.

[Colin Bishop]

Dave Abbott did a review of the Revell kit for Model Boats magazine a little while back. His article is on the MB website: http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/hmcs-snowberry/10039

Colin

[Klunk]

Dave Abbott did a review of the Revell kit for Model Boats magazine a little while back. His article is on the MB website: http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/hmcs-snowberry/10039

Colin

That's the one I supplied the decals for . He ran this boat at watermead and Black Park open days in the last few weeks  and no doubt it will be on display at the St Albans show at the end of September as well

[Dan.Lord]

Dave Abbott did a review of the Revell kit for Model Boats magazine a little while back. His article is on the MB website: http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/hmcs-snowberry/10039

Colin

Thanks for the link Colin    I like looking at other peoples builds gives me inspiration    Cheers Dan

[warspite]

makes me envious - if ever I get the time i'll have to upgrade mine to look better.

[Klunk]

makes me envious - if ever I get the time i'll have to upgrade mine to look better.

Get a new 'old' kit and build another.  There were 3 different  versions in the box.

[warspite]

too many boats to redo - finish off - upgrade and no space and the cost for any is getting higher each year, plus I'm jinxed, every time I try to upgrade one of start one, work starts to get in the way or something or other happens, the card board boat is on hold for the time being due to things happening at work - for the worse. 

[Klunk]

Hmmm same problem here. I sold 3 boats and then got given 7 boats.  And I'm sure they are breeding in my shed!

[Dan.Lord]

Got a little further today, Filled the cracks etc, & fitted the bilge keels, they were fun to fit, ended up using cyno,as they kept springing back up    got there in the end though    Also made up the rudder, as in the review, I used a shop rudder & cut it down & fitted the original model rudder over it & used epoxy to glue them together. I had to adjust the angle of the post a bit to get the rudder to sit correct, but with a bit of plastic metal to fill the gap it looks pretty good. Just got to trim the shaft down a it to fit under the deack & jobs a gooden 
Pleased with the results so far 

[Plastic - RIP]

Nice work so far!

A suggestion - Because the rudder tube has to be cut down to fit under the deck, I normally put a bulkhead just in front of the rudder post to limit where any water ingress can get to.