Is there any chance of getting a model kit of Bluebird on sale? A plastic or a balsa and tissue paper type of kit is the obvious idea. Plastic would be expensive in tooling up the moulds etc. The balsa and tissue would be much more economical to produce, and great to build.
Preferably plans for engineers to construct a metal version. (A "Jetex" engine would have been great to power a model - but alas these engines are no longer available.) My father had a model boat powred by a pulse engine - ingenious, but not powerful enough to run a model of Bluebird.
There are a few model kits of Bluebird available, I guess you are looking for K7? http://www.touchwoodmodels.com/ produce a nice line of LSR and WSR cars and boats (including K7). They also produce a 1:12th scale K7 kit that can be adapted for Radio Control.
'Model Maker' produced a set of plans based on an early version of K7 in 1955, designed for Jetex power. I would offer to send you a copy but they are buried deep in the collection at my parents house. I believe there are also some general arrangement drawings ok K7 avaiable, Fred Blois's 'Rainbow Coloured' spimgs to mind I belive these are included in this publication.
Replacement Jetex motors are being produced by a company called Rapier. Hope this helps.
Many thanks for the information about K7 and Jetex.
In connection with Jetex, my brother and I were given a model each. Mine was a rocket, and my brother's a streamlined racing car. The car reached a scale speed in excess of 400mph! Hence my train of thought re a working Bluebird model.
Now if someone with access to a lot of "Tin bashing " equipment and detailed plans of K7 were to build a say an 1:8 scale K7 kit from a material something like Birmabrite for instance---could make quite a lot of income for whatever project they're working on!
"I hate two faced people-don't know which face to punch first!"
We could make the kit but you'd have to supply your own tins of filler, bits of string for the heat shields, half a smashed up wardrobe to balance the lead ingots on in the stern, some of Donald's old shirts to soak up spilled kerosene then you'd have to scatter a bucketful of spanners, unused rivets, nuts, bolts and screws into the bilges and finally an old biro to get it just right. Add seventy four coats of blue paint in various shades having cut, shut and reworked your bodywork many times and you're ready for the water.
I'm only a plumber from Cannock...
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
. . And I can rattle around my stored goodies in the garage for old paint and fillers, some plumbing bits if you want. Or can I send up a couple of whitworth spanners? . . . .
I never thought the modelling thread would catch on!
Hang on a minute...I hope all this modelling talk is still referring to Airfix kits and Humbrol paint...and not big strapping Georgie lads with their man-boobs out on page 3 of Diving Monthly!
