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David Smith (Inflight Poser)
Bugatti 100P
This plane was tiny. Interior painted. Tamiya Extra Thin included for scale.
Fuselage closed up.
Resin parts twere rimmed, fitted and CA glue used as both adhesive and filler.
Inlets at wing roots were drilled out and then the wings and tailplane fitted with Tamiya extra thin. The rear wing root fillets were trimmed and fitted. It was tempting to close up the upper wing to fuselage joints by adding dihedral but the upper surfaces of the real thing appear to be perfectly horizontal.
Resin parts blended in and more CA applied where required.
After everything had set, more CA glue was added to various gaps and steps.
Canopy covered in masking tape and fixed with a couple of drops of Contacta clear. Vallejo light grey primer applied.
Undercarriage wells lined with masking tape and filled with masking compound.
Two coats applied with some limited filling/sanding between coats.
Time for a blue. This was a free sample colour that came with my cheap airbrush. It seems a good Bugatti colour to me but I've not seen it in daylight yet!
This blue is not intended to match either the replica or the original in Oshkosh.
There's not much left in the bottle, so there's a chance that the final colour will change...
The blue still looked good in daylight and there was enough left for second coat.
As others have already noted the undercarriage looks a little chunky. I sanded the forks to slim them down. I attached the gear with CA glue and added an extending strut from thin styrene rod.
The undercarriage doors were also thinned before painting and fitting.
The propellers were assembled and push fitted.
The canopy is not fully painted, but I wanted to see how it was looking. A little grey wash was applied to the dorsal vent and the slots at the rear wing fillets and exhausts. It feels a bit weird not to apply any markings! Decals normally bring a plane to life, but this one looks OK without.
Canopy painted and fitted.
I'm calling it done! Such a pity Bugatti never got to finish the original.
Props are only push fitted. I usually fit them with a smear of white-tack to ensure that they detach rather than break if not handled with enough care. These ones are quite tight and the blades are incredibly delicate, so I'll need to be extra careful.
The finish is as painted, with no clearcoat. This paint is glossier than I often get with varnish and there are no decals or other finish that needs protection.
I may give it a gentle polish later, but I'm happy with it as is.
David Smith I just hope I can do it justice. Other builders report that although the parts are all finely moulded there are some fit issues that will likely tax my skill and patience.
2 April 2023, 20:46
Michael Jonker Good luck with it. Lovely subject and I can't wait to see the main colour going on.
5 April 2023, 12:26
David Smith Hi Michael, I'm impatient too! Currently in primer/fill/sand cycle...not my strength.
Michael Jonker The blue looks brilliant! The plane looks like something from the future.
6 April 2023, 19:23
David Smith The blue changes with the light source and looks best in daylight. I stumbled across a YouTube video of this two or three weeks ago and was struck by the unique design, technical details and 'hidden from the Nazis' history. I could barely believe it when I found it was available in 1:72nd and so cheap! For a cheap kit with free paint I think it turned out OK. It really is a little jewel😀
Beautiful-looking tiny plane conceived by Ettore Bugatti to take the world airspeed record from Howard Hughes, and subsequently the Messerschmidt 109. A very unconventional low drag, lightweight design. Constructed largely of balsa wood covered in tulip wood and doped fabric it featured slightly forward-swept wings and a butterfly tail. Power came from two straight eight Bugatti engines mounted one after another behind the pilot and offset so that he sat between two propshafts. These shafts met in a special gearbox in front of the pilot's feet and had concentric output shafts driving contra-rotating twin blade propellers. The supercharged engines had magnesium blocks and cooling was by internal radiators fed from ducts in the front edge of the tailplane. Flap and landing gear deployment were automatic, depending on airspeed and engine revs. The 100P never flew - it was not quite complete when WWII broke out and spent the duration hidden away in a barn on Bugatti's country estate. After the war it was taken to the US and eventually completed as a museum exhibit. The engines remained in France and were fitted to two Bugatti automobiles which survive to this day. As a sad footnote, a modern replica using a wood fibre composite material and two Hyabusa motorcycle engines was built and flown in 2015, but crashed killing its pilot/builder on its 3rd test flight early in 2016.
David Smith
Michael Jonker
