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The Restorers


Peter Miller
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I think the term Restorers is a bit of a stretch! More like 'Bodgers', especially with reference to the unbelievably crude chest of drawers that didn't look much better when it was finished. I've got a couple of sets of small wooden drawers which must have been hand made from wooden soap boxes around 100 years ago and they're beautifully made. They came from an old friend of my father's and then to me. I wonder what they're worth. I just use them for bits storage in my workshop.

The 3 piece suite ended up quite nicely finished though. We tried to dispose of our 3 piece suite to a charity shop some years ago and they wouldn't take it despite its excellent condition because it didn't have the right labels for fire risk after we had it reupholstered 20 years ago. Not sure how that would work with the suite in the programme.

It was interesting to see the Tabloid actually flying after its repair. What did seem odd to me was giving the job to someone who wasn't an aeromodeller. I think someone like (say) Ian Redshaw, who has several restorations under his belt (including that superb HP42 airliner), would have made a much better job.

As for the valuation, does anyone here think it''s worth £1000 let alone the £2,500 that was bandies about.

I'm quite a fan of the BBC's Repair Shop which leaves Restorers lying in the dust. And they deal with the owners rather than dodgy antique dealers.

Geoff

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I wouldn't have paid 4 figures for it, but I wouldn't pay 4 figures for a transmitter either, but several people I know have done so. Some of the jets we see cost as much as a fairly new car. We are a hobby that is a "broad church" and I guess we should rejoice in that.

It certainly beats trying to make a TV program that satisfies aeromodellers!

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I hope the "cast iron provenance" was based on more than just the lettering on a scale model!

Very gratifying to see it fly though and not be left to hang from a junk antique shop ceiling unflown - perhaps Mr. Hare might be motivated to join his local club and learn to fly it himself in a year or two! I see he lives close to Nomansland Common (where I taught myself control line and had my first RC crash) but I'm not sure how active the club there is these days.

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I was just wondering how he'd made such a positive identification from grainy photos amd memories from childhood. If it was just that the markings looked the same then I would hesitate to (read that as wouldn't in a million years) use that as any basis to pay a premium on the value of the model - 3 to 4 thousand for something you'd pick up at any club auction for much less than a hundred quid ready to fly?

I thought the restorer was far more realistic - until I looked at his website and saw him inviting offers of over £50,000 for an old Peugeot bike fitted with a "premixed methanol fuelled" model of a "9 cylinder Gnome radial???" engine - bearing a remarkable resemblance to an Evolution 99cc...

 

Edited By Martin Harris on 07/08/2020 12:38:16

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Surely nobody would ever pay £4000 for a manky old Tabloid, even if it had been built by Sir Thomas Sopwith himself - that was just for the telly.

It's not too difficult to identify the model from the photographs in the original article -it's not just a matter of having the same markings in the case of a scale model - there's the accessories as well -in this case the pilot etc looked identical to those in the pictures and there was even a photograph of the model in it'ts uncovered state.

Here's a pictiure of my David Boddington built Hurricane Mk1 together with the picture from the RCSA magazine article. It is identical, the finish is identical, the small amount of weathering, the hand carved exhaust stacks painted the colour of Cherry Blossom boot polish, the unusual spinner, the markings are identical -it;s the same model. dbhurricanercsa.jpg

dscn0010.jpg

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Hi Eric - I bought the Hurricane already built from a swapmeet, it is the prototype which was built by David Boddington and is the one featured in the magazine article. I haven;t flown it, I converted her to electric and then putting the model in the car to go for a maiden flight I caught the wing on the tailgate and tore an aileron off. Then she was hung back up on the ceiling and a couple of years later I used the gear in something else, so she still hasn't flown.It's definitely the model pictured in the magazine, so now I'm waiting to see if Drew Pritchard will give me two grand for the model.

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I watched the latest Repair Shop on the iPlayer. A much more skilled and professional team, generally. The restoration of the penny-farhting/high-ordinary bicycle dated from arund 1875 was brilliant but with less detail than I'd have liked.

The repair of the mechanical calculator took me back to when we had a slightly more advanced electric Friden at work - setting it to divide by zero was always entertaining

Geoff

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Posted by Martin Dance 1 on 08/08/2020 15:18:45:

It may well be David's prototype, but my recollection is that many of David's designs were actually built by David Toyer at the prototype stage.

Actually David farmed out a lot of his designs for others to build.

He once said that he liked to come home and spend time at his drawing board.

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Posted by Peter Miller on 08/08/2020 15:45:15:
Posted by Martin Dance 1 on 08/08/2020 15:18:45:

It may well be David's prototype, but my recollection is that many of David's designs were actually built by David Toyer at the prototype stage.

Actually David farmed out a lot of his designs for others to build.

He once said that he liked to come home and spend time at his drawing board.

The spray job looks to be typical Ian Peacock standard, could be he also built it. I know that Ian & David (Boddo) knew each other quite well & I believe they lived only a few miles apart.

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