Telemaster Sales UK

Alan Ayres and Kit Davidson with their SLEC Fun Flies.


Your humble servant with his Fun Fly. I didn't finish it in yellow to avoid confusion!
Gentlemen, the saga of the red Solartex and that of the SNJ-4, known as the "Harvard" in RAF circles, has provoked some thoughts which I'd like to share with you. This will involve pulling together several lines of thought so please bear with me. As I mentioned in Post 7387, I bought the Harvard sometime ago and it's taken me five years to fit an engine and a receiver. I've still some adjustments to make so I haven't maidened it yet. Naturally I've had other things to do in the interim, houses, gardens, motor vehicles etc.

I must have bought the opaque Red Solartex at about the same time as I bought the Harvard. There was a model shop which was closing down probably as a result of internet competition. I'd always had good service from that shop so bought two rolls of Red Solartex with the intention of building a Flair Puppeteer, a not-so-semi-scale version of the Sopwith Pup. I intended to finish the model in a post war colour scheme, red overall with civilian registrations in black on white fields but then Flair went out of business. I notice that I had paid £9.99 for each roll (11.58€ or $12.76 US.) As I type this two metres of Solartex will set you back £23.50 from Solarfilm Sales, the business set up to liquidate Solarflim stocks. That's 27.25€ or $30.02 US per roll at current exchange rates and Red Solartex is no longer available. A 1/6 scale Sopwith Pup from Balsa USA or DB Sport and Scale will cost me £210-£230 these days, (243€ or $268 US upwards) but that's not the point.

The following is written after a much needed breakfast of scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast! Again some years ago I bought another T6 built off the Brian Taylor plan, the smaller version, from an elderly gentlemen in Somerset. It's beautifully built, finished in post war RAF colours, retracts the lot but I've never flown it. I'm waiting for my landings to improve! He said that all aeromodellers were hoarders, that it "went with the territory." He was the same generation as my father. Though he came from Somerset his wife was a Londoner. They'd met when they were both stationed somewhere together in the army during the war. I suppose that at the time when I bought the model he would have been in his eighties.

A few weeks ago a dear friend of mine and fellow aeromodeller, Kit Davidson and his partner came to visit me. They were on their way down to the south of France on holiday and we had a pleasant evening at the local restaurant which opened especially for us. Kit is an exceptionally big and strong man, a real heavyweight and well over six feet six (198cms) tall; I believe that he's seventy-three years old. He spent all of his working life, thirty-six years, in the Royal Navy starting off as an Ordinary Seaman and ending up as the officer in charge of the anti-aircraft weapons on an aircraft carrier. I used to tease him that he had to serve on an aircraft carrier because all of the other ships in the navy were too small for him! He also used to play rugby for the navy, second row of course where all the giant powerhouses play. He remains an afficianado of the game to this day. He is pictured above on the right with Alan Ayres and their yellow SLEC Fun Flys. Naturally being a fellow aeromodeller, I was keen to show him my workshop which is in the cellar. Kit has recently had back surgery from which he has nearly recovered but he looked at the stairs and said that he couldn't go down them because there was no hand rail. He had to walk round the side of the house and through the garage door to get into the workshop. Over brandies on the terrace, once Shirley had gone to bed, he mentioned that recent events had caused him to think of his own mortality.

Let's go back to the Red Solartex. I was debating whether to cover the Big Guff's fuselage in the Old Vintage Red or the opaque Red Solartex. If I used the Old Vintage Red would I have enough to cover the rest of the aeroplane? I decided to cover the fuselage in the opaque red Solartex which I had bought for the prospective Sopwith Pup. Then the following thought struck me. If it had taken me five years to put an engine and a receiver into a model, was I ever going to get round to building the Sopwith Pup? Especially when I have:

1. The Big Guff to finish.
2. My BE2e to finish.
3. A little Sharkface to finish.
4. The WOT 4 XL to re-cover.
5. My Senior Telemaster to re-cover. The fuselage needs a little work too it's too flexible.
6. My late best friend's Flying Flea to finish off.
7. My Uncle Ivor's Keil Kraft Outlaw to renovate.
8. A WOT 4 Classic to renovate.
9. A Dave Smith Models Aerostar patternship to renovate.
10. The elderly gentleman's T6/Harvard needs the radio and engine installing.
11. A Majestic Major needs a new fuselage, repairs to the wing and a complete re-cover.
12. A DB Sport and Scale Auster to finish off.
13. A friend's Bristol Blenheim to complete

Then there are the unstarted kits.

1. DB Sport and Scale SE5 1/4 scale.
2. Fokker DVII 1/6 scale.
3. Supra Star patternship.
4. Another WOT 4 Classic.
5. Hawker Hurricane.
6. Stampe Monitor
7. Another 1/6 scale BE2e.

Add to all of these the 1/3rd scale Mick Reeves Sopwith Camel I inherited from a deceased member of the club who once played for the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra!

That old man was right. we're all hoarders, or at least Donny and I are judging by the photographs!

I'm not poor but I think I ought to sell some of this stuff ! I could give it all to the club but there are two or three builders among the younger members. That said three more have just taken up the art.

Happy Landings Gentlemen

David