The Restorers

Last night in "Salvage Hunters,The Restorers They featured the restoration of Dave Boddington's Sopwith Tabloid.

Now I have recorded the episode but I did see a few minutes of it in which the restorer was say how difficult it would be because they only had the old magazine but no plans.

Well, so far I don't what it is going to be like but I would have expected someone who was going to restore the model would have known that Outer Zone have the plan for free down loading.

I shall watch the full episode soon with er...interest

Anyone else seen it?

Not wanting to spoil your watching later but there was mention of hundreds of £s during the programme

Other than soldering up a new fuel tank, repairing some splits and cracked ribs using copious amounts of PVA, and trying (but failing) to apply some nylon covering, there wasn't much actual filmed restoration. Makes you think that someone else off camera did the serious work.

I did hear Drew Prichard mentioning large sums of MOney. I thought "Another example for the extortinate prices on Ebay"

Probably best to watch it all before passing comment. I have and thought it was quite good, with the right outcome.

There is never going to be enough in these programs to satisfy us enthusiasts, they have to cater for general interest and include several other restorations within the 45 minutes (after ad breaks).

I must say I've virtually forgotten the art of applying nylon covering, so I don't know that I'd have done any better than the chap doing the restoration. Still, he got there in the end.

For anyone that missed it, it's repeated on Sunday 9th at 10pm on Quest, full program title "Salvage Hunters: The Restorers".

A Google search immediately identifies the free plan on Outerzone, similarly I covered a model in Nylon & Dope for the first time last year, and a 10 minute YouTube video shows the method very well. It's only a 51" model with a cheap 2 stroke in it, and the poor sap at the end reckoned it could be worth £2500.

But ! It was a very rare and positive piece on aeromodelling, which can only be a good thing !

I did not see any " proof " the model was built by Dave Boddington.

Good points all - whilst the programme was on I immediately searched online and had the full size plan and article in seconds - plus a post from the guy who was on the programme. Essentially though that meticulous restoration is pretty much what you would do with a lot of swapmeet bargains. The nicest touch was that Andrew Boddington had a picture of himself, aged 10, with the uncovered airframe, which was excellent.

As I observed, when Drew gave the massive valuation based on it being a model actually built by the great Boddo and justifying a four figure sum that any serious enthusiast would be happy to pay -"I wonder what he would give me for my Boddo-bulit Hurricane, bought at a swapmeet years ago.".

Though there was some tremendous guff in the programme -it's just telly - it did paint modelling in a positive light which was nice.

I thought that the failed attempt to cover the wing with nylon using PVA as an adhesive was a bit contrived -la quick search on the internet would have shown a method that worked. Even my wife observed that I "fixed" a car door with nylon and dope back in the 80's.

Haven't seen the programme, but Andrew Boddington, the designer's son has confimed that the model was built by his Dad in Aeromodeller magazine this month. I think you can fairly safely take that as proof considering Andrew would have been a "youth" who lived at home with his parents at the time and probably witnessed the build if not helped?

not hundreds, thousands at the end as 'it had provenance' and had been restored by an acknowledged expert restorer (of motorcycles?). As for the bits about it being recovered in DB's own stock of 'silk', 'linen' and even, more correctly, 'nylon'? These people live in a world of their own enhanced by the need to make it media friendly. They obviously use the internet so did it honestly not occur to them to try a google search to find out how to cover a model? You have to wonder whether BMFA members did a little more than just take the controls for the test flight.

I have now watched the whole thing.

What a load of......

I shall never waste time watching "The restorers" again

Oh! Can I interest anyone in buying some of my models at a give away price of £750 each!!! No restoration needed!!!

Edited By Peter Miller on 06/08/2020 14:58:19

and that explains why we see ebay ads for ratty looking badly painted biplanes that ask £350-400 a time Bet they'll be doubled in price after that program!

Naah. You are not as famous as Boddington.

Who for some unknown reason suddenly 'rose without trace' fully formed and without even wearing a dress held together with safety pins

My Bleriot XI built and flown by Boddo and his team for the Flambards TV series in the 70's must be worth mint.

Any one advise the Ch No and what date the episode was screened.

I was amazed that they did not use top quality control gear in it - if it was going to be worth that much !!

I saw it on Quest (CH12) last night.

I've got it recorded to watch also.....I would imagine that it was made for tv land and so no doubt there will be a few instances of stretching the truth etc...…...like the B o B programme they did not so long ago using the foamy jobs to demonstrate there point of view....

ken anderson....ne..1..stretching the truth dept.

So Drew thought it could be worth £4000. Come on! I think it should have been given back to Andrew Boddington. Would have made a nice ending to the program.

You can view it online at dplay.co.uk