Bluebird CN7

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This is Speedline Models 1:20 scale kit of Donald Campbell’s Land Speed Record breaking car of 1964, CN7 or Campbell Norris 7 if you prefer. To the best of my belief this kit is still available.


I’ve had the kit for some years now but only just made a start on it.

Its mostly a vacform, but with some very nicely moulded resin parts as well. Although the tail fin and brake air inlets are vacformed, they are also supplied as resin parts, which just illustrates how kits improve over time.
It’s not terrible complicated, but will build up into a very nice, sizable model of this unique car.


The decals for the fuselage and instruments are very nicely printed, but of the peal and stick variety so will be rather thick on the model despite the instructions saying otherwise. I’m not sure if I will use the instrument ones as I’m inclined to paint my own instrument detail.
Also included is a dainty little model of Mr Whopitt, Donald’s lucky mascot seen of the left of the picture.


Having cut the main fuselage halves from their backing, I added some stiffening strips to the lower half to keep the two halves in alignment with each other, and also some locating strips to strengthen up the joint. These were curved around a pencil before gluing in.

Another update to follow shortly, in the meantime here’s some music….

(I have a tendency to type as I think, so if any of this isn’t making sense for goodness sake tell me! Oh yes, and there’s no music! )

Will.

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Part 2.
Turning my attention to the cockpit, I noticed the top of the cockpit tub was lacking the natural metal framework of the real car. This is what the canopy locks down onto, so have added the framework from built up styrene strips.
This framework is a very noticeable feature of the cockpit as can be seen in this photo


At the same time I also added a thin strip around the inner edge of the tub framework. This serves the dual purpose of making the cockpit easy to locate in the upper fuselage half, and has the effect of making the skin of the fuselage appear thinner, thus giving some scale appearance.
It will look better once glued in position.

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Really enjoying the progress of this build, it's different!

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Thanks Nick, took a while to post my latest update due to problems with Photo bucket, but it's here at last.
I'm not given to making things quickly as my wife would tell you, so don't be expecting me to finish CN7 by next week! but it's coming along nicely, and yes it's different.

[rgriffs]

it looks a very interesting project, thanks for sharing it with us.

[geebee]

Very interesting model, I still have my Corgi Bluebird from the 60's in the loft ....

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Thanks chaps, glad the construction is proving interesting

There will be more CN7 stuff to follow shortly as I am on to the canopy now, a very delicate moulding.
Almost all of the detail on this model is in the cockpit, though there's nothing to stop anyone else from going to town on making a model engine for example.
The model's certainly large enough for extra details, though I am mostly making this one "out of the box."

Glad you still have your 60's Bluebird. Hate to think what would happen if my wife knew I still had my old collection of cigarette cards in the attic! Shhh...

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Part3


Moving on to the canopy, this is a very delicate moulding, and needs a great deal of care when sanding to ensure the slight curvature of the canopy surround is not damaged. After sanding, the surround is frighteningly thin.

There is a framework in the canopy as well, and although its basically mentioned in the instructions, they do not provide any idea of its construction. There appears to be scarce photo reference for this frame, so I cautiously went ahead with construction based on a few internet photos and my own video footage of CN7 taped from a TV documentary.



The frame was made up from a lamination of three pieces of sheet styrene that I had already cut out the centres from, having first made a card template of the frame.
Lots of sanding required here to produce a smooth, solid looking frame. Once in position, a small curved insert was added at the front just below where the windscreen will be, and a bulkhead to the rear.
This bulkhead also carries the headrest, though this cannot easily be seen from anything but very unnatural angles so I haven’t gone to town on it!



The frame also has a slight curvature sanded onto it to match that of the canopy surround.

I had an idea of making up some non-scale hinges for the canopy so it could be opened and closed but thought it would be rather toy-like. Instead, I am going to make some scale hinge ends that are visible on the canopy when it is open (supported by a tiny blob of Blutack!). The hinges will then sit in a couple of groves in the instrument panel bulkhead when the canopy is positioned closed.

More on that next time, which if things carry on as they are, might be a few weeks.

Will.