March 03 2009
For Sale — Full Size ‘Balsa’ Spitfire
posted by Steven Shaw at 1:44 pm
For sale: Spitfire replica — one careful owner, low mileage
Auckland artist and musician Christian Nicolson is the man behind this sculpture, a full scale Spitfire replica which is now up for sale.
Replicas of WWII fighters have been made before, but as far as we know this is the first one based on a balsa wood model of a Spitfire. It’s the sort you played with as a kid, pressed out of a thin sheet of balsa and printed one side only. Pre-flight involved putting a lump of plasticene on the nose before yelling “chocks away” and biffing it skyward.
They usually lasted one or two throws before shattering, but this sucker has a steel frame and polystyrene interior and is clad in 6mm Fijian Kauri treated marine ply. Weighing 1.3 tonnes, it’s too heavy to throw and too solid to break. Wing span is 11 metres (36 feet) and the fuselage is 10.4 metres long. It comes in 5 sections which bolt together. It’s great to see this remains true to the subject matter and is decorated on one side only.
The Spitfire is on display this coming weekend at the Low Flying Cars Sculpture Symposium, 258 Blackbridge Rd, Dairy Flat, north of Auckland. The Symposium was on last weekend as well, but um, it rained and stuff.
Nicolson also made a crashed Japanese Zero WWII fighter, constructed from laminated shets of Macrocarpa — scroll down to see more pics and go to christiannicolson.co.nz/ to find out more. Tally-ho!
March 5th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Is the soitfire the one that was just outside the entrance to Matiatia Bay on Waiheke?
March 26th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
yep.