1/48 Bensen B8M Gyrocopter

Gallery Article by Zac Yates on Nov 3 2009

 

A workmate of mine who flies as crewman on our AS350FX2 Squirrel recently became part-owner of a Bensen B8M Gyrocopter in need of a little TLC (see picture below). As I've been a fan of gyros for a long time, I was inspired by the spectacular 1:72 Fa330 build here at ARC to build my own mini-Bensen from scratch....a little project to tide me over until we restore the 1:1 item to flying condition!

Click on images below to see larger images

  

This roughly 1:48 scale build is made up of bits and pieces from several kits. They include: BAC Strikemaster, TSR.2, Fokker Triplane, Curtiss P-40M, F-15 Eagles, Bell JetRanger, Aerospatiale AS350 Squirrel, P-51D Mustang, MD500, Supermarine Walrus, Airspeed Oxford, even a Cessna Bird Dog! The model is 8cm long with a rotorspan of 12cm. Real palm-of-your-hand stuff! 

This build was started on the Saturday afternoon and finished by dinner next day. Great fun, an enjoyable way to kill a rainy weekend, and very rewarding....especially when I took it in to work and everyone asks where I bought it :-)

Zac Yates

Photos and text © by Zac Yates