Bristol F.2B WW1 Fighter by CDW - FINISHED - Eduard - 1:48 Scale

[CDW]

I'll be building the 1:48 Scale Bristol F.2B World War 1 fighter by Eduard in 1:48 scale. She will be finished in the livery of No. 62 Squadron, RFC, France, early 1918 as flown by Lt W.E. Staton, 25 1/2 confirmed victories. No aftermarket items are planned at this time although I will likely add some scratch-made details particularly as it pertains to rigging. 

I welcome you to follow along, comment, and make yourself at home.

 

Well heck, I better add a photo of the kit.

[Jack12477]

[AJohnson]

👻 spooky!  I have been looking at these Eduard F2.Bs only this last week as a future project as I was fancying a biplane for a change.

 

Pulling up a chez lounge, as you wanted us to be at home! 

[Canute]

Number 4 in, on the right. Looking at another fine job by a master. No problem with that, right? 😁

[Edwardkenway]

I'm present. Do you mind if I take the hammock again!

Looking forward to this one.

[CDW]

3 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

 

2 hours ago, AJohnson said:

👻 spooky!  I have been looking at these Eduard F2.Bs only this last week as a future project as I was fancying a biplane for a change.

 

Pulling up a chez lounge, as you wanted us to be at home! 

 

2 hours ago, Canute said:

Number 4 in, on the right. Looking at another fine job by a master. No problem with that, right? 😁

 

58 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

I'm present. Do you mind if I take the hammock again!

Looking forward to this one.

Welcome, glad to have you aboard. Will be posting a progress update later today so stay tuned. 

[CDW]

Just now, Canute said:

Number 4 in, on the right. Looking at another fine job by a master. No problem with that, right? 😁

I went over to Draf Models and took a look at their F.2B kit and accessories. That is a very impressive model, and the extras add to it. Did you order it and if so, did you order any of the extras?

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Craig, great choice!  I have a couple of the Eduard F.2b kits on the shelf (Brisfish and Crocodile) so will be following your build for sure.

 

  

 

There's not that much AM out there for these kits, but I did pick up this Part set (No. S48-133) which is for the Roden kit but has some helpful PE for the build.  Worth it just for the much improved radiator in my opinion.

 

 

If interested, you can look at what this guy did with the Crocodile kit - lots of amazing scratch and other upgrades for the kit.  Of course, you can always look at the Wingnut kit to see if there are any details, etc. that this particular kit may be missing.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=21997&p=albums&album=42324&view=list

 

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Landlubber Mike

[CDW]

As is typical of most aircraft models, construction begins with the cockpit and fuselage sides.

[Canute]

Those WW I a/c really weren't much more than box kites. Spruce frames and canvas?

 

I purchased the laser frames and the seat. The latticework seat looked beyond me (one of my parents wicker chairs we had out on the patio), so I opted for the seat. The MGs looked good, but I figured I needed to roll my own, since they don't need bending into a horseshoe, like the seat edge padding. 😁

[mtaylor]

37 minutes ago, Canute said:

Those WW I a/c really weren't much more than box kites. Spruce frames and canvas?

Pretty much that was it.  The engines were somewhat marvels for the times by comparison.  

[CDW]

Until building this kit, I never realized the F.2 B had a Vickers MG hidden under the fuselage. She fired through the forward fuselage, radiator, cowl, and propeller blades vis a vis a synchronizing gear. Once the fuselage goes together, the weapon will remain pretty much hidden from view. With some amount of effort, it might be seen just above the top of the instrument panel. I have a few more minor things to add to the cockpit before joining the fuselage halves.

Note that the lucky pilot sits on top of the fuel tank! Sheesh, that must have been nerve racking all by itself, not to mention the flimsy box kite nature of construction. This pilot must have been pretty darned good to have had 25 1/2 kills in this plane, although on the other hand, with the large wing area and dihedral in the wings, it was probably a very stable gun platform. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by CDW

[Old Collingwood]

looks like a cool  build  Craig   - these  old  ladies  are  Fantastic  when you  see them at Airshows.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Sitting on the fuel tank? What a stench. And add the castor oil they used. A wonder the fumes didn't do them in. The pilot of this crate had 25 1/2 kills. Impressive.

[mtaylor]

On 10/21/2022 at 4:20 AM, Canute said:

Sitting on the fuel tank? What a stench. And add the castor oil they used. A wonder the fumes didn't do them in. The pilot of this crate had 25 1/2 kills. Impressive.

I'm surprised they could actually fly as much as they did.  There were reports that the Red Baron had diarrhea so bad towards the end that he could barely walk out to aircraft without an "oops".

[Canute]

🤯

[Jack12477]

Growing up as a wee lad post WWII, we had a neighbor across the street from us who had flown with the Lafayette Escadrille. I remember him telling Dad about their flight instructions/training. Basically classroom instructions using those airplanes on a stick, then out to the airfield for some static instruction on controls, then you took off solo, flew around then landed. If you landed with both you and the plane in one piece, they pinned your wings on and pronounced you an aviator/pilot.  And yes he did talk about the castor oil and the post flight (sometimes in-flight) oopsies. 

 

I heard the same comments from Cole Palen, founder of the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome here, and got a whiff of the castor oil from his planes. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Jack12477

[CDW]

I always liked the smell of castor oil in the alcohol-based fuels we used in our model airplanes. Having it splattered in my face and goggles while flying would have been quite another story.

[king derelict]

20 minutes ago, CDW said:

I always liked the smell of castor oil in the alcohol-based fuels we used in our model airplanes. Having it splattered in my face and goggles while flying would have been quite another story.

Oh no; I never liked that spoonful of castor oil as a kid.🙂

Alan

 

[king derelict]

Craig

This is going to be a beautiful model. The rigging would worry me though. I have a Roden Gotha to build and it leers at me from the shelf.

Alan

[CDW]

5 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Craig

This is going to be a beautiful model. The rigging would worry me though. I have a Roden Gotha to build and it leers at me from the shelf.

Alan

I have a few tricks up my sleeve for rigging. Will take photos of it along the way.

[CDW]

Not ready for rigging at this time, but to prepare for it, find some cheap cotton swabs with plastic sticks. Paper sticks won’t work for this exercise. The plastic sticks are tubes. Slowly heat the plastic stick over a lit candle until it’s soft, then stretch it into a small diameter tube. Cut the stretched plastic tube into 2 or 3mm long sections. These will be used later on in the rigging process. You could alternatively use 1 or .5mm brass tubing cut into similar size pieces, but it’s harder to source small diameter brass tubing. 
You may need to practice a bit to stretch the heated plastic tube. It’s easy to over heat or over stretch it and ruin it, but it’s no big deal.

[CDW]

The fit of the fuselage halves was pretty good. After some sanding of the seams, adding super glue as a seam filler then sanding some more, the seams have virtually disappeared.

 

[AJohnson]

5 hours ago, CDW said:

Not ready for rigging at this time, but to prepare for it, find some cheap cotton swabs with plastic sticks. Paper sticks won’t work for this exercise. The plastic sticks are tubes. Slowly heat the plastic stick over a lit candle until it’s soft, then stretch it into a small diameter tube. Cut the stretched plastic tube into 2 or 3mm long sections. These will be used later on in the rigging process. You could alternatively use 1 or .5mm brass tubing cut into similar size pieces, but it’s harder to source small diameter brass tubing. 
You may need to practice a bit to stretch the heated plastic tube. It’s easy to over heat or over stretch it and ruin it, but it’s no big deal.

Intrigued with what these are for! 🤔

[CDW]

For my rigging, I will be using 2 pound test monofilament fishing line. It’s almost hair-like in diameter.

[CDW]

I create my attachment points by first stripping the insulation from fine gauge electrical wire. Then using individual strands of wire, twist them into loops as per the photos. On this model, I will need a couple dozen attachment points. I made a tool to twist the loops by bending the needle of a hypodermic syringe. The wire is too fine to do it by hand. Need a tool like this one or similar to do it.

[CDW]

Two attachment points will be made adjacent to each wing strut. I’ve drilled .25mm holes at each point being careful not to drill through the wing but enough to enable our twisted wire attachment points to be super glued to the wing. Now the little plastic sleeves made earlier come into play. Slide the monofilament rigging wire through a sleeve, then slide the rigging wire through the attachment point loop. Bring the wire back through the sleeve then super glue the sleeve to the wire…attachment complete. I find this method much simpler and cleaner than trying to knot the wire at the attachment point. Plus it looks pretty good after the assembly is all finished.

[Canute]

I just saw that technique for making eyebolts at a recent RR prototype modelers meet. The commercial one are either the wrong size you need, plastic when you need metal or simply not available. Fellow used a thin needle nose pliers with similar sized wire. The plastic sleeve acting as a crimping band is a good trick. 👍

[Egilman]

5 hours ago, CDW said:

Two attachment points will be made adjacent to each wing strut. I’ve drilled .25mm holes at each point being careful not to drill through the wing but enough to enable our twisted wire attachment points to be super glued to the wing. Now the little plastic sleeves made earlier come into play. Slide the monofilament rigging wire through a sleeve, then slide the rigging wire through the attachment point loop. Bring the wire back through the sleeve then super glue the sleeve to the wire…attachment complete. I find this method much simpler and cleaner than trying to knot the wire at the attachment point. Plus it looks pretty good after the assembly is all finished.

 

 

I use telephone extension cord wire for this (after stripping it down as I did on my M-8 HST build) it's just as thin and the sheathing makes excellent scale ferrules... A simple technique and another way to do it.... Excellent my friend!!!! If there is a will there's a way...

 

Gonna be spectacular

Edited October 22, 2022 by Egilman

[CDW]

Wife and I going to our 50th school graduating class reunion tonight.