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

[ccoyle]

Great picture! I love seeing what some of our members look like in the flesh.

[CDW]

Just this morning debris contractors began collecting debris created as a result of Hurricane Ian on our street. Our damage was next to nothing compared to counties south of us. It will take years, maybe decades for them to recover.

[CDW]

The upper and lower wings each have need of 20 tie-off points for rigging. The fuselage needs 6 points, 3 on each side. 

Next steps will include prepping and painting the wings. Will pre-shade the wings before color coats. I may paint the rounders depending on how the decals look. Eduardo usually have nice decals but we shall see.

[CDW]

Fuselage is ready for paint. The F.2B had a unique wing mounting system on the bottom wing.

The wings have been primed in white while the rib locations are pre shaded n black before color coats.

[CDW]

For any of you that own this kit or a variation of it from Eduard, be aware the instruction part number call outs for the fuselage - lower wing struts are backward. Test fit the strut fuselage to wing fit before gluing the parts to the fuselage. If you don’t do this, you will find out the hard way and likely need to scratch build another set of struts.

[CDW]

Have a little paint on the major portion of the kit now. Will add more paint to the struts then will begin the assembly of the sub assemblies 😁

Mucho weathering and rigging to follow.

[Danstream]

Nice looking green finish. WWI planes have a special allure to me.

Dan

[CDW]

Here you can see the odd way the lower wing is mounted to the fuselage as well as how the landing gear struts pass through the wing to attach to the fuselage. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by CDW

[ccoyle]

It's a weird lay, to be sure, but one can't argue with success, and the F.2b was very successful.

[Danstream]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

It's a weird lay, to be sure, but one can't argue with success, and the F.2b was very successful.

I believe it was the first combat plane to be called 'fighter'.

[Egilman]

Just now, Danstream said:

I believe it was the first combat plane to be called 'fighter'.

Yep, they were called "Pursuit planes" during WWI, Fighter planes afterwards... Became a generic term for the type....

[CDW]

[CDW]

[CDW]

I will use this contraption to align the wings and glue the struts in place. It’s not aligned yet, just posed for a “before” photo. The “after” photo will come later.

[DocRob]

This looks very promising. I don't want to spoil your party, but I can't wait to see you tackle the rigging. These British birds doesn't make it too easy for the modeler, with their flat rigging.
I haven't found the bravery in me to build a 48 scale British WWI plane, but built several German ones in different scales, where rigging is a bit simpler. 

 

Cheers Rob 

[CDW]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

This looks very promising. I don't want to spoil your party, but I can't wait to see you tackle the rigging. These British birds doesn't make it too easy for the modeler, with their flat rigging.
I haven't found the bravery in me to build a 48 scale British WWI plane, but built several German ones in different scales, where rigging is a bit simpler. 

 

Cheers Rob 

Thanks Rob. Hope it doesn’t disappoint too much but I won’t be doing flat rigging with this model. Wasn’t prepared to source the materials needed which on first thought would need to be photo etch. Could possibly do it by repurposing some small scale ship railing but in this case will cheat and use round rigging instead. 

[DocRob]

I still have to do my first flat rigging, so no experiences to share. I will go easy with that and perform it onto my soon to build Gladiator in 32 scale. I planned to use Prym elastic flat thread for the task. I read a lot about PE-wiring to be more than a bit afraid about using it. There seems to be a considerable amount of expansion with temperature changes and it will be difficult to get all the lines taught.
All second hand information, surely, but I have bought the Prym thread already for my build, which will be followed by a Sopwith Camel and then a Fe2b -

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

6 minutes ago, DocRob said:

I still have to do my first flat rigging, so no experiences to share. I will go easy with that and perform it onto my soon to build Gladiator in 32 scale. I planned to use Prym elastic flat thread for the task. I read a lot about PE-wiring to be more than a bit afraid about using it. There seems to be a considerable amount of expansion with temperature changes and it will be difficult to get all the lines taught.
All second hand information, surely, but I have bought the Prym thread already for my build, which will be followed by a Sopwith Camel and then a Fe2b -

 

Cheers Rob

Where did you source the Pyrn thread? I read about it but never used it. My experience with photo etch is limited to a Tamiya Swordfish. It sagged.

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, CDW said:

Where did you source the Pyrn thread? I read about it but never used it. My experience with photo etch is limited to a Tamiya Swordfish. It sagged.

 

This is the stuff, I bought from Amazon some years ago. Prym 977770, it looks rectangular under a magnifier, but it has to be painted or tinted, as it's white. The material is elastic and I believe, I can thread it through micro tubes as a turnbuckle substitute.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

[CDW]

2 minutes ago, DocRob said:

 

This is the stuff, I bought from Amazon some years ago. Prym 977770, it looks rectangular under a magnifier, but it has to be painted or tinted, as it's white. The material is elastic and I believe, I can thread it through micro tubes as a turnbuckle substitute.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

Thanks Rob. Just ordered some from Amazon.

 

For any that might be interested, check out and bookmark a great WW1 model aircraft site:

 

ww1aircraftmodels.com

 

[king derelict]

That jig looks like a useful piece of kit for getting the wings properly set up

Its looking great Craig. Congratulations.

Alan

[CDW]

14 hours ago, king derelict said:

That jig looks like a useful piece of kit for getting the wings properly set up

Its looking great Craig. Congratulations.

Alan

It didn’t come with instructions so finding the best way to set it up is a bit of trial and error. What I want it to do is hold everything in position at the correct angles and spacing to allow the wing struts to be glued into correct position. The way I pictured the device with the model in place is not ideal for this task. It needs to be in a nose down attitude to best achieve this ( in my opinion). The device is capable of this but it takes patience to set it up the first time. If you notice, the upper wing of many biplanes sit forward of the lower wing. It helps a lot to know this angle. The device has a graduated scale in degrees for this purpose. It also allows for setting the correct wing incident angles.

[Canute]

This supports both wings? You didn't have to rig the second level from home.

[CDW]

7 minutes ago, Canute said:

This supports both wings? You didn't have to rig the second level from home.

Yes, top and bottom wings are supported, and each wing incidence angle can be set separately. I rig the top wing before gluing the struts in place. Once the struts are in place with glue dried, I will attach the rigging from the top wing to the bottom wing.

[CDW]

I used my vast storehouse of vile language while attaching the top and bottom wings. Fiddly doesn’t begin to describe the nature of it, though I do believe there is a certain benefit from going through the ordeal. Patience and endurance maybe? 

[mtaylor]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

I used my vast storehouse of vile language while attaching the top and bottom wings. Fiddly doesn’t begin to describe the nature of it, though I do believe there is a certain benefit from going through the ordeal. Patience and endurance maybe? 

 

A beautiful model coming to life. Patience and endurance are needed in this hobby as well as occasional adult beverage and a salty vocabulary.

[CDW]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

A beautiful model coming to life. Patience and endurance are needed in this hobby as well as occasional adult beverage and a salty vocabulary.

You got that right

[CDW]

Rigging between the top and bottom wings is attached. Now to reattach all the parts I broke off while doing the rigging.

 

I didn’t say anything about it at the time, but one of our little dogs passed away three weeks ago after suffering with diabetes the past seven years. It finally got the best of him, but he lived thirteen good years and was loved by all, particularly our youngest daughter. Today we bought another little buddy to bring home. His name is Topaz. He will be eight weeks old on November 20 when we bring him home. Our daughter is thrilled.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Sorry to hear that Craig,   but hope the new little fella  has a long healthy  life  with  you guys.

 

OC.

[Ian_Grant]

Very cute puppy. It is hard on kids when a dog that's been around all their lives goes; we went through that too.