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Showing results for tags 'B.E.2c'.
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My B.E.2c with black and white chequered fuselage (Airfix 02104) crawls towards completion. I normally don't do WWI (seduced by the box-art again!) so have a few questions for the WW1 experts and in particular those who have already completed this kit. 1. The Airfix instructions appear to show the exhaust pipes as slightly canted inwards. I always thought they were vertical. Who is right please? 2. The Airfix instructions show the engine nacelle as painted in Humbrol 64. This seems a very light grey to me. When I built the Bristol Fighter and D.H.4 back in the 70s, we were pointed at a colour more like Dark Sea Grey or Dark Admiralty Grey for similar areas. Are Airfix benefiting from more recent research or have they got it wrong? (I see the Windsock publication on the Sopwith Pup refers to Battleship Grey for such areas but the colour equation is given in Methuen (IBI, ICI) which means nothing to me. If not 64, then what instead? 3. Are the Airfix fuselage roundels sufficiently opaque to stop the underlying chequers showing through or do I need to apply them over a white backing disk? 4. The rudder stripe transfers do not quite meet on the centreline. Poorly matching touch-ups look worse than none at all. Any tips on paints for a perfect match to the blue and red, ideally straight out of the tin? (I'm currently inclining towards a 50:50 mix of Xtracolor X603 Flanker Blue/Grey and Humbrol 109 WW1 Blue.) By the way, it is not that long ago that Airfix transfers were a very bad joke. Fortunately Hornby changed all that. In particular I take my hat off to the person who designed the transfers for this boxing. This is the most ambitious transfer scheme I can recall attempting. The alignment of the chequers is not quite perfect (given some of the compound curves on the fuselage spine it's hard to imagine how it could be) but fit, flexibility and opacity are all excellent. Well done!
