Bazman

Thanks all for the positive comments, much appreciated. @gareth - a few things to look out for that I can remember: I was warned before starting that the precision of the parts means that any paint in the wrong place can throw everything out of alignment. This is undoubtably very true! More dry assembly would have told me where the critical surfaces are, sometimes they weren't where I thought they'd be. The spark plugs – if you look at the engine bay of the real thing a prominent feature is the 24 spark plug leads. If you want to add these you’ll find WnW have put the spark plugs at the front & back of the cylinders rather than offset to either side where they should be. I can see why they’ve done this (moulding issues) but it makes it virtually impossible to add the plug leads unless you remove and rebuild them or do it with the engine bay closed, in which case; The engine mounts – there are several threads on the internet about getting these right. I didn’t realise until after I’d assembled the fuselage that they go quite deeply inside the cockpit behind the frame. If like me you built the cockpit first and painted it, then stuck it in the assembled fuselage then any paint in the wrong part of the cockpit (that you may have applied because you thought you'd paint the bits you can't see for realism's sake) can stop the engine mounts from seating properly. I managed to get them level through some fettling but for some reason the engine is about 2mm too far forwards, hence the cowling doesn’t fit too well; Rigging – there are holes for terminating most of the wing rigging but some of the other wires, such as those on the undercarriage or in the engine bay, need you to do some drilling at one or both ends. There are some holes for the control wires but nothing on the aileron and elevator horns. I did much careful 0.2 and 0.3mm drilling; consequently many of my fingers also now have small holes in them. I found the elevator control horns were particularly unhelpful - there's really nowhere to drill holes that point in the right direction - so after several tries I ditched them and made two new ones from a leftover bit of the PE fret, some brass tubing, a soldering iron, a microscope and a lot of patience. I’m still not totally happy with the result, there must be a better way. The instructions for drilling the holes for the Holt lights and flares seem to be all over the place. I’m pretty sure there are more things – I need to do a proper list so that I can get things right next time - but I hope this helps.

Yet another WnW F2b. This one is E2289, inspired by the lump of wood it’s sitting on which was acquired by my grandfather and is the propeller hub from an F2.b. This was most likely brought back from his years in the RAF in the Middle East post-WW1. Looking at his service record the only F2.b that was scrapped when he was there was E2289, so I chose this as the build on the basis that that may be where the hub came from - although it could be from something else that broke its propeller. E2289 was a post-war build that was SoC in 1919, the records I’ve found hint that it was a mkIII although some say these weren’t around until the later 1920’s. This has been hard work and a learning process, not only because of the temptation to go down rabbit holes on various details such as the type of seatbelts and the position of the spark plugs (I removed the WnW ones as they were in the wrong place so had to make 24 new ones out of brass tubing and plastic moulded nuts) but also the perennial problem with early aircraft of working out what colour it should be. I started off doing it in a PC10/CDL scheme, but in Vol 2 of the Bristol Fighter Windsock data file J M Bruce mentions white dope for desert aircraft, so I changed it to white. I then realised that many of the photos of desert F2.bs indicate they were silver, even though Bruce says that wasn’t introduced until 1923. I tossed a coin and stripped off the white paint and went for silver. I left the interplane struts in wood as I like the look, same with the red wheels which are shown by WnW in one of their colour schemes. Apart from that it’s pretty much an OOB WnW Post War F.2b, rigged using Prym elastic and fishing line, and painted in a mixture of a Plastikote rattle can for the silver, airbrushed and brushed Humbrol enamels and acrylics, W&N Promarkers and various metallic felt pens, and a Tamiya weathering stick to hide the worst blemishes, all - apart from the propeller - finished with a blast of Humbrol matt clear to give it a desert dusty look (learning point – watch out when spraying the elastic as it removes the elasticity and can make it sag which you inevitably don't notice until you post photos of it!). The wing decals provided by WnW didn’t work for me – they cracked as soon as I got them mildly damp and crazed unrecoverably when in place, so they’re masked and airbrushed. I was unsure whether to leave the cowling off – having spent a lot of time on the engine it seemed a shame to cover it up; in the end it didn’t fit (I now understand why having read about many others’ problems here) so it was either leave it off or take the whole thing apart. I left it off... TL;DR – here’s E2289 on what may be its own propeller hub. And here's an impression of what it might have looked like with my grandfather standing next to it (represented by a CSM 1:32 British pilot) if he happened to have accidentally landed it at RAF Halton rather than X.AP Kantara. And now that I understand the quirks of this kit and can see my errors I’m tempted to start again with a fresh kit while they’re still available!

I suspect there's something funny going on with the greyscale in that picture unless it's an odd roundel with white in the middle. I'm also not convinced by the suggestion that RFC wires were stainless steel as stainless steel was a very new thing in RFC days. On my current build I've compromised by going for grey; the observer can use their imagination to decide whether that's dirty black or dirty metal!

I'm currently rigging up a WnW F2b and I've gone for Prym knitting elastic for the flat wires (as suggested by WnW) and appropriate sized fishing line for the round wires. Apart from the obvious online sources the Prym can be bought from Hobbycraft in the UK (in the sewing section) and the fishing line from anywhere - I think mine came from Decathlon. The elastic is easy to use as long as you avoid twists, but on the downside it doesn't add any strength to the model. As others have pointed out the flat wires shouldn't have turnbuckles, instead having a sort of built-in adjuster at each end that's short and little thicker than the "wire", so if you don't use them it will be easier and look more like the original. For the control line turnbuckles I'm trying some Gaspatch turnbuckles and some PM etched ones, but may leave these off as well if neither looks right.

Thanks all for your comments. The rigging was made easier by the PE rigging anchors provided with the kit which in my opinion give a good impression of the rigging tensioners that I assume we’re used on the real thing (there are no remaining FK8s that I could use to check - supposedly the RAF intended to keep one after the war but listed the wrong serial number so preserved something else instead). This is something I’d like to see more of, or to be able to buy as an aftermarket component; I’m currently contemplating my next model - a WnW Bristol Fighter - and dreading all the drilling required for the rigging! Maybe I’ll have to try some DIY etching.

Ah yes, the cowl... I considered soldering it but decided CA would be easier. Got it right first time, beautiful fit, then realised I’d done it inside out so the machine gun hole was on the wrong side. I then understood why they provided 3. Never got the fit quite right again as you can see!

My first "Ready for Inspection", and indeed my first post on here apart from an introduction, so let's hope the picture embedding works! This is a Copper State Models Armstrong Whitworth FK8 mid production premium version in 1:48, largely out of the box except for the serial number. C3651 was one of a batch built by Angus Sanderson in late 1917-early1918. It was delivered to 2 squadron RFC in March 1918, and in April 1918 during the Lys offensive it was shot at by a German machine gunner over Locon while my grandfather was in the observer seat checking out artillery barages. They made it back to the airfield and C3651 went off to repair (as did my grandfather who was shot in the leg). However, by then the type was essentially obsolete so rather than fix it it was scrapped, after essentially a month of active use. As it was practically new when scrapped I've not bothered too much about weathering and I'm imagining it in it's condition on delivery with just a few signs of wear. That's my excuse anyway for the flaws in my painting that show up so much more readily in photos. I see a couple of rigging wires need tweaking too - rigging really is a separate art isn't it!?

This seems to be the place to practice! I've just spent the best part of a day trying to post an image from flickr to another site and failing, so fingers crossed: Blimey, it worked!

I've been lurking on here for a while and thought it's about time I plucked up the courage to sign up and post something. I've recently got back into model making after a gap of many (45+?) years. Why? Well an ugly clock I inherited turned out on close inspection to be made from a Bristol Fighter propeller hub, so I got a cheap Roden 1:72 kit to see what the whole thing would have looked like. This turned out to be a gateway drug; I dragged my long-suffering wife round various aircraft museums and then followed it up with a 1:48 Eduard Brisfit and got hooked on the process of rigging, and when seeking advice found this forum. This led on to the purchase of a Copper State AW FK8 (because my grandfather was shot while an observer in one 100 years and 6 months ago) which was a revelation, all the bits fitted properly (almost)! How things have changed from my Airfix days. Fully hooked, I've now treated myself to a WnW late Brisfit which I think is what my propeller hub came from. So almost by accident I seem to have gathered a vast array of paints, tools and glues and become a maker of WW1 British aircraft models. My name is Bazman, and I'm a modeller...