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Why Bipes?


Beardie

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I would like to hear why people on the forum like to build World war one bi-planes.

Is it the challenge of their intricacy or the novelty of their design or the history that motivates you? or is it the sheer artistry of their designs and (with the German aircraft in particular) their entertaining and imaginitve decoration.

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For me it is the beauty of the beast, the engineering solution under the skin, perhaps the role it played in life's great pageant. Each is a character and I love to bring that character out, to create a little three-dimensional portrait, a work of art as much as craftsmanship. Like Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, if you have not studied the anatomy you can neither do the subject justice nor appreciate the miracle you seek to capture. For me biplanes are no different from any other in this respect, they each have a unique character all their own. WWI biplanes are a brilliant engineering solution to the problems of inadequate engine power, minimal knowledge of aerodynamics and structural analysis, and a lack of high-performance materials. And you only need to smell burnt castor oil once. At one time I contemplated modelling the engines in larger scale for much the same reasons, but decided ruefully that life was too short. I have little enough time for biplanes as it is.

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Great answer! Thank you, the question was prompted by reading a comment by a modeller saying that biplanes were too old and distant in the past compared to jet age models. I think they are wonders of ingenuity myself, you can see in them the designers trying to feel their way to solutions to the problems of getting a heavy object into the air without anyone to show them the way. The attempts by the German designers to mimic birds can be seen if you close one eye and gaze on an Albatros, a pfalz or a Lloyd and on the British/French side the approach seems to be more inspired by the kite model with things much more squared off.

I was born and lived my early years in married quarters at RAF Leuchars, I love the lightnings that shook the house to it's foundations as they roared off over the rooftop (truly awesome machines) and to a lesser extent the phantoms but apart from them jets are a bit like computers, machines designed to coldly and cleanly carry out a nasty task. While the modern jet age aircraft are triumphs of aeronautic expertise based on a century of knowledge for me they lack the sheer character and human touch of the early aircraft. I was watching a DVD today of a DR.1 D.VII and camel replicas going through their paces and it struck me actually just how much they look like birds in their slow "relatively" flight and their turns and twists, much more attractive to the viewer than the roaring whoosh of a jet going past. They are as much endeavours of art and imagination as marvels of engineering.

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Ha! :pilot: Yup it surely does feel like that. Though not occasional for me as they are the only thing I am building or plan to build at the moment. I have set myself the task of building one or more of every type that I can get my hands on in 1/48 or 1/72. I can't afford 1/32 so if any manufacturers out there are listening I'd love to see some Rumplers and AEG's and LVG's and other such birds in modern quality in these scales :please:

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Well, I wouldn't write the jets off quite so airily. The crescent wing of a Victor glinting in the sunlight, the cries of "Look, Mummy, it's Concorde!", the Armageddon of a Harrier hovering overhead and NOT GOING AWAY, the graceful swoop of a Hunter on display, and of course for ever and a day - you know when you've been Vulcaned!

Great characters all.

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Well like I said the Lightning was an awesome bird. I have never experienced anything quite so shocking as being woken by a flight of lightnings being scrambled at silly o'clock in the morning to see off a bear. The earth shook and as they went over the house (I lived at Spitfire Place just near the end of the runway). If you managed to sleep through the run up your sure as sugar didn't sleep through the deafening roar, it felt like the whole house was about to fall down. Harriers positively whisper in comparison. Now concorde was quite a noisy beast too, not long before she was decommissioned I was working at Prestwick where they regularly came in.

But with all their awe inspiring power and speed they don't have any cute and cuddly qualities.

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For me it's where it all started, they have bags of character and God knows but the guys who flew them in combat without the fall back of a parachute deserve the utmost respect. If you had a flamer your escape wasn't Martin Baker but Smith & Wesson

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Despite the noise and power of the jets, I like the relative tranquility of Old Warden. I don't build many biplanes, at my age I find them a bit fiddly, though I do have a Dr1 and a Camel in the stash in 1/28. Getting my fat fingers around the rigging is a challenge, but I would love a 1/24 Hawker Hart and Bristol Fighter, or a Gladiator or Albacore.

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Indeed that is one of the things that always struck me.... On the ground at the front you had a chance of survival or at least the end was quick but in the air it was goodnight and god bless if even the slightest thing went wrong. The stories of wings falling/being ripped off, fuel tanks leaking and engines catching fire would test the mettle of even your bravest extreme sportsman not to mention losing a wheel at take off and trying to figure out for the rest of the flight just how you might get out of it or being left hanging from your lewis gun by the leather grip of it's magazine with only your fingertips between you and a long, long drop..... now that is hair raising!

I suffer from big fingers and not the greatest eyesight in the world these days but biplanes are my thing and so I work around it with tweezers and a magnifying headset to do my rigging. Where there is a will there's a way :thumbsup:

Edited by Beardieweirdie
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Where do I begin?

History - The centenary of WW1 is as good a reason as any to build models of the planes of the time

Variety - Building Jasta birds gives you a riot of markings to work with. Compare and contrast with the relatively dour RFC/RAF machines.

Masochistic tendencies - Rigging a 1/72nd scale biplane is an exercise in maintaining calm.

What's on offer - Roden, Eduard, and Wingnut Wings in particular have produced some absolute gems that are sheer pleasure to build (approach Roden decals with caution, mind)

I also find it advantageous that squadrons of the things take up comparatively little space in the humble abode.

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Ah Roden decals it's a wonder that Al Qaeda haven't picked up on their explosive qualities. I find they burst into fragments just looking at them. I wonder why they don't improve on them? They must have shares in the after market decal companies.

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Biplanes are the result of making the most of the technology at the time. It's the ingenuity of the designers, the construction techniques, and the bravery of the pilots in just flying them that fascinate me.

Compared to modern aitcraft they are primitive in the extreme. I've seen a lot of bipes up close, including the Knowlton Fokker, and even though they are small, they are still impressive. That they actually fly pretty well is amazing.

Then there's the history - a time when our granparents or great granparents may have served and survived the mechanized slaughter. The War to end all wars - at least that was the hope of the generation.

I hope more companies begin releasing biplane subjetcs, Eduard seems to have all but abandonned the field, Roden, well...., then there's Wingnuts - Kudos to them, hopefully their releases will generate interest in a most fascinating era in aviation history.

Edited by Richard B.
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The delicate nature of the beast! The jewel-like detail that can be incorporated, their simplicity, (OK not all... ask me how I know), the diverse and somewhat far fetched colour schemes they were adorned with, rigging, etc...

WW1 aircraft were my first passion 42 years ago and over the last 10 years I have come back home, with vengeance! The likes of Eduard, Special Hobby and Wingnut Wings, not to mention the plethora of aftermarket bits 'n' bobs have really revolutionised this genre. What used to be difficult, (insert kit of your choice horror), can now be a straight forward exercise in modelling.

I like all aircraft, well nearly all and will build what takes my fancy, but, I must admit that most modern, (i.e. jet), airframes lack the distinctive character of earlier designs. And as mentioned above, the addictive smell of burnt Castor Oil! Another benefit of belonging to the SVAS!!

Christian the Married and exiled to africa, a land bereft of WW1 aeroplanes :fraidnot: :raincloud: :weep:

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My thing about WW1 aircraft was lit when I first had a chance to see one up close. I couldn't believe the sheer flimsiness. The Aviators of that time went up in their "Kites," on close inspection you could not have a more apt description! Certainly they shared a lot the same construction techniques and materials. Then you couple this "Kite" with a rotary engine, of dubious reliability, Remember these engines didn't have a throttle, the engine was either full on or off controlled by a "blip switch" on the stick. You sat either on, or in close proximity to a tank full of petrol, and in flight you were treated to a copious covering of caster oil, which, looking on the positive side probably kept he pilots "regular," if not a little "aromatic" and if things went wrong you were on your own.

My first thoughts when seeing a WW1 aircraft for the first time?

1.How anyone could (or want) get into the thing in the first place, (without damaging it, or themselves in the process!).

2. How anyone in their right mind would, of all things, actually go flying in it !

3. On actually getting the thing in the air would then actually go looking for trouble!

We all acknowledge that the BoB pilots were a special breed. The Pilots of the RFC and RNAS were not cut in the same mould, they made the mould, they were very special people.

Selwyn

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I became interested in Great War machines at a very early age (and I would point out that when I was a boy, these as near to me in time as Vietnam-era jets would be to a boy today). Photographs of them I saw, particularly pusher-types, were fascinating. Partly, too, there was inspiring example: a family friend, by trade a diamond setter and a pilot in WWII, built the old Aurora models to an extraordinary standard, and displayed them in his shop's show-room. As I have grown, and learned more about the engineering behind these machines, and their operation, the fascination has deepened. I agree that in modeling terms, biplanes can be quite tricky, but like anything else, with experience and practice one can develop a knack for it, and it becomes no big deal to make one come out right. Personally, I cannot see how people get through doing the cockpits of modern jets; they look insanely intricate....

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Why "kites"? The slang expression goes right back to the birth of British aviation. The first British-built aeroplane to fly, the Army Aeroplane No.1, was built and flown by "Colonel" S F Cody. He had previously developed and sold them a system of man-lifting observation kites for use in windy weather when the existing observation balloons could not be deployed. His first job for the Army was as Chief Kiting Instructor. He went on to develop first a "glider-kite" which could drop its tether and fly free, then a "power-kite" which chugged along a horizontal cable because it was unmanned and uncontrollable, then finally a series of aeroplanes. He was apt to refer to his planes as "kites" and the habit seems to have stuck.

If you want to know what it was like to fly the WWI "kites" in anger, read the original Biggles books. Capt. W.E. Johns was a pilot in the RFC and after the war he wanted to capture the spirit of the thing before it was forgotten. Many of his stories are based on real events and he took pains to record as much historically accurate detail as he could. The verve and enthusiasm in his writing have never been bettered. As an adult I can read them today and not feel talked-down to, just fired-up to be young again. "Biggles Learns to Fly" is a real eye-opener. If you are into gruesome dioramas....

Edited by steelpillow
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Ah Biggles :pilot: , I loved those books as a kid, I had them all (I was given a complete set by a cousin of my grandmother who had been a Lancaster pilot during WW2 and had been inspired by Biggles to take up flying. (Wish I still had them but as a teenager I passed them on to another young kid). I harbour dreams of building or buying a replica of a Camel one of these days. Would be a superb way to travel around the mountains and glens of Western Scotland. I saw one for sale needing a bit of finishing work on a website for a mere £35,000 just needing final assembly, skinning and an engine. Oh would that I were a wealthy chap!

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I find it's the sheer variety of paint effects required and schemes available that makes them interesting. You have wood, linen, metal, lozenge, leather. In 1/32 scale the cockpits are open and detailed, of course there's the rigging, which isn't hard it's just time consuming.

Then there's the engines, with brass, copper, steel, which are models in themselves

You don't have to mask canopies.

I've not done anything other than biplanes since WNW came on the scene and I have no interest in doing anything else.

However I prefer to see a jet tear it up at an air show or listen to a merlin engine as I find the Shuttleworth displays a bit dull

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  • 2 weeks later...

Later biplanes are nice to model as well. Lindbergh has re- released their 1/48 Fairey Flycatcher and Gloster Gladiator. I myself am working on Eduard's 1/48 scale Avia B.534 which served in WW2 from 1939 to 1944 - 245 mph max. speed, 33,000 foot ceiling, four 30 calibre machine guns, liquid cooled engine.

And then there's the Fairey Swordfish - I've built Airfix's 1/72 scale kit and it is very nice.

Edited by Richard B.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Character. Bags of the stuff, from just really interesting, unusual aircraft.

Allied to some fantastic camo and paint finishes, especially from German subjects. 4 & 5 colour lozenge that just look beautiful and provide a real comparison to how a deadly warplane is expected to look. Added to the fantastic schemes the Germans were allowed to get away with painting in their planes.

The variety of materials is great from various types of wood, to fabric, to metal, bamboo and mostly just air with something like a Fee!

The plumbing for the engines tend to be out in the open air and hence fairly easily displayed. The exhaust's in particular look agricultural in nature and would not look out of place on a lorry.

The cockpits are open & simple and lend themselves to detailing in particular. The rigging is an art in itself, with monofilament, wire, PE, EZ-Line and sprue offering loads of choice.

Add in the sheer variety available, from mono to biplanes to triples, pushers and tractors, pushers and tractors together, single engined, twin engined, triple engined, single and twin seated. floatplanes, flying boats - all tending to look very different.

Planes would go from the drawing board to combat in the matter of a few months, so the choice of subjects is huge, especially with new types coming along every few months, making all existing types obsolete.

What tops it all for me is a distinct lack - compared to WWII modelling - of rivet counters. The paint schemes are also far more open to interpretation because of the lack of colour photography of the time. It's an altogether more relaxing, laid-back and enjoyable hobby compared to WWII and later modelling. I have now stopped building anything later than 1919 and I've never enjoyed my modelling as much as I do now.

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I quite agree on most of those points but, unfortunately, there are rivet counters out there. On another forum I lasted all of a week or so before I was shouted down on my lack of knowledge of and appreciation of the importance of super accurate colour in Lozenge fabric and camouflage schemes. Needless to say I promptly resigned from the forum as that kind of pompous rubbish gets on my wick.

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