Royal Aircraft Factory Fe2b in 1/144

[Putty Animal]

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

 

Can’t wait to see the final product!

 

 Bloody hell, me either!

[Courageous]

1 hour ago, limeypilot said:

That engine is stunning. I scratchbuilt 4 engines for my 1:72 Ilya Muromets, and can't for the life of me figure out how you can do that at half the size! 

 

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Really enjoying this thread - great modelling, great photography, great text. An entertaining as well as instructive read. 👍

 

Can’t wait to see the final product!

My words exactly. This will be a really useful thread for when I get round to my 1/72 effort.

 

Stuart

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by Courageous

[Marklo]

Quote

This will be a really useful thread for when I get round to my 1/72 effort.

Ditto (times 2, counting Courageous's putative thread ) when I get to mine in 1/48 (have to eventually have one)

[SUB-SAM]

I'm extremely impressed with the level of finish in this scale. 

I haven't been able to achieve this level of quality, it often ends up 'fuzzy' when photographed closely.

 

Do you use an optivisor for your work?

I have just got one for my 1/144 work I'm hoping I can improve my quality.

[Sandlapper]

The trouble with a build like this....

 

it pretty much silences any gripes I have about my kit

 

I’m amazed. This is craftsmanship.

[Kitchen Modeller]

This is blowing my mind - in a good way. Just incredible work - but can't get my head around the scale from the photos which are also amazing. Have to go lie down now. 

[Putty Animal]

Thank you so much!  I really hope I can pull it off 

 

15 hours ago, SUB-SAM said:

Do you use an optivisor for your work?

Hi Sub-Sam, I use a pair of cheap $3 reading glasses with coke bottle lenses that I bought from a local discount store.  They have 4x or 5x magnification and have the advantage of sitting closer to my nose than an optivisor, so I can get myself up close to the details.  Sometimes I use a handheld 8x loupe while wearing the glasses to check my work.  It takes a little while to get used to the high magnification, but after a while you become more comfortable and the results are really good. 

 

The magnifying glasses, a set of digital calipers and a sharp Swan-Morton 10A blade are my secret weapons   

 

I couldn't resist getting some paint on the engine to see how it looked.  There are still some extra details to add, but I was keen to see how the Gunze Mr Metal Color paints worked out.  I made each section of the engine separately so I could paint them in their individual colours and assemble afterwards.  That way I could avoid any tricky masking.  The paints are nice and smooth and I'm a big fan of lacquers.  Later on I'll do some shading and highlights etc.

 

 

 

 

I also got busy with the wings.  The 1mm floor slab on the nacelle gave me a solid base to drill some location holes for the wings.  Despite my best efforts I botched the lineup the first time though, and you can see where I had to drill the location of the rear spar again. 

 

I had the aerofoil section sanded and scraped in by now.  Using acrylic rather than styrene is really good at this scale, as it doesn't warp and flop about when its really thin.  I taped the two wings together and prepared to drill the 24 location holes for the wing struts... 

 

 

That took a while.  I used a 0.3mm drill bit (why does everything of importance in 1/144 wind up measuring .3mm???).   I also very carefully cut the slots for the tail booms with a jewellers saw.

I need to back fill the top wings and the undersurfaces of the lower ones, but this was the only way I could think of the get the alignment correct.  Since then I've seen Jonners' great little Hyderabad build and seen how it is possible to pin from the wing into hollow struts instead...  Ah well!  Next time for sure.  I really want to do a Heyford or a Vildebeest one day too. 

 

 

The tail booms are .4mm brass tube, and have a short piece of .2mm rod sticking out of the end to act as a location lug.  The slots in the wings have a corresponding hole in the end of each, so this should give me a good strong join when it comes time to put the whole thing together. 

 

eyes Fingers crossed!

 

 

[Redshift]

Wow, this is some seriously impressive stuff! Are you going to display it behind a magnifying glass?

[AdrianMF]

Very nice work. The engine looks super and the fuselage is very nicely done. I can't help noticing that your strut hole diameters are smaller than my 1/72 rigging holes!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Courageous]

You make this look so easy. I have admiration for your eyesight.

 

Stuart

[Max Headroom]

Can I just stop you right there?

 

24 location holes?

 

In 1/144?

 

 

 

Trevor the unworthy.

[pheonix]

Just found this - amazing in every way. I converted one of these in 1/72 using the old Veeday BE2c wings, (the Airfix BE2 was not available at the time), as I too have similar feelings about the flying log basket as you do. Your engine really looks the part and the interior details of the cockpit are mind blowing. Putting on the wings will not be as difficult as you might imagine, (I have converted or scratch built many pushers so I write from experience) - my method was to put the booms on the wings first, then four outerwing struts, top wing and the rudder post at the same time - it makes it relatively easy to line everything up.

 

I am really enjoying reading this (and regret not finding it earlier). If any of my threads on converting scratch building pushers would help you at what is clearly a late stage, they can be found on ww1aircraftmodels.com under scratch builds - look for Lone Modeller.

 

P

[Putty Animal]

Hi pheonix, thanks for the tips!  I'll definitely have my work cut out for me when it comes to the main assembly.  I have some jigs that I hope will be useful too.

Thanks for the suggestion to visit ww1aircraftmodels.com...  what a treasure house that place is! 

 

I've been wondering for ages how I was going to represent the wing ribs in 1/144.  The effect is so easy to overdo and I didn't want it looking overscale.  Eventually I decided to mask and paint the ribs (or more accurately, the rib tapes) directly onto the surface and rub them back to get a scale appearance. 

 

Aw geeze…  

 

 

I did a test first to see if things would work.  I used the wings from another of the many side projects that also needed the treatment, but I hoped would be a bit easier.  No prizes for guessing what it is though!  Using drawings scanned to 1200dpi I used photoshop to measure the running dimensions and cut alternating strips of Tamiya tape to lay out the location of the rib tapes and the spaces in-between. 

 

 

It takes a lot of time, but eventually the wing gets covered and the narrow strips representing the rib tapes can be removed prior to painting.

 

 

That was about two night's work, but I think now that I've got the hang of it things could be accomplished much faster. 

 

The following day I headed out to the balcony for a squirt of primer.  I built the paint up gradually until it was quite thick (too thick in retrospect) and retreated back inside to let the stuff dry.  Later that evening I got some 1200 grit paper and wet-sanded the paint down until the tape was again exposed.  I've seen people pull the tape up straight through the paint, but I thought that would be disastrous at this scale.

 

Once I'd freed the edges of the tape I removed it all with tweezers and lightly sanded the new ribs until they were very low on the surface.  Even the finest sandpaper was a bit too harsh for this however, and I found that Tamiya plastic polish worked much better.  It blended the lines in and made the rubbing back process easier to control.  The fine wet n dry sandpaper was a bit all or nothing by comparison.

 

Here's a shot of the Lizzie's wings.  All in all it worked out pretty well. 

 

 

 

All that was a couple of weeks ago.  Here's where I'm at as of today:

 

I decided not to use Tamiya tape for masking the Fee's wings.  It is very papery and easily dented and distorted when doing fine lines.  Instead I went for translucent Scotch 810D "Magic" tape by 3M, which is very plastic in its feel and holds a straight line much, much better.

 

Being almost clear, I didn't take any shots of the process as the tape was pretty much invisible - or Magic, as 3M would have you believe. 

 

However here are some shots afterwards as the wings were being cleaned up after masking.  The upper wing and tailplane have had the tape removed and the ribs lightly rubbed over with a plain dry cotton bud, or Q-tip as the Americans inexplicably call them.  They then get an overall coat of primer before polishing by hand.  Notice how rather biblically I missed one rib on the tailplane….

 

 

And here's a picture of the lower wings which have already been polished and smoothed out and looks a bit more in-scale.  I've begun work on the struts and booms as well but will probably put them aside for now.  There isn't much else I can do until the undercarriage is built.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

[Smudge]

Very nice, amazing in fact. 

 

Interesting reading other peoples comments, there seems to be a lot of interest and affection for the 'Gunbus'. There was another thread recently with a scratch built FE, and it seems that a 1/72 kit would be most welcome. I've always been a fan of the type, nice to know I'm not alone.

 

I shall follow along and pick up a few tips, the drill looks excellent tool, by the way. I wondered how you managed to hollow out the fuselage without melting it. 

[Courageous]

Brilliant work on the surface ribs, must remember that.

 

Stuart

[Brandy]

That ribbing technique looks like something I need to nick, very effective!

I really need to finish off some of the half built stuff I have and get into some pushers. I have this, the Vickers "Gunbus", FE8, DH2, DH1, Voisin III, Breguet 4, Otto Doppeldekker, and Ago C.II in 1:72 which really need to be in my cabinet! Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Ian

[Courageous]

10 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

That ribbing technique looks like something I need to nick, very effective!

I really need to finish off some of the half built stuff I have and get into some pushers. I have this, the Vickers "Gunbus", FE8, DH2, DH1, Voisin III, Breguet 4, Otto Doppeldekker, and Ago C.II in 1:72 which really need to be in my cabinet! Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Maybe you do Ian, you do have a few there.

 

Stuart

[pheonix]

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

That ribbing technique looks like something I need to nick, very effective!

I really need to finish off some of the half built stuff I have and get into some pushers. I have this, the Vickers "Gunbus", FE8, DH2, DH1, Voisin III, Breguet 4, Otto Doppeldekker, and Ago C.II in 1:72 which really need to be in my cabinet! Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Ian

Yes Ian, you have been saying this about pushers for years now.... Time to stop the thinking about them and start to make them. I for one will follow with interest when you do.

 

I too like that rib method and will certainly have to give it a try. Making ribs from strip and filler is tedious. This is really beginning to look like a Fee - am waiting to see how you get on with the final assembly.

 

P

[heloman1]

Neat idea with the wing tape, as you say, time consuming but the finished effect is well woth it

 

Colin

[GrzeM]

The ribs look shockingly good, both on the Lysander and on the Fee!

[Putty Animal]

Time for another round of microsurgery. 

 

Over the last few months I've been putting off making the undercarriage.  I'm hoping to do the Trafford-Jones version with the angled braces that sweep back from below the forward nacelle.  It gives the Fee such a sleek, racy look. 

The landing gear is a bit of a roadblock to progress, as I need to do it before gluing up and detailing the nacelle to avoid overhandling the thing later on.  Trouble is, the u/c is fiendishly complicated and strut dimensions are almost impossible to be sure about.  I'd almost considered buying a WNW job in 1/32 - just measure the parts!

 

After much squinting and messing about I think I've got the main legs right.  These are made from 0.40mm nickel silver tube with a brass sleeve around each piece that has been flattened and filed to an aerofoil shape.  stubs of 0.20mm rod fit into the ends of these to act as locating lugs later on.

 

It's hard to find colour schemes for the FE.2. and for wont of anything easier I'll probably go for A857 of 22 Squadron, a machine brought down by Werner Voss in June of 1917.  One of its peculiarities was that it had the upper portions of the streamlined fairings removed from the undercarriage and the shock absorber springs were visible.  To do this I annealed some 0.10mm wire (I assumed this would be about right) and wrapped it around some .4mm wire.  After that I gently teased it out to look like a spring and cut the pieces to length.

 

Here's a shot of the bits, next to some of Voss' loose change for scale...

 

 

Once the pieces were ready they got soldered together.  I would need all the strength I could get from them, as there would be some inevitable rough handling later on when I get to the rigging stage.

 

Still some sanding and tidying up to do, but here's the parts once soldered.

 

 

 

And with the wheels tried on...

 

 

Hopefully I can figure out the widths of the other four struts and get their positions drilled into the nacelle so I can move on to the fun bits!

 

 

[Courageous]

Glad to see you back the 'Fee' Putty. Amazing stuff and to think that this is 1/144, is mind blowing.

 

Stuart

[Brandy]

Great to see this one back, and a lovely job on the undercarriage.

 

Ian

[pheonix]

Wonderful micro-modelling. To represent springs in this scale is either a sign of complete madness or modelling genius - take your pick! Please keep up this thread - there is soooo much to admire and learn.

 

P

[Putty Animal]

Thanks so much!  I'll do my best to keep it going.  There's so much to do, but I'll try to make it look interesting along the way. 

 

If there's anybody out there who owns the Wingnut Wings Early kit and has a set of calipers, I'd love it if they could accurately measure the width and thickness of the aerofoil sections of the Trafford-Jones undercarriage parts. 

That's this one: