Roden 1/48 Brisfit in Irish Aer Corp colours.

[Marklo]

This is the kit, it’ll be oob as much as possible.

 

Sprues. There’s a nice decal sheet but that’s gone straight to the decal box as I won’t be using it.

 

This is the scheme. Although I think it should be khaki not PC10.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Marklo

[Muddyf]

I’ve been looking at both the Roden and Eduard versions of the Brisfit, so il be following this with interest.

[rob85]

This is a great scheme, got to love the IAC!

 

Rob

[rob Lyttle]

Excellent stuff Marklo. I'll check out your progress with interest as I've got a Roden Bristol, although it's the standard engine version. Other than that I expect it's a similar beast with many struts and strings attached. 

👍

[Prenton]

Good stuff, Mark - flying the flag!

 

Philip

[Marklo]

Now the observant among you will notice this is the Arab engined boxing and afaik the Aer Corp plane was Rolls Royce powered, however Im pretty sure the Rolls Royce bits are in the kit ( seeing as how there’s nearly a second airplane in most Roden kits to cover all options) or else the spares box will be called upon, and as luck would have it the Arab bits can be used up on the Scout F.

 

This is my main reference btw, there’s a photo of the Aer Corp machine towards the back must take another look at it before work commences.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Marklo

[Rabbit Leader]

I cant quite put my finger on it, however the IAC (as well as the Royal Rhodesian AF) have always taken my interest even though I have no connection whatsoever with either country. The Brisfit is such a classic WW1 aircraft and it’s good to see quite a few different Bristols being built here. May it long continue as the GB progresses. 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[Marklo]

This is that photo, notice anything? Yes it’s clearly not Khaki or PC10 either silver or pale grey and the nose most likely orange or red, hmmm.

 

Oh and definitely RR powered, and yes the kit has both sets of parts.

Edited June 11, 2021 by Marklo

[tonyot]

Looking forward to this..... glad to hear that the kit include the RR engine cowling too

Edited July 10, 2021 by tonyot

[Marklo]

Won’t be starting this one in earnest for a few weeks, while I finish up some of my many other GB commits, but should be a good build when I get around to it  

[Marklo]

Made a start in the office. As it’s going to be silver I’ve painted the interior brick red then dry brushed with pink. I’m not entirely sure what colour the frames should be.

[Black Knight]

16 minutes ago, Marklo said:

 I’m not entirely sure what colour the frames should be.

Varnished wood, a light colour, darker than pine and not as yellow

[stever219]

18 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Made a start in the office. As it’s going to be silver I’ve painted the interior brick red then dry brushed with pink. I’m not entirely sure what colour the frames should be.

The frames would probably have been natural varnished timber, have a look at images of the example at RAFM Hendon.  The fabric should probably be more of a natural linen colour with a hint of red oxide showing through.

Edited July 25, 2021 by stever219
Fat fingers

[Marklo]

5 hours ago, stever219 said:

The fabric should probably be more of a natural linen colour with a hint of red oxide showing through.

I might stipple on some deck tan to tone down the oxide a bit,

[Marklo]

Not forgotten. I’m still hoping to scrape this one in before the end of the GB.

As I’m using the Rolls Royce which came with the kit but have no engine, a part was found from the spares box. I think it’s from a 1/72me 109 but it works and under a coat of metallic grey the little that you can actually see looks fine. 

 

Fuselage zipped up.

[Marklo]

Filling done. Starting painting. My plan is to paint the national markings and the nose ( as you can see I’ve gone red for red as this was the nose colour used in the Aercorps Dh9) first then mask them off and paint the whole lot with a rattle can. 
 

Now I have one minor dilemma. Afaik the F.2b was purchased from the UK post WWI, at which point factory finish would have been aluminium dope. However the DH9 is recorded as pale grey so silver or pale grey.

 

To me logic says it would have been delivered in factory finish then had the nose colour and markings added locally which makes me think aluminium, the one caveat being that it could just as easily been painted grey in the factory, also the grey would be a little bit unusual for a post war F.2b.

 

Just to muddy the waters further WNW have the machine in CDL with a bare metal cowl, which just doesn’t look right to me.

 

looking at the photo it doesn’t look shiny so I’m leaning towards grey.

Hmmmm any suggestions??

Edited September 24, 2021 by Marklo

[Marklo]

After a little bit of research the Aer Corp Brisfits cosmetics in two batches the first in 1922 appear to be extremely RAF machines, while the second batch in 1925 were new. Hence the two schemes  Khaki( PC10 ?) and Silver(grey?)

Now this photo shows a DH60 moth with two F.2bs in the background. The moth is documented as being silver finish and to me looks exactly the same as the two Brisfits. So I think I’ll go with silver.

 

However the text of the article says the nose was grey. Hmm not sure on that one, I’m still thinking of sticking with red.

[Marklo]

That’s what I thought. So on that basis and the Aer Corp DH9 I’m going with silver and red.

[Marklo]

The national insignia. I’ll mask these off and then shoot the wings with silver.

 

The fuselage painted just needs its number on the side.

[rob85]

I have every faith you will have this Irish beauty sorted before the end. Great work so far, as ever!

 

Rob

[Marklo]

Wings sprayed. A little textured but I should be able to polish them down.

[Marklo]

I’ve started on the rigging. Blind holes on the underside of the upper wing and through holes on the lower wing except for the cabane strut rigging which  I’ve had to lead through the upper wing. Of course to add to the fun the upper to lower outer to inner ( if that makes sense) lines are doubled so we have a grand total of forty lines to run not including the control lines.

 

Whats more perturbing is that I’m sitting here thinking it’s all pretty straightforward  

Edited September 28, 2021 by Marklo

[Marklo]

After much fiddling the Brisfit is now a parasol. I’ve replaced the kit upper cabane struts with brass rod and fitted them slightly differently to the kit parts.

 

Now a biplane the lower wing struts are mostly the kit parts with only one pair being replaced by brass rod. All of the attachment holes were drilled out before assembly. I’m now adding in the interplane  struts a pair at a time. It will all be quite light but strong once I get a few rigging lines secured.
 

That’s the worst of it over and done, but I may get add I can’t see how the wings could be attached without modifying the kit and if possible the end result would have been terribly delicate. 
 

Well on track for Sunday.  
 

[Marklo]

Well it didn’t make Sunday, but it’s now back on the bench and on a charge.
 

New exhausts needed the simplest way to make the manifold is to solder brass wire together. Several hours, burnt fingers and yes some sweating  later. Not too bad, a bit of fettling and some paint and they’ll be fine.

Current state of play. Everything  except the exhausts, prop control lines and serial number added. Should get it done tomorrow. Then I may start the Air Corp SE5a.
 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Marklo

[bigbadbadge]

Great job on this Mark, looks good and you certainly made assembly look easy! 

If you do Railway modelling and build your own locos your fingertips get used to the heat from the soldering iron !!! Great work on those exhausts too.

Chris