Biff (was Brisfit)

[Paul Thompson]

Looking good, and now you'll be able to see the instrument panel once the fuselage is closed.  And now, as always whenever I get to following someone's F2b builds, I am forced to pull one from the stash and remind myself of all I've forgotten (like the observer's bench, which I knew about full well but forgot in favour of the sling that could also be installed .... such is old age).

 

Paul.

Edited July 22 by Paul Thompson
Eye splung a wodd rung.

[CliffB]

Massive improvements to the cockpit AW and you've painted that wicker seat beautifully 

[Andwil]

 

On 7/23/2024 at 3:29 PM, CliffB said:

Massive improvements to the cockpit AW and you've painted that wicker seat beautifully 

Thanks Cliff, the seat was painted buff and then given a wash with Vallejo Sepia Wash, leather rim picked out in Lifecolour raw siena.  I’m quite chuffed with how it turned out.  It actually should have a padded leather “cushion” but its not going to be very noticeable.
 

I’ve finished the cockpit, here is a last look with the seats and wine bottle foil belts:

 

 

and the fuselage closed up:

 

 

fit is a bit ordinary, I cut off the locating pins which made it better, will probably need a bit of filler but nothing too drastic.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

Edited July 27 by Andwil
Corrected paint reference

[AdrianMF]

The cockpits look fabulous!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[JOCKNEY]

Amazing work AW 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Grandboof]

All this in 1/72 . Outstanding 🍺

Martin H

[Ray S]

AW, That is looking fab! the interior is brilliant, and somewhat better than Airfix supplied. I have lost count of how many of these I have built over the years, and it is one of my favourites

 

Ray

[Andwil]

Thank you all for the kind comments.  I have done a little more on the Biff, the huge holes in the fuselage for locating the crude “scarff ring” were filled with pieces of plastic rod which was cut and sanded flush.  A multitude of holes have been pre-drilled for the rigging and the stumps to fix the lower wing to the fuselage have been cut off and replaced with brass rod, which has a more scale appearance.  The important thing here is maintaining the correct gap otherwise none of the wing struts will fit, which is proving a bit tricky.  Finally, for now, the little posts on the fin for the tailplane bracing wires have been added from fuse wire.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[AdrianMF]

Looking very neat and methodical. We are witnessing a transformation!

 

Regards.

Adrian

[Jinxman]

Nice work - we love a biplane as well.

[Derek_B]

enjoying watching this one come together... lovely work on the cockpit!

[Andwil]

More on the Biff.  I find that one thing is leading to another.  I was not happy with the cabane struts provided by Airfix, the forward pair are completely wrong and attach to the fuselage in the wrong location, they should be below the exhaust pipe, so I decided to replace them with brass rod and fill the incorrect locating holes.  I will have to adapt or replace the exhaust pipes to clear the forward cabane, as per the real thing.

 

 

Airfix have also got the part numbers wrong in the instructions, the cabanes provided are different lengths for forward and rear positions, if you follow the instructions you will end up with the forward struts on one side and the rear struts on the other!

 

I also made a radiator filler cap:

 

 

I think I will now give it a spray of primer and see how it looks.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

[AdrianMF]

The improvements keep coming!

 

The kit is a funny old mix of crudity and finesse - the stitching around the canvas panels is as finely rendered as you could possibly wish.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Paul Thompson]

3 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

The improvements keep coming!

 

The kit is a funny old mix of crudity and finesse - the stitching around the canvas panels is as finely rendered as you could possibly wish.

 

Regards,

Adrian

That's because the kit was partially upgraded at one stage in it's life (but still a long time ago).

 

Paul.

[Andwil]

Primed the Biff, here’s the fuselage:

 

 

Rudder primed in white and will be painted white to sit under the decal.  Wings also primed but not worth a photo.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Began to put some colour on today, starting with CDL on the undersurfaces of wings and tailplanes.

 

 

I used AK Interactive “Clear Doped Linen version 2” from a set of WWI colours.  PC 10 next.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

 

[AdrianMF]

The linen looks nice - good to cover up the silver grey plastic. Airfix had a phase of moulding their WWI kits in cream plastic - saved me a ton of paint back in the day!

 

FWIW AK PC10 seems a bit too much like plain green to me. Maybe add a bit of red? (Your model, your choice though.)

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Andwil]

PC10 today.

 

 

Too green?  To the eye it is not as green as it looks in the photo.  I’ll have a think about it.  Maybe another coat with a drop or two of the PC12.  I generally dont like mixing colours.

 

AW

[Paul Thompson]

I've used that paint before, and never again, or at least not as PC10. As you say, it photographs differently to what it actually is, and to be honest it also varies depending on source and angle of the light, which would be a good thing since the real thing does the same, but only good if there's a varying element of brown in it. The last couple of decades people seem to have coalesced around a more green interpretation than I took on board, and I know that to some extent it's individual dependant since we don't all perceive any given colour quite the same way (think of how some folk will call a colour blue when others are adamant it's green).  The old chestnut I usually trot out about this time is the mixture of Humbrol paints Ray Rimell always used back in the seventies when he edited Scale Models magazine, although nowadays he's gone over to other brands and a lighter and greener colour o match (I think) what the Vintage Aviator uses on reproductions. More often than not, he'd say a 2:1 mixture of Dark Earth and Black. The result was a dark greeny/brown, dependant on the light.

 

I've always wondered why you'd paint an aircraft green for camouflage, then fly it over fields of churned up French mud and expect it to work.

 

Paul.
 

[Ned]

I'm enjoying this build, you're squeezing a lot out of this kit. My memory isn't great, but I don't think I've ever built a biplane (well, maybe the Airfix Hawker Demon with the jazzy markings has been attempted). I did buy a Tamiya Swordfish but never got beyond just looking at the instructions and putting it away again. If I still had my 12-year-old eyes and hands then maybe I'd have a go, but I think I'd just get frustrated now if I tried. 

Keep it up!

[Paul Thompson]

6 minutes ago, Ned said:

I'm enjoying this build, you're squeezing a lot out of this kit. My memory isn't great, but I don't think I've ever built a biplane (well, maybe the Airfix Hawker Demon with the jazzy markings has been attempted). I did buy a Tamiya Swordfish but never got beyond just looking at the instructions and putting it away again. If I still had my 12-year-old eyes and hands then maybe I'd have a go, but I think I'd just get frustrated now if I tried. 

Keep it up!

There are kits today that go together much easier than the old Airfix and Revell jobs. You might consider an Eduard Fokker D.VII of whatever flavour. The 1/72nd kits are brand new, and with the N interplane struts it isn't hard to get the top wing on. Very little rigging on a D.VII, as well, so a relatively cheap and hopefully fun way to test both your eyesight and patience. Plus, loads of colour schemes.

 

Paul.

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, Paul Thompson said:

I've always wondered why you'd paint an aircraft green for camouflage, then fly it over fields of churned up French mud and expect it to work.

A very pertinent point.  The French and the Germans (until they went psychedelic with the hexagons*) broke up the green with brown and reddish shades.

 

AW 

 

*camouflage for polygon wood? 

[PeterB]

Like OD, PC.10 is one of those colours subject to much argument. I know that the old Precision Paints I used in the 1970's were definitely a sort of chocolate brown though they did 2 versions - I believe that there were at least 5 "schemes" over a period of time. These days, as Paul said, most paint companies seem to have gone for the greener option including Colourcoats. I have seen various arguments for the variation - green rapidly fading to brown with sunlight, and the so called "green shift" supposedly due to the clear dope, being two of the more common. I believe that when the US entered WWI they copied both the French and British colour schemes before settling on a dark version of OD, and I suspect that may to some extent have been influenced by PC.10, so these days I favour a dark brownish green. In any case it is a matter of personal taste.

 

Pete

[Andwil]

Resprayed the upper sides today with a light coat of PC10 with 3 or 4 drops of PC12 mixed in to “brown” the green.

 

 

Much darker and less green than the first coat.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Paul Thompson]

FWIW, the Humbrol Authentic RFC Green is mostly green with a dash of brown, while Xtracolor RFC Green has started to vary between batches. Most I've seen are a darkish green as advertised, and similar to the old Authentic, but I've had one recently that had a lot more brown in it (almost enough, in fact). The lid colour had also been changed to reflect this, so can't have just been a batch mixing fault. However, I've not bought one recently so don't know if it's reverted or not, or something weird happened. Anyway, enough thread drift, the build is interesting enough without me pontificating.

 

Paul.