RAF FE8, Scaleplanes 1:72

[Alexis]

Not much more to go now Ian , she is shaping up wonderful . 


Terri

[RAGIII]

Prop wheels and roundels all look great Ian.
RAGIII

[IanB]

Thanks Terri and Rick. I must admit I'm very pleased with how she's coming on, especially as it's my first attempt at a pusher.
Richie - you have been warned, but they are definitely worth the effort!

It's a holiday weekend here so I've had 3 days at this Needless to say that hasn't resulted in much progress! I did a light wash on the wings and dull coated them. It should really have been a gloss coat but I dull coated the underside of the upper wing so the rest has to match. Oops!



Yesterday morning was spent making up a  high-tech jig (plasticene squished to the right height!) and the lower booms were fitted. I decided against the epoxy I'd bought as I don't know how it will affect the plastic. I'll try on something unimportant first! So back to Gator's Grip! The rigging lines were attached to the boom undersides and trapped between boom and wing to secure them then it was left alone until late afternoon when I added some thin CA to the joins to reinforce them.







This morning showed them to be secure so I continued with the upper booms.

Here's where she sits now, until at least tomorrow afternoon!







I have also decided on the next model. The Taube will wait as I won't get the engine for it until Christmas. I was undecided until I looked at my display cabinet and noticed a big gap - no 1915 Allied aircraft! So as a teaser, this is what will follow....







Thanks for looking in and stay safe!



Ian

[Ian from Doncaster]

Excellent hi tech jig - who needs expensive tools.!!

[Alexis]

Like Ian said , who needs hi-tech tools !

I do the same as well with what is on hand , Oooo another pusher and it's the gunbus ! Well I will be following that build once the Fe-8 is wrapped up which by the way looks great with the booms in place .


Terri

[RAGIII]

The booms are looking Terrific in place! The Gunbus is an aircraft that has been taunting Me as I look through My references. I will follow along when you get started!
RAGIII

[lone modeller]

Excellent jig Ian. I found the FE 8 to be one of the more difficult pushers when I came to fix the booms - yor method of fixing them looks to be better than the one I used.

Good to see that the pusher bug has bitten properly - they are real aircraft in my opinion and it will be interesting to see what a master modeller makes of the Gunbus.

Stephen.

[IanB]

Thanks Ian, Terri, Rick, and Stephen - not sure about the master modeller bit though!

In the buildup to attaching the tail a number of other tasks were required first so they were taken care of over the last couple of days. Mainly re the tail assembly. I had already painted the fin and rudder stripes but wasn't happy with the stripes as the paint was too dark. Does anyone have a good match for the RFC red and blue in Vallejo or Ammo acrylic?

 The tail skid was added and painted, then I used a decal for the rudder stripes. When all was dry I attached the fins and rudder to the horizontal stabilizer and rigged it all.











Happy with that. 



As I mentioned above I knocked off two of the four booms yesterday so had to reattach them and let them dry overnight.



This afternoon I started on trying to attach the tail assembly. I had a few possibilities as to how I was going to get it mounted correctly, hold the rigging wires in place, and glue it, all at the same time. All of those quickly failed the practical test.



I settled on adding the rigging wires first, then aligning the booms with the holes I'd drilled before applying a small piece of masking tape to hold it all in position The plan was then to simply add glue and leave it. 



Ha!

The big problem is that the booms meet the tail assembly in the horizontal plane, so there is no rigidity until the tail is attached!

I put the plane on its nose on my turntable and the small pegs I used to tension the rigging obviously pulled the tail forward.  I think it would have been easier to have added a small lip to the rear end of one of each pair of struts to stop the tail sliding forwards. That was my main issue, the other was trying to get it vertical, horizontal, and level in all 3 axes at the same time. One small adjustment in one plane put one or both others out, or made the tail slide forwards and I had to start again!
After about 3 hours of adjusting, readjusting, and re-re adjusting during which time I got it very nearly right many times then made one more little tweak and it all went pear shaped, I finally applied glue.















I'm definitely glad I finished rigging the tail before attaching it, and she will sit like that until my next session, tomorrow at the earliest.



Time for a beer!



Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!



Ian

[RichieW]

A very well deserved beer it was too. Proper fiddly work I reckon, looking forward to the next installment. I'm going to restate Stephen's words, 'Master Modeller!'.

[Alexis]

Coming along just wonderfully Ian , looks sweet with the tail feathers in place . It was challenging for me when I was at this stage on my build . I also like your modified close pins for clamps 


Terri

[IanB]

Thanks Richie and Terri, although I still refute the "master modeller" tag - I'm still learning....

Here's how she looks with all the pegs removed. A little extra CA in places and I needed to tighten up a couple of the drag wires but otherwise all ok.















If I did this again I think I would leave the drag wires and associated wing rigging loose at the wing end, and fix the wires on the tail, along with adding the aforementioned strip of brass/plastic strip at the rear end of one of the booms, through the tail, to ensure they align correctly. Once the tail is set in place I could then adjust the tail position slightly by tensioning the drag wires at the forward end.

You live and learn!



Ian

[rhallinger]

That's a fantastic bit of modeling Ian, getting those tail planes properly aligned on the booms.  I always seem to struggle with struts and such.  Very nicely done!   This one is shaping up into a very fine model of an interesting aircraft.  Looking forward to more.

Best regards,
 
Bob

[Alexis]

Awesome !



Terri

[RAGIII]

I missed a couple of updates but can see this one is really moving along. Tail surfaces and booms attached and rigged. Gorgeous work on all!
RAGIII

[IanB]

Thanks to Bob, Terri, and Rick for the feedback!

There was however that little niggle in the back of my mind. It didn't quite look right....

All was not well in pusherland. It must have been F(E)8.



OK, I'll stick to modelling.



Anyway, the tail was crooked. Not really any great surprise as my method of attachment left far too many variables. It was actually about 2mm further to one side than the other and slightly crooked as seen from behind. I managed to ease the booms off the tail and pull the rigging lines out and the Gators Grip cleaned off easily. That left me with this.







I had expected to have to remove the booms too but they lined up ok once the tail was removed so I left them in place. New rigging holes were drilled separate from the boom mounts and I cut a piece of square masking paper to use as reference. The FE was then taped to that and everything double checked before the tail was CAd on and everything checked again.



Result!











That's much better, I just need to be careful not to pull it all out of kilter when I rig it!



That's tomorrow's job, enough for today!



Thanks for looking in, stay safe!



Ian