1/32 WNW Bristol Fighter

[kensar]

Brilliant result!

[lcarroll]

     I have always believed that this Kit, one of the originals, is the best of Wingnut's offerings and it's provided many beautiful examples of the modelling art here. Your model takes it a step beyond, simply outstanding! Congratulations, this is superb!
Cheers,
Lance

[lone modeller]

Brilliant. That is one of the best representations of this aircraft that I have seen in model form.

Is there a build log of this anywhere?

You have given me an idea for my current build.

Stephen.

[RichieW]

Strewth, absolutely brilliant! I feel like I just walked into a museum to see the real thing. A great bonus in these days of lock down!

[LT1962]

Thanks for the comments. Sorry I dont have a build log but I could probably put something together, I took quite a few photos on the way through the build. But the best thing to do is to have a look at this book;
https://wingsandrigging.blogspot.com/2018/11/book-bristol-f2b.html?showComment=1560418318677#c8822671885718188578
This is a fantastic reference that will help no end.

[PrzemoL]

I was lucky to see the Martinez' Biff in reality in one modelling show. It is a treat! But yours is as fantastic as that one. Great modelling! thanks for showing. And I would copy the question about the build log.

[dr 1 ace]

Add my Kudo to all the above !!!

Ed

[gedmundson]

That Bristol Fighter is one of the best builds of it's type I've seen in a long time. Absolutely spectacular. Congrats on your masterpiece.
Cheers,
Gary

[LT1962]

I am happy to post some of my photos and a sort of build log here bit by bit if Dave is happy. If not I am sure he will move it to the correct place.

When I started this build I initially only wanted to open up the fuselage, and hod focused on that. I was not game to cut any of the superb Wingnuts kit until I thought that I could make a reasonable job with my skills.

I started with the rear of the fuselage behind the gunners cockpit taking careful measurements from the cockpit frames and fuselage sides to make sure it would all go together at some time. The frame was crafted from evergreen 1mm x 1mm with additional 1 mm x .5mm strips on the top and bottom of the frame.

[LT1962]

I also had to check that the tailplane was going to fit squarely at this stage. The evergreen being what is is is very flexible and easy to pull out of square. Because of this flexibility I had intended to only rig the tail section using rolled wire but after a bit of trial and error later changed to a combo of wire and 2lb mono.  The mono gives some extra strength which i think was necessary for when the finished model would sit on the wheels.

[LT1962]

I was concerned particularly with the join of the evergreen to the cockpit frame, so I intentionally chose to use mono for the rigging between the two sections to provide extra strength. Now was also the time to work out where the tailskid would fit. The main section of the tail skid strut was cut off and replaced with 1mm brass tube to add some strength as well. Holes drilled for all the rigging and fairleads added for the rudder cables. Fairleads also added here for the tailplane incidence adjusting cables.

[LT1962]

In concert with the fuselage, I had only intended to skeletonise one of the elevators. I did the frame with a combo of brass tube and shaped copper wire shaped around the kit part and soldered.

[LT1962]

Test fitted to the horizontal stabiliser.

[LT1962]

Another piece of 0.6mm brass tube is soldered in the elevator using the kit piece as a guide and then the ribs from evergreen (1mm x 0.25mm) are cyanoed in place.

[LT1962]

It was around this time that I got my hands on a copy of the Wings and Rigging book by Jose Martinez Fernandez on his brilliant F2B. (See https://wingsandrigging.blogspot.com/2018/11/book-bristol-f2b.html?showComment=1560418318677#c8822671885718188578) With this in hand, I decided t have a go at scratch building a wing before I proceeded any further. To do this entailed buying a lot more Evergreen strips and rods and using his descriptions as a guide. The hardest thing was cutting the shap of the three compression ribs and the wing root rib. Once these were cut, filed and sanded the wing part was traced onto A4 and the wing slowly assembled.