Royal Aircraft Factory Fe2b in 1/144

[William Adair]

I love the FE2b

There... I said it.  I love it.  It is a contraption.  A contrivance.  An accidental love letter to the Age of Sail.  An aberration.
I think it may well be my favourite aircraft of all time!

This build started one summer evening back in 2017.  I was at my bench, leaning back in my chair and nursing a glass of single malt whiskey.  Quizzing myself on what my top 5 most wished-for models would be.  I am very much a fan of 1/144, so the choices of kits are considerably more limited than other scales.  If you want something, it is all too often a matter of having to make it yourself.  I was mulling this over and cradling a now-empty glass when I realised my No.1 bucket list aircraft was (by a considerable margin) the ungainly and unlovely Royal Aircraft Factory Fe2b... 


I imagined the empty space in my tiny display cabinet, filled with a trophy-sized replica of the Royal Aircraft Factory's finest... 

Pity it can't be done, I thought to myself.  There's just no way.  I grabbed my trusty Windsock Datafile and measured off the size of the nacelle and transferred it to a bit of styrene strip.  "See!"  I said to myself triumphantly.  "It's not even 30mm long.  It's impossible!"

I looked at the little piece of styrene sitting there, forlorn on my cutting mat.  Not a chance!  I reached over and grabbed my scalpel:  "Just gonna round the front off a bit..." 

**************************************************

So that's how it all started.  It's come a long way since then.  Although its definitely not over yet.  Recently I got back into the build after getting burned out by it and not a little intimidated either by some of the trickier details like the undercarriage and intricate tail booms.  Thankfully it is now moving forward however, so I'll try to give you the highlights to bring it up to speed:

First up is the fateful little strip of styrene.



Some sidewalls of .3mm styrene were added to the sides then some solid laminations of 3mm sheet were shaped and added to the front, back and top.



Some whittling then occurred...



Over the next couple of days the pieces were shaped then detached so they could be hollowed out with dental burrs.



Bits like the wheels were made from styrene.  Other parts that were very thin such as the seat were made from sterling silver sheet of about .07mm thickness and shaped with micro drills and a scalpel.






Unlike many 1/144 scale models, there's quite a lot to see in the Fe2 cockpits.  Luckily the Wingnut Wings kits are everywhere on the internet and references are no longer hard to find. 





These guys were invaluable:



Next up was the Beardmore engine.  The cylinders were turned up from styrene rod that was stuck into the end of my motor tool and shaped like on a sort of poor-man's lathe.



Sprue and bits made up the rest.  More gets added later of course.





Which pretty much brings us to here:
I'll add some more soon so the first post doesn't get too spammy.  Hope you like it!

[Rookie]

Unbelievable!

I am again sitting front row watching your marvellous micro-modeling Brad.

You are a true craftsman.

Willem

[RAGIII]

I can't believe I did so much wining about trying to build a 1/72nd kit and here you are making an incredible scratch build in 1/144th! Your work to date is Amazing. Truly gorgeous work!
RAGIII

[macsporran]

Aaarg, this is amazing. I need my optivisor just to look at your pictures, let alone the real thing. If you put a piece down how do you find it again? Do not tell me you are going to rig this please.
Sandy

[RichieW]

That has made me roar with laughter!!!! It's just outrageous. I'm sitting here trying to draw up a plan for a 1/32 engine and thinking it's too hard then this tiny Beardmore appears in 1/144 and it looks perfect! 😂😂😂😂😂

Richie

[ColonelKrypton]

William,

I have been following along on your 1/144 scratch builds wherever I find them, here, on Britmodeller, and Kampfgruppe144. Are there others?

Scratch build threads I find the most interesting. Lots of ideas, techniques, and much other food for thought. I think your Fe2b is at the top of the list.

In fact, I have found these builds to be as much inspirational as fascinating. So much so that I have taken a turn at an unexpected fork in the road and have allowed my journey to wander outside of my usual comfort zone. 1/48 is my favoured scale for early and WW1 aeroplanes but the thought of having a go at 1/144 is intriguing and as such my first steps in that direction will be to tackle something in 1/72 and then... Who knows; I noticed a number of nice 1/144 Valom kits at the local hobby store; perhaps that next step may be closer than I think.

And, not to steal any of his thunder, this is William's thread from Britmodeller started almost three years ago

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045706-scratchbuilding-an-fe2b/

cheers, Graham

[lone modeller]

I too have followed your thread on Britmodeller - and wondered what had happened to the build. On of my first 1/72 conversions was of the FE 2b as there are no injection kits in the True Scale, and I found that tricky enough. To make one of these in 1/144 is not just inspirational, it is magnificent. I know that you intend to rig it - which will be fun.....

Wonderful to read that you have picked this up again - let us hope you will finish it this time.

Stephen.

[William Adair]

Thanks so much everybody.  Sorry Richie!   

Aaarg, this is amazing. I need my optivisor just to look at your pictures, let alone the real thing. If you put a piece down how do you find it again? Do not tell me you are going to rig this please.
Sandy

Hi Sandy, yep definitely going to rig it.  I'll use 0.05mm nickel wire that is rolled flat.  It's much easier than thread as you can cut it to set lengths and put it in place like leaning a broom against a wall   There is a lot of repetition in the wire lengths, so I'm hoping once I establish the dimensions that it wont be too bad.

William,

I have been following along on your 1/144 scratch builds wherever I find them, here, on Britmodeller, and Kampfgruppe144. Are there others?

Hi Graham, nice to see you!  Britmodeller and KG144 are pretty much it so far.  I'll update the BM thread too once I get the saga up to date.
That would be great if you dip a toe into 1/144.  Some of the early Valom kits are real potatoes however, and you may need to avoid those.  The latter ones such as the Bristol Fighter, LVG and Camel are very buildable however.  I hear there is a Bristol Scout on the way too, which is very exciting.

I too have followed your thread on Britmodeller - and wondered what had happened to the build. One of my first 1/72 conversions was of the FE 2b as there are no injection kits in the True Scale, and I found that tricky enough. To make one of these in 1/144 is not just inspirational, it is magnificent. I know that you intend to rig it - which will be fun.....

Wonderful to read that you have picked this up again - let us hope you will finish it this time.

Stephen.

Hi Stephen, props to you for doing one in the larger scales.  1/144 is easier in some ways, in that the amount of elbow work required is much less.  Making a wing for example requires few specialist tools and creates little mess.  While 72nd requires a lot more work and In 1/48 and above it becomes a major engineering project.   

I'll add the rest of the pics soon to bring it up to speed.  Looking forward having it done this time too!

[William Adair]

Continuing on:

The wings are made from acrylic sheet so they are less inclined to warp.  The undercamber was scraped into the wing stock first with the assistance of a straight edge and a metal ruler that had the end shaped to the underside wing contour.  The pieces were afterwards flipped over and shaped on the other side with some heavy duty files.

The rib tapes were masked and sprayed with a thickish coat of primer to build them up.  It's tedious, but it works quite well.  Having something to watch or listen to while you do it helps a lot.



I usually polish the rib detail slightly to bed them in.  You can see this on the lower wing below, plus the beginnings of the interplane struts. 



I bought some uber cheap 4.5x and 6x reading glasses on ebay which give me bionic vision 
They take time to get used to, but are well worth persisting with for certain tasks.  When you make something and get it looking alright with them: you then take the glasses off and think, my god did i do that??





Eventually things got to the stage where I could close up the nacelle.  Thinning down the putty with lacquer thinners and applying with a brush gives a lot more control and a lot less mess.  I usually scrape the excess away with a blade before sanding to ensure that I don't overdo it and inadvertently alter the contours.





Once it was cleaned up, the nacelle was scribed and the raised details added in a similar way to the wings.  The stitched panels were masked and sprayed, then detailed with the edge of a needle to give them some texture.





And the undercarriage (nearly forgot) which was done earlier so I wouldn't have to handle the completed nacelle too much.  These bits were made from soldered brass and I had some great help from a member of the Britmodeller community, who kindly measured the thickness of the Wingnut components for me so I could get them looking to scale.



I really like the Trafford-Jones style undercarriage.  It makes the whole thing look so racy 

[Rookie]

 

Willem

[William Adair]

And some painting:

The undersides of the wings got sprayed a light CDL colour and the ribs were masked off.  Then a waft of a darker shade was spayed over the top. 



Something similar happened to the top wings too.  Excuse the terrible photo.  The glare of the desklamp doesn't do me any favours.   



Better...



The prop was made at about this time and painted with oils.  Some metal panels over the hardpoints on the wings were represented with painted decal stock too.  This was the first time I tried such a thing and it worked really well.



You could absolutely die for want of decals in 1/144 sometimes.  There was nothing available for the wing roundels, so these had to be masked and sprayed by hand.



They kind of looked alright but there is quite an element of risk, as you only get one shot at it.  If the paint bleeds through or peels it would be very hard to fix.  For the top wing I decided to make my own multi-layer decals.

First I made a series of these:



Which works like this:



To make this:



And then these:



The blue section is a doughnut of blue-painted decal film that is placed over the white disk.  The red dot is much the same, but is cut out using the sharpened end of a piece of brass tube as a punch.  I was really pleased with these, as it meant I was no longer dependant on decal manufacturers and the spares box.  The possibilities for future projects was very exciting.



Not entirely independent though...     The roundels on the nacelle had to come from a Valom kit and the B'1 codes were grafted together from an MYK set intended for a Mitsubishi Pete.
More work for the engine here.  Making the Beardmore a bit more busy.





Motoring along now.  The jig was made so as to get the top wing on and the booms aligned.  Some light shading and highlights were added to, to try an pick out some detail.



And the wing was glued in place. 
The struts were drilled in and were a "soft" fit rather than a firm one.  This was done so that when I touched some thin CA to each joint it would flow in and around the recessed stub of the struts, rather than pooling and forming a collar on the surface of the wings.



Then it was the boom's turn.  These are made from .4mm tube and predrilled to accept .2mm locating pins at the end of each vertical strut.



The ends have a Vee of wire to keep the tubes at the correct angle.



Then the delicate process of making the struts began:



And that Dear Reader, is where I lost my mojo for two years...   

[Bughunter]

What a build! And so cleanly done I have seen many models in bigger scale, not scratched and was not that correct.
Can't believe what I see!

Cheers,
Frank

[Rookie]

I totally agree with Frank. I'm flabbergasted...

What did you use to make the decals?

[bobs_buckles]

 

[William Adair]

I totally agree with Frank. I'm flabbergasted...

What did you use to make the decals?

Hey thanks.  For the roundels I used blank decal film, which I bought from the local hobby store like this:  https://www.bnamodelworld.com/hobby-tools-supplies-misc-supplies-bare-metal-bmf-012

I painted pieces of it in the roundel colours then cut the individual disks out and placed them on top of one another.  Even in 1/144 you can't see a step between layers once a decal setting solution is used.



For the smallest disks you sharpen the inside face of some brass tube to create a hole cutter and just press them out.  You can go as small as 0.5mm and still get nice looking disks.