1/32 BE2c

[lone modeller]

Looking forward to seeing more on this when you are ready Richie.

Stephen

[KiwiZac]

Hear hear.

[RichieW]

Many thanks for bearing with me Stephen and Zac. Hopefully I have made good use of having my work space back this week, it has certainly been great fun playing around with styrene, glue and paint again.

Enough waffle and on with the update.

I made the tail fin:

20221029_203202 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The rib tape is made from white decal strips, I tried so hard to make stitches from both fine wire and fishing line but it was far too hard for me to line them all up correctly and the trial runs looked utterly horrendous. I settled for tiny punched rivets. To the naked eye (mine at least) they are barely visible and appear just as a texture which is good enough for me. It doesn't look much for two days of modelling but holding it up to the light gives an idea of why:

20221029_203257 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The structure was made from 1mm square styrene and round rods. It was a little warped at first but boiling water followed by clamping in a vice solved the problem.

I also made the main fuel tank from styrene sheet. The straps are just 1mm Tamiya tape with more punched rivets, 0.5mm this time. Although I am modelling the aircraft in Jamo's magnificent photo set I decided to abandon the idea of dual control for the sake of simplicity and my sanity.

The struts are made from wooden coffee stirrers, I was quite pleased with them at first but looking at the photo they don't really resemble the struts on the BE2c. I may remake them.

20221029_204444 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

Well it's great to be back at the bench after such a lengthy absence, I hope it won't be another year before my next update!

Best wishes all, sorry to have gone AWOL for such a long time.

Richie

[DaveB]

Good to see you back at your model bench, Richie -

Really great (and clever) work so far - looking forward t seeing more in due course

Regards

Dave

[kensar]

The fuel tank straps look great.  I'm sure the rudder will work just fine and your results on the struts prove out the method of making them.
That's progress!

[RichieW]

Thanks Dave and Ken for your kind words. The tail fin was a test to see if 0.13mm styrene sheet would translucent enough once painted. Unfortunately it worked out which means I now need to make the wings in the same way! I'm going to potter around making simpler shapes for now before tackling that particular mountain.

Richie

[Rookie]

Wow Richie, great progress and results here!

I really like the rib stichting and the straps on the fuel tank. And I can't see anything wrong with the struts, I think they look great!

Good to see you back at it.

Willem

[RichieW]

Thanks so much Willem, I since decided to ditch the idea of adding rib stitches. My version looked far too prominent so off they came. I'm still working away at this but mostly I'm drawing up plans and contemplating how to make things. Hopefully I will have another update soon.

Richie

[lone modeller]

Sorry I missed this update Richie: excellent progress and as ever, clever ideas. I can see why you are unhappy with the struts, but reshaping them should not be too difficult. I am planning to use laminated strip wood for mine - I have tried a sample and it seems to work well. Pm me if you want more details as I will not be posting that part for a while - ie. until I have mde the rest.

Best of luck with the planning and thinking - all important when scratch building....

Stephen.

[RichieW]

Many thanks Stephen, Yes I think I need to do something better with the struts. These are rather inelegant to say the least!

Will message you tomorrow, the planning stages and experimentation haven't been very productive since the weekend but I think I have a cunning plan. The master's input would be very helpful!

Richie

[FAf]

Good to hear that you have your bench back and good work to show as well! How much off are the struts from what they should look like?
/Fredrik

[RichieW]

Good to hear that you have your bench back and good work to show as well! How much off are the struts from what they should look like?
/Fredrik

Thanks Fredrik, much appreciated from one of my favourite modellers!
The struts are a bit boxy and brutal in comparison to the real thing. Jamo's photo shows they have a gentle and very elegant curve.

BE2c Vintage Aviator. Photo by Jamo. by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I can't decide how much it matters but I think the shape of the struts contributes to the very graceful shape of the BE2 series, perhaps I'm just being over picky in only my second scratch build!

cheers
Richie

[RichieW]

It's been a very frustrating few days trying to make ribs for the tail plane the old fashioned way with a template, sharp blade and lots of sanding. I pretty much got there but decided they were a bit too ragged to get a good result. Today I decided to make them on the cutting machine and spent the whole day using the clumsy cricut software and finally got them designed but realised I had run out of the right thickness styrene sheets. It doesn't really feel like model making I must say!

I did manage to make a few bits earlier this week, here is the pilot's firewall made from aluminium sheet and the gravity tank from laminated styrene. Neither will be particularly visible on the finished model but they I enjoyed making them.

BE2c gravity tank and firewall by Richard Williams, on Flickr

Hopefully we will have wings soon.

Richie

[FAf]

Thanks Fredrik, much appreciated from one of my favourite modellers!

Thanks, but you must have a very long list with all the fantastic modellers that show their work here... You can be on my list! 😃

I can see some differences between your struts and the real ones, but I would never think of it if I saw the finished model. So is it worth the extra work?!

Great looking tank and firewall!
/Fredrik

[Rookie]

Don't be too hard on yourself Richie, I hadn't seen the difference in the struts until you pointed it out. On the other hand, it's to your credit you are so painstakingly precise in your work. I think your progress is great. And as you said earlier, scratch building seems to be more about planning, experimentation and trying to work out what went wrong than actually making things.

But I'm sure you will get there, as you did with your beautiful Bristol Scout!

Cheers
Willem