I've always had a thing for the FE2. To an aircraft-obsessed child, it was that "big 2-seater DH-2" that only sometimes appeared in fuzzy photographs and never in the Airfix catalogue. It was elusive and mysterious, and not a little terrifying too. I remember staring in fascinated horror at a watercolour picture which showed the observer, standing up on the edge of his shallow cockpit to fire backwards over the top wing at some shark like V-strutters that were racing in for the kill. I used to wonder at the kind of courage and desperation it would require to do this - miles above France and without safety harness or parachute. I still wonder at it actually.
While I was growing up a mainstream kit of the Fee never seemed to materialise. References were always rare and the aircraft seemed almost lost to history. Over the years I fell in love with 1/144 scale. So when the 1/32 WNW kit rolled around it was waaay out of my league. It did however provide a stack of readymade research material that I could use...
Eventually one day I decided to have a go. Four years later and I don't know how many hours or hundreds of parts later, it is finished.
So here it is. A scratchbuilt FE2b in 1/144 scale. Materials are styrene sheet, acrylic and sterling silver for the most part. Plus a tiny bit of 18ct gold for good measure (I'm a jewellery maker by trade, so why not).
Paints are Mr Color and Tamiya lacquers, while the markings are a mix of hand masked and home printed. With the exception of the nacelle roundels, which were donated by the most excellent Ajmm from Kampfgruppe 144.
Markings are for a B-Flight machine of 22 Sqn RFC flown by Captain Francis Don, with Lt Herbert Harris as observer. This aircraft was lost on June 5, 1917 when it was shot down by the famous ace, Werner Voss for his 33rd victory. Both pilot and observer were wounded, however they were able to bring the aircraft down safely in a field north of Vaucelles. Voss then strafed them on the ground for good measure before they were taken prisoner. Classy guy.
Anyway enough intro. Here's the pics. I hope you like them!
Thanks for taking a look. The build thread is here if you are keen to see how it went together:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12423.0Cheers!
