Author Topic: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a  (Read 13255 times)

Offline RichieW

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #75 on: November 03, 2022, 09:14:48 AM »
What a wonderful update Stephen, so glad to see you are able to not only persevere but forget ahead with this magnificent project after your shoulder problems. I love the steam curved  wooden parts, that is a particularly nice touch. In these days of plastic pollution I wonder if this is a direction we should all be heading in as far as possible.

I agree with you on the matter of wicker seats, I spent what seemed like an eternity making one yet I actually have a Barracuda one in stock which is beautiful!

Take it easy when it comes to sanding the wings, you must preserve your shoulder in order to give us many more masterclasses in the dark arts of scratchbuilding.

Richie

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #76 on: November 04, 2022, 07:16:37 AM »
Magic work Stephen! Thanks for sharing your progress.

Online FAf

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #77 on: November 09, 2022, 07:09:47 AM »
Amazing work! Very nice to see you back at the bench.
/Fredrik

Offline Rookie

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #78 on: November 11, 2022, 07:59:16 PM »
Wonderful work on the decking between the pilot and observer's cockpits Stephen.

You keep amazing me with your scratch building techniques and skills!

Willem

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #79 on: November 24, 2022, 06:02:44 AM »
Evening All, Thanks Richie, Zac, Frederik and Willem for dropping by and leaving encouraging comments - they are all much appreciated.

While I have been building the Albatros, I have also been working on some of the smaller parts of the BE 2a while waiting for larger parts to dry/set. One of these was the instrument board. Early aircraft had very few instruments (some had only a clock, fuel gauge and compass): the BE 2 was not an exception. It had an Elliot board: one pattern for RFC machines and a different one for RNAS machines. I intend to represent a machine from the RNAS based at Eastchurch on Sheppy in Kent so I have modelled the Elliot board Mk 1 which had three instrument dials between an air speed indicator and an ascent/descent guage. Above the board were two smaller dials. I could not find any transfers which even remotely represented the dials on the board, or were small enough so a blob of paint and some bezels form Eduard have to suffice. Next to the instrument board is a map board:



This is not the best instrument board/panel that I have made but as it will be largely hidden under the fuselage cover and as I want to live to do something else, this will have to suffice.

Another set of parts which can be tedious to make are the struts. I am making them from laminated marquetry wood and will varnish them, so to save my shoulder  I have made a few in between other tasks; the remainder including the undercarriage legs and skids, will follow later:



With the solid part of the upper wing sanded and ready to paint I added a strip of 20 thou card to the opening in the centre to represent the rib:



That was shaped and filled prior to adding the remaining ribs to the spars. Then the fun began because the wings had two solid spars front and rear, and a centre spar which was full of holes. Cue cutting short lengths of 40 thou plastic card, drilling lots of holes and then inserting said pieces of drilled plastic between the ribs.... I found that I could make two or at most three of these per session before the will to live nearly expired. However they are now done!



To finish the construction of the top wing I used 30 thou rod for the leading edge and 20 thou rod for the trailing edge:



and looking at the photo I can see that I have got to adjust some of the centre spar sections to make them line up more accurately.....grrrr.

However the span of the upper uncovered wing half matches the covered lower wing half on the same side of the model. I have also checked that the strut holes in the covered parts of the wings align accurately with the exposed spars on the opposing wing: at least I have managed to get that right! Now the struts should line up vertically from the sides and front as per the original machines.



This project seemed to be badly stalled but it is truly under way again: making the Albatros at the same time has really helped restore my mojo. Must remember that in future ..... keep to God's Own Scale and all is (usually) well.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

Offline RichieW

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #80 on: November 24, 2022, 08:28:28 AM »
Another great update Stephen, I can well understand drilling all those holes in the spar sections being utterly tedious but the end result will be well worth it. All the time spent ensuring the wing symmetry and alignment will really pay dividends when it comes time to do the major assembly.  So glad this is not on the back-burner, it's all looking very impressive.

Richie

Offline DaveB

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #81 on: November 24, 2022, 11:01:11 PM »
Good to see you on the go with this one again, Steve -

Love the instrument panel and feel for you with all pre-drilling .......

Regards

Dave
As we say in fencing, what's the point!

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #82 on: November 25, 2022, 07:53:58 AM »
I can only echo Dave and Richie's sentiments, Stephen: it's always a joy to see your latest update and this is no different. The wings alone are works of art!

Online FAf

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #83 on: December 03, 2022, 04:42:57 AM »
I'll echo Zac's echo of Dave and Richie

I can only echo Dave and Richie's sentiments, Stephen: it's always a joy to see your latest update and this is no different. The wings alone are works of art!

Brilliant work!
/Fredrik

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #84 on: December 03, 2022, 08:40:09 PM »
Great progress Stephen, all that drilling certainly pays of, it looks great!

I hope you shoulder will not trouble you too much anymore

Willem

Offline RAGIII

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #85 on: December 15, 2022, 05:43:27 AM »
Another Amazing build Stephen! The work on getting the formers and spars done in the wing is incredible!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #86 on: January 17, 2023, 08:34:54 PM »
Evening All,

Thank you all for the generous and encouraging comments - I really do appreciate them.

Now that the Albatros is finished I have been turning my attention to the BE 2a again. I intend to show part of the structure of the aircraft so I have bought a set of wire wheels from Gaspatch, but I will also need a covered wheel disc for one side of the model. I made the disc from laminated card: first scribe the outline of the disc on to the card:



The cross marks the centre of the circle of the disc and was used to place one leg of the dividers which I used for scribing. The I cut away the edges of the card to get as close to the scribed circle as practical:



and filing completed the job.

The fabric covered part of the horizontal tail surfaces were made from 30 thou card which had been filed to shape and ribs added and sanded as described for the wings. The exposed half of the surfaces were made from 25 thou rod and 20 x 30 thou card. The rod was bent and held in place over a plan using pins and a block of balsa wood as a base:



Liquid cement holds everything together. The exposed elevator was constructed in the same way:





The upper wing which is represented as fabric covered was painted with my usual mix of thinned white and Revell beige(314) acrylics and as per usual took many coats before I achieved a good finish. The fabric covered parts of the tail surfaces and wheel disc were painted at the same time. Painting the wood parts of the exposed wings and tail structures was a little more difficult because I could not match very well the colour that I had mixed for the fuselage frame. (Note to myself: write down the ratios of colours used next time!) Eventually I found something close to the original:





The wire frame of the tail surfaces will be painted black later, as will the frame and ribs of the rudder.

The rudder was cut from 20 thou card and the ribs on one side added as described above, only this time I used 10 x 20 strip for the ribs on the fabric covered side. I painted the aircraft number in black on both sides of the rudder, but reversed the number on the side which will represent the uncovered portion on the finished model. I carefully brushed 4 thin coats of paint over the revered numerals to give the impression of looking through fabric to see the number.



Finally I added the internal rigging for the wings and was pleased to be able to secure two threads on the top wing which have benn dangling and causing frustration for a while now:



Now at last I can return to construction and start to add some of the fuselage internal details and clear away some parts which have been stored in a box to keep them safe from accidental damage. More later.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #87 on: January 18, 2023, 07:43:12 AM »
Excellent work Stephen, superb detail as always.

Offline RichieW

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #88 on: January 18, 2023, 08:10:54 AM »
Excellent update full of masterly old fashioned modelling skills. I count matching the original CDL colour after not writing down the mix ratio as being one of them. ;)

It's so good to see this underway again and I am so looking forward to seeing the interior details added.

Richie

Online PJ Fisher

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Re: 1/32 Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2a
« Reply #89 on: January 18, 2023, 08:37:02 AM »
Oh, looks like you're modeling Samson's plane (serial #50).  From what I understand he flew the heck outta that thing!