RAF BE12a (was Be2e) - 1/72

[RAGIII]

Superb work all round, especially in such a tiny scale. Really enjoying this.

I am in 100% agreement! Fantastic work!
RAGIII

[PrzemoL]

Just great job on the engine.

[macsporran]

Brilliant work so far.
I just love a good cut'n'shut job to create a different plane.
Sandy

[KiwiZac]

Brilliant work so far.
I just love a good cut'n'shut job to create a different plane.

I heartily agree on both points. This is a fascinating build and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching it come together.

[torbiorn]

Thanks again. Fearing I won’t be able to finish on time, but here is some small progress.


Wings made after Woodman’s description. Thin sheet with ribs engraved, bent and glued around a core. Ailerons were only scribed this time. Final sanding of tips and trailing edges still to be done. Note the rib with different width on the lower wings - this is after the drawings which I realise I had cut wrong when scaling. Grrrr. I’m thinking if I should try to fix by scraping it away and rebuilding with plastic strip.

I aldo tried an extra pair using clear acrylic sheet as demonstrated by Skyhook. These I haven’t bothered to sand to shape as they are a test of concept only.


Added the nose, the ”ridge” in front of the cockpit. I started making a new top cowl piece of brass - the previous one was way too wide. I should learn to take measures!



Only a few details before painting can start. Trying to figure out armament and whether it had an underwing gravity tank.

[Flamingo]

Looking great!
What core do you use and what type of glue?
Ray Rimmel once built a phantastic Staaken (Contrail) and after a few years the wings came apart
because the double sided tape dried out.
The different ribs will most likely not show once finished.
Regards Joachim

[NigelR]

Amazing work in the tradition of St Harry. Very impressive.

[torbiorn]

Joachim, that sounds awful and is a great worry of mine - short longevity of the adhesives. For the styrene wings I used some acetate based liquid glue - if that comes apart, so will the rest of the model.

With the acetate I used ”canopy glue”, whatever thagvis, though I suspect PVA on one wing and office contact glue on the other. The acetate files nicely to a sharp edge, but I haven’t found a glue I trust enough yet.



Thanks Nigel - I consult Harry’s bible almost every time I build a model.


—

[torbiorn]

Decided to go with an upwards/forwards firing Lewis gun, knicked from a Roden kit. The stick was made from brass. Still not glued in place, thereof the tilt.

A gravity tank was made from plastic sheet, seen in the photo below. The filling pipe I will add after attaching to the wing.
Spare drum storage was stolen from Eduard’s fabulous DH2 kit - I think there’s more than 20 (!!) such pieces in the kit if you count the different variations and PE/styrene.





Also made a new windshield from acetate sheet, and added various bits and pieces: fuel filling caps, footstep, tailskid (replaced some of the clunky plastic with brass rod), links for control wires, control horns (brass again), pump stuck on the port fuselage side etc. I cut off the beams/spars from the lower wing and glued them on: the new wings will be attached to these with metal dowels, to ensure correct placement.

[NigelR]

This is looking absolutely fantastic, lovely modelling work all round.

[DaddyO]

Coming along really nicely young fella. Good to see all that detail being adding which is very much what these aircraft were about, with bits grafted on all over the place..

Paul

[torbiorn]

Coming along really nicely young fella. Good to see all that detail being adding which is very much what these aircraft were about, with bits grafted on all over the place..

Paul

Yep, I love the olld, well, drag queens. The more terribly non-aerodynamic sticking out bits the better.

Painting has begun. Primed with Vallejos Olive drab primer all over, now painting the CDL undersides (lower wings only). Initially standard PC10, 50 squadron had their night fighters painted all black (this particular airframe stilll had CDL undersides though), but I think I?ll leave the PC10 wrap-around underneath, assuming they wouldn?t have bothered to paint that black.



As evident I added the upper wing first. Normally I start with the lower wings, but with the very helpful cabane strut arrangement I get the aligned wing almost for free this way. Since the wings are homemade, the strut alignment may not be perfect either: the lower wings will be attached with metal rods, which can slide in and out a fraction of a millimeter to attain vertical alignment of the struts (ever so slighly angled struts are more noticeable than the wings being slightly to long or short - or at least that bugs me more).

[NigelR]

More excellent attention to detail going to all the bother of the PC10 edging om the undersides. This is going to look very cool when done....

[torbiorn]

Thanks Nigel, I hope so. It?s such a skinny-looking type though, almost anorectic.
Painting almost finished, thinking about weathering and finish. Would the cloth and metal panels be satin or matt or even gloss?



A dirty underside: the photo shows a quite discouloured underside. It might be due to the crash of course, but I have enough ?clean? models.

[Skyhook]

This is really a good looking project?. There?s not enough models of the BE-series done?looks very impressive.

Cheers, Skyhook