Be12b conversion

[DaddyO]

With a couple of trickier builds out of the way I perused the shelf of kits & projects for something a little quicker and easier. Since I seemed to have built mainly German aircraft of late I wanted to redress the balance slightly with something PC10 coloured (actually I'm really not fond of painting British aircraft with their subdued schemes which seem to gather every speck of dust and don't get me started about all those external control wires and double flying wires)

Anyway having scrapped the Pegasus/KP hybrid Ansaldo, which was proving too much effort to get right (I must keep an eye out for one of the Fly kits) My thoughts turned to the ubiquitous Be2 series. Now I've looked at the good old Airfix kit a few times, but couldn't really decide which scheme I wanted so it stayed on the shelf. There were so many variants developed from the basic airframe I felt I had to have at least one of them and wanted something a bit different so eventually settled on the late be12b single seat version which I think has a nice profile with the enclosed HS engine albeit with the struts and strings of the earlier versions. How hard can it be - cut the nose off a handy Se5a and swap it for the RAF4 engine, fill in the front cockpit and throw in a pair of Lewis' and a nice new tail and the jobs as good as done 

For those unfamiliar with the shape here's the profile from the back of the Datafile -

Be12b profile by Paul S, on Flickr

Interestingly, despite the dullness of the scheme there seems to have been a wide variation of subtle differences with some having subdued roundels others with PC10 painted under-surfaces, 1 or 2 Lewis guns in overwing mounts, Rankin darts, rockets, bombs and night flying equipment fitted or not depending on squadron, state of conversion of just whim so plenty to mull over; at this stage I'm thinking of an early conversion with a pair of overwing Lewis', but no night flying equipment so that if I build one of the other Be2b variants it will have some points of difference.

Will post a pic. of progress tomorrow
Paul

[Skyhook]

Hi Paul!

This sounds like a very good project. I also have bought a few Airfix BE2c's in the hope that one day I will make conversions to different BE12 types...I also have an ESCI SE5a waiting for being the donor of the front bit. One day, one day

Will be following this with great interest

Cheers, Skyhook

[DaddyO]

Hi Paul!

This sounds like a very good project. I also have bought a few Airfix BE2c's in the hope that one day I will make conversions to different BE12 types...I also have an ESCI SE5a waiting for being the donor of the front bit. One day, one day

Will be following this with great interest

Cheers, Skyhook

Hiya matey.   
Glad you're intrigued by this one. I've got an old issue of Cross & Cockade which has some lovely drawings and photo's of the various ways one squadron tried to improve their Be12a's which makes for interesting reading and was also a possibility for this project (Some of the mods were stripping a large chunk of the upper wing covering, cutting down the exhausts to stubs, internal control lines on the fuselage even a triple Lewis gun mount! maybe next time . . .)

Paul

[herbarnold99]

Best of luck! I did a similar conversion here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11954.0

cheers
Herb

[Brad Cancian]

Nice project - I kit-bashed a BE12 from a BE2 and SE5a in 1/48 some years back, and it's a relatively simple conversion. Looking forward to seeing this one take shape!

Cheers,

BC

[DaddyO]

Best of luck! I did a similar conversion here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11954.0

cheers
Herb

Thanks for that Herb - You made a great job of that one 

Nice project - I kit-bashed a BE12 from a BE2 and SE5a in 1/48 some years back, and it's a relatively simple conversion. Looking forward to seeing this one take shape!

Cheers,

BC

Cheers Brad. I remember that one (I think I even downloaded a few pics which I'll have to dig out now you've reminded me)

[NigelR]

Great project! How hard can it be? Not too hard in your hands (provided you don't drop a shelf on it.....).

[DaddyO]

Great project! How hard can it be? Not too hard in your hands (provided you don't drop a shelf on it.....).

Cheers Nigel
Made a start on this over the last couple of days (and carefully checked and  secured all shelves before starting)

As expected I couldn't just leave the good old Airfix flying surfaces alone - I felt they were a tad thick and really didn't like the rib effect for this scale (not quite starved horse, but a bit too much for me) Plenty of sanding took the wings down to a more acceptable thickness getting rid of the rib effect (they're really not that bad in truth apart from the underside which should be flat or very nearly so IMO) New ribs were dully scored in place on the upper sides of these using a scalpel. Strut holes were also filled in because I'll be making some nice shiny new ones from brass.
I was able to cut the new smaller area tailplane from the standard one supplied with the kit and elevators were separated ready for horns and hinges to be added. (Must remember to do that for the ailerons too)
Nose of fuselage halves were cut off and a Roden Se5a nose prepared (Because of the multipart nature of Roden kits I bodged together the whole fuselage in order to get the nose assembled nice and square, then the nose section was sawn off) I also removed the stitching and other details which will be re-stated later. Comparing the Roden Se5a nose to the plan and photo's I can see a slight issue which may need dealing with later 

BE12b parts by Paul S, on Flickr

[enathan]

Very good start Paul.
I have the old HR Model resin kit somewhere but it loooks like you'll get better results with this conversion.
Good luck!

[Dirigible-Al]

This looks like a good one to follow. Go DaddtO!
Alan.

[DaddyO]

Very good start Paul.
I have the old HR Model resin kit somewhere but it loooks like you'll get better results with this conversion.
Good luck!

Cheers matey (I think I have that one in a box somewhere, but decided against it at some point and banished it to the bowels of the loft) 

This looks like a good one to follow. Go DaddtO!
Alan.

LOLs Thanks Alan I'll do my best 

[NigelR]

Lovely neat and tidy start as always! Looking forward to seeing this one done.

[Flamingo]

Good start!
Totally agree with overdone rib detail. A British modeller treated the Lindberg Jenny with some kitchen stuff for cooking pots with superb result.But it is a lot of work. Everything else can be done on the undersides.
Greetings Joachim

[DaddyO]

Thanks Nigel and Joachim (I'll bear the scourer tip in mind next time I want to reduce the rib effect that seems so popular) 

Flying surfaces now done and waiting to be drilled for struts and rigging. Rib/tape effect done with my usual double scored lines using a scalpel blade. Using the back of the same blade emphasised the joining lines of the inner and outer sections nicely and a couple of scraps of sanded down 5thou card gave some joining plates to add a bit of interest. Ailerons joined with 0.3mm brass wire with control horns from a Brengun WW1 etch set. Pulleys were simply stretched sprue glued into a pre-drilled hole sanded down once the glue had dried; I've also cut a slight notch to the edge which will hopefully make life easier when it comes to rigging 

Next up is some brass work to join them together

Be12b parts 2

[Tim Mixon]

Lovely work Paul. Your wing rib details are excellent.