Vickers 'Bullet' FB-19 Mk. II, 1/72

[Old Man]

This is a fairly obscure little beast, that I thought was awfully neat when I learned of it reading my Harleyford 'Fighters, 1914-1918' volumn many, many years ago. It is a sort of object lesson in the difference between a good flying machine and a good fighting machine, as it had an extraordinary performance for the time of its design, but from its earliest service trials was written off as wholly unsuitable for front-line use, owing to very poor visibility from the cockpit. I had been considering doing a scratch-build of this for a while, having an old Cross and Cockade number which has several good photographs of 'Bullets' operating in Palestine in 1917. When the Windsock people put out a Datafile on the type recently, I decided the time had come to do it.

So the 'scratch-builder's kit' was assembled...



And work begun....

[Old Man]

I usually wind up starting with the wings; laborious but not difficult. The blanks are shaped from 2mm sheet, sanded to airfoil section. False ribs are scraped in to the leading edges, and so is a bit of sag between ribs.



Tapes are then put on, using strips of masking tape. The tapes on this were unusually wide, showing as 1mm on the drawings. The the wings are then sprayed with primer, the primer sanded off the tapes, and the process repeated several times to blend things in.

The cowling shown is left over from an Eduard N.17, and the disc matched to it is used as a gauge in making the front of the fuselage.

[Old Man]

The nose requires a good deal of taper down from its round front. It began as a 'box' with 3mm sheet at top and sides, and 2mm sheet at bottom, with a disk matching the cowling piece in front. This was sanded down to shape on the outside, and then rounded out on the inside (with heavy grit on dowel), as much of the area under the top decking is part of the cockpit. The rear portion is a pretty straightforward box, though there are some complexities to the shape of the turtle-back that will be added. The cowling piece is simply tacked on, there will be considerabl



This picture came out a bit fuzzy, but it shows what is left of the thick sheets employed, taken down to about half to three-quarter millimeter thickness. The recess for the barrel of the Vickers is a piece of 2mm tube, sanded to half-round, installed in a slit cut into the side after shaping, and then opened up a bit further.




Here is an Eduard kit Vickers fitted into the recess (purely for demonstration, it will not be the piece used).

Now the nose and tail fuselage sections are joined, and the turtle-back put on; all that remains for the basic fuselage is the decking around the cockpit opening.





The turtle-back over the straight-sided portion of the fuselage is a laminate of 2mm and 3mm sheet, trimmed to plane and sanded to profile and section. The portion immediately behind the cockpit is made of three vertical pieces, two of 2mm and one of 1mm sheet, and a 1mm piece was added in front.

Sidewall structures were added from the top or through the still open nose, after the fuselage portions were joined and the basic turtle-back was on. Final interior elements will be inserted by the same avenues.

[Old Man]

Here are some bits from the spares that will be incorporated. I raided the 'Camel' sprue of a Roden Nieuport 24bis kit for the Vickers and the Clerget motor; the Roden Vickers is a bit 'meatier' than the Eduard, and the Clerget motor is a very nice piece indeed, getting the placement of the push-rods correct, for instance. It fits well with the Eduard cowling I intend to employ. The seat is from an Eduard N.17 kit, modified and treated to serve as a wicker seat in the English fashion. I expect the Roden sprue will provide me with inter-plane struts and wheels as well....




Cowling has been pierced and its chord reduced, and the cockpit completed. I held myself pretty spare on internal details, as just about all are necessarily conjectural. The large white-faced instrument to the left of center shows in two photographs; the position of the stick, presence of footboards and aluminum floor are from verbal descriptions by a test pilot, the low position of the wicker seat is from a photograph.



Then the motor and cowling were attached, the cockpit opening put in, and fairing at the bottom of the cowling, and headrest, put on. The whole cockpit area was covered with a piece of thin sheet, which was filed to match the decking curves, and then the opening was cut in.

[Old Man]

Next stringer detail was put in on the fuselage, and the lower wings attached.





I cut notches into the fuselage to receive the lower wing roots, which I also chamfered a bit at their upper edge. As things turned out, I had to trim the wing roots a little to get them to match span of the upper wings and line up the ailerons (a bit of size creep on the width of the fuselage). It took several passes to get the wings right and on

[Old Man]

Next, the tail surfaces were made. I used thirty-thou sheet, perhaps a hair thick, but half millimeter sheet was too flimsy. Tapes, fairly prominent in photographs, were scribed in.







Horizontal tail surfaces were made as a single rectangular piece. I cut a slot into the rear of the fuselage to receive this as a unit, and once attached, cut away the rudder-clearance notch to separate the elevators. Vertical tail surface is not attached yet, only tacked in place to show fit.

[Old Man]

Here is the thing with a good coat of Tamiya white primer....





After a few spots of surface clean-up, painting will commence....

[Whiteknuckles]

An excellent presentation of your skills OM, lovely work so far. Not a type I'm familiar with.

Andrew

[Old Man]

An excellent presentation of your skills OM, lovely work so far. Not a type I'm familiar with.

Andrew

Thank you, Sir.

Not a type anyone is likely to be too familiar with. The R.F.C. took a dozen of them, bought around the end of 1916, and shipped them off to the Near East. Czarist Russia bought about two dozen of the Mk. I (its wings were not staggered) at about the same time. The root of the design goes back to a 'speed scout' designed in 1914; it crashed on its first flight, but was re-worked into something dubbed the E.S. I, which managed a speed of 114 mph in the autumn of 1915.

[Des]

Beautifully executed so far Old Man and the results are excellent, and what makes it more speacial is the scale, what you have achieved working in 1:72 is amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing the paint added.

Des.

[GAJouette]

  Old Man,
Absolutely Amazing project my old friend. Your skills and craftsmanship shinings brightly.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[Old Man]

Beautifully executed so far Old Man and the results are excellent, and what makes it more speacial is the scale, what you have achieved working in 1:72 is amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing the paint added.

Des.

Thank you, Sir.

I worked as a jeweler for a while when younger, and am something of a miniaturist at heart.

Your work in the large scale is very impressive.

[Old Man]

  Old Man,
Absolutely Amazing project my old friend. Your skills and craftsmanship shinings brightly.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

Thank you, my friend.

Glad you like it!

[uncletony]

Really cool project, OM. Great execution so far. Will follow with keen interest.

[Rob Hart]

OM, watching this project unfold will be a treat. Ironically, I chanced across my previously misplaced copy of the Datafile on this type over the past weekend.