Meikraft RAF BE2c early in 1/72

[Bolman]

Update:

All of the main wing rigging is now done and I have shaved off the excess line and wires protruding through the wings then filled any holes which were showing and then sanded the wing surfaces. After several coats of white paint, I then stained the wings to match the rest of the plane:


Next, I plan to decal the wings before moving on to the engine and the details at the front of the plane and on the wings.

Thanks for looking!

John

[RAGIII]

Awesome John! Great results!
RAGIII

[radio]

Very beautiful work.
Cheers
Martin

[Bolman]

Thanks Rick and Martin, much appreciated.

So, now I have the decals on and I've put the first coat of paint on the rudder. I'll need to go over it again.



I'll be moving to the front of the plane for awhile and attempt to make something out of that engine next.

Thanks for looking,

John

[Bolman]

Update:

Moving forward to the engine, I've cleaned it up as best I could and decided to pitch the kit exhaust manifold / pipes since they were totally wrong. They were not long enough for the stack version of exhaust to reach above the top wing, and they were shaped wrong for the side exhaust to have the molded on mufflers. I opted to scratch them and to make the stack version.

Starting with some strip stock, I drilled and added wire:


Then drilled the engine and fit it to the engine:


Then shaped the exhaust pipe:


After duplicating it for the other side of the engine, then a test fit to the plane:


The stacks are a little tall at this point so I will need to trim them down and cut off at an angle and then hollow out the ends.
Once I have everything the way I want it, I'll paint and install.

Thanks for looking!

John

[Des]

This is looking really good with the decals applied and you have done a great job with the exhausts.

Des.

[RAGIII]

I agree with Des John, excellent work on the exhaust!
RAGIII

[IanB]

Great idea for the exhausts...expect to see it reappear on another thread sometime.....

Ian

[Alexis]

Been some time since I last check in , wonderful work so far John 



Terri

[Bolman]

Thanks Des, Rick, Ian, and Terri. You're encouraging words are always welcome and do help me to keep it going.

I actually hope to have this one done by Easter... we shall see!

John

[Bolman]

And... another update:

I have done some more work with the engine, and since I'm not building it from scratch and using what was in the kit, I can't say I like it much... the intake is barely represented and I'm tempted to scratch it and add it.  Due to the size of the engine offered, my exhaust is actually spaced a bit too far apart. I'm dealing with it since 90% of the general public won't notice it.  As for the height of the stacks, I've seen it vary from several pictures and have chosen to use the shorter style allowing it to be less of a detail that can be broken in handling.

Some painting was done on the engine and exhaust and it is in position for test fitting.



The kit hood is cast pretty thick and I think it would be less work to actually fabricate a replacement than to attempt thinning the kit part. The thickness is actually making it not fit correctly in place. Once I have all of this figured out and finished, I get to move on to the undercarriage.

Thanks for looking!

John

[Des]

Looking really good John, the exhaust stacks appear to be the correct height above the wing.

Des.

[IanB]

Looking good John.
Having hammered together one of these Meikraft kits I know what you're going through!

Ian

[ALBATROS1234]

very nice job thus far.

[Bolman]

Thank you Des, Ian and Albatros1234

And now... an update:

I ended up scratch building the intake and adding it to the top of the engine. I also had to sand down the bottom of the engine since it was actually too tall and interfering with the hood piece... which I did attempt to thin down instead of replace.

After doing some more painting and mounting the engine and hood in place, we now have this:



I have now started working on the undercarriage which is the skid version landing gear.  I hope to have something to post in a day or two.

Thanks for looking!

John