Meikraft RAF BE2c early in 1/72

[RAGIII]

Outstanding work John. Your BE is looking great!
RAGIII

[Bolman]

Thanks Rick, much appreciated!

Progress has been slow, still working on the undercarriage assembly. Should have something after this weekend.

John

[lcarroll]

John,
   I just checked this out, what a great effort of "real modelling" you're applying here! Working in 1:72 (a black art I abandoned in my early 50's ) is a challenge in itself, you are really providing a great example of dedication on this Kit. I'll be following more closely, great Build you have going here.
Cheers,
Lance

[Bolman]

Thanks Lance!

Wow, go away for a weekend and come back to find my post no longer on the first page... thought Des deleted it (He would never!)...then looked on page two.  You guys have been busy!!

I'll be back on this tonight and will be back soon with an update.

John

[Bolman]

Time once again,... for an update.

I suppose you've all been wondering what I've been doing, so here it is:

The rigging for the skid undercarriage was quite daunting with just the 3 view drawings I had available to me. Looking around, I found a few pictures and watched a few videos repeatedly to get a close representation of the rigging done on this model.

The kit parts are far from perfect and being quite delicate, I managed to only break them twice. The two parts are far from identical and trying to get them to line up on the fuselage and look square was next to impossible. The assemble still looks a bit 'wonky' to me.





So, moving along, I am now attempting to mount the tail skid. I'll use the kit part but the support struts for the skid will be made from brass wire and it will also be rigged along with the tail.

After this, wing skids and a few more details to complete the model build. Of course, then a bit of touch up painting before it hits the history books.

Thanks for looking!

John

[Des]

Great to see her up on her feet, you have done an excellent job with the undercarriage John.

Des.

[Ernie]

My apologies, John.  I somehow missed your build until now and in going
through it I am really impressed with your talent working in such a small
scale.  The engine is beautifully done, especially the exhausts and the
rigging...well, that is just superb!  Wonderful job, my friend

Cheers,
Ernie

[RAGIII]

John,
The gear may look "Wonky" to you but it looks superb to me!  Beautiful rigging !
RAGIII

[radio]

Great work so far John.
Cheers
Martin

[IanB]

Nice job with that undercarriage, John! I know exactly how bad some of these Meikraft efforts can be, it takes a lot just to get the parts to fit, let alone fit nicely!

Ian

[lone modeller]

Whatever the problems may have been you have certainly made that undercarriage look realistic and it looks perfectly square to me. This is a wonderf ul model in the making - I wonder how it would compare with the new Airfix kit.

Stephen.

[Bolman]

Thank you Des, Ernie, Rick, Martin, Ian and Stephen. Much appreciated.

Since I'm here, how about an update:

I have the tail skid assembled and rigged as well as the tail and I've started on the control rigging with the starboard tail control rigging in place. I also went as far to scratch build a representation of a camera to mount on the side of the plane using strip stock and a small piece of styrene tubing:



After completing the port side rigging, I have the ailerons to rig and the prop to add before doing some touch up painting. I hope to get everything except the touch ups done tonight.

Thanks for looking!

John

[BigBlue]

I am late to this thread, but like what you have done, John.  Seeing how nice your BE2c looks really makes me wish our friends in NZ would give us a 1/32 scale version (my eyes and fingers are no longer meant for 1/72!)

Chris

[Bolman]

Thanks Chris, glad you like it.  Perhaps someday soon, there will be one in your scale as well.

As for this build, it's done.  I will get some pics posted in the completed section soon.
Thanks to all of you for your support during this build.

John

[WarrenD]

John, you've done a beautiful job on a kit that is, in my very humble opinion, a real bear.

Warren