Hello,
well, finally it is time for this one. I always wanted to build a Fe2. I had a vacuform kit once I was in 1:72 scale building, but never really started it besides of cutting the main parts and comparing them to the WDF scale plans. The same was with 1:48, I still have the Aeroclub Fee. It is a very nice kit and I have seen many great models that were made out of it on the web. But the more I browsed the internet for building reports of the Aeroclub kit, the more I saw the many 1:32 build reviews of the Wingnut Wings Fe2b. And yes, there was something like -- envy
. When WNW released their never-expected Albatros B. II, I was finally lost and switched from 1:48 to 1:32. The Albatros was the last stimulus, but the reason was the Fe2b. I really love this aeroplane. This frequently blamed as "ungainly" or "ugly" pusher airplane is one of my absolutely favourites among the WWI planes.
The most beautiful version of the FE2 is in my opinion the Fe2d, equipped with the Rolls-Royce Eagle, with cut down fuselage and Trafford Jones undercarriage. Somewhere I read in an interview with Richard Alexander that it could
possibly be that WNW would release the Fe2d someday. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe in some years. I could be dead then – or, even worse, collecting stamps or autographs from movie stars instead of modeling. No, dystopic thoughts aside, let's do it here, let's do it right now. I purchased an Eagle engine sprue from WNW and over the years some books on the Fe2 had also been collected.
I tried to figure out the
Differences between the Fe 2b and the Fe 2d (the source naming the most differences is: The R.A.F. Fe 2b/d & Variants in RFC, RAF, RNAS & AFC Service, pp. 18–19, p. 93, the WDF 134 and Miller, Fe 2b/d vs. Albatros Scouts name less differences):
- Rolls Royce Eagle 275 HP (in the end 284HP) engine instead of the Beardmore: There's a wonderful WNW Eagle so, this won't be a problem; but the Eagle was designed for tubular engine bearers and these had to be mounted above the existing wooden ones, raising the thrust line. A great photo of that is published on the WNW homepage: http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/productdetail?productid=3121&cat=1
- the radiator was placed higher and above the nacelle. The nacelle was cut down. They used several styles of radiators, some rounded ones, some squared ones, but in the end the smaller radiator of the Beardmore engine was used. Additional shutters were added as these radiators worked all too well in their new exposed position.
- The main fuel tank was increased from 24 to 36 gallons by producing them not cylindrically shaped but box-like shaped. Sadly I didn't see this new tank on any picture yet.
- The position of the gravity tank changed from the underside to the upper side of the upper wing.
- The new engine made some changes on the nacelle necessary: the Radiator was slightly moved forward, the wood covered part of the nacelle was increased, reducing the fabric covered part.
- It is stated that the Fe2d nacelle was slightly longer then the Fe2b nacelle. This is only mentioned in one of my sources. I sized up the scale plans of the Fe2d out of the WDF 134 and compared the WNW Fe2b nacelle. It fits perfectly.
The dimensions that are given in my sources are the following:
WDF 134: Length Fe2d: 32' - 3'' (9.83m)
WDF 147: Length Fe2b: 32ft. 3 ins. (9.75m) (SIC!)
WDF special: 32ft., 3ins. (9.75m – simply taken from WDF 147?)
Miller, Length Fe 2b 32ft., 3 in (tricycle undercarriage), Fe 2d 31ft., 9in. (SIC!) – As WDF is my "bible" for wwi modelling and its scale plans don't show a difference, I'll go without changing the nacelle length. I have no idea, why 32feet and 3 inches are in one publication 9.83m and in two others 9.75m. But I won't kill myself because of this, as the difference of this would be 8cm, so 2,5 mm in 1:32 scale. Why Miller gives the Fe2d shorter then the Fe2b, I cannot explain neither. - The interior of the nacelle, the places of pilot and observer, are changed: The pilot's seat is slightly moved forward, so the rounded dashboard of theFe2b is changed into a flat one including a window. The covers for the feet of the pilot were changed as well. WDF 134 pp. 7, 24 and R.A.F. Fe 2b/d & Variants, p. 103 show good pictures of that change. Scratchbuilding a new dashboard and new foot covers for the pilot should be possible.
So these should be the differences between the Fe 2b and the Fe2d, hopefully not too impossible to realize in 1:32 scale. If anyone has information that I don't have (pictures of the nacelle in particular) or can see any faults I made, I would be really happy, if he could contact me!
I already tried to decide, which plane I'd like to portray and decided to build either A6378 (WDF 134, p. 12, pic. 20 and R.A.F. Fe 2b/d & Variants, p. 170:25 Sqd, C Flight, shot down on May 28 in 1917) or A1959 (R.A.F. Fe 2b/d & Variants, p. 155 and Profile on p. 105).
Borsos
Edit:
When I post pictures of my builds I intend to give you as much information as possible. Therefore I posted some pictures of kitparts that were changed by me to fit the scale plans in the mentioned publications. Doing this I photographed these parts lying on sectors of these scale plans. As this forum is a meeting point for specialists, I had no problems doing that, as the plans were distorted by the angle of the camera and you all have these plans at home anyway. But I can hardly describe my surprise when I recently entered "Fe2d" into the Google search machine and found between many other pics my photos of this build. So adressing to a much wider public is another story that made me delete and/or change these photos. We all depend on high quality publications on our subjects and there's nothing I want less than harm these publishers in any way. 
