A couple of 1:72 Felixstowes

[Bluesfan]

While I think of it, some comments about the tail rigging (as opposed to the control wires on the tail).
You may be able to see that I did in the end do some of it; I assumed that the Roden documentation ignoring it was, well, accidental omission. But they probably made use of the Datafile, and when you look at the 3-view drawings there - no rigging on the tail.
Of course, WNW made no such mistake. Unless you count the fact that some of the boats had even more rigging; at least, I can just see drift wires going from the tailplane to the rear of the side fin in some pictures, including one of the Curtiss H-16 here  ...which I've left off as it happens. Look, handling these models became more and more of a cat's cradle puzzle as more of the rigging was done! Which leads to another bit of advice - leave fitting the drift wires from the nose to the wings as late as you possibly can. Goodness knows how these ones are still in place!

Ah well. Glad to have taken the plunge with these planes in 1/72, and grateful that such kits were available. When all's said and done, 1/72 is a scale which gives you much more scope than bigger scales, about how much you're going to do, and what level of detail you're going for.

[PrzemoL]

You have built two lovely models! Myself, as a happy owner of a pair of Roden's F.2a/H.16 I can only admire your work. You should be proud of what you did.

And yes, it is hard to keep the dihedral in these kits. I managed to achieve it in H.16 but at the cost of thick monofilament rigging lines. F.2a, which has a more to scale rigging from elastic thread has sadly drooping wings...

[lone modeller]

You have two very good models there: neither would have been easy to assemble, especially given thier size.

Drift wires are always left to the end on my models otherwise I know that they would come adrift! You are right about God's Own Scale too: by far the best IMHO because not only can the detail be fudged if necessary, but a larger collection of models can be crammed into a smaller space!

Stephen.

[Bluesfan]

Many thanks, compliments from such masters as yourselves gratefully received   
I confess, I decided the dihedral was too subtle to attempt, and was merely trying to keep the wings straight! At which I failed with the F.2A; it's a quirk of making two similar models in parallel, that you often make little (or big) mistakes with one, and naturally you avoid the mistake with the other, which bizarrely means it can be quite hard to build the two kits to precisely the same standard. Thankfully the very different schemes, and the different wingtip designs, makes the differences here not so obvious.

Currently puzzled why the rigging on the previously neat H.16 has slackened, when it seems okay on the F.2A. I can live with it. Which brings up another modeller's lesson: once you've decided you've reached the finish line, don't keep staring at it like that, or you'll absolutely definitely see something which 'needs correcting'!

Another footnote, something possibly not obvious from the pictures, about rendering a wood effect. I've been used to using clear orange on brown, and hadn't tried this before, Tamiya Smoke over reddish brown ('NATO brown' in this case), as seen on the F.2A's side fins here, I thought the result was really nice.

[RAGIII]

You have two gorgeous Models added to your collection! Funny thing about the rigging that has slackened. There was a very good Modeler who built the Roden Felix years ago. He used Mono I believe, and swore that it loosened and tightened with changes in Humidity 
RAGIII

[Borsos]

These 18th c. pirate ships with wings look really nice! 
Andreas

[gbrivio]

Very interesting models, with captivating liveries. In my opinion very well executed and it surely was a troublesome work, so congratulations for what you achieved.
Ciao
Giuseppe

[Bluesfan]

Many thanks for the further comments gents
I've just got back from a thoroughly enjoyable holiday to the US visiting friends and family; before this noble forum thread becomes some sort of 'what I did on my holidays' ramble, I'd better say that my challenge of transporting biplane kits by air succeeded pretty well, though divine intervention and a smart Norwegian Airways stewardess were probably involved. (The stewardess intervened when she spotted me looking doubtfully at the overhead lockers; I hadn't anticipated that they would turn luggage upside down She took the box away somewhere where it could stay flat)
I should say that in my family there, a US cousin has married a lady of Chilean heritage, hence the setting of the scene I made.
Here's the bespoke box I constructed, with most of the pieces more or less firmly positioned.
The display base and acrylic cover went in my hold luggage.
I took glues and some repair tools but to my amazement, I only found one bit of wire needed putting back in place.

[Bluesfan]

Here's a pic of the scene, before screwing on the acrylic obviously.
Not really a diorama, despite its size, not least because the two aircraft were never in the same place together. But they were around at the same time (1921-ish), and in the same hemisphere(!); and at least one had been around during WWI.
I guess it's meant to represent a warm climate US base - imagine Florida, where 845 did operate - with the Chilean plane passing through. Those are US vehicles, but the uniforms of the various figures are generic and just vaguely of the era. I did look around for some while but couldn't find anything better in this scale. The section of slipway is inspired by pics of the slipways at Felixstowe. It would have been longer and included some water, but I realised there would be height issues elsewhere what with the depth required.
I'll put up more photos of the scene later, in the completed models thread.
The dog was meant to be a certain animal, still with us today, but having just spent some time with Sammie, 190 pounds of Newfoundland and bigger than me, I can see I should have looked for a scale model bear