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Wingnut Wings Bristol Fighter


TimW

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And another. I'm waiting on some RAFwires before doing much more, as once the engine goes in (a work of art in itself) you have to start making rigging decisions (open or closed engine panels) and then the wings, etc.

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Coming along very nicely Tim----i see you've opted for the 'green camp' rendition of P.C.10. (i have always 'gone brown' as it were) but who can be too pedantic :lol:

 

I'm holding off on my S.E. and 'Biff' (have'nt even started the 'biff' so am watching your build very keenly) to await ROWAN BROADBENT'S new decals--(PHEON) for the oversize ones on the S.E. and the (i'm still convinced) out of proportion ones on the 'BIFF'.

Dave.

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Coming along very nicely Tim----i see you've opted for the 'green camp' rendition of P.C.10. (i have always 'gone brown' as it were) but who can be too pedantic :lol:

 

I usually go green...but will probably try something else for the next project (DH2?). Or a Pup, when WW gets that one out on the market. I also plan to weather this one a bit with varying shades at some point, so what you're seeing is not the final product.

 

I'm holding off on my S.E. and 'Biff' (have'nt even started the 'biff' so am watching your build very keenly) to await ROWAN BROADBENT'S new decals--(PHEON) for the oversize ones on the S.E. and the (i'm still convinced) out of proportion ones on the 'BIFF'.

Dave.

 

They look OK to me for now, but new and other decal options are always a good think, IMO. I'm still going to do Keith Park's Biff as I've always admired him (and thought he got a raw deal after the Battle of Britain).

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

TimW

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They look OK to me for now, but new and other decal options are always a good think, IMO. I'm still going to do Keith Park's Biff as I've always admired him (and thought he got a raw deal after the Battle of Britain).

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

TimW

You're right Tim---he got a raw deal twice--once for his masterly handling of the B.o.B.--and once more for his equal tenure of command at Malta.

 

We treat our saviours and heroes pretty shabbily, mostly!

 

Dave.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Awright. Got my RAFwires. Almost done with other projects. Have slowly been working back into this one and will hopefully have some updated pictures soon.

 

Alas, the past few days have been taken up with some much delayed "Spring Cleaning," as the modelling dungeon and guest room were a bit trashed.

 

Then the washer overflowed and I had to rescue the modelling stash. Luckily, nothing got ruined. :( ;)

 

Hopefully, in a day or two, back to regularly scheduled modelling! :)

 

Tim W

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  • 4 weeks later...

Awright. Long time of no posts or pix, but that will be fixed shortly. I've got the main assembly done with the engine panels closed. Thought about having them open but decided I want the aircraft to look...airworthy.

 

Issues of note:

 

The upper wing assembly and struts are a royal pain in the flying wires. The struts are very soft and not strongly anchored to the wings; you push too hard and bad things will happen. Eventually through patience, dexterity and a lot of Tamiya masking tape to hold things together I got the upper wing on. But I found it didn't take much for some of the struts to repeatedly pop out of place during the involved process of wrestling the Biff's longer wingspan into position.

 

Ailerons on this kit will fall off ALL THE TIME. They are very weakly anchored to the wing, and it seemed like at one point all I had to do was sneeze near them and one would come loose. Arrgh.

 

Rigging. I'm using a mixture of Radu's RAF wires and the usual steel wire I got from SmallParts.com. The RAFwires are very easy to work with--kudos there for an outstanding product!) When you get to the actual putting them on bit, care us required as given the way this kit "sits," you have to be extra careful in not only measurements, but also when you glue the wires on as there is some give in the wing and strut structure on this kit depending on whether it's sitting on its wheels or propped upside down for ease of working.

 

I found out the hard way that you have to (for example) glue the wires onto their attachment points on the upper wing, then sit the aircraft down on its wheels before glueing the opposite ends. Otherwise, you're likely to get unwanted sagging. I made the mistake of glueing some of them while the aircraft was upside down and then when I set it on its wheels, the wires bowed/sagged.

 

Not a happy moment in my hobby room when that happened! Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix. With thread I can only imagine how ugly it would have been to cut them off and start over.

 

However. I still maintain this is an excellent kit, but it is not for the faint of heart. I will have more in progress pictures shortly. The key is to be very, very, patient and not rush through the rigging steps (WW2 is soooooo much easier in that regard :rolleyes:)

 

But the reward, I hope, will be worth it!

 

Regards,

 

TimW

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Guys--

 

Thanks for the comments! I would add that the tail/horizontal stabilizer sections are similarly brittle, and be super careful about the tail skid.

 

All of this stuff looks great assembled, but is far more delicate than most kits I'm used to.

 

So far, my biggest frustration has been with correctly measuring the rigging, even with calipers :angry:

 

That said, the key word is patience and making sure if I err it's on the side of making the rigging wire too long rather than too short! :)

 

TimW

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  • 3 weeks later...

Now I'm on to Plan C....I'm taking most of the metal rigging off and will be drilling out the locator holes and re-rigging with thin nylon.

 

Why you ask?

 

Simply put, there is so much give in the wings on this kit--the struts are very soft and the wingspan is large, that every time I put a metal rigging section on it either sags or, eventually, comes undone.

 

Unlike every other WWI kit I've done, this one has very flexible wings--too flexible for me to do what I had planned.

 

But I remain undaunted! ;)

 

Tim W

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Just a thought, and I appreciate it's too late for you Tim, but for anyone else jumping into one of these kits, would it not be possible to epoxy several lengths of (say) fine brass rod inside the wing halves just to add a bit of strength?

 

Regards

 

Iain

 

It could work...it might stiffen the outer wing panels. Another issue is the struts are very, very soft. Some metal or resin replacements might be nice and could alleviate some of the issues I've run into.

 

Probably get fully back into this one after my vacation coming up this weekend. I still have a few holes to drill out and then I'll get busy with the nylon.

 

Other areas, such as control cables running aft and tail rigging, will probably still be metal as those are small areas and not too much bother.

 

Tim W.

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  • 2 weeks later...

All wing surfaces now successfully re-rigged using very fine fishing line :) :)

 

Rigging holes drilled out with a pin-vise drill. Next time I do that BEFORE putting wings together... :blink:

 

Also a great learning experience for when I finally do the DH-2 and the LVG.

 

Pictures eventually...after touch up!

 

Tim W

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