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WNW RE.8 (Holy Thread Revival Batman!)


MikeC

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This year I aim to be building mainly RAF subjects and/or Great War subjects*, and here's one that's both, as my subject was from post-April 1918.  As it happens, I had a clear workbench on the 30th December last year, and nothing on the Shelf of Doom, which is a first for me in a long time.  So what to start my centenary-inspired RAF-fest with?  I decided on the RE.8, so without further ado, I seriously devalued the kit in my stash by cutting the fuselage and wing parts from the sprues.

 

There is not much progress so far.  I've identified the wooden parts, and painted them, now I'm waiting for the oil "wood-grain" to dry.  The lighter wood is Tamiya XF-59 with Burnt Sienna "grain", and the darker wood - prop and instrument board - XF59 and Burnt Umber. Any better suggestions, and indeed any comments in general, welcomed.  Please be gentle though - my photography can probably be best described as "decent gear, but not much idea".

 

As for my subject, I'll be doing C2731 of 5(AC) Sqn RAF, which is option 2 from Pheon's sheet RE.8 sheet.

 

*Unless I get side-tracked by something ...

 

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Thanks for looking.

Edited by MikeC
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A trick I learned for woodgrain with oils: put a dab of paint on cardboard, let the oils leech out from it for a few minutes. Then thin it with lighter fluid. This still gives you plenty of time to work the paint, but drying time is hours instead of days. Don't know if you've ever tried that one. Great work

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A trick I learned for woodgrain with oils: put a dab of paint on cardboard, let the oils leech out from it for a few minutes. Then thin it with lighter fluid. This still gives you plenty of time to work the paint, but drying time is hours instead of days. Don't know if you've ever tried that one. Great work

Interesting, thanks.  I'll give it a try with the next lot of woodgrain.  Trouble is, since I gave up smoking over 20 years ago I don't have any lighter fluid ...

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I've not been idle while the oils have been drying: pics in due course, but this evening I've sort of worked on something Wingnut-related by watching a DVD of "Fellowship of the Ring" with MrsC.

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As I said, I've been doing other stuff whilst waiting for the oils to dry.

 

There's a nice engine to be built.  Here it is, main painting done, details to be filled in:

 

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Have I got those cylinders perfectly aligned? :shrug:  We'll see when it's time to fit the exhausts.  I also managed to break off a couple of the little bits on the top of the cylinder whilst removing parts from the sprue.  Luckily the kit does not utilise the full set of cylinders on the "RAF 4a Engine" sprue: it has a second set of subtly different cylinder halves on another sprue.  So I had some spare cylinder halves to "rob" of the necessary bits.

 

Bomb load: assembling eight 20lb Cooper bombs, shown before dealing with the seams, and a choice of four Hales bombs of three different types - not shown, for some reason I didn't snap these.

 

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Assembling the upper wing.  The Windsock Datafile 153 RAF RE8 at War does not state that my subject had the clear panels in the centre section, so I used the standard one.  Had one of those "phew" moments when, trying to puzzle out why there were strange gaps in the centre section, I realised that I'd got the lower half reversed fore & aft  :oops:  - fortunately I had not committed glue at that point!!!

 

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And a more general view of the workbench.  You can also see the upper engine air scoop/cowling, and the bomb racks.

 

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Thanks for looking.  Slow & steady ...

Edited by MikeC
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Can I recommend this?:

 

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The WNW Cooper bomb rack is a bit basic and lacks all the tiny bits to hold the bomb and it's propeller

 

I must admit, I went overboard and used the HGW etch parts and some wire to make a rack for my Parasol:

 

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Richard

 

MORE: Some stuff on WW1 bombs: http://www.wwi-models.org/Photos/Various/Bombs-brit/index.html

 

And a warning - research can be the death of modelling...

Edited by RLWP
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A bit more progress.  Firstly, having got the upper wing built, I decided to follow the advice in WNW's on-line addendum sheet and pin the control surfaces with alloy rod.  Some of it has yet to be cut to length.

 

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Built but not yet cleaned up, the three types of Hales bombs included in the kit.

 

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There are two of the type on the left included, I'll be using one of those.

 

The finished engine

 

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And the prop it's going to drive, which still needs some manufacturer's logos when I get around to some decal work.

 

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Rear cockpit floor coming along.

 

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Main wing struts

 

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And finally, a visit from the postman, who brought me a pair of Barracuda seats and a set of fabric seat belts.

 

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Thanks for looking.

Edited by MikeC
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  • 1 month later...

This one's been a bit quiet lately: I got - ooh look, butterfly! - sidetracked by a C-47 and one or two other things.  However, Harry Tate is now back on the bench, and the internals are coming along. One side is rigged, the other side is today's first job.  Everything is from the kit except for EZ line rigging and a Barracuda seat.  The fine-ness of the wickerwork is fantastic, I'll certainly be using more of these in other Wingnuts.

 

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Just a thought.  The seam on the tank is nothing like as obvious in real life.  When dealing with it, I took a decision that it was acceptable; any more work to get it perfect would cause more work restoring lost detail, outweighing the benefit of the invisible seam.  The old 80/20 rule in action I suppose.  Anyone else do this?

Edited by MikeC
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  • 2 weeks later...

Still going steadily onwards.

 

Interior with HGW seat belts installed. 

 

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A couple of shots of the "office".

 

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The sharp-eyed among you may notice that the prominent tailplane incidence wheel looks somewhat different to other builds you've seen.  I could say that research showed me that my subject has a non-standard wheel :whistle: , but sadly the truth is that the original was taken by the carpet monster :doh: , so I had to substitute something that looked "about right".

 

The thing about Wingnut kits is that you seem to spend absolutely ages on the interior (over two months so far), then suddenly they come together.

 

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Focussing again on the front cockpit ...

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... and the rear.  The map is actually provided as a decal in the kit; it's supposed to go on the clipboard on the front instrument panel, but I thought I'd be different.

 

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Now for some painting - rib tapes!  The basic colour is Mr Hobby aqueous H318 "Radome", which was recommended to me as an excellent match for CDL.  I painted the lower surfaces with a lightened mix (with Tamiya white - the two brands work beautifully together), with large overspray each side of the ribs.  I then simply masked out the rib tapes with 1mm tape and sprayed the main colour, varying the thickness a bit.  Did I say "simply"??  There are 33 ribs on the upper wing alone!

 

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And that's where we are now.  As ever, comments and suggestions welcome.

Edited by MikeC
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