In progress: Kit-Bashed BE12b

EricGoedkoop · 17 December 2005, 08:41 PM

Bloody Hell, Brad - that's outstanding work.

Ross_Moorhouse · 1 January 2006, 07:57 PM

Hey Brad any update on this build mate?

Brad Cancian · 3 January 2006, 05:23 PM

G'day Ross - I've been away on holidays out of town since the last update so I haven't done any modeling since before Christmas - I'm home now so I'm planning on getting back into this one - that said the cricket is vying for my attention fairly heavily at the moment so it may be slow going

Ross_Moorhouse · 3 January 2006, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad Cancian

G'day Ross - I've been away on holidays out of town since the last update so I haven't done any modeling since before Christmas - I'm home now so I'm planning on getting back into this one - that said the cricket is vying for my attention fairly heavily at the moment so it may be slow going

I know what you mean. Working, watching cricket and model building... Something has to give....

Brad Cancian · 23 February 2006, 05:56 PM

Well it certainly has been a while between updates on this project, due mainly to moving house in the last few weeks as well as work taking up allot of my time… plus the nature of the project means it is time consuming anyways!

As you can see by the pics below the fuselage is now just about finished. I used the Windsock Datafile as my primary reference. Here’s some construction details:

Lots of filling and sanding was required to get the fuselage halves to play nicely with each other, as well to get the grafted cowl on straight. Much plastic was grafted to get the underside of the cowl from the Roden kit to the right size (I wanted to keep the lower cowling as it has the correct louvers on the underside). The white metal cabane struts were taken from the Aeroclub kit, however the rear ones needed some minor modifications to allow for the cross brace for the Lewis Gun mounting mechanism. The tank on the forward decking was also modified from the Aeroclub kit parts. The metal panels between the cabane struts was simulated using metal foil from a Milo tin trimmed to shape and subtle rivet heads simulated by pressing a scribing tool on the inwards side of the foil prior to installation. The headrest was scratchbuilt from a combination of the Roden SE5 headrest and scrap plastic to beef it up and get the correct shape. The cockpit coaming was made from Tamyia putty. Eduard etched metal “stitching” was used on the fabric areas. The elevator and rudder surfaces were sanded to a more realistic thickness, the control surfaces separated, and the ribs simulated with strip styrene glued down and sanded to shape (contemporary photos show that these aircraft had thin fabric strips over the rib positions so stip styrene works nicely). The remainder of the details were scratchbuilt from foil, scrap and strip plastic, and the spares box.

Here’s the fuselage prior to priming, you can see all of the modifications and the extra bits and pieces added.

Brad Cancian · 23 February 2006, 05:58 PM

Here’s the fuselage after priming (ignore the blue-tac over the cockpit :P) – ah it all comes together! Thankfully only a couple of spots will need some cleaning up.

Some minor details will be added once the lower wing is on (mainly supporting brackets for the exhausts as well as the levers just behind the cockpit for the elevator controls. Building the fuselage really gave me an appreciation of the agricultural nature of the aircraft. After clean up, it's onto the wings!

All comments / feedback welcome.

BC

Dackel · 23 February 2006, 09:22 PM

A little white metal, a little sheet styrene, a little PE from here and there.......and a TON of modelling skills!!!!!!

As I said before, Awesome, and inspiring.

Cheers,

Dackel

Ross_Moorhouse · 23 February 2006, 09:31 PM

Are you going to use a pin in the lower wing mounting bracket? I would recommedn this as I don't think CA is going to be strong enough to hold the white meta bracket to the fuselage. Just my 2 cents worth.

Love the build mate.