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Here's some of my notes on the 1/48th Gavia Bristol Scout before old age sits in and I forget them:
- be careful before drilling out the rigging holes for the tail and exits on the fuselage; Gavia's kit doesn't match the DF placement of these exit points. - used Northeastern HO 1" x 2" (1/87th) model railroad wood shapes to make up the framing for the interior and rigged interior with ceramic wire. - Mister Kit British CDL for all fabric surfaces, airbrushes and brush paints wonderfully. - modified the lower area of the cowling by cutting back a curved area on each side where the cowling meets the bottom of the fuselage. - I'm building a RNAS a/c and decided after looked at numerous photos the metal cowling and side panels appear to be painted a light color vs. having a reflective metal look, used Misterkit German Light Grey for this light color. - airscrew, struts and wood fuselage area are Testor's Dark Tan FS 30219. - I cut back the lower wing rib station next to the fuselage to match the Datafile GA and photos. This was done to obviously let the pilot know when he was getting close to the ground and to see them little Fokkers before they saw you. Two .040 brass wires were then used to reinforce the lower wing otherwise there isn't much to hold the wing platform together. I drilled into the two mounting spars about 12" scale inches to give the wing something to 'sit into'... Fuselage interior had to be filed out with a round file to allow the brass to go through the structure. - Airbrushed a light coat of Testors acrylic gloss over the wings, tail and fuselage were the decals are placed. The decals are very thin so I elected not to use any decal solution. They applied very well with no bubbles or winkles. I was going to number this a/c 1256 using a combination of the two decals numbers 1250 and 1611 that come in the kit. The 1611 are larger than the 1250 - go figure that one out....so back to 1250. - Rigging is with .005 fly fishing line and ceramic wire. - metal skid on lower wings was made from brass wire. - Was trying a few different methods to put the control horns on the with a new one (at least to me). I drilled out a .025" (.64mm) hole where the horn is located and then cut a piece of Evergreen No. 219 plastic rod about a 3/8" long. Then take a small pliers and flattened one end and pushed the non-flattened end through the hole.
Flattened the other side with the pliers and apply plastic glue. For the wings (where the horns do not go all the way through) I stopped short of drilling all the way through and glued the round rod into the .025" hole. After drying use a single edged razor blade and carved the flattened ends to the shape of a control horn. This method went fast and is strongly constructed.
I've always like the delicate lines of the Bristol Scout and with the RNAS white and red roundels with the Union Jack will make up an interesting model next to it's PC10 cousins.
Here's the 1/48th Aeroclub FE2b still under construction (rigging is taking a LONG time) by Charlie Duckworth. This presentation aircraft can be seen on page 42 of The Royal Flying Corps by Arms and Armour Press. Serial number 7691 of No. 11 Squadron was shot down by Kurt Wolff on 21 March 1917.
Kit: Sage (1:48)
This is the Eduard Pup built right out of the box except I for the presentation decals (Punjab 12 Kashmir) and tail serial markings from Pegasus. The wood 'air screw' and decking were made using Testor's Wood and then going over with a brown water-proof ink pen to vary the grain effect. Rigging is ceramic wire and .005 fishing line. I used Rimmel's Sopwith Pup Special which helped as reference in rigging the landing struts and tail surfaces. Reference for this model was found in C&C 'Presentation Aircraft' Vol 14 No.2 1983 on page 77.
Here's the Eduard 1/48th Sopwith Schneider and the following was accomplished: