First Post: Bristol Fighter

[Steve-the-Duck]

Greetings, for my first trick here are a few pictures of my completed 1:72 scale Bristol Fighter, and yes, underneath it is the Airfix one.
It was a long, hard struggle.
Of which I shall post more in due course.

[Guest]

Welcome to the Chris (from another Kentish modeller) and what a fine introduction. Lovely work and looking forward to seeing more.

[KarlW]

Welcome, was it a good airfix kit our a fight with one?

[Tim Marlow]

Nice job, and welcome...

[Steve-the-Duck]

Cheers for the welcome chaps
As I'm kind of the 'masochist modeller' school, that likes to add stuff to basic kits, I went for the cheap old OLD Airfix kit, albeit in a new box - then spent the next three months getting to this stage
Which I hope passed muster

[Steve-the-Duck]

-and so...
Here is how we got here.
Hope it's OK to put the build pictures on this thread after it's finished?

This is the work done on the barely visible interior; most of the research was looking at the Wingnut Wings' website instruction sheets, plus a classic planes cutaway drawing.
Some things, like the back of the gunner's position were difficult to interpret at first.
You can get away with a lot with just a few strips of plasticard.

[Steve-the-Duck]

Next stage is the re-profiling of the nose.

Filing, filling, sanding, sharpening detail, adding detail, levels of masochism.

Lower wing attachment, extra gubbins, and upper wing.

[Steve-the-Duck]

Not sure if the 'how-l-got-there' build pics should go here with the finished article, or in the Under Construction thread
All pointers and advice gratefully received

[KarlW]

I don't think you'll get shot, you've already finished.......
(But then I'm new here too.......)

[papa 695]

Very nice work and welcome to the forum Chris

[Steve-the-Duck]

Wait... There are trophies on the forum!?
Yay, just like my PS4..

[The Smythe Meister]

and a delayed welcome from me too Chris!
Cracking job on that rigging mate,lovely stuff!!
Cheers,
Andy

[Steve-the-Duck]

Very kind of you Andy
As anyone doing biplanes knows you either don't rig, or you restrain yourself from throwing the 'plane across the room in frustration
I've tried all the methods in the past:
stretched sprue (too much work)
plastic micro-rod (time for the hair-dryer to un-sag)
elastic thread (almost... too fiddly)
So finally I've got the best, and most expensive solution, for me - micro steel rod. Even the thinnest rod has good stiffnes, and it's already metal colour. Yay! Measuring to length can be frustrating, but the end result, well, you can see

[rtfoe]

Hi Chris, very well done. :thumb2:

I too love torture and made an Airfix RE8 and approached the interior similarly years back. You might like a look here to see what I've done.

Cheers,
Richard

[Steve-the-Duck]

Richard,
All the effort on that RE8 has paid off superbly - the 'plane itself is a wonder to behold
But I would like to particularly praise the figure work - if only more people outside of railways were aware oof Preiser
The only real shortcut I made was the Scarff ring, which is Eduard, and the Vickers, which is Aeroclub
Aaand once the were in place and perfect, I managed to drop the fuselage of my Hurricane prototype right on them and bent them over...

I'm now debating getting a cheap old Airfix DH4 to convert to a Ninak, or find an R.1 kit, and the Airfix 504 K to 'silver wing' - Or just pay three times the price for something more modern...