WIP - Kitbash

1
June 21, 2024
Hispano Suiza engine in Roden quality. Can it be used? Perhaps, but not if the builder is infected by AMS.
2
June 21, 2024
Made a bearing for the engine and airscrew.
3
June 21, 2024
Made a airscrew from real wood.
4
June 21, 2024
Injection molded Hispano Suiza made by Eduard. Much better than what others deliver in resin. Provided by a SE.5a sprues as Overtrees. A second engine Wolsey Viper is also on the sprues, but really a pity, both share some common parts.
The front gear was modified to hold the new bearing.
5
June 21, 2024
Some SE.5a parts plugged together with the engine and airscrew. A Brassin cooler is also involved.
6
June 21, 2024
So as the Roden fuselage contains nothing to hold the engine in place (see picture 1) I will merge Eduard and Roden.
The ears are open now too.
7
June 21, 2024
I thinned all parts a lot, removed all outer details from Eduards SE.5a and glued them together.
8
June 21, 2024
The Hispano Suiza is painted now.
9
June 21, 2024
Another view.
10
June 22, 2024
A instrument panel will be needed soon, so I made one.
Real wood, decals and HGW instrument frames. The big black thing in the middle is the compass, which I turned from brass. The fuel gauge is a alu micro pipe with heat stretched clear sprue as glass inside.
11
June 22, 2024
Due to the position it is hard to read the compass from the pilots position. So I added a brass bracket with a stripe of mirror inside (from a mirror foil).
In the picture it works.
12
June 22, 2024
Here you can see the compass in the top view.
13
June 22, 2024
As this aircraft was a night fighter the pilot needs to see something. At that time there were no instruments with back light as today available, so each instrument had a little lamp in a adjustable brass casing installed! I replicated that with 1mm pieces of brass micro tube mounted with a thin wire.
14
June 28, 2024
After some painting as preparation I started to apply HGW 3D decals for the rib tapes. After some hours the carrier has to be removed to get the 3D effect of the stitching. That is a lot of work!
15
June 28, 2024
One lower wing is done and looks nice. Now to the others.
16
June 28, 2024
The fuselage halves are painted with linen and wood. I added a fake tank. The original aircraft has a big tank due to remove of the second cockpit.
Fuselage was closed then.
17
June 28, 2024
The Roden fuselage shows a empty hump.
18
June 28, 2024
There was a relatively large fuel cap so I turned and milled one from brass. A piece of sprue was used to sand a base for it. The cap itself can be glued in place after the painting of the fuselage.
19
June 28, 2024
The lower engine cover has different slots compared to the SE.5a so I merged here two parts. Before final mounting I need to paint it inside.
20
June 28, 2024
The upper cowling is also prepared. Some final sanding is needed on the back half.
21
June 28, 2024
As work with wood is fun I prepared 8 wing struts. Only primed so far.
Cabane struts needs to be done. They are a bit different and more tricky.

28 21 June, 16:43

Bruce Huxtable
Another fine airscrew! Watching, in anticipation 🙂

21 June, 16:51

Christoph Kunz
Something new shows up.
Taking a seat in the first row.

21 June, 17:06

bughunter
Thanks and welcome Bruce!
With the finished build of the Ford Model A I will try to continue and finish this build. I prepared already some subassemblies over the time but it is far from done.
I will try to merge here a SE.5a from Eduard with a Roden kit. The original was a single-seat version of the B.E.2. The "b" variant here was equipped with the nose and engine taken from the SE.5a.

21 June, 17:09

bughunter
Oh, two sync postings - Welcome Christoph too! Have fun!

21 June, 17:13

Ludvík Kružík
Here another interesting piece of aviation history is born. Can't miss it 🙂

21 June, 17:32

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat here, of course 🙂

21 June, 17:39

Michael Kohl
Oh, that will be fun to watch. Looks like you got you Mojo back.

21 June, 18:02

bughunter
A warm welcome to all of you!
Yes Ludvík, an interesting piece of history, but not very successful. The performance of this night fighter was impressive due to the great 8-cylinder engine, but those were needed for the SE.5a and other types on the front. So not many machines were produced or converted for Home Defence units, some waited forever for the engine. The 200 hp Hispano-Suiza was critical scarce at that time.
Today exists a flying reproduction BE12 with a RAF 4a 160hp V12 engine.

@Michael A fun oob build helped. While the last parts were drying (I was told not to touch the Molotow chrome for a week), I dug out this build and started working on the engine.

21 June, 18:58

J35J
Taking a seat too!👍🏻

21 June, 21:03

bughunter
Welcome J35J!
I uploaded pictures of the instrument panel. Here is a photo (copyright James Fahey) showing the lamps I mention in the description of picture 13:
[img1]
I can and should adjust my lamps 🙂