Game Inside

One of my Christmas presents this year was a 1/48th scale Bristol Fighter from Revell . I decided to begin work on it as a break after finishing off hundreds of 6mm French figures. One of the first things I noticed was that all the sprues are stamped with Eduardo, so it must be one of their kits resold in a Revell box. This was a pleasant surprise, as I really rate Eduard kits and have already built a couple.  That said, this was going to be my first British First World War aircraft model in 1/48th scale. I had been avoiding them as British planes tend to have a lot of rigging, and usually double rigging at that! But I thought it was time to face that particular demon and jump in with one of my favourite First World War aeroplanes.  Being that this was an Eduard kit it was very detailed (there were no photo-etched parts unfortunately), the interior of the plane was nicely modelled. It didnt take long to start work and get the preliminary stuff inside: The cockpit dashboard ...

So the final part of this Bristol Fighter WIP rolls in to view! Toy can read Parts ONE, TWO and THREE by clicking on the words.  The next task was to add the struts for the upper wing support. This was a fairly easy job and I used the Lego frame I had used in the previous post to get them in the correct position. I also began adding the wing rigging at this point: Before I went too far with that, I glued the upper wing in place and left the thing to dry. Then was the painstaking process of attaching the rigging to the struts. This was speeded up with the use of CA accelerator, which I never knew existed. It speeds up the setting time of Super Glue and is a God-send for rigging planes as the EZ Line snaps back without it! After the rigging was done (there are a few bits I missed out, it was my first time using EZ Line , so I didnt want to over-egg the pudding on the first go...) I added the undercarriage, unfortunately the decals on the wheels didnt stick properly so I had to do wi...

The Brisfit build is chugging along nicely and even though I work away, I am able to do some bits and pieces when I get home. So continuing from Part One, where I had the body glued together, I was able to get the tail assembly on, as the flaps and rudder had to be glued on I had to leave this to dry for a while again. Then it was flipped over and some smaller bits were put in place. You can also see that I have block painted some of the areas, I dont mind if these parts get scratched as they will all be repainted at some point anyway, this is acting as a base coat at the moment. The exhausts were also glued in place at this point. I glued the observers position cover in place as well, finally sealing up the interior. I have also been thinking about weathering on this plane for the future. As you can see in this photo I had a quick go at it as I waited for other bits and pieces to dry. Here I used a blob of white paint thinned down and smeared around with a brush to give the fabric a w...

When I left off in the previous post (click here for Part One and here for Part Two of this Bristol Fighter WIP), I had the fuselage largely done. So I turned my attention to the wings and added all the tiny parts. Both wings were painted roughly (and you may also notice that I put the gun sight on the top of the upper wing by mistake. This was later rectified...). I also weathered the fuselage and engine. This was done by painting blobs of White onto the surfaces and then smudging them about with water to make the fabric look worn and aged. On top of that I then did the same again but with Green Grey to try and emphasise the struts on the tailplane below the fabric and to dampen the brightness of the white. Finally, I then put a very thin wash of Flat Earth over the plane. The engine was simply washed in Army Painter s Strong Tone . I used this to add oil streaks and other splats on the rest of the plane as well. I am very pleased with the result of the weathering and its something...