You may or may not remember that I commented last weekend that I had started the RE.8.. Here is a few hours work during the week and about 7 over the weekend.



I thought a little spilled fluid stain may be appropriate on the tank as I have seen how they used to put fuel in planes etc.. Not very safe!!
Basically that is the office done bar the rigging.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers
Warren

COME UP FOR AIR MAN! Jeez... when do you find time to breathe? But once again it in no way affects the quality.

Hmmmm Thanks Marc... Photos could have been better... Can;t see the map on the table very well.

Great start Warren – I'm building the same kit at the moment, I do find the instructions a bit fiddley – how about you?

Mikael

It is easy to miss stuff I think. They need more steps or more views, one or the other. And I wonder who was responsible for the engine? The seperate cylinder halves are just painful. They didn't need them with any other inline engine so I wonder why they used them with this one? It would be very easy to stuff this step up with the two sets of halves needing to be mixed and matched.
I made a mistake with the cockpit but you can't see it luckily. I got one of the formers around the wrong way. Put it in like it looked in the instructions, then late I noticed it had been swung 180 deg before it was installed.

Yeah that just about sums up what I think too – there are so many angles and details and options in this cockpit, that the WNW mode of showing where everything goes is sometimes difficult to follow. Also agree on the cylinder issue – I'm not really sure if I've assembled the right ones or not...

Griping asaide, its a very, very nice model – and I think yours will look impressive once its togehter.

Mikael

I am flattered that someone has faith in my abilities Mickael There are no real shortcuts with this one either as the engine is out there on display no mtter how many panels you put on it.

More fruits of my labour...

The finished interior before I put it in the fuselage halves. Had a bit of trouble with this one in that the fuel tank didn't fit in its alloted position even though it was exactly where the locating lugs said it was supposed to be. I had to trim the front of the fuselage before it would fit. Most unusual for a WNW kit.

The fit of the two fuselage halves is not as bad as the number of clamps I used makes it look. I just like to ensure that nothing moves while it is drying, although the tops of the fuselage still managed to move a tiny bit out of alignment which mean a bit of filler might be needed. I am happy with how the exhausts came out.

Yes, the bottom wing is on. The rear of this part also needed a little trimming before it went into place. The fit of this kit is not as good as the DH.9a Ninak. It almost snaps together the fit is so good.
That's it for this update.
Thanks for looking.

Yup , I could see myself knocking off the exhaust many times !


Terri

NIce progeress Warren, you're further ahead than me, I'm still to actually assemble anything – so your little pointers to potential trouble spots are most helpful.

Best Regards

Mikael

@Mickael, I may be further ahead, but you go into much more detail than myself for many items, especially on parts of the motor you won't see when the cowlings have been glued in place.
I will keep you updated my friend.
@ Terri, I am sure you would never knock such a large part off...

A bit more progress.

Fuselage is together.
Undercarriage legs are on.
Upper wing is finished.
Basically she is masked up ready for the first coat of either Battleship Grey or PC10. depending on what I feel like spraying at the time. But I better do the Natural Linen first, always spray light colours first as the are easier to cover than dark colours later.
A few more weekend and I should be calling this one finished, although the rigging is going to take a bit of planning and the manufacture of many many eyelets. I am not looking forward to the Gotha...
One thing I noticed while rigging the DH.9a, the fine Ezyline is not uniform in thickness and varies from over 0.5mm down to 0.2mm. I have contacted someone at WNW and they are looking into it.

Spent an hour or so making eyelets this afternoon while I watched the qualifying final for the NRL Grand Final on next Sunday.
Managed to get them all installed. Did you know there are four places on the fuselage where four wires are attached? Lucky my eyelets are nice and small but it will take a bit of work to get them through all the individual eyelets. In fact I think I will mount the rigging wires on the fuselage and attach them to the wing later with this one. Normally I attach them to the top wing before I attach it.
I got the XF-55 Clear Doped Linen painted on the wings and tailplanes. This will have a few weeks to dry as I am off to Bathurst for the annual pilgrimage next weekend. About 1000km there and back with the 24ft caravan hooked up to the back of the Pajero (Montero or Shogun elsewhere). And yes I know what Pajero means in Spanish..
I didn't bother with pictures as eyelets and one coat of paint is not very exciting..
Until I return..

:[]-- Hi Warren: I have been to Bathurst but it has been 32 years ago. Is that where the Ned Kelly last stand is?

Best
Mark

You are a little bit off Mark. Ned Kelly's last stand was in Glenrowan in the state of Victoria whereas Bathurst is in New South Wales.
About Kelly, he was no romantic hero, just a criminal who liked to rob people and kill police. I am not sure where he got his hero status from.
No, the annual pilgrimage is to watch the cars hurtle around the Mount Panorama race track for the 1000km race. Four days of racing at the track, getting lots of fresh air, filling up on junk food and taking photos of all the cars.

Been a while since I got to sit down at the bench. Have travelled to Bathurst to watch the 1000km race in the interim. A good time was had by all.. except for those who got bogged in the mudpatch, sorry, car park. Didn't bother us as the Pajero just motored through the bog without a problem.

I made a boo boo with the build and attached the wings before I did the decalling. Oops. I normally have everything decalled and painted before I get to the rigging etc but that didn't happen this time. Probably because I had to attach 16 wires to the fuselage before I did the rigging on the top wing as I normally do. It would have been very difficult to get to those 16 fuselage wires if I didn't do them before attaching the upper wing.

Speaking of upper wing this is the first WNW wing that has not gone on straight and true. I don't know what happened but the upper wing is slightly skewed from the top view. Oh well. It got mostly trued up with all the rigging.

Speaking of which, I only have the control runs to do now, oh and those eight wires on the tops of the upper wings... This is the most difficult rigging job I have done so far. I don't think the forthcoming DH.2 will phase me too much... famous last words..

Photos later.

Greetings all.

As promised, some further photos of my RE.8..


Using my usual patented empty tissue box stand..

A closer view of the RAF engine..

A slightly over-exposed shot of the cockpit and observers station..

And a rear 3/4 view.
As you can see their is not much to do but it will take the majority of the time like it always seems to do with WW1 aircraft. The airframe etc go together fairly quickly, then the rigging and final assembly slows you right down..

Oh, and my Pfalz D.XII arrived today.. So I only have the W.29, Gotha and the Pfalz to build before I run out of WNW kits... Wonder if I can get them done by the end of the KotS Campaign?...

Nice! Not an easy build as it seems! You tackled the kit´s challenges very good. Keep it up! :-)

Greetings Warren,

Looking Good! You're lightyears ahead of me with this one Still finding it a bit fiddley and its fighting me more than I was prepared for.

Mikael

I know what you mean Mikael. This one appears to have been engineered by another group as some parts just do not fit as well as other WNW kits. One is the fuel tank and fuselage, which I had to trim heaps fit, the upper wing, which isn;'t quite right on mine, and the supports for the exhaust just don't fit full stop.

At least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. It has got to the stage where I just want to finish the build and get onto another one. But I will persevere..

I am calling this one finished.
I am leaving off some of the control wires until I get some more reliable stretchy wire that won't break if I hit it by accident.




Looks like I have some touching up to do in a few spots but it can wait..