Posting this mainly to give me motivation to carry the project through, but I thought I'd share my decision to build a series of aircraft tracking the history of one of the world's oldest Squadrons, No 1 Sqn RAAF

The aircraft I'll be building cover the main types the Squadron has used in it's AFC and RAAF days.

In chronological order (but not necessarily the order I'll build them in) :

BE2c (Airfix due 2016)
Bristol F2b (Roden)
S.E.5a (Roden)
Westland Wapiti (CMR)
Avro Anson(Special Hobby)
Lockheed Hudson (Italeri)
Bristol Beaufort (Special Hobby)
DH Mosquito (Airfix)
Avro Lincoln (Airfix/Paragon)
GAF Canberra (High Planes Models)
MD F-4E Phantom (Hasegawa)
GD F-111c (Hasegawa)
F/A-18 F (Hasegawa)

Very cool idea Scott, I'll be following you on this journey!

Cheers, D

And away we go !

First aircraft is perhaps the most important AFC aircraft of WW1.



The Bristol Fighter was the first truly capable military machine and it was in this marque that the fledgling AFC "wrote the book" on how the RAAF would operate into the future.

Appropriately I'll be doing the aircraft as flown by Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE, CB, DSO, (The Father of the RAAF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williams_(RAAF_officer) )

Some WIP photos

The interior and propeller with a bit of woodgrain and brass leading edge.... well an attempt at those anyway.



and the major parts primed and ready for paint.

Scott,
Nice start to a rather unique build project. Looking forward to following your process through all of it. In 1/72 13 aircraft should be quite doable in a year or so.
Joel

Thanks Joel,

Here's the results of a fairly busy weekend

I decided, with the nature of a biplane having all sorts of things getting in the way of post build painting, that I'd paint as I go.

Starting on a base of Deck Tan is the first of MANY MANY MANY coats of white. Not building a white aircraft ever again !



I used Sand lightened with Deck Tan for the "Linen" of the underside, might be a little dark I think.

Tamiya Khaki Drab on the upper wings



With the colours done I've given them all a good coat of gloss
Did I mention I'm never painting white again .... ever ?



Decals are on with Micro Sol and set and the VERY fiddly job of putting all of the struts and so forth on. It took me ages to place and set them just for the fuselage



More pain and suffering for the top wing too !




But in the end I did get a result, not 100% happy with it but then who ever is ?





I have to say I really didn't enjoy this kit. The Roden kits which great in detail don't really have a solid method of going to together with most of the locator holes etc being quite small and don't give a secure fit. The model ended up being very very fragile and I didn't do the weathering I'd have liked as I was finding that I was causing damage with my ham fisted weathering "technique"

It's been well over 35 years since I've built a 1/72 kit and I really don't have the dexterity and eyesight to make them it seems ! LOL

I'm thinking for the rest of the project I might make the change to 1/48 !

Hi Scott. I think this build came up nicely. I build almost exclusively in 1/48, with a few multi-engine kits in the stash in 1/72.

Of course, if you swap this project to quarter-scale you will need to build this aircraft again, MORE WHITE !!

Cheers, D

I had in the back of my mind that niggling voice saying "You'll have to do them ALL in 1/48"

Thanks...........

Mind you I did find a 1/48 scale Avro Lincoln today and on that basis alone I am keen to go down the quarter scale route, even if it means a do over.

Nice work on the Bristol F2B Scott. Roden kits can be hard work, but the effort is usually worth it. I like the weathered white, it looks just right. Great subject too, looking forward to the rest of your builds.
tim

Cheers Tim !