Roden 1/72nd Felixstowe F.2A
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Introduction
The Felixstowe, in my opinion, is RODEN's most ambitious WW1 project
to date. With over 200 hundred parts, it should satisfy anyone's need
to super detail a kit. There have been many reviews of the kit, so I will
not go there.
The instruction sheet is 12 pages and is very clear and easy to follow.
It shows a complete rigging diagram and four color schemes so one could
go from easy to insane according to one's level of masochism. The plane
can be built without any outside reference showing how detailed the instructions
are. With that out of the way, let's start the build.
 Engines
Each engine has 34 parts and that's 20
too many. Most of the parts do not fit and are oversized. Build each engine
exactly as shown in exactly the steps shown or parts will not fit down
the road. Almost all of the parts must be trimmed down in size so that
they will come close to fitting during assembly. Constant alignment is
required and even then you are not assured of a good fit. After too many
attempts and much too long in time, I finally completed the engines so
that they looked ok. I will not use the word good because I don't thinbk
they are.
 Fuselage
The fit here is very good. The parts are clearly marked and fit exactly
where they are supposed to. The only minor problem is the extra magazine
boxes that fit on the floor at the waist/top gunner position. They are
a little to wide and must be trimmed just a touch so they fit across the
fuselage.
The hull went together well but make sure the fit is good on the bottom
as a very delicate fin runs the length of the fuselage and it would be
very easy to sand it off and very difficult to put it back. A little sanding
was necessary to get the floor to fit but nothing that will cause any
problems. I added the waist machine gun supports at this time but in the
inward folded position. I wanted to open the doors for the guns but had
to wait until after the painting and decaling was complete.
 At
this point you have a decision to make. The fuselage top requires some
sanding especially in the rear portion. The fuselage has two slots the
the lower wing slides into and then the top of the fuselage piece is added.
I chose a very complex color scheme and did not see how I could paint
the model with the lower wing (actually the entire wing assembly) in the
way. I chose to add spars across the fuselage so that I could slide the
lower wing into to position and still have some support. After the spars
were dried, I added the top of the fuselage and did my sanding until it
was free of any cracks.
Since I had decided on my method of construction I took the fuselage
half to a copy machine and made a copy of the fuselage in full size. On
this sheet I got my angles for my color scheme and the size of the squares.
This was done mainly by eye. After the fuselage was painted white and
dry, I spray painted some clear decal sheet the color I  wanted
and then cut out each square and strip one at a time. With the squares,
I started just behind the forward machine gun and went backwards and down
from there. In some areas I had to fake it a bit but a little red paint
hid most of the flaws. The strips were made to match the tail strips and
was performed mainly by eye. I constantly checked the instruction sheet
and tried to position the strips as closely to that position as possible.
The strips are multiple pieces with a lot of trimming and red paint to
cover where I didn't. The wings and tail planes are PC-10 and Unbleached
linen, glossed and decaled prior to assembly. After the painting and decals
were complete, I removed the waist gun doors from their white glue and
glued them in the open position.
Wing Assembly
The instructions show the entire upper and lower wing assembly as a
single step and competed prior to joining it with the fuselage. It appears
to an excellent idea. If you use this method, make sure the slots are
trimmed so the the lower wing drops all the way to the bottom of the slots.
It will leave a gap but this gap is later filled with an engine support
strut.
 I
chose to cut the spars joining to lower wing and slide the wings halves
into the fuselage. The reason for adding the spars is apparent as there
would be very little surface for glue to hold the lower wing in place.
I was able to get liquid glue to flow down the spars. I then immediately
added the lower wing braces and my fit was close to perfect.
The next step was to mount the 12 wing struts on the lower wing. The
top wing in then turned upside down and the model is laid over it. Be
careful if you follow this method because the wing is painted, decals
are applied and the wing dams are in place. I made sure of my alignment
and then glued one strut at a time until all 12 were in place. Then with
exterme care, I turned the model over and put it in its docking cradle.
The docking cradle is essential to build this kit. I then mounted the
two center struts but I had to make them as they were too short. I must
say that for the sheer size of this kit, the top wing assembly was one
of the easiest I have ever done.
 After
the struts are in place, the engines are attached. They did not get better
with age. Here is the one area that the instuctions are vague and the
lower struts did not fit without a lot of trimming. After the engines
were mounted and glued with the lower support struts, the upper struts
were added. The rear uppers at least pretended to fit. The front uppers
didn't even come close. Looking back, if the radiators had been left off,
I would have had an easier time with the front uppers.
Final Assembly and Rigging
At this point all of the last little pieces are added with the exception
of the machine guns. The support struts from the engines to the fuselage
are added, all control horns are attached, (There are 20 of them), and
the gun rings. Any touch painted was done and the model is ready for rigging.
 This
was a very easy model to rig due to its size. Using DURAS, the main rigging
is only two pieces of line. Starting in the middle of the wing, about
an 18" piece of line is laced in both direction, top and bottom. There
are only two glue points to perform 75 percent of the rigging. The remainder
of the rigging is installed and with a lighter line, the control lines
are added.
With the rigging completed, the machine guns were added along with
the props. All touch up painting was done and the model was classified
as complete.
Conclusion
 This
is a very impressive looking kit and RODEN is to highly commended for
giving us WW1 builders a kit we never thought we would see in injection
mold. This is the largest kit in my collection, being about 1" longer
in wingspan than my Ilya Moumets. I do feel the kit is vastly over engineered
with far more parts than are necessary. Others may find the numerous parts
just what the doctor ordered; I however did not. The biggest challenge
will be the engines. Be prepared to spend many hours per engine getting
the fit right.
I estimate it took about 25 hours to build the kit, the engines taking
the most time. The color scheme took less time than building the engines.
My thanks to Matt Bittner for sending me the kit and RODEN for supplying
the kit to Matt.
References
Flying Machines Press, Great War Aircraft in Profile # 1
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