A Brisfit from a Biff.. Converting the Aeroclub 1/48 Bristol F2b into a Mk.IV By Paul Thompson

Introduction

For many World War One aeroplanes, the end of the war meant end of the line. Not so the Bristol Fighter. It was good enough to continue in use and development right through the of twenties. By 1927 the current version was the Mark IV. Like the DH9a, it was mostly used in India, Iraq, and similar hot and dusty places, in the army cooperation role.. Over the years it accumulated a host of minor modifications. Combined with poor availability of supplies and inadequate maintenance facilities, it was well past it’s prime when it was phased out, being replaced by the likes of the Westland Wapitti and the Fairey Gordon. The history is well detailed in Chaz Bowyer's book listed in the references section. First, a point of order: wartime, it's a Biff. Postwar, a Brisfit. Right? Right.

The Kit

I seem to have a thing for the F2b. I've made far too many already but can't seem to shake the habit. One day I was contemplating the leftovers from my most recent build, and examining the contents of the Aeroclub kit, when a little bird carried in the rumour that Roden would eventually release a Mark IV in 1/48th scale. I'd already done one in 1/72nd (Libramodels), but was prompted to try and make one from the Aeroclub kit. This must have been shortly after the Eduard and Roden F2bs were released. I thought, "If I make this up as a Mark IV, then the Roden Mark IV will come out 2 weeks before I finish". You know the sort of thing. Normal, healthy paranoia. Irresistable. Anyhow, I seem to have finished a bit early, so here's what I did.

Back in distant ages past, there was only the Aurora Biff kit available in 1/48th scale. Then at about the same time came 2 kits, from Blue Max and Aeroclub. Both build up very nicely, but both are products of their time, and thus much more limited run than the modern uber-kits. Both kits have nicely detailed major components in plastic, with details in white metal. Where the Aeroclub kit scores, for me, is the provision of an extra tail grouping suitable for the Mark IV. I'd be lying if I didn't point out that the white metal interplane struts are also a great boon - Blue Max supplies strut stock in plastic to make your own. The tailplane/elevator is larger, and the fin and rudder too, and the latter horn balanced to boot. All the other changes needed to make this mark require a bit of elementary scratch building, mostly detail work. When thinking of a title for this article I was musing on the lines of the old Airfix magazine conversion items, sort of 'Hp.42 from a Bf 109, Alan Hall shows you how', but this conversion is half done for you already by Aeroclub.

So, what were the needed mods in addition to using the later tail group? Most of what I've done comes from looking long and hard at the Windsock Datafile specials, particularly part two, from which, Watson, we deduce:

1. The top wings were fitted with Handley page auto-slots. Some machines had position lights on the top surface, sometimes raised (like on a Bristol Bulldog), and sometimes set into the wing surface. These improved slow speed handling, and opened automaticall by spring action below a certain airspeed. Most shots on the ground show them in the open, raised position.

2. The tail skid was taller and substantially different.

3. There was a message retrieval hook mounted to the axle.

4. The cowling louvres were different.

5. The exhaust pipes were usually much longer than the longest wartime variant.

6. Light on rudder.

7. Different instrument panel.

8. Circular, Snipe type grip on the control column.

9. Metal seat, more like a '20s or '30s fighter’s. Square as seen from above.

10. Sometimes there was a rail system under the observer's cockpit for mounting counter-balance weights. Not apparantly fitted to the one I modelled.

11. Sutton harness for pilot. I know the Eduard kit has one, but I don't believe wartime Biffs had them, at least not usually. A simple lap belt seems to have been the norm. But it would seem logical that by the mid twenties the Sutton harness should have been in regular use.

12. Interior fabric probably showed bleed-through of the red primer used on the outside.

There are a lot of small imponderables one could add, such as radio fit, depending on specific airframe.

It's essential to have a photo or two of the exact machine you want to model due to the different equipment fits.There is a quite nice photo of F4587 on page 16 of the Windsock Datafile Special, part two. F4587 was built in 1918 and, like many others, was slowly upgraded over the years. In 1928 it was brought up to Mark IV standard. Recorded as being at the RAF Pageant, Hendon in 1937, it was sold to a Squadron Leader NR Buckle and civil registered. Sometime in WWII it got bombed, and shuffled off this mortal coil. So, the machine became a Mark IV in 1928. I've been wanting to do something to dedicate to my mother for some time and since she was born in 1928, this is it. (She'll be less than thrilled, maybe a nice box of choccies would have been a better idea).

Cutting Plastic.

Generally I followed the instructions for the kit, just substituting some home-grown bits for the kit parts as necessary.

First I built up the wings, following the kit instructions, except that first I scored, sanded and filed recesses in the top wing to receive the slots. Painted the top wing undersides with Citadel Mithril Silver . The centre section of the lower wing needed 2 holes drilling at an angle to later poke the undercarriage legs through, and the top was painted like the bottom. I left the ailerons undeflected to make life simpler this time.Then on to the fuselage.

First I drilled holes for various control line exits, then cut a piece of 10 thou plastic and painted it up as scuffed wood to act as the floor, and hide the central seam. Then I added a few missing items of carpentry and painted the wooden bits woody colour, metal bits with Mr Kit battleship grey, and the fabric areas with a reddish brown mixed up from some old gunk or other I found on the desk. Lots of folk probably think this should be a lot streakier and blotchier, and I dare say they’re right, but I copied the colour inside of a restored Swordfish I saw on the Internet. Too late to change now, anyway. There are a couple of white metal magnetos to be added from the inside, disguising the lack of engine, and a few holes in the cowling that also need blanking off.

The inside was then kitted out with the kit-supplied items, except I replaced the control column with a bit of black HSP, atop which I added and thickened a bit of leftover PE from, IIRC, a CSM Sopwith Snipe. I made a fuel tank from laminated plastic leftovers from a vacform kit, and made the seat from the one suppled in the MPM Fulmar kit. Meant for the Fulmar’s observer, it’s wrong for that kit. Having ground off the moulded padding and shortened it by 5mm I fondly believe it resembles the twenties style seat in the F2b.A bit, anyway. I made a cushion from a scrap of plastic and an unloved pre-painted Sutton harness from an Eduard kit finished this off nicely.

I sanded everything off the kit metal control panel and built a new one on it using what we technical types call ‘odds and sods’. The observers seat was given a cushion and some tape straps. I made the fabric sheet and pouch sometimes seen behind the observer from 10 thou plasticcard and PTFE (plumbers) tape. Finally, I ran control lines from the controls through this .

Having noted where the observers emergency control column would have emerged from the fuselage, the halves were coaxed together, puttied up and sanded. Juggling the Vickers support into place was fun, then on to the empennage.

The tailplane went in place easily enough, having scored and deflected the elevator to match the control column, but the fin and rear fuselage needed an age of filing before they fit far enough forward. Not a criticism of the kit, simply what you’d expect from short run technology. The rudder was deflected a tad. Once all this was made good with putty and sanding, I followed the hair-raising kit method of installing the fuselage to lower wing struts. These are cast in pairs, and you have to saw 2 slots to take them across the underside of the fuselage, then putty etc. It went okay, with much care.

I added the bar under the fuselage that connects the pilot’s and observer’s control sticks, and drilled the only hole I was sure of under the cowling. I blanked this off then added the metal radiator. This was a bit wider than the fuselage and needed a fair bit of fettling to fair in. Then I added the exhaust manifold fairings.

I painted the fuselage and top of the lower wing, painted the rudder stripes, glued the lower wing in place, then realised that I’d totally forgotten to modify the cowling side louvres. The kit has a large circular opening each side behind the exhaust headers. Fortunately I’d already backed these, so it was fairly easy to fill with discs of punched card and a little putty. Sanding removed a non-traumatic amount of paint. Much harder was to add the the 2 large and one small louvres each side. Far too late to cut out and thin from the inside, I marked the positions out and scored a deep groove for each louvre with an Olfa p-cutter, then covered the grooves with louvres made from shaped contrail strut material, undercut on the rear edge. After repainting the cowl with Xtracrylix Panzer grey I flooded in a bit of black to give the illusion of depth. Not ideal, but not too bad, I hope.

There’s rigging between the wing and fuselage. I used rolled copper wire for this while access was relatively easy. I also added the aileron cables that come out of the fuselage and head off into the wing. This was smoked invisible thread, glued into holes in the fuselage, then secured into holes through the wing, cut off and made good when dry, from the underside. This was also a good time to glue similar thread to the aileron cranks, then add the cranks to the fuselage. The free ends were rolled up and taped to the wings so they wouldn’t come to grief while adding the top wing.

The undercarriage legs were painted after removing the wind generator from one side, and coaxed into place. The fuselage was then decalled from the spares box, and the last task before dealing with the top wing beckoned – installing the exhaust pipes. The kit exhausts needed extending with Contrail tube (which also took care of hollowing them out), holes drilled in the fuselage for the support brackets (black HSP) and then carefully the pipes were bent to shape by trial and error, using the Datafile plans and three hands. Once installed, the brackets were finished off using black decal strip.

Before dropping the top wing in place I had to deal with the auto slots. Each slot has 3 actuators that swing upward and forwards to open them. I cut 6 slots to take these with a razor saw, and built them up using bits of sprue. I left the slots themselves until after securing the wing to avoid tears befor bedtime. The Datafile photo shows no Aldis sight but the supports are in place, so I modelled the ‘plane as a few seconds before they took the thing away to clean it, by adding the kit item. The fuselage got a windscreen made of clear acetate, the strut holes had all been drilled out, and also a few for some of the rigging, so…………………..

………………after painting them, I dropped the four inner interplane struts into place on the lower wing with a drop of thick superglue each, and eyeballed them roughly into the right position. 4 more drops of glue and the lower wing was dropped on, then juggled into place over the Datafile plan. This was a genuine no brainer. When dry I sprung the remaing interplane struts in place and filled any gaps. There are small capping pieces above and below each strut station on the real thing, which I made from bits of 5 thou plasticcard. After everything was thouroughly dry I cut, painted and added the cabane struts from the stock supplied.

I painted the lower wing, decalled it, and then built up and added the new tailskid from black HSP, steel tube, plastic scraps, and a couple of suitable PE used as linkages.

With the top wing painted, I cut 2 HP suto-slots from 10 thou plastic card, sanded them a bit to give a chisseled leading edge, and shaped them by taping them to a round knife handle and heating the end with a candle. After painting they were glued onto the pre-installed actuators. I cut up some Blue Rider roundels to step over onto the slots and added them.

The main rigging was then done with wonder wire. This is black ceramic wire that is almost impossible to get, but which in 1/48th is my favourite rigging material. I’d made pin pricks at the locating points, and attached the stuff with white glue. Thanks to Ken Schmidt once again for this stuff – turned a 2 day exercise in boredom into 1 and a half hours of cackling mania.

Remaining Bits

Four small control horns and rigging were made from card and HSP for the tailplane incidence control, running into Eduard exit grommets stuck in place with Johnsons Klear, then the main control horns (white metal) were added, the previosly added wires un-taped from the wings, and glued in place, running through small holes drilled through elevator and rudder behind the horns. Tail bracing was added from wonder wire, and the aileron balance cables from HSP. I made a small tail light from scrap for the rudder, and a pair of position lights for the upper wing from clear sprue, sanded and painted. By 1928 aeroplanes had red and green lights, at least according to paintings of Bulldogs I’ve seen, so I used Tamiya clear green and red on these.

Bomb carrier attachments and wing tip skids were made from plastic strip and fusewire, a message hook made from wire, and the kit compass added to the top wing centre section. The kit scarf ring was added.A pitot was made from bits of fuse wire and decal strip.

At some stage I must have rigged the undercarriage legs and put the wheels on. Can’t remember when I’d done some very light weathering with watercolour pencils, so it just remained to satin-varnish everything and drop the prop in place. I couldn’t see any laminations in the photo, so didn’t paint any.

Done.

Final words

Edited out of this account are : the bit where I realised I’d painted the inner fabric CDL, and had already added enough interior to make repainting really difficult. Solved by making up a new fuselage from another kit pulled kicking and screaming from the stash. Luckily the Mark IV control panel hadn’t yet been installed, then. The plundered kit is now under construction, so some good will some out of that at least.

Also, the fun and by now traditional bit where I yanked the top wing off. Only once, this time, and with no damage, for a wonder. Because there’re a separate load of struts between the fuse and lower wing, I also took advantage of this to rip the lower wings off too. That damage is a little more visible.

All the invisible thread rigging sags when the weather is damp, as you can see in the construction shots. Same for the sprue aileron balance cables. I’ve tightened them as much as I dare with a pin heated in a flame, so I guess they’ll stay…………limp.

Something to fix later - there are a few ‘lift here’ and ballast stencils that instead of the usual white are black on silver brisfits. Well, I couldn’t find anything suitable. There may be some commercial ones available in the near future, at which point I’ll add them.

I did take a few photos of the kit before starting it, but can’t find them. Ho hum.

Finally, those slots didn’t set exactly parallell, which is why there are ( I hope) few photos where it’s too obvious. I’ve probably also set the slots too high, but having stared at the real ones for far too long I find I’m now unable to judge.

Thanks to members and ex-members of the wwi mailing list for input and help.

References:

• Bristol Fighter Windsock Datafile Special, both volumes, by J.M. Bruce.

• Bristol F2B Fighter, King of Two Seaters, by Chaz Bowyer.

• Bristol Fighter, Windsock Datafile 114, by L.A.Rogers.

• Bristol Fighter in Action, Quadron/Signal 137 by Peter Cooksley

• Bristol’s Fighter Par Excellence, Air Enthusiast 35, page 24, by J.M. Bruce.