A bit of an oddball ** DNF -> Workbench **

[JohnRatzenberger]

I had hoped to find a BE2a so I could do the first RFC aircraft to land in France, sometime 13-16 August, but I think there is only one kit and I never found it. Nothing else in my stash is suitable for very early war so instead I'm going to fill the time while painting the Whippet by doing something very different.



The FK10 was developed in 1916 as a two-seater fighter, but offered no particular advantage and only a few were produced without seeing service in France. In fact, other than the FK.8, AW didn't have much success at all in WW1.

The kit is resin, but it is very good resin - very delicate, very detailed, very little clean-up needed. The kit is unencumbered by part numbers, paint instructions, or decals which really is no problem as it is just PC10/CDL & appropriate national insignia.



Here is my pile of parts, all washed and ready.



I have already cleaned up the fuselage halves, the wings, and the stab and primed the lower surface with Hu 74 Linen. I'll then overpaint that with Mr Kit CDL. I will spend a little time highlighting ribs before I do that. The upper surfaces will be primed with Hu 155 Olive Drab which I'll then overpaint with Mr Kit PC-10. Doing this all by brush.

I have to study the rigging to see how I will approach it.

Anyway, this is probably not a good idea, but we'll see what happens ....

[AndrewR]

Very odd indeed John :

I don't envy you with the rigging on that. Do any of the wires run through the middle pair of wings?

cheers

Andrew

[JohnRatzenberger]

Of course

I'll work on a diagram in a few days.

[VickersVandal]

Heck yes

[TobyC]

Wow. Now that is different and a real challenge. I think only two were ever made.

[Stuart]

Thats the airplane equivilent of a 16 Blade Razor. That'l be a really interesting build though John.

[Dazzled]

Can't wait to see the wing alignment jig

[JohnRatzenberger]

I've painted the upper/lower flying surfaces and the inside/outside of the fuselage - Hu 74 & Hu155 base, then over painted with MrKit PC-10 & CDL.



Next the cockpit and figure out the center struts ....

[Dirkpitt289]

Sharp looking kit John

[JohnRatzenberger]

I have just been puttering along, but am close to closing up the fuselage so I can get the center struts in and lined up before starting on the wings.



Nice kit - comes with a cockpit floor, two seats, fuel tank, stick & rudder bar, and a small instrument cluster.

I'll keep puttering along ....

[TimJ]

Nice looking cockpit. This could be the wingiest wingy thing ever.

[JohnRatzenberger]

There have been about a half-dozen quadroplanes (I think that is correct term, if not spelling) that actually flew and could be considered successful aircraft, the FK10 being one. There are no aircraft with more than 4 wings that can be considered remotely successful.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Not gotten the bench time I wanted or needed, so I'm only this far ...





The fuselage is together and the center section struts fitted. I'm too busy right now to take my time so it'll sit a couple-three days. I need to very carefully ensure both struts are lined up correctly (the kit does provide alignment lines - HOORAY) with each other and then preserve that while I squeeze in and cement the top deck section. It did not go well on a dry run and I suspect some delicate trimming is in my future ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

This will be a DNF and moved to my Workbench Great War thread.



The fuselage is together, top deck on, center struts are in. I have some join clean-up to do, paint touch-up, then I can move on to getting the wings on.

Not enough time to do any of that before the 8th - and as I only have one of these kits, I don't want to make a mess of it.