Official FE2 painting thread

[camelbeagle]

Nice Job! Love the detail on the pilots!

[Von Scharf]

Well that's a beauty, Chris. Don't know how you deal with the gunners and pilots.

I tried to put some pilots in the last Camels I created... didn't go so well. I was so happy to have found the Peter Pig pilot heads in 1/144. Then to figure out how to actually order them and get them all the way to the states. Opened the package and went, oh $#&#!

I gamely tried, but after the first one went into the carpet 8 different times and never really finding a great way to seat them over that blasted stubble thing in the Camel cockpits... I threw it across the room, never to be seen again. Many foul words were strung together that day. I have no idea how the rest of you make the pilot heads work, despite reading 3 different methods on this forum... and how the hell would you paint those dust specks? Maybe other planes are more suited for pilot heads... I never looked. I simply learned to embrace the fact that all my planes fly themselves.

I've gone off the rails... again...

Great work, Chris!

[malachi]

Thanks very much, guys. Quite happy with how this one turned out and actually look forward to doing more.

Pilots. Take a deep breath, Jeff

For this model they are built in and were far easier than I thought and some painting was just a happy accident. I purposely chose colors I thought would be forgiving next to the nacelle. I primed the whole thing in khaki so their faces are still simply primer color, no face details. Leather brown coat extended down to the knees on the gunner, English Uniform for leggings, German Camo Black Brown for boots and cap. Similar colors on the pilot, used a #0 brush. The interior of the nacelle was very bright by contrast but I liked that since it allows the figures to show up more. A liberal dose of some mid-brown ink wash behind the pilot and in the bottom around their feet blended things just fine. Did I mess up and slop leather brown onto the front machine gun and the outside of the nacelle? Sure, but easily fixed.

Peter Pig pilots: teaticket gave me several helpful tips on these after I shot one across the hobby room holding it with tweezers (he's still MIA). Paint them on the sprue. I tend to do the flesh color first then finish out the rest. I hit them with a few coats of clear spray so the paint stays put when putting them into the plane. To fit a Camel (mine were Nexus not Ares) I remember cutting them about mid-torso (sorry Mr Pig). Have to dry-fit and test how he looks. Then I gently grip him by the head with tweezers and dip him in a big blob of superglue and get him seated. Everything is done with: a magnifier, I'd be lost without it.

[zenlizard]

Another great effort, Chris!

[Stumptonian]

... I simply learned to embrace the fact that all my planes fly themselves ...

I can definitely relate. I simply stopped before I got to the 'across the room' phase.

[Vagabond]

Chris and Baz excellent work, I do like the standing gunner in the shapeways plane and that lead plane must weigh a ton.
Hats off to you both.

[Flying Helmut]

Lovely job on that FE2, Chris!

[Flying Helmut]

I have no idea how the rest of you make the pilot heads work, despite reading 3 different methods on this forum... and how the hell would you paint those dust specks?

Pilots...........

I hate painting pilots, and also wheels, and struts and their bindings.
One of my friends asked me "Why the hell do you specialise in WW1, then?"
I don't have a rational, logical answer to that one.

For the 'Peter Pig' pilots, as Chris said, always paint them on the sprue.
I bend the sprue into a semi-circle, which opens up a decent space between each pilot and the next; this makes clean-up and painting much easier.
I superglue a matchstick to the apex of the "arch", and hold this stick while painting, pushing the bottom end into a lump of plasticine when finished with each colour. I can then leave the sprue "standing up" until I'm ready to add the next colour.

I brush on a thin coat of pale grey primer, then add a coat of "Army Painter" Soft-Tone; this settles into the cracks and crevices, and gives a base greyish-brown hue to the pilots.
All the details now jump out at me, and are thus MUCH easier to paint!

For attaching the finished Head I put a "blob" of epoxy resin glue onto the filed-down Ares "nub", and leave the "blob" for about a half hour.
I have a similar "blob" on a bit of waste decal backing paper on the workbench.
I touch test this spare "blob" periodically, until it is firm but tacky, at which time I press the pilot onto the tacky "blob" on the plane. A couple of bits of broken matchstick can support the pilot in position, if needed.
The epoxy sets like rock, and your pilot is secure!

Everything is done with: a magnifier, I'd be lost without it.

Oh, Yes!

[malachi]

Tim kindly reminded me that the lower roundels on my Fee should not have the white rim. Roundel types were complicated and varied depending on date of production, use of PC10, etc. So I fixed it and edited the original post. Thanks, Tim

[Walarik]

Loking at other posts here, I can see that I am still lame with my modelling skills . But anyway, here are my two FEs finished yesterday. Both are from Red Eagle miniatures, so I had to add missing struts and I also added additional gun located on stand.
Since my card creation skills are even worse than my modelling skills, I woul like to ask, if there is somebody so nice here to do cards for me? Or (since paint scheme is pretty simple) are there any ready to use which I can download and print? Thank you very much in advance. Take care.

[Flying Helmut]

They look fine to me - especially since they are Red Eagles.

Well done!

[Walarik]

Thanks. Do you have any idea whom I can kindly ask for plane card creation?

[camelbeagle]

Check Wings of Linen and see if there are any cards there that you can download.

Awesome job on the planes. I think they look pretty damn good.

[Teaticket]

Don't cut yourself short Georg, those look really nice. As Tim said, especially for Red Eagle as metal planes are not easy to work with. Not dumping on Red Eagle, just metal planes in general.

Well done!

[malachi]

Great-looking Fees, Georg.
I may have some cards that would work, but am out of town till next week. Will check then.

[Teaticket]

Not sure who made this one. Sorry, I don't have any with the CDL wings.

[Flying Helmut]

[Hedeby]

Nice cards chaps and some great paint jobs, well done.

[Walarik]

Thanks for those cards. Is there also same plane card, but with yellow version of plane ?

[RJG173]

Thanks for those cards. Is there also same plane card, but with yellow version of plane ?

There is one here.

[ReducedAirFact]

There is one here.

Indeed... to use, click on the card and select the highest resolution (which should end up at https://static.miraheze.org/linenwik...FFE2b-4852.jpg), save the image, then print at roughly 400dpi. Depending on which graphics program you're using, there should be a way to do that.

[Teaticket]

The Unofficial Committee has it as a G deck.

[ReducedAirFact]

The Unofficial Committee has it as a G deck.

I had put together some stats for the 120hp Beardmore engine (with which some early F.E.2b's were equipped), rather than the later 160hp engine, which was assumed for the G-B-14-8-6 stats. The 120hp version was considerably slower and had less climb and ceiling.

I'd be very happy if the Unofficial Committee would re-convene someday. There are a whole pile of aircraft with preliminary stats that need blessing or correction.

[RJG173]

I'd be very happy if the Unofficial Committee would re-convene someday. There are a whole pile of aircraft with preliminary stats that need blessing or correction.

Isn't that the truth.

[Teaticket]

I had put together some stats for the 120hp Beardmore engine (with which some early F.E.2b's were equipped), rather than the later 160hp engine, which was assumed for the G-B-14-8-6 stats. The 120hp version was considerably slower and had less climb and ceiling.

I'd be very happy if the Unofficial Committee would re-convene someday. There are a whole pile of aircraft with preliminary stats that need blessing or correction.

Yes, there are quite a few planes with various engines that had very different performance. We really need an Unofficial List V2.0.

[Walarik]

Hello, is there anybody skilled enough to replace green plane on this card with yellow one? Thanks and take care.

[flash]

I had put together some stats for the 120hp Beardmore engine (with which some early F.E.2b's were equipped), rather than the later 160hp engine, which was assumed for the G-B-14-8-6 stats. The 120hp version was considerably slower and had less climb and ceiling..

There is no sensible official deck slower than the G or Y without getting into the lumbering X? decks, though Dom (Spoonfrog) made up an XE deck for the Sikorsky S.16 which might fit the bill if the speeds match up. He linked it here: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...S-16-questions

[bigpetr]

Here you have it Walarik

[Walarik]

Thank you very much Petr, you saved the day :-)

[Flying Helmut]

Nice card, Petr!

[flash]

Thank you very much Petr, you saved the day :-)

Note the FE won't have a 360 arc of fire at same level, Georg. In level flight it can only engage targets at higher altitude to the rear of the top wing. I checked this with TVAL in NZ a few years back with someone who 'plays gunner' on their machine..
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...l=1#post301451
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...tion&highlight

[Walarik]

Note the FE won't have a 360 arc of fire at same level, Georg. In level flight it can only engage targets at higher altitude to the rear of the top wing. I checked this with TVAL in NZ a few years back with someone who 'plays gunner' on their machine..
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...l=1#post301451
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...tion&highlight

Yes, I am aware and thank you for highlighting this. Still, I really like the card.

[Honza]

You can leave the card the way it is, just when the ruler crosses the wing it has fire up. The back fire angle should probably be restricted even more than by wings as the poor fellow behind the gun probably couldn’t lean too much to the side and aim well.

[Honza]

It might be fun to let the gunner fall out on certain conditions when he leans too much to fire to the side.

[Walarik]

It might be fun to let the gunner fall out on certain conditions when he leans too much to fire to the side.

Actually, per my understanding, there are cases when pilots returned back from missions without observers, due to the fact, that those fell out during excessive defensive maneuvering of airccraft in combat.

[flash]

You can leave the card the way it is, just when the ruler crosses the wing it has fire up. The back fire angle should probably be restricted even more than by wings as the poor fellow behind the gun probably couldn’t lean too much to the side and aim well.

Incorrect, the gun was on a pivoting multi-positional mount that clipped in the the front and sides of the cockpit. At some point the crew were also tethered to the floor of the cockpit by a strop. There are pics in other threads but I don't have time today to look them out.

Here's a pic of the gunner's cockpit showing the mount & clips:


Even the pilots had alternate mounting points:


Loads of FE pics here:
http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/produ...tid=3044&cat=1

[malachi]

FE2b #7691 of 11 Sqn RFC, Lt. LAT Strange & 2Lt. WGT Clifton
Izel-le-Hameau, France, March 1917
Reduced Aircraft Factory FCN12 color shapeways (Morris & Rees) repaint







This began as an attempt to salvage a misprinted model and create a generic FE2b, however, I found an excellent profile in Ronny Bar Profiles: British Two-Seaters of the Great War (an excellent book and great value by the way). The reverse profile of this Fee also occurs in Windsock Datafile 147, RAF FE2b At War, Hare, along with the info that it was shot down by Kurt Wolff of Jasta 11. Additionally, this great photo from FE2b/d VS Albatros Scouts Western Front 1916-17, Miller, helped with top wing details despite the caption getting the plane # interpolated.


Some comparison before & after pics:





The resin is porous and absorbs paint which can lead to stains and I debated about spraying some clearcoat first but was fearful of that since oftentimes acrylic paint on top of clearcoat can have an odd finish. If doing it over I think I’d try to spray a couple coats to reduce the rate at which it soaks up paint, but I used a light touch and got through it.
PC10 around cockpit and upper wing voids: Vallejo Game Air Goblin Green with a touch of model color Brown Violet to desaturate worked well. Then very thin model color Pale Sand to finish.
11 Sqn nose insignia: altered to fit the profile and also added the pilot cockpit triangle marking. Vallejo Game Effects Rotten White desaturated with a tiny bit of model color light gray. Also added an inscrutable top line on side to simulate the presentation name.
Top wing replacement panel: AK Interactive Clear Dopen Linen AK2291.
Tail markings: overpainted with Vallejo model colors Flat Red and Flat Blue and the desaturated Rotten White.
Lewis guns: Pro Acryl Dark Silver.
All the PC10 and tail were brush-coated with Vallejo Polyurethane Matt Varnish which darkened it a bit but also hid some staining from painting.
Decals: homemade tail #, miscmini top wing were the largest available -- a bit small, may try some 1/100 scale (but it’s a smaller selection).

[Guntruck]

That's a very nice Fee, Chris

[malachi]

Thanks, Steve. Happy to have it on the ready list

[Hu Rhu]

Lovely work on that FE2.

[Flying Helmut]

Very nice FE2!

[camelbeagle]

Nice job!

[zenlizard]

Very nice work on this one, Chris!

[malachi]

Thanks all. Unlike in the Great War, in our little game these are not "cold meat."

[CrashCraig]

Nice work Chris. My FE looks just like your's out of the box and your comment about it looking a little porous is a good description. I haven't experimented with repainting it yet, just put some satin varnish coating on it which helped darken and tone it down a bit.

[OldGuy59]

Long time getting back to these:


[Edit: Firing arcs widened to represent the multi-position Observer's MG mount.]


[Edit: Firing arcs widened to represent the multi-position Observer's MG mount.]

Equipment Cards for firing to the rear? Find them here: Fe2 - Firing and Manouver - Post #126

Extensive discussion on firing arcs and how to represent them are in the above linked thread. I came up with a card and the Equipment Card combo to keep the card simple.

[Stumptonian]

Long time getting back to these:

Thanks, Mike.
Now one of my "Unknown Pilot" Fees will have a named crew.

[CrashCraig]

More great work Mike

[tonyc206]

What about the gun that fires to the rear?

[Flying Helmut]

What about the gun that fires to the rear?

Can't fire to the rear at the same altitude level (numerous threads!) so doesn't get a place on the card.
It can only fire at a target at a higher altitude level.