My personal opinion is that the Eduard Bristol fighter is the most complex single engine kit to be build. Great number of parts as well the same construction of the airplane simply make this build long term build. August 2009 release was one very interesting kit, Bristol Fighter product item no. 8488 and this is released as the Weekend Edition. What is very interesting is that this is machine flown by Lt. Staton and Lt. Gordon, and Lt. Staton is proven ace on this machine. No matter that there is etched parts here this is still very top kit to be built!

Building process going smooth as well all parts are precisely made. Whole build could be done in separate assemblies so work on the fuselage interior, engine front cover, wings and tails can be done in almost same time. What is important to note is that some parts have to be place at the very end of buildings and this is the parts which is positioned on the surfaces where national insignia decals have to be placed. So for the actuators as well bottom wing skid I suggest you to place it when the kit is fully under decals.

Bristol Fighter scale model

Eduard give one sheet of decals for one machine and some short analyses provide some interesting info about the external look of this machine. Bristol F2B C4619 appeared both with the three white stripe marking of No. 62 Squadron, and without. Originally 62 Squadron’s Bristols had the three  white stripe unit marking you can see in one of the photos. Then, on 22  March 1918 these white markings were ordered to be removed (much appreciated  by the observers, who though all those white stripes gave German pilots a  good aiming point!). So, as you can see in the first gallery photo that show Capt.  Staton and Lt. John R. Gordon posing by the nose of the airplane (taken at Planques on 1 May 1918), the stripes were painted over. Also, note that a longer exhaust stack was also fitted at about the same time as the stripes were painted over.

According to Jon Guttman, C4619 was later overhauled and had the letter “R” changed to “P”. I imagine the blue wheel cover was a flight marking. In all British  squadrons there were three flights (A,B, and C) and they were frequently  identified by wheel markings in the three national  colors of red, white and blue. As well this does not make any changes on the basic material provided by Eduard, I have decided to build kit in later appearance, without white strips. Very interesting is that the exhaust is changed from the short ones to the long ones and most interesting is they are not bented to follow the mid of fuselage line, but they are more strait shape. If you decide to built this later variation you should also bent longer exhaust to fit the shape.

Finished kit is real pleasure to see in model stash and with all of its details and rigging it is so dominative look! Your sample kit you could get at Eduard site! http://www.eduard.com/info/photos/8488

Srecko Bradic

Sample kt is provided by Jan Zdiarsky, from Eduard.

Archive images credit: first in gallery Greg Van Wyngarden, the rest are extract from Australian War Memorial’s collection.

References:

“Bristol F 2 Fighter Aces of World War 1” by Jon Guttman, No. 79 in Osprey’s “Aircraft of the Aces” series, published in 2007 (ISBN 13; 9781846032011)

Special thanks to Greg Van Wyngarden for his invaluable help in this model build.

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