WNW 1/32 R.E.8 "'Arry Tate"
Have I mentioned I looooooove WNW kits (thank you Sir Peter and Richard Alexander for letting me review them).
I don't know why, but I have always thought the R.E.8 looked neat since i ran across Wylam's drawings in Model Airplane News way back in the early Cretaceous. Yes, British rigging is difficult with those double flying wires, but patience will out. This is one of those kits where using wire really helps strengthen the model. Again, commit the radical act of following Wingnut's instructions and you can't go wrong.
This is a very nice model with a nice "fragile" feeling to it, I think that the dark-colored rigging greatly contributes to it. Not being a WW1 expert, I'm not sure if this is "accurate", but it's certainly effective. Great work /m
Thanks. Actually British rigging was "Japanned", which is a way of painting metal surfaces black that is like enameled pots and pans. It was done for corrosion.
Been a while since the last post here. But I'm wondering if anyone has one of these 1/32 RE8 kits they'd sell? Any state of completion considered... As many here would know, WNW closed down for COVID, but their website is still up, so hopefully they'll re-open one day... I did send them an email expressing my interest, as they're inviting such. Mean time I'd like to get one. Tom - you made me a couple of nice family flown models; P40M (NZ3076 - Lynn Williams) and Wellington 1C (Z8984 - John Cleeve). I'm hoping to get an RE8 in memory of our family's first pilot, Major Henry "Harry" Williams MC. Who won his MC in July 1917 in RE8 A4622 with 7 SQN RFC, by shooting down 1 fighter and chasing off another. (quite a daring do!) Any leads appreciated.
There's no chance a completed RE8 would survive international delivery, Hugh. As to kits, WNW is long out of business, not coming back, and the kits now sell at "Collector's Item" prices. The RE8 was one of their first and was long out of production when they went out of business. It was listed as "Sold Out" by WNW in 2014. It was re-released in a "Duellist" boxing that went "sold out" even faster and is a bigger Collector's Item - there's one Duellists listed on eBay at US$599.