Review: Discovered in The Department of Lost: Aeroclub 1/48 Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b

A model that survives from the pre-Jurassic days of 1996.

The Airplane:

Of all the awful airplanes the Royal Flying Corps went to war with, it is a tossup whether the F.E. series or the B.E. series can take the title of Worst of All. The two had difficulty getting out of their own way, and were considered "meat on the table" to any German fighter pilot who ran across them, yet it was a crew from 25 Squadron who turned the tables on Baron Manfred von Richtofen on August 24, 1917, creasing his skull with a Lewis round as he dove to attack them and went on to crash land; the Red Baron never really fully recovered from that wound, and it is said that the effects of it on his judgement contributed to his taking the chances that led to his death eight months later.

The F.E.2 series (it stood for "Farman Experimental," not "Fighting Experimental" as many have believed) was the epitome of the World War I "birdcage," a two-seat pusher with a forest of struts and a webbing of wires, with a top speed somewhere around 85 m.p.h. and maneuverability that can only be called "clumsy." Yet in 1915 and 1916 - until the introduction of the Albatros scout flown by pilots following Boelcke's Dicta - it held its own and contributed to the eradication of the "Fokker scourge." When one considers that the observer had to climb out of the cockpit and stand on the sill to aim the rear-firing Lewis gun - fully exposed to the elements and enemy fire, without a safety belt - one gets a sense of the gallantry of the young men who flew it, so many of them going to their deaths in it in the skies over the Somme Valley in 1916 and 1917; it is a shame the airplane did not measure up to the men who flew it.

Beginning in late 1916, when the "Fee" had been shown to have no chance at all in the daylight skies over the Western Front, it became a night bomber, attacking German supply and ammo dumps behind the lines, and making life miserable for the flyers of the German Air Service as it attacked their airfields with near-total impunity. Squadrons were still equipped with the type for this role as late as early 1918 before it was finally replaced by the de Havilland D.H.4.

Whatever its technical and performance shortcomings, the F.E.2b is truly one of the immortals of the first war in the air, and fully worthy of being memorialized in kit form.

The Kit:

Aeroclub was been known for many years as one of the best vacuform kit manufacturers around. The F.E.2b, first released in 1995, was their first essay into a full limited-run injection molded kit in 1/48.

Looking at the ten light tan plastic parts, one can see the vacuform heritage. The surface detail is a bit heavy, but having built two of these, I can assure you that it looks fine under a coat of paint. The sprues are heavy, as are many limited-run kits, and it is a good idea to cut the parts free with a razor saw.

The struts, engine, weapons and landing gear are all made of white metal, of which Aeroclub was the best manufacturer in the world. There is a minimum of flash on all metal parts.

One very nice bit is the inclusion of a vacuformed jig for the assembly of the tail struts, which is one place where even an experienced modeler would have difficulty.

The decals provided are a bit dark for RFC decals of the First World War, but are entirely useable if one elects to modify the airplane into a night bomber. What is there are markings for "Zanzibar No. 9"/"The Scotch Express," an airplane that arrived on the front in late April 1916 and by mid-May had been shot down and captured by the Germans without apparently inflicting much damage on the enemy prior to its departure from British service.

This is a model for advanced World War 1 modelers, due to the difficulty of assembly and rigging, and I strongly suggest you find the Windsock Datafile on the F.E. series before commencing work on the model.

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.