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Airfix Be2C nightfighter


Ron Bell

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The Be2C gets a bit of a bad rap in as much as it was very good at what it was designed for when it was designed, but it was used for the wrong purpose way after it shouldn't have been used at all. It was an excellent recon/spotting a/c, being very stable with good range. However, being stable is the last thing you want in a fighter, but with no other designs ready, the British were forced to use it as just that and accordingly they were shot out of the skies in droves. When better designs finally replace it in the front line in France, it found a home for a while with the Home Defense Forces during the first Blitz by Germany's dirigibles. They were modified in some cases with the front cockpit being filled with an extra fuel tank and then faired over. The m/g was also moved to either a mount just in front of the pilot facing up or in the case of this model, into a Ross mount on top of the wing. While they had mixed success, a night fighting Be2C brought down the first dirigible shot down over England, earning a VC for it's pilot, Lt. W. Leefe-Robinson, in 1916. 

Here's a Be2C piloted by Flt. Sub. Lt. Buck out of RNAS Eastchurch in Sept. 1916.  Painted all black with the white of the insignias and fin flash eliminated, and converted with  a faired over front cockpit and top of the wing gun mount. The kit is Airfix's new tooled and very nice kit that goes together like a dream. 

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Great looking biplane.  Nice job on the rigging.  What material did you use for the rigging?

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  • 2 weeks later...

My rigging material of choice is stretched sprue. Cheap and available in a bunch of colors. 

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