Armstrong-Whitworth FK.8 (Copper State)

THE MODEL TO BE BUILT

Armstrong Whitworth FK.8 Serial C.3549, white '8' of N0. 35 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, Western Front, December 1917. This aircraft is from contract # A. S. 3390, dated 13 September 1917 for 200 aircraft built by Angus Sanderson, serial range C.3507 to C.3706. The entire contract was eventually completed by 13 March 1918.

Beginning in March 1917, No. 35 Squadron was assigned as the reconnaissance squadron to the British cavalry corps. The British high command believed that their major ground offensives would lead to the elusive "breakthrough" and the cavalry crops was the only armed force with speed that could exploit it and lead to "open warfare" that would, in turn, defeat "trench warfare".

No. 35 Squadron was relieved of this assignment on 1 July 1917 and replaced by No. 8 Squadron also flying FK.8s. The new assignment maintained the squadron's role as a corps reconnaissance squadron initially with 7th Wing, 4th Brigade RFC attached to the British 4th Army. Subsequent assignments were many depending on the need and locale for corps aircraft. These assignments were:

From 1 July 1917: 7th Wing, 4th Brigade RFC, 4th Army

From 01 August 1917: 12th Wing, 3rd Brigade RFC, 3rd Army

From 16 September 1917: 1st Wing, 1st Brigade RFC, 1st Army

From 09 November 1917: 12th Wing, 3rd Brigade RFC, 3rd Army

From January 1918: 15th Wing, 5th Brigade RFC, 5th Army

From May 1918: 15th Wing, 5th Brigade RAF, 4th Army

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 1

GETTING STARTED: Here are a few of the initial sub-assemblies for model. Thought not overly complicated, the most involved sub-assembly is the pilot's cockpit, twelve parts, both plastic and PE. The fuel tank comes in two halves, upper and lower. When attaching the small PE end piece (not shown) observe its location: there are two lugs as shown in the photo for mounting to the cockpit floor. Note that the forward lug is longer to account for the slope of the fuselage floor at the forward position of the fuel tank. The PE piece fits on the rear end (or end with the smaller lug).

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 2

MOSTLY FRONT COCKPIT: The pilot's cockpit was the most detailed sub-assembly including Vickers machine gun, .30 cal. ammunition box, rudder bar, control stick components, and seat. The main fuel tank was a simpler sub-assembly painted medium gray. The PE floorboard for the rear cockpit simply dropped into place. I added .005 MFT wires to the cockpit sides where they would be seen. Paints used were: wood components Vallejo 929 Light Wood, interior fabric Vallejo 917 Beige, some metal components Vallejo 991 Dark Sea Gray, other metal components a mix of semi-gloss black with a touch of Vallejo 867 Natural Steel, pilot's seat cushion Vallejo 818 red leather stained with Andrea (old) 48 Dark Leather.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 3

FUSELAGE DECKING: After completing and gluing the several cockpit sub-assemblies in place, the fuselage front cockpit and rear decking pieces were glued and held in place with rubber bands overnight. If you take a look at the box art, you will note "Premium Edition" which means that there are a lot of teeny weenie PE parts that fit over existing plastic parts. To me, these details could have been incorporated in the molding of the plastic parts and save a step. On some of these PE parts, they were better left off.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 4

LOWER WINGS AND HORIZONTAL TAIL: The lower wing halves fit nicely into the fuselage except that each wing had to be held in place with a clamp and allowed to dry overnight. Reason: the rear lug on each wing would not seat even after trimming and shortening. The horizontal tail plane plopped right on top of the fuselage tail. There wasn't much need for adjustment of either the wings or tail piece - alignment looked quite good.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 5

GRADUAL PROGRESS: I haven't followed the kit's instruction manual to the 'T'. Often, the manual wants you to add parts (especially teeny weenie PE parts) that just end up getting in the way for the moment and end up falling off from handling the model. I have a sheet that identifies parts and pages that I will have to revisit as I progress. This view shows the building up of the engine compartment and the start of the landing gear. I'm a little concerned about the landing gear and will probably replace some of the kit's parts with brass tube and rod components for strength. I am having the usual trouble of getting PE parts, especially the larger panels, to adhere to the plastic even with super glue.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 6

LANDING GEAR: As fragile as the landing gear looks, I decided to use the kit parts exclusively. Although it appears complicated, the landing gear went together fairly easily. Note the smaller inverted "V" struts at the rear. This is one part but I accidentally cut it from the sprue causing the two struts to separate but subsequent gluing went well. The wheels are not glued on at this stage. The axle projections are quite thin.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 7

ENGINE COVERS AND TAIL SKID: The remaining PE engine covers were installed but not the obvious nose piece which is also PE and requires several bends and contortions to fit. The kit comes with two spare PE front pieces and I found out why. The first one (of the three) fell apart while trying to get the bend correct. That is, the side pieces became detached. Maybe in the future I'll get it right.

The tail skid was horribly weak and would never have withstood even a static display for very long. The part that actually is inserted into the rear of fuselage was a length of brass rod. The skid itself was discarded. It was too thin to take a drilled out hole for the brass rod. I retrieved a wider piece of plastic from spares, shaped it, and drilled out a hole. The only kit part used was the frail forked support part that now has no function.

ABOUT PAINTING: You will notice in Photo 7 above that the fin and landing gear struts are painted. I have in my paint collection a couple of "PC-10" colors: Misterkit BC-03 and Polly S 5032 Brown Drab PC-10. I tried out both: one the fin and the other on the horizontal tail surfaces. I didn't like either. The Misterkit color seemed too gray-green and the Polly S color seemed too olive green. I've not used Polly S colors often enough but I did like the consistency. So, I added about 20% by volume of Vallejo 983 Flat Earth and got the shade I wanted. More on the upper surface "PC-10" later.

I also have Polly S 5029 Doped Linen which I applied to the undersurface of the bottom wing and horizontal tail but just one coat for now. More on that later, also.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 8

WORK RESUMED - THE NOSE PIECE: The time-lapse between this photo and the previous one (#7) has been several months. I stopped work because of great difficulties with the PE nose piece. Having broken up the first original PE piece, I had two more to work with in the kit. I decided that the center part had to be contoured without impacting movement on the side pieces because metal fatigue caused the original to break apart.

To solve this problem, carefully bend all of the small "ears" on the side pieces to their 90 degree position where they can be glued to the central piece after shaping. Carefully contour the central piece to the rough shape it has to assume on the nose.

Now, bend the side pieces inward to match up with the central piece. It won't exactly match unless you're lucky. Carefully make bending adjustments to the central piece so that all three pieces come together. Avoid causing any bend to the side pieces so as to prevent metal fatigue.

At this point, the sides and central piece are in alignment and the small "ears" are flush with the central piece on the inside ready to be glued with gap-filling super glue. First, I tacked down the sides to the central piece as shown above. Apply super glue to the "ears" away from the clips. You can come back and glue the outer "ears" after the glue sets. Allow plenty of time for the glue to set. Remove the clips and apply glue to all of the "ears" not previously glued. Allow them to dry. I put the clips back on and generously filled the gaps especially where "ears" are not present. In the end, it will be time to try and fit the completed nose piece to the front of the fuselage.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 9

MAJOR CHANGES: It's apparent from the photo above that major changes have occurred since photo #8 above: nose cowling attachment and new paint scheme.

To fit the cowling in place, the sides had to be carefully squeezed outward to fit the profile of the fuselage front. However best I did this to achieve a fit wasn't good enough and I had to resolve to the use of putty to make up the differences in fit all around the cowling. What you see in photo above is a nearly completed repair job. The entire front end was primed and revealed a few more spots needing fill work.

In the meantime, I scrapped the Polly S paints because of poor brush coverage and streaks. Instead, I retrieved the batch of Vallejo PC-12 mix that I recently made for the Blue Max 1:48 Sopwith 7F.1 'Snipe' and applied it over the Polly S paint. Further, I decided to scrap the Polly S underside color and went with Vallejo's Dark Sand, also used on the 'Snipe'. So, there it stands ready for a bit more front end work and pre-rigging drill work.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 10

The engine exhaust port was now added to the finished nose section and all of the engine cover panels and top decking to the observer's cockpit were painted using Vallejo VC0905 Pale Blue Gray to represent the 'battleship gray' finish applied to exterior metal panels. I hand-painted the rudder stripes using Andrea Flat White as a base then applying Vallejo VC0963 Medium Blue and VC0909 Vermillion for the stripes.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 11

DECALS AND STRUTS: Fuselage decals were now applied and over sprayed with a coat of polyurethane. I was pleased that the wheel cover decals and the "Palmer Tire" decals were so perfectly cut and went on without a hitch.

Not shown is the top wing which had all of its rigging wires (.005 monofilament thread) glued. Next, I attached the wing struts but before attaching the top wing, I'll check for any other parts that need to be added at this stage.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 12

TOP WING ATTACHMENT AND RIGGING: To attach the top wing, I glued it to just the two centerline struts and allowed plenty of time to bond. Working from the inside out, I next glued the inner wing struts to the top wing. Lastly, I glued the outer wing struts to the top wing. However, the right front outer strut had its locating pin knocked off and there was no way to secure it to the top wing. I discarded it after measuring for a replacement brass rod and brass tubing strut as shown in the photo above.

All of the wing rigging wires (.005 monofilament thread) are in place. Control wires for the elevators and ailerons are next.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO No. 13

RADIATOR WORK: At this stage I added the radiator tank on top of the wing. Next, I glued the top half of each side radiator stack to the radiator tank. I'll be working on those elevator and ailerons control lines shortly.

FINISHED PHOTO No. 14

FINAL DETAILS: Note the Eduard aileron control horn on the left underside of the bottom wing. Corresponding horns were attached to the right underside and left and right to the top surface of the upper wing. These were rigged using .005 MFT. The rear cockpit Lewis gun was built up from kit parts. A couple of rigging wires were added to the tail assembly. Not visible is the small front cockpit windscreen. Note also the underwing bomb rack, one on each wing mounted on rails.

FINISHED PHOTO No. 15

FINISHED PHOTO No. 16

FINISHED PHOTO No. 17

FINISHED PHOTO No. 18

FINISHED PHOTO No. 19

COLOR TABLE

Vallejo VC0824 Orange Ochre	Interior wood framework and formers
Vallejo PC-12 Mix ¹	Fuselage and top surfaces
Vallejo VC0847 Dark Sand	Cockpit fabric interior and undersides
Vallejo VC0856 Ochre Brown	Struts
Vallejo VC0905 Pale Blue Grey ²	Exterior metal panels
Model Master 1778 Chrome Silver	Landing Gear Spring Assembly
Vallejo VC0963 Medium Blue	Roundel Blue
Vallejo VC0909 Vermillion	Roundel Red
¹ Vallejo VC0872 Chocolate Brown 2/5, VC0887 Brown Violet 2/5, VC0990 Light Grey 1/5
²Actually a slightly bluish grey for exterior 'Battleship Grey' metal panels

------------------------------- C'EST FINIS -----------------------------

Bruce, J. M. AW FK.8 Windsock Datafile 64. Berkhamsted, UK: Albatros Productions, 1997.

Hyperscale On-line Magazine. Copper State Armstrong-Whitworth F. K. 8 Press Release. Internet.

Lamberton, W. M., Compiler, and E. F. Cheesman, Editor. Reconnaissance & Bomber Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War. Los Angeles, CA: Aero Publishers, 1962.

Meech, Michael. The Development of Cavalry Contact Patrols, 1915-1918. UK: Cross & Cockade International, Volume 40/3, Autumn 2009.

Meech, Michael. Tank Contact Patrols, 1918, Parts 1 and 2. UK: Cross & Cockade International, Volumes 40/4 (2009) and 41/1 2010.

Rogers, Les. British Aviation Squadron Markings of World War I. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 2001.

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