A Quick Conversion

A couple of weeks ago I scratchbuilt some 1/600th BE2c biplanes. I even used them in a couple of games. But to be honest I wasn't that happy with the design; the BE2 has a very distinctive slender fuselage, and I wasn't really able to capture that with the pieces of balsa wood I was using.

So I made some new BE2cs, using matchsticks for the fuselage. I haven't shown you pictures of those yet. I will one day.

However I was left with the original models. Here they are:

What do do with them? Well, a quick check of Wikipedia gave me some comparison of dimensions. I cut some small pieces of wire, and glued them to the top wing:

Then some black paint turned them into guns, and the old, too-chunky, BE2s had become the similar sized, but bulkier, Martinside G100, a single-seat scout and day-bomber:

On the whole they look about right. And, combined with the new BE2s and my Tumbling Dice RE8s and F2Bs I now have the four aircraft types used by No 1 Squadron AFC in Egypt/Palestine. Just in time for Australia Day.