[Sailor Steve]

I've put off saying anything about this one because I thought it would be done two days ago. Yet another very old model that needed rigging. I looked at it Thursday and realized the plastic tail boom have been broken and repaired more than once, so I decided to replace the entire thing with brass wire. I took the tailpiece off and started replacing booms and struts one by one. Then I had to break off because it was game night. Friday I got a drop of glue plus accelerator on my right ring finger. It was hot! I peeled the glue off and it took a layer of skin with it, right at the nerve level. OUCH! *#^@)#(!!! I started the rigging Friday night and it was more complicated than I anticipated. Then I realized I really wanted to add a fuel line from the gravity tank to the engine. Then they needed painting. Anyway, it's done.

The FE.2b was an outgrowth of Britain's need for a front-line fighter, and not having a synchronizer gear the only solution they could come up with was a two-seat pusher with the gunner in front. Even before the war Vickers had already developed their FB.5 'Gunbus', but it was fast becoming obsolete and was slow compared to the eindekkers. The FE.2 did good service for more than a year, and it was a 'Fee', as the pilots called it, that gave Richtofen his famous head wound.

So this is a very old model with a new boom section and rigging.