Royal Aircaft Factory RE8 'Harry Tate'

[Balsabasher]

Harry Tate was a English comedian who performed in the music halls and appeared in films,he got the stage name from his days when he worked for sugar refiners 'Tate & Lyle' and thus the slang word became part of the 20th Century language in the dictionery,the name was given  and stuck for the RE8 World War 1 aeroplane for which it will always be associated.

This model was scaled up from the 'Air Stories' plan ( which is also in our archives ) and will make a great stablemate for the BE2C built recently by the same constructional methods.
One of the biggest headaches for building WW1 aeroplanes as regards carving the wings is the undercambered wing sections,scraping them is not very successful and some years ago I developed this easy system of reproducing well undercambered wings for solids,the system entails making a simple jig which basically reproduces the wing section upper first onto a piece of wood,then two laminations of thin wood are glued together and bound tightly with either masking tape or string and left to cure overnight,once set and released from the form they are solid and rigid and carving and sanding can take place,then the ribbing is added by your favourite method in my case with strips of bond writing paper stuck on with paste and the whole lot covered with tissue doped into place.
If you are using spruce sheet or other similar woods then even card can be used on the underside as one of the laminations,once glued into place it even sands well against the wood and holds its shape well,as with all of my templates etc I use ordinary cereal box card re-cycled,once painted up it mingles in well with the wood.


Here are some detail pictures of the beginnings of the build,next job is to make up the undercarriage and skid assembly from brass tube and wire,the early wheels are represented with ply discs fitted with domed balsa discs sanded and glued into place,likewise the propeller is laminated from good quality ply and cross grain balsa,once dry it will be carefully carved to shape to represent a typical early airscrew.
Barry.

[Balsabasher]

The Harry Tate is coming along with the engine built up from barbecue sticks bound with Meccano cord,the air cooler is litho sheet wrapped around a dowel centre and the exhaust stacks are copper pipe filled with solder and bent in the vice.
Wings still need their ribbing and the propeller is being carved.
Barry.

[Balsabasher]

The RE8 has been assembled and presents another blank canvas for painting soon in the colours of A3772 which was built by Siddley Deasey at Parkside,Coventry in 1917,this aircraft crashed in the Holbrooks area of Coventry,UK on 27-07-1917 killing Lt.R.C.Trout of 69 Squadron RFC.

Barry.






Nose to nose with its stablemate a BE2C.

[Ken Pugh]

They are looking good, Barry.  I can't wait to build one from that era this year.

Ken Pugh

[Balsabasher]

You can put this one to bed now Lou,the RE8 has been hand painted in representative markings and completed,if you need any more pictures for the 2011 folder then I have uploaded others of this model as well,thank you.
Barry.

[lastvautour]

Great job Barry. I have posted the photo to the Model of the Year file.

Lou