I have heard wonderful things about the Wingnut Wings models but I didn’t realize that they were this good. When John Noack posted that he had one of their models for review, I practically begged him to give it to me. I wasn’t disappointed.

Upon opening the very substantial box, I was greeted with many sprues consisting of 265 plastic parts and 11 photoetched parts. I opened the instructions and I really cannot call them mere instructions as it was a 30 page book in color. They were the most complete instructions I have ever seen and they even had photographs of the real aircraft in several places to help locating where various parts were to be placed.

I began as the instructions called for by painting the interior parts and then assembling them. This was the most complete I have ever seen and this took almost a week not counting the interior rigging. It really is a shame that so much cannot be seen once the fuselage is buttoned up. Everything is in this interior even the map attached to the instrument panel. I rigged the interior with 0.09 copper wire before I closed up the fuselage. This was not a difficult chore and was accomplished in two days.

The engine was next and due to the great instructions, it went together 1, 2, 3.As with the interior, I painted everything first.

I airbrushed the wings and fuselage with Model Master Marine Corps Green Acrylic and the undersurface with Model Master Panzer Interior Buff Acrylic to simulate Bleached Linen. The Fuselage was painted after it was assembled to the frame. The wings were painted before attaching to the fuselage. Using the Marine Corps Green on top and Panzer Interior Buff on the bottom.

When these sub assemblies were completely painted I attached the wings. The struts had positive attachment points so there was no mystery to attaching the top wing to the bottom. This has always been a sore point in building WW I aircraft and Wingnut has made it very simple.

I assembled the landing gear and attached it to the fuselage before rigging as I thought it would be easier than doing it later. I also waited to attach the king posts on the top of the wings until the top wing was cemented firmly in place.

The Empennage (rudder and elevators) wee a piece of cake to assemble as the attachment points were clearly marked with hole and slots. I chose to decal the rudder before gluing the control horn as it was easier than trying to get the decal to settle over the horn.

I left the engine off until almost the end as it was easier to not have to work around it. When all the assemblies were in place, I glued the engine in and attached the cowlings. I had to do some shaving of the interior structure to get the cowlings to fit but it really didn’t matter as the interior cannot be seen once the cowls are on. I was debating whether

To leave the cowlings off to show off all the work on the interior but then I thought that the A/C would no look complete without the cowls.

Now with all the assembly complete I decaled the whole aircraft. Back in WW I they didn’t put a lot of decorations or stencils on the A/C. The decals are by Cartograf and are some of the best EVER. They settled down nicely with just a little Micro Sol. I would caution that they stick very quickly so keep the surface wet if you need to move the decals into place. I let them set overnight and in the morning they looked like they were painted on.

Now came the hard part. Wingnut had seen to putting locating holes in all the proper places for the rigging. This made a difficult job less difficult. It was still very difficult. I used 0.10 stainless steel wire for the rigging. Thanks to a very detailed set of rigging instructions, I was able to do most of the rigging. I used CA glue at first but it gave me firs so I resorted to good old Elmer’s glue and this worked much better.

The RE.8 has double rigging but I chose not to do this as it would drive me nuts. I think it looks just fine with single wigging. I may go back and double up but for now, I like it as is.

Overall, I loved this model. It was more of a challenge than I have had in a long time but I enjoyed every minute of building it. Will I do another? You bet. I would highly recommend this kit and if all of the Wingnut Wings kits are like the RE.8, I’ll recommend all of them. They are probably the best engineered kits I have ever built in my 68 years. (Actually I have only been building for about 63 years)

I wish to thank, John Noack for giving me the kit to review and Wingnut Wings for supplying it to IPMS. These kits may only be purchased from Wingnut Wings on their website.