1/72 S.E. 5N Night Owl

[Brian da Basher]

After the night-time Zeppelin and Gotha raids in the First World War, the R.A.F. had begun to develop a night fighter capability for home defense. This effort continued after the end of the Great War with the further development of the famous S.E. 5 by the Royal Aircraft Establishment's legendary Henry Folland. The original wooden framework was replaced by duraluminum and the engine was upgraded to the revolutionary new Moonbeam V-8 inline of 400 h.p. This increase in horsepower allowed the new night fighter to have heavy armament of two synchronized machine guns, a .303 Vickers and a .50 rapid fire Browning as well as two 20 m.m. Oerlikon cannon mounted in pods on the upper wing. The aircraft, designated S.E. 5N, was also graced with a pair of incredibly streamlined spats which made even the most phlegmatic groundcrew turn their heads and wolf-whistle.

The aircraft was ordered into production in 1926 and equipped R.A.F. night fighter units until the early 1930s.  As night fighter pilots were known as "night owls", that monniker eventually became attached to their aircraft as well. The example shown here was the personal mount of Flying Officer Ken "Carrots" Kirkland, D.S.O. who gained fame for keeping a supposedly "off-course" Graf Zeppelin from over-flying a secret R.A.F. installation near Oldham in the summer of 1929. This one incident, heavily reported in the international press, shed light on Germany's repeated violations of the Versailles Treaty and lead to the reoccupation of Germany by Leauge of Nations troops in October, 1929. "Carrots" Kirkland's S.E. 5N Night Owl can still be seen today in a dark corner of the Royal Aircraft Establishment Museum, Farnborough.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The base kit for this project was the wonderful Revell of Germany 1/72 S.E. 5. Granted, it's not the most detailed S.E. 5 out there, but the value is hard to beat at $8. It comes with two different engine grills and a two and four bladed prop as well as a spinner for the latter. The cockpit has no detail at all, but you can cover it up by adding the pilot figure. As this one will eventually grace my ceiling fleet, that wasn't a major concern. I knew I was going to add a pair of those lovely Aeroclub white-metal spats, but was unsure about the rest of the project. Then that bottle of custom mixed N.I.V.O. (Night Invisible Varnish Orfordness) in my paint box caught my eye and I decided on an night fighter. I found the grill from a Fokker D.VII engine in my spares box as well as a 1/144 scale prop spinner and a nameless pod in the same scale. I also found the bits which allowed me to scratch build the additional fuselage gun. All I had to do was putty over the holes for the kit's upper wing Lewis gun and I was in business. I added some spare struts for the split axle landing gear and used spare gear legs for the upper wing cannon barrels. The first of these pics shows off the enhanced armament.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I finished the building part of this project by cutting a windscreen from clear blisterpack. The entire model was brush painted by hand using acrylics. A custom mix of N.I.V.O. was used on the uppers and Tamiya "Light" Gray was used on the undersides, prop and struts. I used Tamiya Gunmetal on the guns, ragiator grill and exhausts. The grill and exhausts were then dry-brushed with Model Masters Steel to bring out some of the detail and I added a little bit of Model Masters Rust to the ends of the exhaust pipes. The sparse cockpit interior was painted with Polly Scale Italian Green and the prop spinner with Tamiya IJF Dark Green. I used Liquitex Ivory Black on the tires. Rigging was accomplished with .009 steel guitar strings, white glue and a lot of patience. The decals were all from a nice bunch Throvic sent me a while back. It took me less than two days to complete this model (2 hours Sunday night, most of the day Monday and two hours to rig it last night). I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed building it!

Brian da Basher

[B777LR]

Briiiiiiiiiliant! You are very fast!

[kitbasher]

how on earth do youdo it, Brian? 

[kitnut617]

I always thought the SE.5 was an advance design for it's time and your model and additions just proves it.  Wonderful little project. Love it.

Robert

[John Howling Mouse]

You sir, were born in the wrong era.  The way you can capture the spirit of the past using a modern hobby is uncanny.

You know that, don't you?  Beautiful build, Brian.  Don't know how you can pull it off so quick but there it is, staring me right in the face.  Nice!