Knights of the Sky II- The End

Scott- Looks like you are off to a great start wqith the Pfalz.  Keep up the good work.

Stephen- Those Fokkers are looking sharp, I expect great things from you my friend.  They look to be just about finished.   Your display of aircraft is beautiful, a lot of museum quality work displayed there.

SC- Your D.VII looks stunning!  Can hardly believe this is the one you were having difficulty with.  The streaking looks just right, and overall a really solid build.  Can't wait to see those finished pics!

Luftwoller wrote:

Wow, what a display area. Thx for posting Stephen. Is that all of your builds or have you more elsewhere? I remember seeing your Staaken dio, that must be too big for those display cases. Where do you keep that sucker? ...Guy

Same location about two aisles over.

 WOW, Stephen. That is awesome. Very cool display. Me likie! If you ever run out of room to store any of your builds just pm me and I'll find room here in the bunker. Hehe. The Dr1's look great. The Roden DH2 looks like a great kit, hope to see photos of it completed.

 Scotty, Congrats on the Grad! That is a job well done! The Pfalz pit looks good and will be looking forward to seeing progress.

 SC, That DVII really looks nice. The streaking camo came out great and looks well blended with the rest of aircraft. Very nice results. 

A couple of progress pics. All of the struts are on place. Glued on all of the control surfaces. I finished up the guns but I will wait until I dullcoat the whole thing before installing them. The wheels and prop are not glued yet. I just installed them fot the photo. I think I can finally see thelight at the end of the tunnel.

                                                                                     Soulcrusher 

Wow, what a display area. Thx for posting Stephen. Is that all of your builds or have you more elsewhere? I remember seeing your Staaken dio, that must be too big for those display cases. Where do you keep that sucker?

...Guy

Yeah!  Wow!  Stephen, that's a pretty awesome little area.

Where do you get your acrylic covers?  I'm looking to get some soon-- if you have that many, they've got to be semi-affordable.

Or maybe you're just rich.

Holy snikies there Stephen! Looks like you have your own museum! That has to be the nicest display I have ever seen. Fitting for the quality of your builds. I though my nice curved glass china hutch was a nice display but you have me beat hand down.

                                                                                       Soulcrusher

Luftwoller

"Geez Stephen, thats an awfull lot of Pfalz's. All with such quality. I wonder if one day youd treat us to a pic of your display area? Im sure its a sight to behold. . .Guy

Your wish is my command.

Geez Stephen, thats an awfull lot of Pfalz's. All with such quality. I wonder if one day youd treat us to a pic of your display area? Im sure its a sight to behold.

...Guy

Stephen,

Thanks once again for the historical information on the extra line.  This explains why I have seen some photographs of both D.III's and D.IIIa's with and without it.  I will probably opt to make this an easier build, and leave it off.  I also appreciate the sharing of your Pfalz collection.  Beautiful work as always!  I really like the plane with the "shooting star" motif.  I may have to build another one of these some day wearing those markings.

The Copper State Models 1/32 Junkers J.I aileron fix for the WNW kit.

More Power Scotty wrote:

Stephen, Thanks once again for your insight!  I am still seeing an additional line on some planes (looking at real photographs) but not on others.  In the second photo that you shared you can see the line on the outer part of the wing starting at about the middle of the upper wing and attaching somewhere to the outside of the outer braces.  I have seen photographs allegedly of the D.IIIa model where this line is present.  If you think of it later on when the site is back up and running, I would love to see the Pfalz planes in your collection. Anyway, once again you have some exemplary work shown here.  With the number of Dr.I kits that I have seen just in our two Knights of the Sky group builds, you have to be close to having models of nearly all of the Dr.1's that were built. I look forward to seeing your build and comments on the new Roden DH2.  It looks good in the box, and they did not try to "fade" their decals.

Here you go Scotty, 

Pfalz portfolio

I think I understand what your getting at.  The rigging cable from the underside of the outer wing tip to the area near the interplane strut base is a stabilizer cable.  It helps cut back on flutter / vibrations that twist and stresses that cause this area to fail inflight.  These were on the D.III and some D.IIIa types.  The Alb. D.III, D. V and D.Va had them as well. These seem to begin as an in the field modification that was later adopted by the factory.  The worst issue with the Palz D.III & IIIa aircraft was the twist that developed in the fuselage due to the use of "green woods."  This itself contributed greatly to the harmful vibrations that tended to ripple through the whole machine. 

StephenLawson wrote:

Greetings all; Here is the newest bit of joy from the good folks at Roden.  Working on the review.

Here is the in the box review.

Click here.

Stephen,

Thanks once again for your insight!  I am still seeing an additional line on some planes (looking at real photographs) but not on others.  In the second photo that you shared you can see the line on the outer part of the wing starting at about the middle of the upper wing and attaching somewhere to the outside of the outer braces.  I have seen photographs allegedly of the D.IIIa model where this line is present. 

If you think of it later on when the site is back up and running, I would love to see the Pfalz planes in your collection.

Anyway, once again you have some exemplary work shown here.  With the number of Dr.1's that I have seen just in our two Knights of the Sky group builds, you have to be close to having models of nearly all of the Dr.1's that were built.

I look forward to seeing your build and comments on the new Roden DH2.  It looks good in the box, and they did not try to "fade" their decals.

Greetings all;

Here is the newest bit of joy from the good folks at Roden.  Working on the review.

Here is the other Dr.I .  This type of marking was originally called a "Hakenkreuz."  The legs turning to the left made this a "female version."  The origins can be seen on the prehistoric caves of  almost every  part of the world.

Here is the progression of the DML / Dragon builds. First   Dr.I 502/17.

Eduard 1/48 Fok. Dr.I #8490 kit.  No decals yet.  Just a bit of rigging.

Greetings Scotty,

The riggng for the Pfalz D.III and D.IIIa should be identical.  Aeroscale is down for maintenance or I would show you the portfolio of my Pfalz builds. Let me see if I can dig up an image of the real deal.

D.IIIa

D.III

D.III prototype.

Stephen,

Since you typically do such a great job of answering our questions, I think that you may have missed one I asked last week.  I need a little rigging direction for my Pfalz D.IIIa as the Eduard instructions with the kit show the rigging for the D.III.  The photographs that I have found thus far are not entirely clear on showing the end locations of the rigging on the outer forward portion of the wings, which appears to be the only rigging difference between the D.III and D.IIIa.  Any light that you can shed will be appreciated.

Here are the interior photos that I promised.  Little did I realize how involved Graduation Party weekend would be.   Anyway, aside from gluing together the fuselage and some pre-shading on the bottom side of the wings, there was not much movement this past week.  I should start to pick up the pace this week.  As always, any comments are welcome. 

The interior left side prior to installing the seat, and prior to putting an oil wash on the engine.  I also did apply a wash to all of the interior prior to gluing the fuselage halves together, but after taking these photos.

A close-up of the engine (exhaust manifold obviously not installed) after it was glued in place following a wash.

Thanks Mobious. Its a good thing I do'nt drink coffe or other caffine drinks because these parts are so tiny super steady hands are a must. I'll just double up on the meds tonight and that should steady my hands enough to tackle this prodject!

                                                                                     Soulcrusher

soulcrusher wrote:

 Hey soulcrusher, The DVII is really looking great, and the "stacked" wings came out very nice. Looking forward to seeing the the TINY MG's assembled.

 Stephen, the added wash on the streak decals is spot on. The DR1's are looking really cool.

I agree Guy they are a huge improvement over the plastic injected ones. That is my rule of thumb when it come to PE. I do'nt use it unless it is a substantional improvment over the kit part and it can be easily seen an noticed by anyone enjoying the model not just judges with penlights. I have never and probally will never enter anything I have build in a contest. Its just not why I build. The great input I get from all of my freinds here is all I need to make me happy. These guns sitting right on top of the cowl will really stand out and thats why I am going to take the time and pain of assembling all of these tiny parts. With my huge fingers picking up these tiny parts is impossible. I am going to have to try some other methods of manipulating these little parts around. Hope you get back to modeling soon there Guy. I can't wait to see what you are going to finish next.

                                                                                         Soulcrusher

Hey Stephen, that looks like a fantastic kit. Ive had my eye on building one of those for a while now, but ALL my building has been put on, I hope, temporary hold Boo.

SC, i remember looking at all those tiny bits when i did mine an wondered if my gert maws could handle the job. They could and they are definately a superb addition. Its funny, when your model is on show, how many people will look at the guns. With all the PE and time. they will look cracking.

...Guy

Sorry there Frank did'nt mean to mislead you buddy. I thought for sure by now I would have been beaten into submission by this build. I knew from asking it was a good kit to build but the last biplane I attempted the 1/48 Classic Airframes Cr 42 is still sitting on the shelf with missing and broken wing struts. As you have seen it has not been a smooth build but I have managed to hang in there and figure things out with alot of help from others in this GB. On the other hand I have never build a model so slow in my life. I pretty sure it took less time to build my 1/24 scale Stuka! Now my next hurdle, the machine guns. Lots of tiny PE and plastic parts. I preped everything tonight and I am amazed at how many pieces there are for this tiny gun. here is a pic.

My hands are huge compared to these tiny parts. I'm going to have to come up with someway to handle and assemble these tiny parts. i think I remember someone posting about bits of folded tape on a toothpick. Whish me luck!

                                                                                 Soulcrusher 

SC- I think you owe all of us an apology!

Telling us you have never built a WWI kit before (even going so far as to "mess up" so we fall for the ruse!)!  You obviously have a knack for it, and your lil' Fokker is turning out beautifully!  Well done.

Justin thanks. Have you decided to grab some more decals and go at it agian?

Guy I appreciate the compliment. We both know how tricky it is for us WWII peoples to stack these wings on top of each other. I was a bit intimidated but everything lined right up and after the outer struts set up good I added the others in turn with no problems. I am quite pleased with this kit so far.

Stephen I would have nightmares if that thing was sitting on my bench with all of that rigging! All of the examples I have seen built look very impressive because of all of the exposed framework and rigging.

                                                                                   Soulcrusher

Greetings all

My copy of the newest Roden 1/32 kit just arrived and initailly speaking  it is beautiful.

All plastic , no flash, decals appear to be of the newer type and register is spot on.  More later.