Knights of the Sky II- The End

Tom- I would be happy to add any of your kits to the list, would you like me to add the Fokker Dr.I?

Mo- Sorry my friend, I don't have a rigging guide for that.  I am excited to see your work on it.  Would you be willing to do a step-by-step photo shoot of your weathering methods?  I an struck by the realism in your finishes, and would like to see how you do it.

 Hey Daywalker, I haven't started on the DH2, still attaching a horn to a duck working on a few other overdue projects first. I would be glad to try a short WIP on the finishes. I'll drop a PM your way later.

 Mo

Ok guys here is my first nube question. When appling the lozenge decal on the inside of the fuselage halves do you apply them directly on the plastic or is there a prefered paint color to apply first that will work better. Making good progress on the interior and engine assemble. Going slower than usual due to my lack of experience with these WWI bird so I have to do alot of research before glueing and painting. Hope to have some cockpit photos to show for my efforts soon.

                                                                                    Soulcrusher

Mo- Sounds great, I'll look for that Pm.

SC- When I applyed the lozenge decals on my Fokker E.V last year, I sprayed the entire area a light, neutral gray.  HTH!

Daywalker wrote:

Tom- I would be happy to add any of your kits to the list, would you like me to add the Fokker Dr.I?

I would appreciate you adding the Fokker Dr.1, Frank

When I am done with that, I will seek to do either a HC or Revell Spad XIII, or both.

Although I am leaning toward the Revell kit, the HC kit is much cleaner, and has fewer parts to break or lose.

Tom T

soulcrusher wrote:

Ok guys here is my first nube question. When appling the lozenge decal on the inside of the fuselage halves do you apply them directly on the plastic or is there a prefered paint color to apply first that will work better. Making good progress on the interior and engine assemble. Going slower than usual due to my lack of experience with these WWI bird so I have to do alot of research before glueing and painting. Hope to have some cockpit photos to show for my efforts soon. Soulcrusher

Inmost cases just a base colour of cream to rerplicate unbleached linen.  PolyS has several in this range.  Light Almond is typical in general.  Most lozenge are too opaque to be too concerned what is under them.   Microsculpt lozenge is the best out thereat this time.  The interior was always lighter than the outside as the dyes did not penetrate completely.

Mobious wrote:

I recently picked up the Eduard Airco DH2 Weekend  ED. and was wondering if anyone knows if there is a rigging guide for it. There were none in the instructions. Thanks in advance. Mobi

I think I may have one from the Profi-pack version.  I'll check.  Also beware  we have seen the white haze on the decals (to represent wear and age) are known to come away from the cockades.  It gives them a specaled look.

Thank you Stephen. I was hoping to receive some input from you on this matter. It appears to  me that you posses a great knowledge of these WWI bird from seeing all of your fantastic builds. I hope to learn much from you in this GB while adding a little variety to my display case. Thanks agian.

                                                                                             Soulcrusher

Boba Fett wrote:

Sorry guys that I have been gone so long. School is such a pain... I had a question: how do i make bullet holes in WWI planes? I'm gonna add some to my Sopwith. Thanks!

Take two 8mm machine guns, wait til she's in the crosshairs and pull the firing handle.  Oh wait, you meant on the model huh?  Take your trusty Dremel, grind the inside til she's paper thin (best to practice this on a model you really don't care about), take a needle or push pin, push through the plastic and then remove it.  A bullet hole is born.

lewbud wrote:

Boba Fett wrote: Sorry guys that I have been gone so long. School is such a pain... I had a question: how do i make bullet holes in WWI planes? I'm gonna add some to my Sopwith. Thanks! Take two 8mm machine guns, wait til she's in the crosshairs and pull the firing handle.

 LOL, Very good lewbud!

 Thanks for the heads up on the decals. I remembered MPScotty had the DH2 with the decal issues and had a very nice save. I'll be looking for aftermarket decals for this one. Thanks again for the heads up.

 Mo

Hi all - i'd like to add another to the mix if I may - the Roden 1/72 Fokker D.VII OAW(mid).

My local model club here in Canberra Australia is having their annual model competition in May, and one of the categories is known as the "Kittyhawk Cup".  To be elligible to enter the Cup, you need to build a kit nominated by the club; the kit must be built strictly from materials out of the box, however any decals can be used.  Previous years have included various WW2 aircraft, and jets.  This year, the club nominated the Roden 1/72 Fokker D.VII series of models as the Kittyhawk Cup kit.  So off to the LHS I went, and picked up the Roden 1/72 Fokker D.VII OAW(mid) - I prepared to build the kit as it comes in the box, warts and all....

The cockpit and engine went together well.  The only additions were seat belts cut from the instruction sheet (still OOB!)... lozenge decals were used on the interior, and the bracing wires drawn on with a pencil (hence why they are so wobbly!).  So far so good.

Having read a little about this kit, it is obvious that it is not an easy OOB build.  Two minutes of dry fitting fuselage and wings confirmed this was the case... so, out with the file and sandpaper, and straight to it.  The biggest challenge so far was the lower wing fit - the gap on the lower wing piece is way too narrow, so much cutting, sanding and filling was needed to get this piece to fit.  Other challenges included the horizontal tail plane - again the cut out at the front end was way too narrow - alas I had to use stretched sprue from the kit sprues to add an extra strip along the leading edge of the tailplane to allow me to sand the piece so it would fit on the wideth of the fuselage. Much more preferrable than thinning the whole fuselage and weakening joints...  and technically still OOB.... Anyway, here are some pics.

Now to decide on markings... I hear a few schwabians calling....

BC

soulcrusher

"Thank you Stephen. I was hoping to receive some input from you on this matter. It appears to  me that you posses a great knowledge of these WWI bird from seeing all of your fantastic builds. I hope to learn much from you in this GB while adding a little variety to my display case. Thanks agian. Soulcrusher[oX)]

For an excellent build of the 1/48 Eduard plastic kit.  Check ou Lars Qvarfordt's effort.

Click here.

lewbud

Boba Fett

Sorry guys that I have been gone so long. School is such a pain... [yuck] I had a question: how do i make bullet holes in WWI planes? I'm gonna add some to my Sopwith. Thanks!

". . .Take your trusty Dremel, grind the inside til she's paper thin (best to practice this on a model you really don't care about), take a needle or push pin, push through the plastic and then remove it.  A bullet hole is born. . ."

He is right.  It does work.

Brad- That is some beautiful work!  Even more som when you consider that it is 1/72 and OOB.  WOW!  I added this one to the list on page 1.

Graham- Glad to see you!  Sorry you have been so busy.

Stephen- Thanks for that link on the DH-2, very impressive build.

just a quick update,been busy at work but i've managed to get the decals onto the wings(still waiting to see what the microsculpt ones will be like) and paint the fokker blue.

its warmed up here so i'll try and do some spraying this week.

theres some very good stuff being built in this GB,keep it up everyone

 Hey Brad, That is really nice work, and in 1/72 scale. WOW! Very nice indeed.

 Ludwig, the DR I is looking good. Decals look great.

 Stephen thanks for the link to that beautiful DH2. I had no idea there was that much rigging involved! Holy Cow!

 Looking forward to progress udates from all.

 Mo

Ok guys needsome more input. I decided to build option A on the build sheet. I made the assumption that the fuselage colors were a decal like the lozenge pattern on the wings wrong! So now I need some help on the best way to replicate the stained linen on the fuselage. Here is a picture of the plane I am building. Any ideas would be helpfull. Thanks.

                                                                              Soulcrusher

lewbud wrote:

Boba Fett wrote: Sorry guys that I have been gone so long. School is such a pain... I had a question: how do i make bullet holes in WWI planes? I'm gonna add some to my Sopwith. Thanks! Take two 8mm machine guns, wait til she's in the crosshairs and pull the firing handle.  Oh wait, you meant on the model huh?  Take your trusty Dremel, grind the inside til she's paper thin (best to practice this on a model you really don't care about), take a needle or push pin, push through the plastic and then remove it.  A bullet hole is born.

Nice one Lewbud! The advice is great, but there is one problem. I probably should have mentioned it sooner, but the plane is a 1/72^nd Revell offering. Only the fuselage is molded in halves, the tail/wings/rudder are all solid. Besides chopping the part in half and probably ruining them, how can I make the holes? My initial idea was to use a small pin, heat it up a little, and make a hole in the plastic. Seeing as the plastic is pretty thick though, it'll probably be a nightmare and won't look that good. Thanks for the help!

Graham aka Boba Fett

Graham,

Glad I could help, unfortunately I don't know what to do about the solid wings and tail planes.  Welcome to the world of divine scale.

I would core drill from the underside of the solid wing with a larger diameter drill almost to the surface of the upper wing.  Then make the bullet hole from the top side.  Fill the underside but leave a gap beneath the bullet hole.

On a different note.  I got the D-VI done but didn't have time to post pics.  Any of you going to the San Antonio IPMS contest this weekend can see it in person.

 Hey boba fet, The only I idear I had would be to paint them. Use a highlight color to represent the torn fabric, then a darker shadow color(near black) to represent the actual hole. Considering it is 1/72 scale the holes would be very small. Just a suggestion of a hole rather than having one. My two cents.

 Mo

ruddratt wrote:

Great choice, sc! I did that same scheme on my first Eduard D.VII. For the streak pattern on the fuselage, I started by airbrushing a coat of RLM 83. After a gloss coat, I thinned some pollyscale RLM 82 to about airbrush consistancy and lightly applied this with a very coarse brush, taking care to always work in one direction, until it looked right to me. HTH!

Thanks Mike. I have RLM 83 in stock. I though about mabye using colored pencils to achive the streaking mainly because of the better control. I am still undecided. I think I am going to glue up the other unused fuselage option and pratice on it first. If I can pull it off I will be quite pleased with myself never having attempted something like this before.

                                                                              Soulcrusher

Hey Ho, me again. Im toying with doing Roden's Gotha G.V but im a bit concerned about the rigging side of it. Ive read several reviews of thier earlier kits and they come with Rigging diagrams. Also How would i go about the actuall rigging? I read somewhere that you have to drill tiny holes at the base of the struts for the rigging wires to pass through. Ooh so many questions. Hopefully someone can help. Ill Start the kit any how and hopefully when the time arrives ill have the info. Oh and some decals. Mine are missing from the kit.

...Guy

Guy-

So, you want me to add that kit to your list?

Daywalker wrote:

Guy- So, you want me to add that kit to your list?

Oh Frank he is so signed up for that one! Put him on the front page! Guy that was a question I was going to ask myself eventually when I got to that part. Hopefully one of the resident experten will chime in with some good advice. I'm all ears!

                                                                                    Soulcrusher

soulcrusher wrote:

Oh Frank he is so signed up for that one! Put him on the front page!

I think you are right!  Guy- consider yourself re-commited to this GB.  Now get to it Mister. 

I love getting to boss him around over here!