Knights of the Sky II- The End

Greetings all;

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

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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, 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. 

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.

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!

Scott, the Pfalz is coming along great. That and the Albatros have to be my fav WW1 subjects, yet least modelled by me.

Crusher, shes looking mighty fine Buddy. I love the colour scheme. The yellow and the streaking really look sharp.

Stephen thx for the pic. Is that a spare room you have set by for just your models? It looks like quite a size.

...Guy

Luftwoller wrote:

". . .Stephen thx for the pic. Is that a spare room you have set by for just your models? It looks like quite a size.. . .Guy"

The Lafayette Foundation where I volunteer and serve as a board member.

Thanks for the pic Stephen. You are a lucky man to have such a huge display area and to be able to display them there.

...Guy

Greetings all;

I would have to check my "builds by year list"  but if memory serves this is 1/48 Dr.I  #36 since my first in 1992.   Well, the decals are in place.  Now just a clean up from the set & sol solutions.  I have gone deep into my extra decal sheets to provide some extra werke # serials.  I also dug up some build date decals for under the wing locations.  These look like "17-12-11"  that stands for year-month and day.  The airframes after 213/17 were finished around this date. 

Dr1  s/n 545/17  w/n 2213  from a contract order dated  November-17    It was rec'd by  Jasta 11 by May 2, 1918 at Mericout by Cappy.   17:50 Ltn. Hans Weiss KIA   Credit to 209 squadron

Then the rest of the rigging and adding the propeller.  The previous images  gave me a clue as to fixing a couple of minor flaws as well. 

Photographing your builds is a great method of cataloging how you did what.  So if you build the same kit in the future you can reference your notes and images.  This helps whether it is a long or short time between builds.

Though I have mentioned it before here is a great place for Fok. Dr.I research.

http://www.fokkerdr1.com

Mobius, Frank, and Luftwoller,

Thanks for the comments on the Pfalz, and the congatulations for my son.  My how quickly nineteem years can pass.  Anyway, I am doing some business travel for teh next few days, so there will be no progress until the weekend.  I did get the fuselage together, the lower wing mounted, and paint applied to all undersides.  I have to touch up the bottom of the lower wing due to a small bad spot caused by my sealing coat.

Stephen,

Thanks for that link (again).  I received a new computer recently, and had lost that from my favorites. 

[quote user="StephenLawson"]  Here is a bit of a taste on the Microsculpt set.

And here is a bit more fun with the Microsculpt set.  More later on this.  Frank please modify my build list from 2 @ 1/48 DML /Dragon Fokker Dr.I kits to 3 @.  The Eduard Fokker Dr.I kit is almost finished.

StephenLawson wrote:

StephenLawson wrote:   Here is a bit of a taste on the Microsculpt set. And here is a bit more fun with the Microsculpt set.  More later on this.  Frank please modify my build list from 2 @ 1/48 DML /Dragon Fokker Dr.I kits to 3 @.  The Eduard Fokker Dr.I kit is almost finished.

excellent stuff as usual stephen.

do you know when the microsculpt decals will be available? as there site still isn't selling them...

cheers paul

Roger that Stephen, page one updated!

Excellent work on that Fokker, streaking looks perfect to me.

Hi all, as some of you may know i recently had a birhtday (40th Ssshhhh) 1 Of the prezzys i got was this beauty.

I have to admit it got my juices flowing right from opening the wrapping. The box itself is fab. Its more solid than almost every other manufaturer ive come across. It looks and feels expensive.

On opening the thing theres loads of sprues full of awesome detail. One of the things that i spotted and liked straight off was the rib detail on the wings. Even the finish of the wing is fabric like,

The instruction booklet is equally impressive, a veritable tome it is too,

Every sheet is a full A4 glossy wonder. Here are a couple of pages,

The decal sheet is great too. All by Cartograph and in perfect register. Looks like there will be plenty left for the spares box,

They also supply a miniscule PE fret, which has to be the largest ommision of the whole kit. The kit is 1/32 and most of the small pieces can be easily molded in styrene but one of the things that sticks out (Litterally) as missing are the MG jackets. I think that to do this kit justice it really needs some PE MG jackets. Mmm, now where do i find some of those.

I hope you dont mind this little indulgence. But as you can prolly tell. I like this kit.

...Guy

Guy,

Congratulations on the big day! I hit the big four-oh just a few years ago, but fortunately am not feeling it too much so far (aside from the need I have recently developed for using extra optical assistance when doing any modeling).  As "they" say, it's all downhill from here! 

That kit does indeed look SWEET!  I may have to keep my eyes open for one to add to the ever-growing stash.

Frank and all,

I made some reasonable progress over the weekend and last evening.  I have now painted the aluminum underside, red engine area and braces, and the initial lighter blue color on everything else.  I will see how much damage I do in removing my masking material, and will hopefully mask and spray the darker blue tonight or tomorrow, after which I will complete the assembly process.  I am taking some time off next week with the holiday, so I will shoot for completion photographs by July 6 (my first big bike ride event of the year is this Sunday  or I would give a quicker end date).

Frank and all;

Stick a fork in it, this one is done. 

Frank, here are a couple for the end display. 

Very impressive there Stephen. I have never seen a D I in streaked camo. Probally because it is just to tempting to paint the whole thing red. I know I would! The streaked camo decals look great. I whish I had them for my D VII. I would have been done months ago. I put the Fokker on the back burner agian for a bit while I played around with some new NMF paint product I bought but I think I am going to finsh here off by the end of the week.

                                                                                         Soulcrusher