The group build to end all group builds - THE GREAT WAR

Got some primer down and gloss lacquer applied.  I plan to get some of the lozenge on.

Film at 11!   Wait, that's TV.

Stay tuned!   Still TV.

Don't touch that dial!  OK, I give... just check back later

Underside shading is done...at least until post-decals.

Here's the base coat (Tamiya Deck Tan)

Lightened ribbing (Tamiya Deck Tan + Gloss White)

Darkened "valleys" (Deck Tan + Khaki)

Blended (25% Deck Tan + 75% Thinner)

That's it until after the weekend - taking the kids to San Antonio to pay way too much at theme parks. Maybe I can squeeze a visit to Hill Country Hobby into the schedule somewhere!

Doogs - really like the shot Darkened "valleys" , hope you can re-introduce this look when you dirty her up.

Not model related but still on the Great War theme, came across a couple new pc games.  One is a flight sim that has been around a couple years, but is the first I heard of.  Rise of Flight has received good reviews, specially in the area of modelling and graphics.  Their site also has a limited trial demo you can download.  They only thing I don't like is you have to pay extra for any new plane types and field modifications the developers introduce.

For the grognards familiar with John Tiller's/HPS games, the panzer caimpaigns' engine has been used to create a new series: First World War Campaigns.  The first title out is France '14.

regards,
Jack

Little work done.  Not to pleased with this kit.  Cut the barrels off, they were very poor and out of round.  Used 5/32 tue to replace them with, there not much better but at least there round.  Was able to complete both sponsons but with much trouble due to fit of the parts.

Next will be much filling with putty and sanding.  All connection points so far have large seams / cracks.

Drilled out the water jackets on the machine guns then used 1/32 brass tube for barrels.

Also drilled out the vision slits.

This will not be a very accurate build due to some major problems that I am not going to attempt to fix.  The rear ofthe sponsons should be at about 20% angle and the guns should be slightly offset from each other.  Will continue with the assemblies that go on top of the hull.  Also am considering turning some new barrels on the lathe, not sure yet.

I've heard ugly things about that kit too. And I've got one. However, I have noticed that a small blizzard of photos exist showing those things ultra-muddy. (That would make sense if soil from an area like Flanders with the low water table was mashed-up by gunfire and tank tracks.) When I do mine I'll be thinking Adam Wilder full-bore weathering. Good history, mute some of the kits' flaws.

Eric

ERIC - Was thinking the same out come with the mud and weathering.  Had thoughts of having it approaching a trench through barbwire and a shot up field.  Will see how things go.

More filling too do.

Steyr Mannlicher M95 rifle:

While working on the gun the bolt lever broke off so replaced it with a brass tube, cutting it to length after it was glued.  The ball end is just built up glue and a coat of surface primer.

At the front end a similar  but smaller piece broke off - not sure what it's called or what it's use was.  For that I cut a length of EZ line, glued it in place and trimmed to proper size.  Again, the ball end is just built up glue.

Splurged on some Hornet AM hands.  Still had to break the figure's left arm at the elbow so that the rifle sits correctly in the hands.

regards,

Jack

Doogs that is some real Hotel Sierra stuff there.

Rob  Nice all around.  I really like the irregularities/stress in the metal skin.  Is that the result of the the quality of the kit (I don't know that line at all)  or is it intentional?  Either way, looks great.

Jack, he is really starting to come to life.

Started declaring. 
The aileron close-up shows the improved control horns

Marc - those lozenge decals are really something! How'd they fit so exactly with the wing shape? Has me rethinking the whole painting vs. decals on the rudder.

Spent most of last night assembling friuls for my Pz.IV, so not much worth reporting on the Pup. Though I did paint most of the pulley inspection ports and Future the inspection windows. Once they're masked, I'll mount them up, and then it's on the to the upper surface painting!

Doog they are the WNW decals as seen HERE.  They represent a bolt of printed fabric.  It gets cut into the smaller lengths  that are turned 90 degrees and put down chord-wise.  On the 1:1 the edges of each panels would be sewn together and that seam can fall anywhere, not necessarily on a rib.  That's why you see a mismatch in places between ribs.  As far as it fitting so well... the panel were cut about 1/8" long at each end and after they dried I very lightly sanded the leading and trailing edge to remove the excess.  Sorry for being long winded if you knew all that lozenge orientation crap already

Hi All - haven't stopped in in a while - been real busy with work ....  it's great to see all the fantastic work happening in here .... 

I have not been completely idle - the FF33 is coming along - slowly, much much much to be done... here's a quick digest:

got most of the interior/cockpit together - it fits now.... 

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Marc: those lozenge decals look great! I'm really looking forward to see the finished kit.

Rob: good progress on your tank. After seeing your BT-7, I'm sure this one will come out great!

Doogs: Pup is looking very good.

Sean: Excellent interior!

I am just about finished with my panzerjager GB, and I'm on vacation next week, so I plan on getting a start on my Roland D.VIa. I just got a Wind Sock Datafile special on the WnW Roland build, which I will be using for reference and inspiration. Looking forward to joining the build!

Nate

Sean-Wow dude... nice!

Nate, what is a Wind Sock Datafile? EDIT:   DOH! I just did a Google and found it in a a nanosecond

Nate;

thanks! .....  about the Roland, In my opinion it's one of WNW nicest kits [either that or the Pfaltz - I'm torn] but it does have a couple of 'gotchas' - here's the one I built not too long ago - hope this helps. http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/models/50805-roland-dvia-kissenberth.html

@marc - thanks!

-sean

Nate - looking forward to the Roland!

Sean - the FF33 is looking nice! Beautiful work on that engine!

Big Pupdate this morning - the first paint has been sprayed on the fuselage and upper surfaces! I learned the last time around that isolating the ribs after painting the base color was a huge PITA, so this time I've started with the lighter color (2:1:1 of Tamiya Olive Drab, XF55 Deck Tan, and XF-2 Flat White). Tonight I'll tape off the ribs and probably some of the fuselage framing and spray straight Olive Drab, then come back with highly thinned OD to blend it all together all nice-like.

Looks great doogs.  ya know... I think I will miss the expression "Pupdate" the most when this build is done. 

Started put on the Microsculpt texture decals.  It says it's for 1/48 but seeing in on a 1/32 scale wing I think it would be too big.  But I really like the overall effect.  More obvious on the lighter bottom side.  The photo understates the upper wigs and exaggerate the underside.  It looks better in the here and now than in the pics. And I simulated the stitching at the lozenge panel seam with a 1/72 riveter and some contrasting paint.

All you guys building the Wingnut Wings 1/32 kits are simply doing an outstanding job! I've sured learned a lot, just have to see how much of it I can translate to 1/48.

MARC -  Had the same thoghts with the irregularities of the metal skin.  It is the way the kit came.  Has many poor moldings but in this case worked too my advantage.

Your decals / wings look awesome.  I find them quite impressive, myself never using a decal of that size.

U-69 - Great looking cockpit and engine, very well done!

NATE - Thanks, I'll see what I can do with her.  Look forward to your Roland.

DOOGS - Nice too see some color, she is looking good.  Would you mind posting a picture with the masking and prep work?  Have not built any of these aircraft but may give it a try.  Would be helpful for me too see.

Bit more progress on the MK IV

Cut the molded on tow bracket and made one from brass sheet.  The one that came molded on was a thick one piece thing.  Cut / drilled out the vision ports and added some stip styrene and squadron putty around the seams of the housing.

On the rear added armor plate, exhaust pipe and some wire handles.

On top sanded off the molded exhaust brackets and scrathed new ones that actually connected to the hull.  Had also sanded off the poor / incorrect details on the crew hatch and scratched a new hatch.  Still have to add wire U bolts to hold down the exhaust pipe.

Sponsons filled and sanded out ok.  They are dry fit at the moment.

Finally got my IPMS Journal which contains long photo builds of WNW Albratros and RNAS Pup. The Pup build is described in great detail - probably three times the size of a large article in Finescale. Couple of things that struck me. First, builder spends a great deal of time outlining painting options - some found not good the hard way. He did rig things differently. He did not put on the engine or cowl so he could prop the aircraft up on its nose for rigging - that could be a really good idea. Second he PE rigging wire. This was preference but also history. I learned (certainly didn't know it) that RFC rigging wire was not round but streamlined and the ratio of width/depth ratio varied. Anyway there's a Brit Corporation called RB Productions (I've heard good things about their PE bending tool which is simple and cheap for that kind of thing) that produces these things. (http://www.radubstore.com/) . They're about $12 and the reviewer says you could do with just one size although two would be better history. (BTW: as one might expect the RNAS Pup was done beautifully. The kit itself is more different than I realized from the RFC version: you even get an extra wing and several variants for the innards.) Interestingly, the guy who did the Albatros used 4lb fishing line. I used 2lb on my Camel and it was probably closer to scale, but I don't think shows up as well as it could. (All of that work invisible beyond six feet or so.) Things to think about if Biplanes make a comeback. I just saw a 32 scale newish Tamiya Spitfire - some late mark - advertised at $134. That makes WNW bargain basement when you throw in free shipping.  

Eric

That is a nice looking tank there Panzer, cant wait to see it finished.

Hi all!

I have been lurking in the background now for a little while, observing all the nice builds and trying to finish off some other non-model but model related projects.  One of those projects was a tool for clamping warped parts to shape so as to reshape them with precise control.  First test toasted the wing I was trying to flatten the dihedral out of  (OUCH!) Whereupon that tool has since evolved to do other things as well.  ( I did figure out how to heat things right and can post some photos of the success).

Anyway it has been quite a while (almost 20 years) since I actually built a kit and I have a bunch from storage and a few I have picked up more recently.  Can't really make my mind up so I thought I would post a list and let you guys suggest.  I have way more than the skills needed for any of these even after all this time, so don't hold back due to difficulty!

Here is the list with brief description.  # are kits I have been seriously considering.

- DFW-28 Floh    =The old Eduard 1/48 kit. Not really all that interesting or challenging.

- Fokker D.VIII     = DML 1/48 kit Knights of the sky series with lozenge paint 

- Hansa-Brandenburg D.1 (Starstrutter) =Another old 1/48 Eduard kit so so moldings but somewhat interesting.

- Fokker D.VI  = Eduard 1/48 another old heavy on the molding kit

- Pfalz D.XII = Special Hobby 1/48 Nice kit well detailed no warpage though has 2 broken struts

# Hannover CL.IIIa  = Old 1/48 Eduard kit Interesting (this is the one that I toasted the warped top wing) Will require an entire new top wing made from scratch.  Have a small start on a jig for building that. 

# Hansa-Brandenburg W.29  = Flashback 1/48 reissue of old Eduard. Warped fusalage and have to undo/redo some small bad work done by previous owner of kit.

- Albatros D.I  =  1/48 Cavia kit. Very nice kit.  One of the better ones I have.

- Albatros C.III  = Special Hobby 1/48  Another nice kit though the wings are quite warped with too much dihedral.

# Siemens Schuckert D.III = Roden 1/32 kit.  Quite nice. will be a little bit of a challenge due to extra detailing to be added (already thinking ahead)

There you have it folks.  My list of possibilities and list of interests.  Any of them will be a challenge to some degree.  The biggest problem I will have will be when it comes to painting.  That is where I am the most rusty.  The Hannover you will get to see me fabricate a new top wing and how I will go about doing that with the concave underside and adding rib details.  (already have solutions    HA! )

So post and mull.  Decide what you might like to see built.  

All of them or even 2 at this point are NOT options.  Don't have that much time.  

Think I'll start with the Scharnhorst. Model looks great in the box. I need to get the railings PE and may buy the set for the Revell Emden and see how that looks. Obviously smaller ship. OBTW I bought an Emden the other day on eBay for 35 inc. shipping, so I need the set. Might as well ad her to the build list.

Big morning Pupdate! 

Here's where I started the night, with the Olive Drab/White/Deck Tan coat in place:

To mask off the ribs, I used 3M Fineline Tape. Honestly, I don't really like the stuff. It doesn't adhere all that well at such narrow widths, and doesn't curve as well as people say it does. But in this case, it gets the job done.

Masking the ribs isn't as tedious as masking everything BUT them, but it's still tedious. I was happy when I finally got around to painting. The more I get to use my new Harder & Steenbeck, the more I like it. 

After spraying the straight Olive Drab, I pulled the masking off...

In person, it looked kind of like one of those chocolate/mint candy canes.

Next up - overspraying with OD to blend it all together. 

Closer and closer to decals now...which means closer and closer to the dreaded rigging!

Doogs, the pup is looking very nice, I think the sublte variation in color to represent the ribbing light effect look great.

Panzer, that land ship is really coming along very nicely. How big is that compared to a biplane of the same scale?

Heavens, I vote for the Siemens Schuckert, you dont' see one of those built everyday.

SMEAGOL - Thanks, not much longer until the paint goes on.

DOOGS - The ribbing looks GREAT!  Thanks for that well done "How too" will be much help.

WAIKONG - The MK IV was a huge ugly beast, unfortunately do not have a biplane to compare them.  The dimensions were: 26.4 ft x 12.84 ft x 8.17 ft.  Heres a pic with a figure for scale.

Tonight was able to get the unditching rails on.  Were a bit more of a pain then anticipated and broke the rails off a few times so there still much clean up needed.  There will also be a few additional parts to make and put on.

Well, I figured at least a little interest in how I would scratch build a new WW1 wing with rib detail and all or at least a little curiosity.  The audience seems to have left the building for now and all I seem to be getting are cricket chirps.

Just to entertain (maybe) a little interest, here are a couple of shots of the toasted Hannover wing and some of what I am doing to replace it.

The wing shrank about 3/16 of an inch back from each end, the right wing TE did a weird thing and the sweepback disappeared.  (I have no clue how the sweepback went away)  Too much heat (boiling water) and too much time (about 30 seconds)

Another shot of the wing.

Yup, pretty much unusable. 

So scrap the model or make a new wing?  I'm up for the challenge, NEW WING!

First to make a jig to give the proper underside curvature.

Lots of plastic fuzz.  1/4 thick Lexan on my clamping plate with a sine vice.

OOPS!  I think that is just a little too much angle 19 degrees instead of 9.

More later!

Wow, that wing really did get cooked! It will be interesting watching you build a new one.

Nate

Few small things were done.  Cut small triangle styrene pieces forthe unditching rails.  had too do 4 of these

some simple exhaust U bolts made of wire

Started work on the unditching beam, just need to find the right chain now.  Also filled in with styrene around the gun bustle

Falling of the page so here is a quick update.

Pre shaded with flat black (the picture was an after thought and this was all that was left for the pic),

then gave a base coat of russian Earth Brown.

The pre shading does look better here in person but think it shows a little in the pics.  More painting to come.

Looks really good.  I like the preshading even though latly mI have been more of a fan of using oils for it.