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

Masterful build!

Looks fantastic!  Love the way the rigging and buckles cameout, really nice.

waikong

Doog, we want some pictures of that Pup!

Ask and ye shall receive! Here are the "studio" shots. I've got others I'm hoping to photoshop into some "location" shots, but won't get to those until later tonight.

Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated.

For the 'wood' prop, I basically used a variation of the technique that Marc (wingnut) used. I based coated with Tamiya acrylic buff, this was followed by diluted dark brown oil paint applied with a flat brush.  This allows me to use the brush to leave streaks that become the grain. I think used a smaller clean brush with thinner and removed much of the paint from the middle area to create the laminated look.  After everything dried (took about 2 days), I gave everything a diluted coat of sienna, which added more an reddish tint. After that dried, I used a coat of Future to simulate varnishing.

The streaks was a pain, I wasn't quite sure what to do at first. I based coat with olive drab, then I used a fine tip brush to stread on Dark Green.  I varied the tone by using different dilution and concentrations.  It came out a bit 'thicker' than I had hoped, but overall was happy with the effect.

As for the gray rubber, I''m no expert by any means, but I've heard that carbon black was introduced to rubber around 1914.  But it was used universally until later. So you had both black and 'natural' rubber tires during this period.

Doog, we want some pictures of that Pup!

Guys - the Emden, Duke and Fokker all look great!

waikong - don't sell yourself short, man! If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have guessed that was 1/48!

Also...time for the final Pupdate! She's done! I didn't finish until 3 AM last night, so no pictures. Hoping to stage a photo shoot when the kids go down for their nap and post some pics later today.

Overall...great kit...way outside my comfort zone...learned as much what not to do as what to do, LOL...and I'm looking forward to building another Pup in a few months!

P.S. - I'm also kicking off a Nieuport 17 very soon. Not going to commit it here since this one isn't technically WWI, but it'll be in the Wild Wings GB if anybody wants to follow along.

Hey fellas....yeah I know, it's been a while, but I gotta tell ya, from the bipes to the tripes, the ships, the tanks, & the figs, you guys have been turning out a lot of first rate stuff! Took me a while to catch up, what with all the progress pics - man, I was just blown away by what I saw! With the daylight hours up here lasting until almost 11:30 pm and the unbelievably great weather we've been having, my other passion, gardening & yardwork, has kicked in big-time, so my lonely Hisso remains without further progress for close to 5 weeks now (but the yard is looking great ). I know the bug will bite soon to get back to the bench, but for now, I can still hear the call of the great outdoors. When I do get back to the bench, I just hope I can keep the bar up where you fellas have set it - it's WAY up there!

You know, I was watching the show "American Restorations" and he had a hunk of metal for a old vending machine, and he used some sort of technique with his airbrush to make it look like wood, and it looked really, really good.  I really want to learn how he did it, seems like the kind of thing taht would do wonders for this hobby

waikong - nice job on the Dreidecker.   The prop has me guessing if it s the the real thing.  How did you do the camou streaking and what colour paint?  Also a general question to all in the know, why are the tires of these biplanes light grey, did they use a different rubber formula back then?

regards,

Jack

You guys are making great progress on the ships, can't wait to see the rigging on those things.

Here's my Fokker DR1 (dragon 1/48) - pales in comparison to the great job Wingnut & Doogs did, but I'm satifisfied with the build dispite a bunch of errors on my part.

I am so looking forward the Emden being launched.

I still have to add a few pieces to the Duke,and then add a bit of weathering.After that I'll base her up.

I'm not sure about the weathering.Other than a little rust,I'm clueless.I've never weathered a battleship.

TD, hull buddy, looking scary to us. Here comes the German Imperial Navy's finest light cruiser; the Emden.

I've got a ways to go to get caught up. She's on my shop stand, the oak one is on order.

Doog your kite is right, Jolly good and away you go. Give the Hun Hell!

I have my summer reading set up. Robert Massie's "Castles of Steel" about the British/ German naval exchanges of WWI. As I know nothing about this war, it all is worthwhile to me to read. But I came across a fact in Chapter 1, where the Kaiser sent the East Asian Squadron to Shanghai to support the European Powers during the Boxer Rebellion, with a command to the effect that the Germans would suppress China for a thousand years as the Huns did Europe. Is that the genesis of the term?

And one more.Almost there.

Lookin' good Doogs.

Current progress on the Duke.

So...it's not Marc's Albatros and it's still got a few days yet before I call it done, but the main wing rigging is completed, and I figured that worthy of a few pics!

Still have to do the remainder of the aileron and tail rigging and some light weathering. So close yet so far!

DoogsATX

TD - the ship's looking solid! It's been a long time since I've build any floaty things, but I do remember that special hell that was adding all the bits to the deck.

Marc - what's there to say but WOW? Fantastic looking build!

Didn't get as far with the rigging as I'd hoped last night. Popped two eyebolts during the rigging last night...don't think I checked the lower wing and fuselage eyebolts as thoroughly as I did the uppers. But it slowed me down, especially as one was one of the double-wire eyebolts, and it popped only as I was trimming away the excess. Fortunately some tweezer work and the timely application of my trusty old airbrush needle got it reseated.

Still have the front double-wires and a good chunk of tail rigging to go...but it's almost there!

Apologies that it's kind of hard to see - haven't painted the wires yet so they don't show up that well in pics.

 

Both planes looking fantastic!

TD - the ship's looking solid! It's been a long time since I've build any floaty things, but I do remember that special hell that was adding all the bits to the deck.

Marc - what's there to say but WOW? Fantastic looking build!

Didn't get as far with the rigging as I'd hoped last night. Popped two eyebolts during the rigging last night...don't think I checked the lower wing and fuselage eyebolts as thoroughly as I did the uppers. But it slowed me down, especially as one was one of the double-wire eyebolts, and it popped only as I was trimming away the excess. Fortunately some tweezer work and the timely application of my trusty old airbrush needle got it reseated.

Still have the front double-wires and a good chunk of tail rigging to go...but it's almost there!

Apologies that it's kind of hard to see - haven't painted the wires yet so they don't show up that well in pics.

Gorgeous bird,wing nut.

doogs, td... evrything is movong right along for both of you.

Been real busy lately and trying to find some bench time.  I finally did get a bit in and just about have things wrapped up. A few tiny bits and bobs to add... flares, radiator pipe...

Here are a few pics while i try to get started on the saw horse and tables for the base.

Here's a bit of an update on the Royal Navy.After viewing the previous craftsmanship,I'm a bit reluctant to show you what I've been up to.Those planes are stunning.I'm just getting around to all the goodies found on deck.

It was a pleasant surprise to find the Duke had a nice wooden railing on the sternwalk.Gave me an excuse to add a bit of color.

waikong

Doogs, looking good!  If you rigging is just slightly bowing, I've success passing a freshly blown out match underneatht he rigging. The heat will make the monofilament tighten up.

Yeah, I did that with one of the undercarriage lines.

Unfortunately the one that bowed up front was too far gone for that to work. Looked more like a strung bow.

Fortunately, though, the Uni-Mono is proving fantastic at staying taut (or appearing so, at least!) even as other lines are tightened around it. Solves a big headache I was having with the monofilament fishing line.

Now that I've got those cabane struts done, the rest of the wing rigging should go pretty fast. Front cross-rigging, then the rear double-wires, front and rear singles, front double-wires, wing struts. Think I can probably knock all of those out tonight. Maybe get the ailerons done, too, if I'm lucky. 

Doogs, looking good!  If you rigging is just slightly bowing, I've success passing a freshly blown out match underneatht he rigging. The heat will make the monofilament tighten up.

Morning Pupdate...

THE WING IS ON!

I went with the upside down install. Very fussy working around all the pre-rigged turnbuckles, but I managed to get it. Also got the cabane strut rigging knocked out. I was all set to get the "front cross rigging" (technical term) done, but one of the turnbuckles was all womperjawed when I pulled taut, glued and cut, and I didn't notice until after. The Uni-Mono has a nice degree of elasticity to it, but not so much as to stay taut when I realigned the turnbuckle. Had to cut it off, and in the process destroyed the eyebolt there. Re-rigged a new line onto the top of the strut itself. It's so close to the location that you'd have to know what you're looking at to spot the difference. the other front-cross line, the eyebolt on the cowl was blocked by CA. Broke it trying to punch a hole, had to redrill and glue a new eyebolt in place.

And then suddenly it was 2 AM, and I have a lot of work to do today...so I guess I'll pick up again tonight!

Doogs that is looking way too awesome.

I just put my wing on today... pics soon... but not progress pics 

I went with the upside down.  One side of the cabanes glued, then the other.  Once set then the interplanes.  went real smooth and looks to be dead on.  I also went with some pre-rigging.  But there will still be a lot of the 2 tweezer manipulating for sure.

Today's Pupdate...

The wing goes on tonight, gents!

Got all of the upper wing rigging connections made last night. I have to imagine there'd be money to be made in some sort of cable management tool for rigging, because geez, that's a lot of monofilament. And the Pup is relatively simple compared to the SE.5, DH.2, etc.

Not exactly sure yet how I'm going to go about mounting the wing. Maneuvering it top-down looks like a jellyfish and a nightmare, so I'm leaning toward an upside-down install, then flipping the whole thing over to do the rigging. 

Also, a few thoughts on materials so far...

Albion Alloy's 0.5mm silver nickel tubing is amazing stuff. Tougher than brass, but still cuts very easily (though making all those cuts toasted a #10 blade). Plus, it tarnishes when you handle it, so it's almost self-weathering. One $8 set (something like 30cm total) and I've got more than enough for two complete Pups, easily.

Uni-Mono. Way more workable than the Trilene .005" monofilament fishing line I was using earlier. Not so much for the hint of elasticity, which I haven't been able to really put to the test yet, but for sheer ease of use. 

Beat-up old airbrush needle. I swear this damaged Iwata .35mm needle is like the Jeep of my workbench. I've used it as a punch to create guide-holes for drilling. I've used it to paint detail bits, scrape stuff, and with the turnbuckles, it's pure excellence for reaming out the tubing.

Hopefully I'll have a fairly awesome update tomorrow.

Got all the rigging connections made to the upper wing last night. Holy cow that's a lot of monofilament to keep track of! And the Pup's rigging is relatively simple.

Not exactly sure yet how I'm going to go about mounting the wing. I'm leaning toward attempting to install it upside down, then flip it over once I get the struts inserted. 

Also, the more I work with them, the more I'm liking the Albion 0.5mm silver nickel tubing. It tarnishes a bit as you handle it, 

I pre-rigged once & found it to be a hairy mess, even with some 'cable management' ... I work with 2 pairs of tweezers & have no problems 'getting at anything'  - 

It's a matter of preference really... 

-sean

I've found "pre-rigging' the upper wings to be much easier than trying to do each line after it's attached.  Once its attached, you are much more restricted in getting at the attachment ponts.

waikong

Marc, love those Spandaus, I finished mine in 1/48, but they were made of this really hard steel material. Even after annealling, I couldnt' roll them to a nice round shape.

Doogs,  You've got enough turnbuckles for 2 or 3 more kits there!

Don't know about the Aber, but the Master Spandaus come already, uh, cylinder-ized

As for the turnbuckles - yep! Hoping I have enough to use on Pup #2 as well. That and I think they'd work really well for rigging the aerials on 1/32 WWII birds.

As for the morning Pupdate - it officially has some strings attached now. Rigged the top brackets of all the struts save the rear cabanes, which I couldn't drill due to the fact that they're molded as part of the cockpit framing. So I also rigged up the lower brackets of the forward cabanes. My plan is to loop them loose around the aft struts, then move them into position and pull taut once the upper wing's in place.

I'm also following the lead from the WWI Aircraft Models site and rigging the lines to the upper wing before I attach. Got about half of them done last night.

So far, the Uni-Mono is great. Much easier to work with than fishing line, though the turnbuckles have a tendency to want to run back up the rigging a ways. Definitely a three-hand job!

Also, a question for everyone. I'm giving serious thought to "loose-rigging" the entire wing up front. Basically, rigging the turnbuckles, pulling kind-of taut, trimming off the ridiculous excess lines, and then tightening and gluing. Or maybe doing this for the cabanes, and then for the outer rigging. Sound workable at all, or would I be better rigging and gluing line-by-line?

Jack, that's a great figure, fantastic painting job.

Marc, love those Spandaus, I finished mine in 1/48, but they were made of this really hard steel material. Even after annealling, I couldnt' roll them to a nice round shape.

Doogs,  You've got enough turnbuckles for 2 or 3 more kits there!

I actually put the few riggings required onto my Fokker Dr1 last week. They were the kit's steel wires, a bit overscaled, but alas I was committed as I didn't make any provisions for my usual method of using monofilament.  While I was contemplating this, I dropped the thing onto my work area. Off came 1/2 the rigging, the wheels, landing structs, sigh.....

Excellent work on the figure! Also love the little display vignette!

Had about an hour this afternoon where the kids were playing quietly, so I brought a few things in from the garage, set up at the breakfast room table, and made me some turnbuckles:

I've read about people setting up jigs and measuring these things precisely, but I used the FICE (F- it, close enough) scale, and they look fine to me. Also imagine these could double as .50 cal casings in a pinch...something to remember for my idea for a P-47 on the firing range dio...