Been there myself shiv. Good thing it was only paint in this case - an inconvenience, but easier to fix than had it been a jar of Tenax.

shivinigh

A friendly warning to my fellow builders. be VERY careful when working with open bottles of paint. LOL as much as I like the Aclad Brushed brass colour it does not look good on the tail of a biplane. spilt the bottle while working on the gunners ring.

I. too, feel your pain.

Years ago, having nearly finished a lovely paint job on Hasegawa's 1/72 88 FLAK (including faces and unform detail on the entire gun crew) I grabbed my can of Dullcoat and gave it all a good spray---only to realize, horror-stricken, that I had grabbed the gold spray-paint can instead of the Dullcoat. (Why they used the plain white label they used for clear coats on a can of metallic color I still don't know, but that's all Wasser under the Brücke at this point.) The entire gilded group still lies entombed in the box to which I consigned them, "awaiting (someday) restoration," and mocking me.

Been there, done that so I feel your pain.

A friendly warning to my fellow builders. be VERY careful when working with open bottles of paint. LOL as much as I like the Aclad Brushed brass colour it does not look good on the tail of a biplane. spilt the bottle while working on the gunners ring.

almost ready for the rigging. As this is the first time I have done a WW 1 craft I was wondering what size if wire I should use for a 1/48. I was going to use .005 wire.

Good news biz is great right now and making some bank. Bad news is bloody tired at the end of the day and it is sorely affecting bench time. But I did manage to get some... finally.

Some more cockpit work done, finally got the belts made and installed. I was also waiting for the little spark plugs to be delivered to install in the cylinders. These are little gems from RB Motion. they sell car model details. these are the smallest plugs they make at 1/24 scale. But with the cylinders drilled out a little so they sit a touch deeper they look great.

Greg: Love what you've got going there, esp the netting on the seat.

As to missing parts I've got to share the story of the 1/35th MP figure I dropped while airbrushing a layer of matte finish on him in the basement and his head shot off. I searched for hours for it until I decided to do some cleaning and found it in a box of airbrush parts with a crack in the top about a cm wide. How on earth it bounced off the floor and though a gap barely wider than it I have no friggin' idea. Larry Bird couldn't have made a shot like that....

Chuck, it's right there, to your left...I know it is!  My favorite way of losing things is to have them right there in plain sight, I'm looking right at it, and I still don't see it.  Bad attitude, most likely.

Greg, the seat looks well worn, realistic.  I think my leather could use some aging after looking at yours.  I think you may have done double work on your rigging, there is usually only one turnbarrel on any single run of rigging and it looks like you have two.  But they look very convincing to me.

I have accomplished absolutely nothing this week.  I'm building a new deck/porch on the back of my house.  Concrete, paint and redwood are the order of the day but I think this weekend I will face the rigging on my DH9a fuselage.  I think I have decided how I want to go about it.

Sorry about your belt trouble CD.  If you want the PE belts,  you were kind enough to send to me , back... I just found mine

Gamera

Lol... the more time I spend scratch-building a new part the larger the chance the old one will show up when I finish it - or something like that!

Plus if you seal up the model the missing part that goes inside will magically appear too!

My best way to find missing parts is when I hear a loud *CRACK* I peel the broken part off the bottom of my shoe....

You forgot one.

If you scratchbuild some tiny, complicated fixture or mechanism, and it comes out perfect --- it will be just barely too large to use. When you do it again, and get the size dead-on, you will never again faintly approach that initial level of perfection.

Wing_nut    Thanks for posting the pics of your rib shading treatment, particularly the "before and after." Very useful (and inspiring).

Phil   Beauuuutiful propeller. And that 'pit is magnificent.

Tim   Always sucks to be the guy left behind to man the battlements. Enjoy the turnbuckles.

Chuck  Truly heatfelt sympathy for your difficulties. Please do hang in there--it's only styrene. (And I'm wth Tim--the MakerBot thing sounds really cool.

Got a bit of interior done on the Baby. The kit supplied a full suite of PE, but a lot of it seemed to call for "building up" to a more 3-D look with added bits of sheet and rod. (Still at the test-fitting stage, no control cables, throttles or stuff yet.) Scratchbuilt the seat and instrument panel for fun.

Have an excellent weekend one and all.

freem

Chuck, have hope! A feline raiding party (must have been British cats) raided my Fokker factory (aka my model bench) and knocked the joystick, fuel tank and fuselage on the floor.  Found em all!

freem

Thanks for the words of encouragement.  I'm still hopeful.  What's frustrating is this would be the second time in recent history I've lost major components to a kit.  Ironically, the most recent was the landing gear struts from a WnW Pfalz.  Maybe I should start looking into What-If versions of WW1 kites with retractable gear?...

Chuck, have hope! A feline raiding party (must have been British cats) raided my Fokker factory (aka my model bench) and knocked the joystick, fuel tank and fuselage on the floor.  Found em all!

freem

Tim

No entertainment for this weekend--shucks! Nice looking buckles too but you see why my E-IV is in 1/72 scale because I can't afford the quarter to size my plane up. ; )

Gamera

Lol... the more time I spend scratch-building a new part the larger the chance the old one will show up when I finish it - or something like that!

Plus if you seal up the model the missing part that goes inside will magically appear too!

My best way to find missing parts is when I hear a loud *CRACK* I peel the broken part off the bottom of my shoe....

HAH!  You're so right.  I've found rolling desk chairs to be another excellent "part finder."

O man when that happens I just cry!  

Lol... the more time I spend scratch-building a new part the larger the chance the old one will show up when I finish it - or something like that!

Plus if you seal up the model the missing part that goes inside will magically appear too!

My best way to find missing parts is when I hear a loud *CRACK* I peel the broken part off the bottom of my shoe....

Ooooooo...   that's wierd!  I must be in the twilight zone!   And I mean "Rod Serling" not that other crap!

Strange...I found an Albatros joystick that showed up out of nowhere.  Hmmm...

Gamera:  you must be touched with a bit of magic,  I had to scratch build the joy stick on the Albatros and the old one never showed up?  I don't win at lotteries either!

Great stuff guys! Great stuff!

Chuck: Scratch-build the missing part and it will magically reappear! Always happens to me... 

Chuck, hang in there! Can you use the kit's parts as a starting point, or are they beyond hope?

For me, I think it would be kinda neat to see a part made on a Makerbot in a build, but I also understand the value of making a part from scratch. So, my vote is yes and yes!

Hmmm, not helpful.

OK, if you can use the Makerbot without getting in trouble, and it'll still give you enough time to finish the build, do it. If not, then go the scratchbuilt route.

Either way, positive thoughts, man.

Wow, guys...yet more great progress.  Marc - I love the shading.  I need to try that.  And Tim - couldn't you hold the camera and talk at the same time?  Kidding...I guess we'll have to wait.

Now folks - a confession.  As of last night (late) I had managed to mess up my pre-painted PE belts that I decided to use.  I decided to test fit my white metal gear struts I just bought to the spreader.  Trouble was...I can't find it!  Very disheartening night - I almost decided to pull off the road and cheer you guys on from the sidelines.  This kit for whatever reason was starting to shape up into "one of those" that kicks you around and laughs each time you get back up.  After a good nights sleep, I think I'll have a go at replacing the part.  Should be relatively straight forward.  Picture a metal cannula to hold the axles wrapped in airfoil shaped plastic - sort of a plastic burrito.  OR - my work is looking at getting a 3D printer (Makerbot), and it would take all of 5 minutes to create a 3D file and print it in my office.  First the slacker that needs to write the justification - me - needs to get off his rear, though.

So how about it folks...should I make one old school, or "cheat" and do a printed part?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Quick update pics on my build. Cockpit is finally together so on to the fuselage in the next few days

A couple more pic on my WIP

Phil

Fellow aeroplane builders, it seems that I'm alone this week, with no one to operate the video camera. Aaron has spirited off to Atlanta for the AMPS show, thus leaving me in the lurch!

So, here are a couple pics for today.

After three different kinds of tape, some Micro Sol, and some 600-grit sand paper, the decals are off my ailerons, and I'll put some paint on them this weekend and get them back under lozenge.

And then, the turnbuckles arrived! And finally, all will be complete with the cockpit and I can get it closed up ... FINALLY!

I'm sure Aaron is having an awesome time at AMPS. If any of you guys are down there, I hope you are, too.

I apologize for our little hiccup here. We'll be back next week.

Have a great weekend!

What a difference the shading makes on the wings

Just a quick update from me. Been busy with life but have done some work on the control cables inside the cockpit which i hope to get finished this weekend. What I have had is a reply form the gentleman making my prop for me, have a look at the photo

There was some discussion between myself and Craig about the colours (I won) and I think it looks great, now I hope I can do it justice

Phil

Guys!  Jeez Louise!  Nice stuff.

Shiv that's some great progress.  Are those really curtains?  For when they are having tea between dogfights?

Jack nice grimy little motor you got there.

Bish still amazed at your choice for 1st string bag.  But you are doing it justice.  Ditto on the ribs.  Thinned Tamiya smoke and a post-it make quick work of it too. Just keep moving the post-it along the wing.

Shiv and Bish - It's great to see those planes coming along so nicely.

Jack - I like that explanation for the curtains. From the colorful lozenge camo to the interesting markings and sometimes outlandish designs, these aircraft have so much personality. It's similar to the Age of Sail for ships.

Bish, I can pretty much only echo what's already been said in regards to weathering, and Jack's idea is a good one in reference to accentuating the rib detail on your aircraft. Highlighting the raised part of the ribs with a shadow effect on each side of the rib really adds a lot of depth. Have to say your build is really coming along nicely - hard to believe it's your first bipe. Good stuff!

shiv, that's some impressive work on the interior of that Roland, and overall it's shaping up into a real stunner! There's just something about the lines on that bird that I find very appealing.

finished the inner workings and ready to put the fuselage haves together

here the halves, lower wing, rudder and elevators are glued on. The upper is there temporarily to line the wing struts up while the glue dries

now that the body is together I can see why it was called "Walfisch"  Whale. It is pretty fat and rounded.