Greg, I think that stitching will add a lot, and will look good under some paint.  My old Smer Nie. 11could benefit from that technique.

Chuck, those loose tubes are the intake manifold, and on many rotaries I have seen they are a brass color.  The exhaust valves on all rotaries just vent right out of each cylinder head at the exhaust manifold, which is how the castor oil traveled out as well.  Monosoupape type rotaries had the intake valves inside the pistons, and no intake manifolds.   The color of the cylinders looks just right, that dark steel.  I am really impressed with how fine the steel is on the rotary cylinders from that time.  I hope my propeller looks as good as yours if I should ever get that far.

And yes, it was a fine video this week.  Just before the end I was nearly in tears, and the rendition of the theme song from the Magnificent Seven at the finishing credits seemed entirely appropriate, if hardly recognizable.

Greg: Those stripes look great!

Chuck: All around great work there, engine, prop, cockpit - everything!

Happy weekend everyone!  As I  had hoped I was able to win back some ground, and get some pics of the progress.  Don't worry - the exhaust manifold is just sitting on the engine - it's not fixed in place yet.

The pictures of the prop show a quick view of using RB Productions "Laminated Prop Tool."  I had used this for the first time on my D.VII and liked it - I still need practice to get it right, but being inherently lazy this lets me get close without a bunch of masking, and avoids me having to admit I don't have enough talent to carve a prop - skills we are witnessing first hand here.

Hope you enjoy the pics.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Nice work fellas!

John, the DH.9 looks really impressive. Bang up job on the engine, and the clear orange definitely gives that varnished look to the 'wood'.

Chuck, can't wait to see some pics! Been eagerly anticipating this build!

Greg, now that's some serious work., and is one of the great things about group builds - the sharing of techniques like that. Fantastic stuff!

Tim and Aaron, thanks for another great vlog! You guys are a hoot to watch, and it was awesome seeing everyone's work. Those guys are setting the bar very high for the rest of us. Gonna have to step up my game just to keep up with you all.

Work has been steadily moving along on the E.III. Fuselage is buttoned up, seams are clean with the cowling farings in place, and construction has progressed to the main gear. A test fit of the wings to the fuselage was near perfect and has me seriously considering saving their installation for the absolute final steps, after everything else is completely assembled, painted, decaled, and weathered.

Props (no pun intended) to Tim and Aaron for another excellent vlog. I really enjoy those.

Tried something new. (For me, at least.)

Since the Eduard Baby's fuselage molding is pretty flat and featureless...

...I thought I'd dress it up a little by adding a bit of 3-D detail, in the way of stitching and lacing. The tools: paper-thin styrene sheet (Evergreen .005, I believe), a metal straight edge, and Trumpeter's "Hobby Rivet Maker" rivet tool, which I purchased a while ago, but had thus far never used. I used a regular cutting pad for a backup surface.
For each line of stitching needed, I made several passes with the rivet tool, relying on random chance to "overlap" the rivet tracks slightly, to give something that looks (vaguely) like seam stitching that's been taped over and doped. Then, using a new #11 blade, I sliced these lines of stitching into strips.

Then, using brush-on liquid cement, I applied these strips of stitching to the naked fuselage. (Obviously, there's a bit of PE lacing there as well, from and old Tom's set.)

I suspect the effect would be more to scale on a 1/32 bird, but even for 1/48, it doesn't look bad. (I tried to get low-angle lighting in the photos to show the raised effect, so the shadows look harsher and deeper than they ordinarily do to the eye. I'm hoping that with a touch of light sanding, a coat of primer and dark-toned topcoat, they'll look about right.)

May get a bit more done this weekend. Hope everybody's builds are going smoothly.

Wow...great job guys!  Best one yet in my opinion.  Cool seeing everyone's work too.  This Group Build thing is fun!  I hope to have pictures of actual progress this weekend so I can recover some of my confidence.  Everyone have fun, and have a great weekend!

The new vlog post is live for you guys.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

gregbale

"Reminds me of that fella back home who fell off a ten-story building. As he was falling, people on each floor kept hearing him say, 'So far, so good. So far, so good.' "

"We deal in lead, friend."

John - Regular programming resumes today. Very nice work, by the way!

Great set of pics there.  And it does help since I am about ti get rolling on that.

 HERE"S A HOT LINK to the sight.

well for anyone doing a mercedes  DIII engine I found a site that might help

http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/alb/engine.htm

hope it helps

Wow, nice work there Greg and Jeaton, I love the injection wires Greg!

I have the landing gear on the Nieuport, still looks a little crooked to me but maybe it's my eyes. Still it's better than what I had before.

Well, it's the Tim and Aaron Show I'm atalkin' about, and if things keep go'in this aways a certain DH-9a is gonna be takin' out a cuppla D-7's who aint got no firin pins at all!  (imagine the Duke speakin)  I may even get Dark Powers to be my Observer on that sortie.

And with that out of the way, I've been working on the Liberty and the engine mount parts.  Doing the ignition wires right now, and for my shaky old fingers this is what you call an extreme sport.  I've always had shaky hands, I remember painting the deicer boots on the old Revell A-4 in about 1957 and finally figuring out that if I braced my hands just right and made the shaking go parallel to the leading edge I could get acceptable results (for an 11 year old).  (It took a few more years to figure out that A-4's didn't have boots!)

The parts breakdown is very helpful for painting, all the aluminum parts are separate from the black, except for things like the rocker arm detail but the definition is very good on all the little details.  Look at the valve spring detail.  I did come across the second thing in the kit that shows perhaps a little too much speed in development, the first was a reference to some pe parts for the rudder bars that are not supplied, on the engine 4 oil filler/breather elbows are supplied, and there are places to put them on both sides of the crankcase, but the instructions have a caution that they only go on one side and you have to fill and sand the holes on the other side of the crankcase.  OMG.

Tim Kidwell

If someone's threatened to take away movies tonight, tell us who and give us back the firing pins! WE RIDE! <The Magnificent Seven theme plays loudly in background>

"Reminds me of that fella back home who fell off a ten-story building. As he was falling, people on each floor kept hearing him say, 'So far, so good. So far, so good.' "

jeaton01

And by the way, what is all this BS about no movies tonight??!!

If someone's threatened to take away movies tonight, tell us who and give us back the firing pins! WE RIDE! <The Magnificent Seven theme plays loudly in background>

jeaton01

And by the way, what is all this BS about no movies tonight??!!

Whatever do you mean? It's a double feature.

And by the way, what is all this BS about no movies tonight??!!

Looks pretty convincing, Greg.

Greg - Welcome back! Good looking start.

Shiv - Better your ribs heal and the Roland take a backseat. Ruddratt's right: We're going until the end of July, so there's plenty of time.

I made a total hash of rigging the control yoke today. The suture thread got turned the wrong way and just wouldn't sit right. I had to cut it all off and reattach it. It's passable now, but FRUSTRATING. On the upside, the seat belts look fantastic, if I do say so myself. Very pleased.

We ordered our turnbuckles from Gaspatch last night. Once those come in, I'll finish rigging the cockpit. But in the meantime, I think the wings would be a good place to work.

Everyone give themselves a pat on the back and drink a cup o' your favorite beverage tonight. You've all earned it.

Checking back in after being AWOL for a bit. I have been following the GB regularly and with great interest, and I have to say I'm awed, inspired and downright envious of the incredible work being done here. You're all hoisting the bar to an impressive height. Having finally cleared away enough of life's little annoyances to get a start on my Eduard Sopwith Baby floatplane, I'm keen to try to catch up.
I opted for the cast metal engine option included in the kit, as it's a great improvement over the plastic version. But it's still just naked cylinders and crankcase, so I started by adding pushrods and rocker arms from styrene rod and scrap.

Then I casually read the instructions for the umpteenth time...and realized that, in my enthusiasm to get on with my build, I'd left out the little photoetched ring that goes UNDER the pushrods. (Of course.)
Not an auspicious start...but perhaps my dues are paid up with the modeling gods (at least for the moment). Having temporarily found myself out of CA adhesive, I'd done all the assembly with a clear vinyl craft-glue type adhesive (since none of the parts would be subject to any real stress or strain). Not having to battle CA joins, it turned out to be a fairly simple matter to cut the photoetched ring in half and carefully slide the halves in under the pushrods. Only one set popped off in the process, cleanly and easily repaired.

I flattened a bit of brass wire to use for the intake manifolds.

After painting everything steel and adding some washes (black first, then oily brown on the cylinders), I added spark plugs and ignition wires from stretched sprue. The final result:

Not much, but it feels good to finally make a start. Onward and upward.

John, I think you are in the correct range of rigging wire size, according to this diagram:

www.flickr.com/.../set-72157604984202028

As for adherence, I think having a drilled out hole at the attachment point helps to hold a puddle of glue so it doesn't dry too quickly.  I'm thinking a gel type crazy glue would do well here.

regards,

Jack

O man,  I started rigging my D.III last night, what fun to try to get CA to stick on the end of a .004 dia  thread.  On that note is that dia too small for a 1/48.  before I get to far along.

John

Man there's som stunning work starting and finished in here. I'm not in your GB but here's my only and first 1/72 "Fokker Eindecker" by Roden.

i1204.photobucket.com/.../0-Fokker0Eindecker52.jpg

Here I scratchbuilt the spoke wheels...

i1204.photobucket.com/.../0-Fokker0Eindecker40.jpg

i1204.photobucket.com/.../0-Fokker0Eindecker41.jpg

i1204.photobucket.com/.../2011_TigerFest-Winnings-1.jpg

Man, you fellas are knockin' my socks off, from the DH.9 to the F2.A, the D.III, the Bristol, and, heck,  ALL OF 'EM,  great work guys!!

Bish, I am LOVIN' that 0/400 ! Fantastic work that is, and to think it's your first bipe - that's really impressive!

Jack, looking forward to seeing that engine, and it's great to see you joining in on the fun!

Shiv, ouch man!! Take it easy and heal up - this GB is gonna be going strong for a while. The Roland is a neat lookin' bird. Can't wait to see some pics.

Cliff, sorry to hear about the issues with the gear. I'm sure things will go a lot better in your next attempt. I think you got the main color nailed. I'm really anxious to see this build!

...and yeah, 15 out of 18, those are some serious numbers!

Tim Kidwell

Bish

Thats a damn good ratio for any GB.

 

Be honest: Have you flown it around the house? Even a little? 

Of course not, i am a grown man.

And likewise, i don't move my half built AFV's around the desk takeing out Russians left right and centre.

Bish

Thats a damn good ratio for any GB.

It sure makes for a lot going on! I love it!

And speaking of "damn good," the 0/400 is coming along very well (almost used smashingly, but thought  better of it as I might get called out for some sort of technical foul). It's going to be very impressive when all is said and done.

Be honest: Have you flown it around the house? Even a little? 

Tim Kidwell

GMorrison

I painted the whole thing insignia yellow. Then I masked off about 2/3 of it and painted the rest black, using 6" wide (at scale) strips of tape, and a 30 deg triangle. Next I removed all of the tape and oversprayed the whole thing with the finish color, diluted burnt sienna.

Then three coats of Future.

Looks cool I think.

 

Jack - Good to see you! With you and Bish out and about, we're looking at 15 of the 18 birds on workbenches.

Thats a damn good ratio for any GB.

GMorrison

I painted the whole thing insignia yellow. Then I masked off about 2/3 of it and painted the rest black, using 6" wide (at scale) strips of tape, and a 30 deg triangle. Next I removed all of the tape and oversprayed the whole thing with the finish color, diluted burnt sienna.

Then three coats of Future.

Looks cool I think.

GM - Definitely looks cool, and what a great process!

Jack - Good to see you! With you and Bish out and about, we're looking at 15 of the 18 birds on workbenches.

Marc - I still have a nagging cough and a runny nose, but it hasn't turned into something worse, thankfully. I've had the debilitating cough in the past though, so I am there with you. Get well!

Excellent work, everyone. 

Ok, the easy bit is almost over. Just about ready to paint before i do the rigging. As you can see, the inside sections of the wings are on. My plan is to paint and weather as you see. Then add the rigging followed by the outer parts of the wings. Then mask and finish off the paint. Thats the best way i can think of.

You can see here the pre made holes for the rigging. The instructions have it done in one long line for each wing. The raised square pieces are the recesses for the support struts.

I lost one of the support struts for the right engine so i need to replace that as well as mask and a bit more sanding.