Brilliant, Sasho - absolutely wonderful.  The "see-thru" effect looks so natural against the sky.  Nicely done!

Hello dear ladies (I hope there are some around) and Gentlemnes,

I declare this bird finished, even thou without a base - maybe sometime in the future I will add one, but for now it will have to be without one.

Here are some pictures:

Thanks for checking,

Sasho

Thanks Chuck...looking at the instructions, getting the wing and landing gear are going to be interesting....to say the least...

Great looking little bumblebee, there, Bob!  Good luck!

More progress pics from the last couple of days.

The striping turned out better than I had hoped...could still be better though...and the olive green was a mix of three different Tamiya greens (left overs) and some Tamiya Lemon Yellow....couldn't duplicate it if I wanted to.  Hope to get some Future on tonight, paint the engine & machine gun and maybe decal & assemble tomorrow night-not much time for weathering & rigging, but I'll give it a shot.

Very nice build Chuck-well done.

Congratulations Chuck,

she looks terrific!

Sasho

Well done, Chuck! Absolutely beautiful job.

(Plus---an epic flashback. Your first photo is almost a perfect match for the box art on the old "white box" release of Revell's 1/28 version. Though sporting a much finer finish, I must say.)

Okay guys – I’ve finished my odyssey.  Thanks to all the Group for the camaraderie, words of encouragement, and all the cool new techniques.  A special thanks to Aaron and Tim for hosting an awesome Group Build.  I’m thinking they’ve set the bar high, since this was my first one.

 She took just a shade under 49 hours.  I’ve learned that:

• I need a lot of work on painting with oils
• I need more parts containers, so I don’t lose anything (ever again!)
• I love Wing Nuts kits (yes…I know…this is a Roden kit…)
• When you think to yourself “I could probably do better than that” and you don’t – you should
• I might actually be able to do a dot filter
• Group Builds are fun!

Here she is, my Fokker F.1 – flown by Leutnant Werner Voss in one of history’s epic dogfights.  Thanks again to my awesome family for getting me this last Christmas, too!

Meet the Fokkers:

Have fun guys!  See you at the hanger party!

Looking very good, Bob. I'm hopeful...dare I say confident...that you'll be able to slip past the last pylon before time runs out.

Thank you Chuck-this is going to be more of a test-bed at this point...I will be...errr....hope to be better prepared next go-round involving a WW I plane.

Bob - looks great!  Keep going...looking forward to more.

John-so sorry to hear of your loss.

Hey all-again, great work being posted.  Really-very impressive work by the gang.  I feel like the kid that was put in with the Advance Placement classes by mistake....

Having said that, I managed to get the cockpit completed and the fuselage buttoned up-not my best work but I'm going to try my hardest to make the 7/31 deadline.

A coat of Tamiya flat yellow has been applied-too dark-will be working to lighten it up a bit today-hopefully get the black stripes on tomorrow, along with painting the wings....at least that's the plan.

GMorrison

Left to do on the Felixstowe:

- Rig all of the transverse flying wires. Rig the aileron control wires (oh, and install the ailerons)

- Make up six dual and two single Lewis gun positions. Install them.

- Fabricate bomb racks and mount the bombs.

- Build the little rope ladder into the dorsal gun position.

- Install the props and the exhaust pipes.

- Install the fuel lines.

- Install the wind screens.

- Paint the beaching trolley.

-Generally touch up, clean up and straighten everything.

Great to see things being checked off the list! We're all keeping our fingers crossed.

Left to do on the Felixstowe:

- Rig all of the transverse flying wires. Rig the aileron control wires (oh, and install the ailerons)

- Make up six dual and two single Lewis gun positions. Install them.

- Fabricate bomb racks and mount the bombs.

- Build the little rope ladder into the dorsal gun position.

- Install the props and the exhaust pipes.

- Install the fuel lines.

- Install the wind screens.

- Paint the beaching trolley.

-Generally touch up, clean up and straighten everything.

Everybodies builds are looking great.

TK- have no fear. I came home last night and the woman who cleans our house threw a stack of newspaper on my bench. I removed one sheet at a time and lo the Felix was OK.

There's got to be a way to put on that top wing first time right, but I haven't figgered it out yet,

Yeah sorry to hear that Tim, I hate to do all the work and then things go south in the end.

And that's one reason I don't use superglue for anything anymore, last bottle dried up I haven't bought any since...

Ssasho-looking incredible. Yup no hiding the scheme once you're in the air. Love the checkers.

Tim-bad break but sounds like you are getting things under control. A break now and than is always good for clearing the head. Relax amd enjoy the four fingers ( twice or 3 times maybe)

Hmmm...I think maybe it means I just messed up a different area is all.

Good luck, have fun, and nurse the headache.

Greg - Thanks. I'll definitely take you up on that drink.

Chuck - Dude, that is an awesome offer, but I have the exact sections I need from the last square you sent me. You must have seen into the future with that one!

Oouch!  Tim, I feel for ya.  Good idea - get some altitude for a new perspective this weekend, then tackle this next week.  I can check and see if I have some more undersurface decal bits left, if that would help?...

Wow, Tim, I do sooooo feel for you. Sorry for the damage to those beautiful decals, but glad you got the CA cleared out and the wing back on. Really, really glad you didn't abandon it (or, worse, try the high-impact wall test, as I was tempted to do with mine when things went pear-shaped.)

From the photo, it looks great. Have a great weekend (thinking about anything other than Fokkers), and have one of those four-fingers of good stuff on me.

Thanks, Phil. You're definitely right about the time away.

I think the most frustrating part for me was that I was at the end--I mean, all I had to do was glue and run rigging. Touch ups, flat, and finish the prop. Then I goofed. Serious face-palm moment.

I breathed enough turpentine fumes yesterday to suffocate a small child, so there's little wonder why my brain hurts and my decision-making is impaired. I'm sure four fingers of whisky will fix all my problems.

All in all, I think she's looking pretty nice.

Tim

What can I say we've all been there, try to save time and it bites you. The time away will do you good as your stress levels will be down and you will just see the end of the project

Phil

OK, today has been about the suckiest day I can remember. After a week of marathon building, I test-fitted the top wing this morning and everything was PERFECT.

Then I got too cute for my own good and decided to use super glue to attach the wing rather than plastic cement. A mistake that will go down in the annals of bad decisions.

The glue set before I could get all the struts into position. Luckily, I was able to get everything apart; unluckily, super glue set inside the connection recesses and damaged my wing decals.

Up until about 15 minutes ago, I had called it quits. Nothing was fitting back together, and it looked like all the work and effort was for naught. Aaron, ever the positive one, made the comment that if GMorrison could weather all of the challenges the Felixstowe had thrown at him, then what was this little setback?

Then it occurred to me that debonder might soften the hardened super glue enough for me to get the struts into position. It did, but it also ate the hell out of the struts.

Still, the upper wing is on.

I'm going to let it sit over the weekend. I need some time away from the build. I'm eating ibuprophen like Skittles right now. My intention was to hit you guys with another vlog, but I doubt you all want to watch me clutch my head for three minutes while Aaron tries not to look uncomfortable at my wretched groans. So, we'll have to wait until next Thursday and the reveal of the final surprise--of which some of you are already aware ...

As it sits, we have six days left in the build, gentlemen. Aaron is well on his way to finishing, and it looks like Sasho is, too. Gamera is as close as I am or closer. GMorrison has put his TDL together for the Felixstowe. I hope to hear from TZombie, Freem, and Bob before too long. And let's not forget Chuck with the F.1 and John with his DH.9A.

Take care guys.

Tim

Wow, we are close to the end. I've had to make a to-do list and calendar it, because I do not want to be late.

Left to do on the Felixstowe:

- Rig all of the transverse flying wires. Rig the aileron control wires (oh, and install the ailerons)

- Make up six dual and two single Lewis gun positions. Install them.

- Fabricate bomb racks and mount the bombs.

- Build the little rope ladder into the dorsal gun position.

- Install the props and the exhaust pipes.

- Install the fuel lines.

- Install the wind screens.

- Paint the beaching trolley.

-Generally touch up, clean up and straighten everything.

For the Brandenburg:

- Glue together the wings, fuselage and float sub assemblies.

- Fill, touch up and clean up.

- Build the flex mount Parabellum and install. Install the fixed guns.

- Build the engine, install the exhausts and install.

- Install the bug deflector.

- Scratchbuild and install the airspeed indicator.

- Assemble and paint the beaching trolley.

This one's my kind of kite. Monoplane, no flying wires and no external control wires. Sweet!

I'll write both up after the deadline. Neither kit was easy, and the little one had major decal issues.

Thank you for the kind words guys :)

Tim, I don't like the DVII, but your build makes me one to get one ;)

Keep up the good work and finish on-time

Best regards,

Sasho

Congratulations, Sasho.  This one's not going to get lost on the airfield, is it!

Gentlemen, 

It's a little later than I'd hoped, but here are some progress shots.

Here, I've applied the smoke affect a la Wing_nut and am getting ready for the dot filter.

Beginning the dot filter process. I've never done this before on anything and I wasn't sure I would like the outcome, so I decided to start on the bottom of the lower wing.

It's subtle, I'll say that. One wing down, now on to the next.

Snapped just a few minutes ago ...

Sasho:

Beautiful job!

(And the Allies have tied it up again...at least until the Finescale Flying Circus arrives with their Jagdgeschwader of D.VIIs.)

Wow Sasho! Again, why can't I finish a simple one colour plane with very little rigging when you turn out something that impressive???

Magnificent!!!