100th Anniversary of WWI GB

That sounds interesting with the rippled fuselage. Given the look of that frame work, it would not have surprised me if they supplied fabric to cover it, so I had to ask.

Did a little more work on this little guy. I shaved off the clunky control arms on the ailerons and elevators that will be replaced by thin pe  pieces.

The clunky hand grabs were glued in and when dry were cut off and sanded smooth. They too will be replaced with pe parts.

Broke out my Micromark mini punch set and punched out some instrument faces from my spares.

A few instruments on the wood dash

I did used the kit seat which believe it or not had he correct shape, just sanded it a bit to thin it and painted it dark brown and added the pe belts. The seats also got the tubing detail but it's barely vible when the fuselage halves are joined. I will be closing the fuselage soon but I still need to make the ammo box. The pe control pedals are there but are covered by the IP.

Lookin' good PJ!  The IP definitely looks the part and the wood work is really very impressive.  Nice attention to detail! 

Looks good, PJ!  

Nice work PJ, I do like how you have done the IP.

PJ... Nice looking pit, love the wood look!

Morning all... Made a bit of progress this weekend, it rained alot this week so couldnt get to the yard work and such...(awww shucks) But any way, heres a bit more wip...

The molded in padding had to go, It was not a good fit being two different pieces and it looked like crap, so it will be replaced. Got part of it filed off here...

Finished filing it off and it took a bit but I took a piece of 20gauge coated wire and slowly bent it into shape and after many fittings finally got to where I could super glue into place, after painting.

I cut some "nubs" from an old chrome plated sprue to use as instrument bezels. I dont have the faces on yet, I will do kind of like PJ did on his pit, difference is I found and ordered some "Airscale" brand instrument dials from the LHS. They come in a variaty of eras and countries and scales and all they are is the instrument dial face. They also have placards.

Lastly starting some of the filishing details and effects... Tis all for now! (guns are a bit chinsey but didnt have anything in spare pe to dress up)

Thanks

Doug 

Nice work on the IP PJ.

Rigid, Takes a big pair of tomatoes to make mods AFTER it painted  Well done.

I like what you have done with the padding Doug, and those oil stains are a nice touch.

Well done, Doug; the coaming looks very effective.  Your D.VII is coming along nicely.

My weekend progress is that I have all (well, basically all) of the decals on my Fokker.

No major difficulties with any of them, although I did have some small seams along the upper corners where the side markings meet the top which I have touched up since the photos.  I sprayed some thinned Tamiya Smoke to knock down the blue and white a bit.  The rudder is painted using Gunze Off-White.  I have given everything another gloss coat, and will break out the oil paints for some additional weathering before taking the shine down a couple of notches.

Other than that, I have started painting the undercarriage parts, and planning out where I need to drill for rigging attachment points.  That will be a big task.

Blue

I got a little more work done this weekend.

I also pre drilled the rigging holes next to the fuselage.   also pre shaded the fuselage and painted it gray as well as paint the tail feathers green.

John

Thanks gents! Great progress by everyone. Those old birds are looking great.

I wasn't happy with the kit's thick control stick so I scratched out another from sprue and pe which looks more to scale.

The ammo box and oil tank were scratched out of plastic sheet so something is there instead of a hole. I really did not want to spend so much time in this kit but looks like every time I find something else to improve.

Now when the fuselage is closed up that big hole is gone.

Some really nice scratchbuilding there PJ.

John, that's looking really good. I hope mine can live up to yours.

Blue, that is looking awesome. I really like that scheme, and now I have seen in on the kit rather than just drawings, I think I will defiantly be doing the same one when I get that kit.

John, your Albatross is really starting to look the part; it won't be long before you are rigger her up.

PJ, you may not have wanted to spend too much time on that build, but at least the results of your efforts are worthwhile.  You have really added to that kit.

Bish, thanks for the comments.  I had a hard time picking because I liked a number of schemes for this kit... always a good sign I guess.  I hope I'm doing this one justice.

I've added some streaks and stains using oil washes, and am waiting for them to dry.  From all my reference pictures, the Eindeckers tended towards grubby.   I'll put up pictures when everything has had a chance to dry.

Blue

Blue, I like the decals! That is one cool looking scheme!

PJ, stick looks lots better! Hans would have needed some big hands to work the other one... and I agree, every time you look you see something to improve on! Always do!

John, that is going to be a slick paint scheme... Really do love the WWI colors!

Got back from a brief break and took on the interior wood of the Roland. I used a basic Buff as a start and 'drew' on the graining with a Prismacolor pencil (thanks Wing_nut....I still got a bit of work to do on the technique to get it finer, but, still show up against the buff). Overspray of trans. orange then a red-brown wash. The metal bits were done with the green colour then detailed with oil:

Thanks Bish, Blue and  Rrider. The stick was the kit supplied one and was way out of scale.

Rob..The wood tone looks very nice and clean.

Loving the wood work here guys, I think we have a few budding carpenters. Looks really god there Rob.

rocker...great progress on that Nieuport.

Thanks for the comments on my woodwork. I've got to get it finer for the outside woodgrain, so, I'll have to ensure the pencils are extra sharp.

I got most of the engine done this evening when I realized I didn't take any pics .

Here's one shot of where I am with it...started wiring up the distribution system with copper wire...will paint them yellow once set up:

While the engine was drying, I started on the MGs.

Anyway, nervously started the MGs for the Roland. First off AM brass parts from Master: absolutely the last word in 1/32 PE parts:

Here's the parts sitting beside the kit part:

Kit barrel cut off and hole pin-vice bored for brass barrel:

Front barrel guide and heat shroud cap in place...this was NOT easy:

Heat shroud fixed to plastic kit part:

Barrel fixed:

Front site:

Gungray, Vallejo AIR finish!! NOW, just one more to go!!

I got  the top wing attached,  what a pain, when you do manage to get the wing attached to the 2 center struts it acts like a teeter totter, until you can get the outer struts glued on,  and then adjusted so when you look at it from the front its equal distance for both wing tips,  then if you look down on the top of it you need to make sure it isn't twisted.  But I think I got it right.

 Now for the really scary part the rigging.

Also Eduard did not include the radiator tube from the front of the engine to the wing radiator.  So I'll have to get some styrene rod to make that,  O man another trip to the LHS

John

Great work on those tiny planes.

hey Rob, great metal work. That pe sure brings reality into the picture!

Rocker, Rob & John: great updates all!  On one hand, I am amazed at how well Rocker & John are able to work in that TINY scale, and on the other, I love the details Rob has added in 1/32.   Really nice looking work all around.

Here is my brief update:

The exterior "fabric" surfaces have been stained and streaked using oil paints.  For the general stains, I used dilute washes of a mixture of Burnt Umber and Lamp Black.  For the vertical streaks, I placed small dots of Lamp Black, Burnt Umber, Payne's Grey and Transparent White along the upper edge of the fuselage, and pulled them downward with a flat brush dampened with odorless turpentine.  Everything has been sealed with a light coat of Alclad Matte Klear, which knocked the gloss finish off and blended the stains into the aircraft's surfaces.  I will be adding castor oil stains and spatters as well, and am still thinking through how I want to achieve those.

Other than that, the decals are basically finished (one still needs to be placed on the metal section currently under the tape, and there are two for the wheels that I have yet to do).  I have painted the undercarriage components, and will begin assembling that component soon.  I still need to finish the engine, and have a few random parts that need to be masked and painted (the leather bits on the fuselage, the metal walkways on the wings, windscreen, metal work on the tail skid, etc.), but there isn't too much left to do before final assembly and... yikes... rigging.

Once again, really nice work Rob, Rocker & John.

Blue

Nice work there Rob. I do like master barrels, they are now my first choice for both 72nd and 32nd.

Looking good John. Is the radiator that item sticking up from the wing. I would never have known there was a tube from there to the engine, I will have to remember that, and be watching for your solution.

rocker, I like the scheme there, looking good.

Blue, that looks awesome, I love those massive crosses.

Bish

I love those massive crosses.

Yeah, no mistaking which side was flying this crate, was there?  

Certainly isn't, but just to make sure there's no doubt, there's an extra cross on top of the fuselage as well. The more I see, the more I want one.

How easy will it be to assemble everything without damaging the paint job. That's certainly a different approach, but I can see why you have done it like this.

Well, let's wait until after I get it assembled to answer that question!  

I thought about putting the wings on prior to painting, but thought it would be easier to handle in pieces (fuselage streaking, rib& longeron masking, etc.).  The wings on the actual Eindeckers were in fact separate pieces, and were designed to detach from the fuselage for transport like so:

Because of this, I won't have seams to fill since they would exist on the 1:1 model.  The attachment process is pretty simple, so hopefully I will be able to manage without too much difficulty.  KNOCK ON WOOD.

Coming from WWII aircraft, it definitely took a bit to get my head around the construction sequence for these WWI builds.  Because of the rigging, and (usually) the multiple wings, the standard build-then-paint order becomes more of a do-what-you-think-will-be-easiest order, and no two kit and builder combos are likely to be done in the same way.

I know what you mean about the different build sequence. When I did the 0/400 I painted part of it, rigged, and then had to add the rest of the wings and paint those. Its defiantly a case of doing what you think best for you.

I see what you mean about the wings, the kit ones even have those small little tabs on them. And is that the propeller tucked on top of the undercarriage. On your kit I also see bit on the rudder and between the tail that I am guessing are the attachment points, so I think I am seeing how that works. I certainly would not question your approach, it all makes perfect sense from what I can see.

Paint, decals, and PE all over the place and all looking very sweet.  Great work guys

Rob, you did a bang up job and that wood grain.  And you are most welcome.  It's always kinda cool when someone take your idea and uses it.  Although I'll betcha it's not original.  If I can think of it... someone else probably already did.