Knights of the Sky WWI GB The End

Daywalker wrote:

Well done Stephen!  I remember the aircraft and the discussion on the 4-color wing, but I don't remember the details.  COuld you refresh my memory please?

Here is a bit of fun on the subject!

Click Here

And for a bit more here are some detailed images with the overall review.

Click Here too!

Hey Frank!

Nice to see that Fokker coming along.  How'd you end up hinging the tail?  It looks great!!

Those gun barrels look awesome too!!  Can't wait to see some more progress, man.

Greetings Frank,

 Since your into the Dark look here is a bit of fun I did years ago. You have seen my more recent effort with the new research on the top wing. 4 Colours involved there. 

Greetings all;
I received this recently.

"Hello Stephen;  Our 78FG webmaster just sent me a tag to a trailer for the
new RED BARON film.  Go to - www.pixomondo.com.  Looks like a great film.  I
really enjoyed your article in OTF-V22-N4-W07 and the other fellows on 141AS  and 64W.  We're getting our Ducks in a row to visit Maxwell AFB AFHRA next  month.  Thanks again for your work on the OTF article - great stuff.  Later and greater; Garry Fry aka FM"

Lots of How they did it info there. Enjoy!

http://www.pixomondo.com/

Thanks Stephen!  Feels good to be making some progress.  Right now, I am deciding whether or not to add some "meat" to the PE struts to give them more of an airfoil shape or leave them be. 

My plan is to do a factory fresh scheme as I like the idea of a dark look.  Could you verify that my planned scheme would be correct?  I am looking at an Olive green turtle deck, cowl, and main wing with lozenge on the fuselage, tail, and LG "wing".  The rudder will be white with the white line extending down over across part of the vertical tail.  Does this sound right?  Thanks!

Mike,

YOUDAMAN!!!!!!!!!!

PM inbound!

Stephen, simply amazing work! You are indeed the master when it comes to WWI aircraft, sir!

...and that Tri-plane looks like something I could easily add 3 or 4 of to my stash!

Looks good so far, buddy! I know what you mean about DML's (Dragon's) PE. It can be a dog to work with. I have to anneal the crap out of it to get it to cooporate. Nice job rolling the Eduard ones (they are indeed much easier to work with).

I'll check my stash and see if I have any more of that lozenge I sent you. If I do, then just tell me how much you need, my friend. Was it the 4 color or the 5 color?

Just a little update on the DVIII.  I have finished hinging the tail pieces, and the machine guns.  The kit-supplied PE cooling jackets crumpled and tore when I tried to bend them, so I ended up using some replacements from an Eduard PE gun kit.  The barrels are brass wire, with the kit-supplied flash suppressors glued onto the ends.  The cowl piece has been fitted, and the next task is to start bending and fitting the PE struts.  When that is finished, she will be just about ready to paint!  Here she is:

Thanks for that info, and nice work there Stephen!  The PE bracing really adds a "busy" feeling to the fuselage area.

Does anyone know where I might be able to acquire a sheet of 1/48 Eagle Strike decals 4-color upper lozenge?  Mike (ruddratt) was gracious enough last year to send me some, but I don't think I have quite enough to finish the job.  I have already used some on the inside of the cockpit, so I really need to find a sheet of theirs to match what I have already done.  Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

The first hint I had that the PE should be dropped was the PE lower faming / wire bracing harness did not clear the  lowest portion of the engine.

Plotting the lay of the PE and getting the engine thrust line correct the unknown factor was the depth of the engine that seems to be about 1/8 an inch too large  from side to side and from top to bottom.   This is not really a problem  but the attachment of the PE sides should be dropped 1/8 of and inch as well.  In other worrds the top edge of the PE should be 1/8 an inch from the top of the kit fuselage inside face.  My original concern was the clearance at the bottom for the lower wing attachment and the reason I set the PE flush with the top edge of the kit fuselage side.

As with any modification the modeler can expect to make small compromises to make the whole affair fit. The Part of Poland PE is very close to being exact but the thickness of the plastic can  get exaggerated when you fine tune the kit parts to fit well with the PE.  I have a need to work on the kit radiator shell (PP 4 F).  As it is a bit wide by aboyt .040 thou.  This may be due to my work and should not be seen as a kit problem.  

Also I recommend only using the PE parts  when it comes to the engine compartment structures. If you use the additional plastic parts as well there is a great deal of time lost on modifying these items.

The placement of the engine is a bit of a compromise as  I wanted the red magneto caps to be visible as on the original but the engine is aboiut 1/8 of an inch too long.

Daywalker wrote:

Great news Stephen!  I gotta get me a Dr.I, do you know if it's a new tooling or an old one with upgrades?

The Fokker Dr.I  is a brand new tooling.

Model On!

ps1scw wrote:

Hello, can anyone direct me to a source for 1/48 scale decals to reproduce:  Thank you

For Stropp D.7161/17 kit decals see;

Kit Decals for #8110 has markings for: A .D.7161/17 'Stropp' of Jasta 46 **'post capture version', late 1918-1919 with lozenge wings recommend by kit instructions. The complicated tail unit markings are impressively simplified for application.

Also Scale Master Decals: Did the IPMS Spruce Goose set for D.7161/17 'Stropp' Of the 4 sets that I have only one was slightly off register. SCALE-MASTER GERMAN MARKINGS
SG-03 - Albatross Dva "Stropp" 1/48. $4.95This is a great set to have and can be found at: http://pacificaeropress.com/

And Propagteam Decals. #48101 have some useful pieces but the Crosses are all too large for their designated placements. In general several of the personal markings are too large or are undernourished in appearance.

The FCM of Brazil sheets # 16 & 17 with 7 aircraft profiles each, were previewed in about March 2003. Look to be very interesting profile wise. It should be noted that the ‘angled layout' of the lozenge camouflage was not used on the production Albatros fighters.

Mike and Justin-

Thanks fellas!  Glad you like my build thus far, it's work from talented people such as yourself that keeps me inspired.

Cool, Frank!!  Good to see some progress.  I'm really anxious to see how that thing turns out in the end!  Nothing but good stuff comes off your bench!!

Man, I'm with Mike.  If I were to have cut that off, I'd simply stick it back on there.  Hope you get it worked out.  

Mike, the Camel is on the workbench, as I just finished up on my Fw-190.  I got that Tom's Modelworks PE gun set too.  I can't have that Camel having plastic guns!!!

Yep! Eduard's Profipak kit #8110.

Frank, looks like you got the fit issues worked out on your bird. Should be smooth sailing the rest of the way, buddy! Not sure if I can be of help on repositioning your control surfaces, though. All I usually do is cut them loose and re-attach them at the desired angle. The hinges I do are more for aesthetics and less for support.

Very nice work space you have there, Stephen!

Hello, can anyone direct me to a source for 1/48 scale decals to reproduce:

Thank you 

Nice work area you have there Stephen!  I won't show mine as it is not much to look at.

As promised, I have a few updated progress photos.  The barrels for the guns were badly warped and removing the seams resulted in banana-like barrels.  SO, I hollowed out the ends and carefully removed them.  The guns in the DML kit look to be generic ones, as the rear mount molded on the gun itself needed to be removed to clear the rear mount located inthe cockpit.  I made new barrels from brass wire, here is one of them ready for the PE jacket next to the other unstarted one:

I cleaned up the axle wing, and cut off the molded on axles to replace them with brass wire in order to get that cambered look to the wheels:

I also was able to remove a little material on the rear cockpit bulkhead so I could insert the pieces and close up the fuselage.  The seams have been taken care of, and the leather cockpit coaming, which was twice as thick on one side as the other, was modified.  I used stretched kit sprue and glued tiny strips that had been bent to follow the curve of the coaming.  after liberally coating them with liquid glue, they were sculpted and blended to match up.  In this photo, you can kinda see the mismatch:

And here, you can see it after sculpting and blending:

I also removed the elevators from the tailplane in order to model them drooped.  A lot of careful scribing and they popped free easily:

I still trying to figure a way to re-connect them and maintain a scale-looking hinge.  I drilled tiny holes for wire to do it, but don't think that will look scale.  Any one have any ideas?

My 9 year old work bench, sorry its abit messier than I like.