Knights of the Sky WWI GB The End

Very impressive work, Scott! Makes me want to give my strip-down E.IV another go. I'm really looking forward to seeing this build of yours finished! Should be a stunner based on what you've shown us so far!

Progress has been being made slowly and steadily on my Albatros D.V. Should have some progress pics up soon.

Greetings Scotty;

I am glad that my inane babble has helped.  You are doing an impressive job here by the way. Nicely Done.

Sir Drake and Andrew,

Nice job on the builds!

All,

I had a long weekend and have actually finished the Fokker Dr. I, but it will probably be a few days before I take the "finished" photos and post them as I begin long hours at work, on the night shift in a few hours.  Here are some in-progress photos that I took the other evening as I wanted to show some of the detail before it was covered up.

Here are the subassemblies, note that the fuselage sides and top remain on the fret...

A closeup of the fuselage with lower wing installed and a completed engine/cowling/propellor.

A closeup of the cockpit.

As I was completing the assembly, I decided to only install the right side panel on the fuselage as it allows some visibility into the aircraft.  This is my fourth Eduard Strip down kit build, and they are very fragile and time consuming, but I think they look pretty cool when built.

If you are a parent, you probably should not tell your kids this, but this time my procrastination paid off.  The part on the lower wing that was giving me fits was due to my misinterpretation of the Eduards "fantastic" directions.  Luckily I waited to mount the other side of the wing and paint it before I did anything rash.  As it turns out, the pieces belonged there as the wing braces do not fit flush against the fuselage.  I guess that all is well that ends well.

Once again, thanks to Stephen for his help along the way.  As you can see, the linen only went onto a very small piece behind the seat.  I also found that the red looks different on the plastic parts as compared to the photoetched ones.

Any and all comments will be appreciated.

Excellent work there Andrew!  I may have to dig my Nieuport outta the box now...

Great job, I updated page 1 for you!

Ok here is the pictures of the testor Neuiport. Sorry forgot to tell you it was a entry

Thanks for looking

Thanks everybody! Glad you enjoyed the LEGO Camel. Hope I can keep up with that level of authenticity and historical accuracy in future builds

SD 

Ok here's the newports, I started both of them yesterday and here's where I am

Eduard.

Testors:

Thanks

Good job steven and Sir Drakethats  a pretty cool camel.

The instructions begin with assembling parts for Roden's  200 - 220hp  Wolseley W.4a "Viper". Note the parts map shows  parts for the 200hp Hispano- Suiza engine are on the same tree.  But in truth they were gated out.  To explain,  molds have small gates that allow for certain parts to not be filled with styrene when poured.

StephenLawson wrote:

I was recently sent this to review.  Its geared to the average modeler and is very well done.  Very cool stuff.  The author discusses items he made to detail an old Lindberg Biplane.  If you have a kit that you wish you had a better cockpit for, or a better engine to use - this may be your ticket. Mold Making & resin casting

Got mine a day or two ago.  Worth every penny.

Long time since I checked in the GB.  Went back A LOT of pages... finger are tried now... Great work just keeps pouring out of the build.

Yeah!!!

That's awesome.  I miss the old Lego days.

I can't even begin to guess how many of the Lego castles that I built back in the day... wow.  

Great lookin' build! :):)

Here's some progress with the Lego Sopwith Camel. The kit with the largest number of parts, and ther shortest build time. Well, it might get some minus points for accuracy, but what the heck...

The most detailed of engines. I rotates, of course. Six cylinders. Six...? 



And there's the instrument panel. Obviously no need for further detailing.  


Front fuselage with lower wing bases. Please note that the rigging is attached at a comparatively early stage.


Rear section of the fuselage. Now as I'm writing this, I realize that this kit is missing the rear fuselage  bottom


And both parts fused together.


Oops, something went wrong here.


Much better.


And finsihed. Took about two hours in total. I know there's "weekend kits", so this could qualify as "weekday kit".
You realize that there are no decals, or stickers. The kit initially came with stickers, but the stickers from lego are known to becom brittle and ugly rather quickly, so I decided to remove them. Maybe I'll just airbrush the markings one day.  

A look into the cockpit. Everything's in place, nearly undistinguishable from the original.


With a quarter for "scale". Both wingspan and length are about 42cm, which makes it a bit difficult to calculate a scale for an aircraft that has a length to width ratio of 2/3 . The scale caclulates  then somewhere between 1:14 and 1:20...


Look at this. To tell the truth I managed - as it is the tradition for any lego builder - to lose one part. It was there when I got the kit. It probably hides in some dark corner of my apartment, under the sofa, between seat cushions...


Don't know about you, but I grew up playing a lot with lego, and it brought back a lot of memories of my childhood. Building the kit was a great fun. And you know the big advantage? I can do it again! And again. And again...
 
Not to forget, there's another kit from Lego: The Red Baron Dr.1...  

SirDrake

jeaton01 wrote:

I have come to that point where I can (sort of) gracefully say I have reached a "draw" with my Eduard Siemens-Schuckert D.IIIa.

John, excellent job! I've been away for a spell, looks like I missed some great progress. Came out most excellent.

And Stephen, thank you for the favorable review for my very first book!

Excellent, thanks Steven!

I'm on my way over to Aircraft right now.

Daywalker wrote:

Very good Stephen, I'll look for it over there!

Done. The S o St.L.  is up in the aircraft section.

Daywalker wrote:

One other thing, do you happen to still have the instruction sheet for your 1/48 Eduard Fokker DVIII?  Would it be possible (if you still have them) to scan them for me?  I was wondering about the markings, so I could place some of the ones you sent me correctly.  Thanks Stephen!

I found them and have scanned them and put in download file and will send the URL by PM.

Very good Steven, I'll look for it over there!

One other thing, do you happen to still have the instruction sheet for your 1/48 Eduard Fokker DVIII?  Would it be possible (if you still have them) to scan them for me?  I was wondering about the markings, so I could place some of the ones you sent me correctly.  Thanks Steven!

Greetings Frank.  No, the outside then was still bare plastic.  Done and over now I have just given the closed up,second fuselage its silbergraü cover.  I'll post an image or two over on "aircraft" later.

No worries Scotty. all the best.

Stephen,

You could be right about them being a cross member, but they are too far back to be associated with the spar.  I went through my reference books again last evening, and as before, I do not see a cross member, brace, or anything else in the area where this would be located.  I did not get much building in, but I will be trimming off the excess brass on the trailing edge of both pieces of the bottom wing to allow for installation of the wing from the bottom up.  I also took a close look at the box photos for the kit, and it appears that the person who built the kit for those photos opted to cut off the excess as well.  Once again I thank you for your input.

More Power Scotty wrote:

Stephen,  If you look at your link on page 5 my issue is with the trailing edge on pieces PE 30 and 31.  I did trim PP (Plastic Part) C3 as described, and as you surmised, it is to make the parts fit correctly.  The instructions do not show just how long those trailing edge pieces are, but they each extend about halfway through the fuselage.  I do have a couple of reference books that show a bit of a cutaway, and I do not see a support that goes through the bottom of the fuselage as these would, I only see the heavy wooden wing spar (PP C3 in the kit).   I am probably going to go ahead an cut off the excess trailing edge of those pieces (PE 30 & 31) so that the wings fit flush against the fuselage.  I have painted the other two wings wooden sections as I have completed them.  On the bottom wing I have only installed PE 30 as I had not decided how to tackle the trailing edge issue.  The other issue that had me stumped even if I installed the wing from the side as PP C3 and PE 30 then added PE 31 with that in place, was how I would add the cockpit floor as it mounts on top of PP C3.  As the directions show, the wing needs to be installed from the bottom, not from the side.  Thanks for your help so far on my issues with this build, and I will try to get a photo or two in the not too distant future.

This has me thinking that those brass ends that stick out represent the fuselage cross members that the spar fit against.  But rather than build them into the fuselage they added them to the wing roots so you could slip the flooring in from the bottom.