Knights of the Sky WWI GB The End

Stephen, that is a great looking power plant. Spot-on with the weathering!

Scotty, one very impressive and unusual collection you have there. I have the E.III kit. Someday soon I may be yanking it out of the stockpile and having a go at it. The Camel looks sweet in spite of the issues you had with the upper wing. I didn't even know that there was a strip-down version of that bird. Nice work!

mkhoot,

Thanks for the kind words!

Ruddratt,

Thanks for your compliment as well.   

The Fokker E. III was the first Strip down kit that Eduard released.  I picked up mine directly from an Eduard rep at the 1996 IPMS Nationals in Virginia Beach.  I thought that it was such a unique idea that I had to have one.  It really was not that bad of a build, even though I was fairly new to working with PE when I built it.  The Fokker D. VIII was the next one that I built, and it was also fairly tame.  Aside from the four that I have built, I know that there is a Fiesler Storch, and I think there might be a Piper Cub, but I have not purchased either of them.  They do make for a unique build, and always draw attention when displayed.  As I have mentioned during my build, you must watch out for just how soft the PE brass is.  A mere sneeze can spell disaster when building one of these fine kits.

Scott- OUTSTANDING WORK!!!  Unbelievable, do you have any photos with something like a coin near it for a size reference?  That would set off it's dimunitive size.  Thanks for the pics, I updated page one for you!

Steven- Great WIP pics!  Looking forward to seeing how this one comes along.

Daywalker,

Thank-you very much!  I will not promise anything too quickly with my hours at work being quite long right now, but I will see about a completed photo with a coin included.  I forgot to include the name placard (another PE piece from the kit) when I took the photos the other night, so I was thinking about adding one more shot anyway.

Since I am using the Part of Poland  set for this kit I will present my build with the brass and Aeroscale member   "RAGIII" has provided some shots of his previous build with the kit parts only.

Stephen,

That plane is really coming along nicely.

I have a couple of questions regarding your build:

1) What are you using for the rigging lines on the frame?

2) What did you do to build up the areas near the tie-offs on those lines?

More Power Scotty wrote:

Stephen, That plane is really coming along nicely. I have a couple of questions regarding your build: 1) What are you using for the rigging lines on the frame? 2) What did you do to build up the areas near the tie-offs on those lines?

Here is a bit of fun from Part of Poland.  I picked mine up from MisterkitUSA.

http://www.misterkitusa.com/850f13c2-edd3-464a-8b11-d7f779fe2431-9.html

Stephen,

That was too easy.   The effect is great as the photo made the rigging look three dimensional.  Like they say, "work smarter not harder".

I know there are people that don'tcare much for PE.  The thing I like is that when you understand the nature of the stuff it really makes everything look better.  PE is just a facade and often you have to add some thickness with sheet plastic to get a 3 - D look.  Take for instance the SE 5a interior.   The fabric and plywood side walls are not the scale thickness of the original.  But all you have to do is add .020 thou to the back of the PE and it raises the detail level.  Otherwise you would have to thin down the kit side wall interiors then add the detail at a larger thickness.  Illusion is as much apart of what we do as glue, paint and plastic.

Also if there is someone out there that hates their WWI PE set please send em my way.

Stephen,

 There are times that I will stick with a plactic or resin part to get a more three dimensional look on an item, but I fell in love with PE parts from the first time that I saw them for the interior of a 1/48 Monogram F-14 kit back around 1990.  The level of detail was astounding, and it took kits to a whole new level.  I have not been able to resist the nearly all PE WWI planes from Eduard (as one can see) as they just look so unique.

Stephen,

Yep, I edited page one but didn't post any thing at the end of the thread.  I pulled out the DVIII this weekend, but am having some difficulty with her.  The extra detail I added in the cockpit is prohibiting closing the fuse up.  Still trying to figure how to fix it!

Frank-- Good luck with that DVIII!  I'm ready to see some progress.  I know how it can be building an a/c that fights you the whole way, though!

I bought a whole boatload of paint this weekend, so I should be able to start on the Camel in the next few weeks--as soon as I finish up this Fw-190!

Hope everyone's doing well!

Daywalker wrote:

Stephen,  Yep, I edited page one but didn't post any thing at the end of the thread.  I pulled out the DVIII this weekend, but am having some difficulty with her.  The extra detail I added in the cockpit is prohibiting closing the fuse up.  Still trying to figure how to fix it!

 Ok I get it. . .slaps forehead.  Try grinding out the inner face of the upper deck since you have the halves together. 

Justin, Stephen-

Thanks guys!

Stephen, the problem I am having is the longerons I added.  I thought I had enough clearance between the rear cockpit bulkhead and fuse sides for them to pass thru, but I must have mis-calculated.  I am afraid to sand or file the longerons for fear of breaking them loose, and I am not sure if grinding out the fuse sides will work.  I'll try to get some pics in the next day or two to show the problem.  Thanks again for the help!

Frank, hang in there buddy! I know you'll get that fit issue solved so well that it'll look as if there were no fit problems at all!

MrDrummy wrote:

I bought a whole boatload of paint this weekend, so I should be able to start on the Camel in the next few weeks--

Good to see you again, Justin! You're in for a real treat with that kit!

Thanks Mike, I appreciate that!

Stephen,

I am hoping to play with the lil' Fokker this weekend, and hopefully an idea will pop into my head.

Ok guys I haven't been here for awhile

Frank: glad it worked. Seemed like a big problem.

Stephen: Great interior there.

Scott: thats incredible! Those builds look hard Great job.

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

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?

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

Thank you 

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!

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!!!

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.