WWI Aerial

[ZeroTwentythree]

I've finished assembling the Eduard Fokker DR.1 for a friend. From a distance it doesn't look so different from the Airfix DR.1. But the quality of the kit is far better, both in terms of detail and assembly. The only snag was that one of the struts was broken on the sprue. I believe I managed to repair it, though.




I have also started assembling a Revell Sopwith Triplane for myself. It's wretched.Worse than the Airfix models (so far) to a similar degree that the Eduard model is better. I have a couple more Revell waiting to be built -- I hope they're not all like this.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Here's a shot of everything I've got done so far. Since the last entry, I assembled the Revell S.E.5a, which looks great and went together very quickly and painlessly - a big difference from the Tripe.

Note, the DR.1 on the "ground" is the Eduard model I'm working on for a friend, not mine. Earlier this week I picked up some "music wire" from the local hobby store. It's a little finer than the wire I used on the Pup. I'm going to try it out on the minimal rigging on the DR.1.

[Easy E]

Great Plog. I look forward to seeing your future paint jobs using the reference book.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Back from the (almost) [b]dead...


I've moved into the new house, and between moving, work and our almost 1 year old (already?!?!) daughter, I haven't had a chance to completely unpack my painting/work area. I've been itching to paint, but sick of digging through boxes trying to find the remainder of my painting supplies. But most of the modeling stuff is ready. So I've taken a few late night breaks from everything this week, and started putting together a few more planes.

Initially, my thought was to even out the Allies/Central ratio -- so I wanted to put another Central plane together. After far too much deliberation, I decided on a Roden Pfalz D.III, mainly on the weight of it being almost as sexy looking a plane as the Albatross D.V. Unfortunately the Roden kit is not quite up to "the sexy." It's got a ton of flash, is very delicate, and the kit doesn't seem to be broken into components in the most ideal way. The whole back portion of the fusilage actually sheered off at one point. I think I've got that repaired pretty well, but the front portion has horrible seams, even after trying to file, sand and putty it all together.



At some point I just got frustrated and started working on an old Airfix SPAD XIII. What a difference. It's a very nice kit, easilly as detailed as the Roden kit, but without all the flash, fragility, and awkward assembly. The only down side to this particlar kit is that it was an opened second hand kit in a bag, and was missing one of the wheel covers. Not a huge losss, I've left them both off and will just try to fill & sand the wheel where the axle shows through (I already trimmed it back priorto assembly. The other negative -- and this is 99% my fault -- is that the horizontal stabilizer isn't level. I missed this in the dry fit, and even after a bit of knife & solvent work (and thinking I had it fixed!) it rebounded back into its incorrect possition.



One other thing I've done is to assemble a custom kit-bashed resin designer toy combined with some spare plane parts (another SPAD) and other bits. The bonus is that this gave me a chance to try out "music wire" for the rigging, rather than the other types of wire I had been using. I'm completely converted. The music wire has a fine memory and snaps back into place very well. Very easy to work with, too. No more saging or bent lines!





After doing the rigging on this toy and discovering the joy of "music wire" I will be going back and rigging the previously assembled planes that had planned painting while ignoring the rigging as too much fidley detail.

[ZeroTwentythree]

The Pfalz didn't come with a pilot. Neither did the Eduard DR.1. So I'm thinking about picking up this set to remedy that issue:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=539

[Slartibartfast]

Glad to have you back. I have gotten some planes recently and went looking for this thread. It was buried pretty far.

I noticed you painted the planes after assembly, it appears. How did you get the wires to attach?

Also what are you doing for details, ie the crosses and insignia? I have looked all over the place and not seen any decals for these planes. Keep in mind most of the websites I looked at are horrendously layed out and hard to navigate. I hope your not going to say you freehand them because I suck at that.

Glad to hear that you are still around and getting stuff together. It is a pain to move and try and set up a new painting station.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I assemble fully, then paint, mostly be aide that is what I am comfortable with as a primarily miniatures-painter.

For wire, I have tried a number of options, but I'm happy to have discovered "music wire" at the local hobby store, which is very springy and available in a very thin gauge. I'm just using Gorilla CA glue to glue it on.

As far as insignia, I'll mostly use decals -- though I hate them -- with a bit of freehanding.

[Slartibartfast]

Cool, thanks for the info.

Did your kits come with decals or do you have a line to get them seperately? IF not with kits could you give me a link to where you get them? Historically the planes are so "marked up" that free hand scares me.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Every kit I've assembled so far has come with decals. However, I am going to look into buying some separate decals or possibly printing my own. I don't want to use the same insignia that was included with some of the planes.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Finally finished assembling the Roden Pfalz D.III. This is easily the worst/ugliest assembly job I've done. I'm really not fond of the kit. Don't like the way it assembled, the flash, the lack of a pilot, and the flimsy landing struts. Although there is nice surface detail, I prefer sacrificing for softer details on the (mostly) easier to assemble Airfix kits -- especially considering they're 1/72 scale.



Still need to do the rigging. I bought some more wire, so I'm thinking about rigging the last few planes I've assembled (Pfalz, Albatross, SPAD & SE5a) and maybe even starting to actually get some more painted (gasp!)

[Lord Dan]

Awesome stuff here. It's nice to see you working with models I've never seen before.

What scale are these, by the way?

[Crube]

I believe he said they're 1:72



I echo the welcome back though. Lovely to see the WW1 aircrat getting some love again!

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks. Yes, they are 1/72 scale planes.

I really need to get painting some of them! I've been enjoying building the kits, for the moment, though.