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Wingnut Wings Sopwith F.1 Camel “Clerget” So having finished the Mk.VIII Spitfire it was time to decide what to build next. I don’t have too big a stash, unless you talk to my wife, so my choice is reasonably limited. I have mainly 1:48 kits, 1:72 is far too small for my tired old eyes, in the stash, in no particular order, I have a Tamiya Swordfish and a Lancaster, an Eduard Starfighter, a Revell/Monogram PBY-5A Catalina and B-26 Marauder, ICM Beechcraft C-45, Hobby Boss Sukhoi Su-17M4 Fitter-K, Hasegawa P-38J Lightning (with no instructions!?) and the beautiful 1:32 Sopwith Camel ‘Clerget’. The Lancaster, Catalina and B-26 are going to be “big beasts” and at the moment I’ve nowhere to display them, also the B-26 has been started, by my Father-in-law who’s since passed away so I want to “do something special” with the kit once I finish it, I just have to make up my mind what that will be. I was tempted by the P-38 but I can’t make up my mind if I should go for a NMF or a well-worn green and grey version? Also I was very tempted by the Starfighter but having a look at the Wingnut Wings plastic swayed it, the quality of the moulds is remarkable, so I can only butcher it! The kit has 5 markings: B3834 “Wonga Bonga” Manston Flight RNAS B3889 “B1” 70 Sqn RFC B3893 Sqn 9(N) RNAS B6289 Sqn RNAS B6313 139 10(N) Sqn RAF B7406 4 Sqn AFC I can’t resist “Wonga Bonga” apparently Wonga = Gotha, because of their distinctive engine sound and Bonga = smasher Another reason I chose this scheme is because it has the Sopwith factory detail on the tail and as I grew up near Kingston Upon Thames it has some personal (although tenuous) meaning to me. Last year I went to the show at Telford where I was lucky enough to meet Robert Lane who sculpted this figure I’ve never painted any figures, only one of the aircraft I've built has had a pilot?, so I thought I’d have a crack at this one, what can go wrong? I’m planning on taking my time building this, it'll be the most expensive kit I built, also the most detailed? I’ve never built a 1:32 kit before and everything I’ve heard about Wingnut Wings is positive so I want to enjoy the process as much as I can. As usual I’ll be starting with the cockpit until next time as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

UPDATE: The original Wingnut Wings project (2018) is now the hands of Border Model (2021) Three new Wingnut Wings kits in development to be announced at the All Japan Model & Hobby Show in Tokyo - 28-30 September 2018. Source: http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/ - ref. 32043 - Avro Lancaster B.Mk.I/III : 1/32 - http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3193 - ref. 32044 - Avro Lancaster B.Mk.III "Dambusters" : 1/32 - http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3194 - ref. 32062 - Halberstadt Cl.II (late) - see Britmodeller thread here: link - Scale: 1/32 - http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3195 V.P.

I had the Herman Goering boxing of the Wingnut Wings Fokker DVIIF which comes in a rather boring and difficult (for me) all over white. So imagine my delight when I was at Telford to see that Aviattic had a set of decals depicting an aircraft from the Ukrainian Galician Army in September 1919 with all profits going to charities to help refugees from the Ukrainian war. In addition I used Gaspatch machine guns as I lost some of the original parts and EZ Line for the rigging. Anyhow, on with the pics. Slava Ukraini!

Hi, guys... It's been a while since I posted here on Britmodeller, so I thought you might like to see the latest addition to my collection. This is the wonderful Gotha G.IV kit from Wingnut Wings. It's a large kit when finished, with a wingspan of almost three feet, but like any other model, spend a little time and you'll likely end up with a good outcome. So, to begin with, I painted and assembled the fuselage floor, bulkheads and cockpit area. Everything you see in this first image comes from the kit and I especially liked the seatbelts, oxygen bottles and the instrument decals, all of which bring great realism to the model. The floor was given an enamel undercoat of pale khaki, then overpainted using burnt sienna oil paint from the Cass Art range. I was very pleased with the wood effect on the floor and bulkheads. In this next photo, the framing around the cockpit has been added in and its rigging shows up well. The 'steering wheel' control mechanism is well produced, as are the integrally-moulded fuselage frames, although some of the cockpit areas in my kit had a lot of ejector pin marks. These were in tricky areas in some instances, but all were easily enough removed. The majority were on the right side of the fuselage, so had to be addressed, as they would have been very prominent if left unattended. I took this photo after the fuselage was closed up, and you can see some of the detail in the gunner/bomb-aimer's forward position including the bomb release mechanism and the oxygen bottle. Once I was happy with the internal areas of the fuselage, I moved on to building the engines, leaving one covered and the other without its engine panels in order to show the detail. The central section of the bottom wing was also painted up and the walkways painted metallic and then blackwashed to give a bit of a 'worn' look. I liked the fine detail on the radiator grills and the exhaust pipes came up very well with their grungy appearance; this was oil paint used again, and blackwashed. After varnishing the fuselage, the relevant decals were attached and the external fuselage rigging - which extends to the tail and connects with the control surfaces - was added on at this point and later tidied up when the elevators and rudder were attached. The few transparent pieces included in the kit are small, but are very clear and fit well. Some additional blackwashing was applied to both the panels and small fitments on the fuselage sides, and the engine cowlings. Moving on to the wings, both upper and lower surfaces were painted in the dark grey-blue, with the exception of the underside of the top wing, which like the engine covers, struts, wheel hubs and fuselage and nose panels, were left in the extremely pale blue shade, almost an off-white tone. Adhesive tape was added to cover the wing ribs after a whilte undercoat had been applied, thereafter being oversprayed in dark brown in a non-uniform manner before the tapes were removed. When this happened, the original white undercoat was again uncovered on the ribs, and these were later given an overspray in the relevant camouflage colour... ...which in turn, was a process that was helpful in drawing back any excess of the brown paint and also helped to remove the white and bring the ribs, generally speaking, back to the appropriate colour. I deliberately left them slightly 'untidy' in their appearance as I felt this gave a good final presentation. Once varnished, the national markings were applied. So, in the following image, you can see the extent of the wingspan with the lower wing sections now in situ; the cabane struts have also been attached. The Gotha's wings had noticeable dihedral and on such a large kit, you may think this would be difficult to effect properly, but the lower wings have the correct dihedral built into them and have quite a bit of 'play' as well, and the top wing, after securing the rather flimsy lower central section into place, rests easily on the cabane struts and engine frame struts without any additional support required at this stage. Now you can see that I have started to attach the interplane struts; I rigged the inner areas between the engines and fuselage first as these are the most difficult to get access to and some of the rigging crosses over other lengths of rigging diagonally and therefore, awkwardly... patience is definitely needed here, and possibly a leather mouthpiece to bite into if/when things don't go according to plan - you don't want to scare the neighbours with aggressive yelling, cursing and swearing at the top of your voice! 🤬 🤣 The cabane struts and each section, moving gradually out towards the wing tips, were rigged in their entirety before moving on to the next. The struts themselves were easily inserted into their location holes due to the 'play' in the wings, and this flexibility was very much instrumental in making the whole rigging process much easier. I resisted all thoughts of turning the kit upside down to complete the rigging under the top wing, instead electing to use two blocks of upholstery foam to support the model while accessing these areas in order to attach the turnbuckles into the leading and trailing edge points. The larger block of foam, which stood about four inches tall, allowed me to tilt the model forward onto its nose, thus giving better access to the trailing edge. The thinner strip of foam was used to support the undercarriage and raise the front of the kit, thus giving better access to the leading edges. In the latter process, it's good to remember to position the tail against something solid in order to support the model and minimise the likelihood of it slipping off the foam, and this should be done before attaching the tail control surfaces. All of the above negates the requirement to move the model around as it takes on more and more weight and size, and also reduces the need, in my opinion, to go boring right through the upper wing to draw rigging through before secuing it. I have seen this done online and admire modellers who use this method, but I wouldn't have confidence to try that, and given the rarity and cost of obtaining the model nowadays, I feel my method is every bit as effective. The rigging was completed using elasticated thread and the turnbukles came from the excellent GasPatch range. These last few photos show the model in its final stages of construction. All control surfaces are attached and rigging finished; upper wing fuels tanks, MG mounts and the guns themselves, the bombsight and all external ordinance has been added, and only a space in the cabinet needs to be found! All enamel paints used were from the Humbrol range and markings largely from the WnW kit itself, although the 'Lori2' markings were taken from the Pheon decals after-market offering for this model. So, I hope you have enjoyed seeing the photos from my build. There is a more extensive build article which you can access here: https://imodeler.com/groups/imperial-german-air-service-luftwaffe-group-build-may-1st-1910-to-present-day/forum/topic/wnw-gotha-g-iv-1-32-scale/, and I've made a YouTube video which you may also find interesting, available to view here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqvVuxKUyM. Thanks for looking in... ;-). Regards, Paul

Hi, I feel like I should know the answer to this one, but I'm doing the Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII 32011. I'm wondering why they used 2 different finishes on the early aircraft? If they had lozenge fabric why not cover the whole aircraft as they did later? They used the streaked finish all over the triplane so what made them mix 2 different sources of fabric, clear and printed? I've read the Datafile years ago and can't remember anything about this, but then I'm at that age now. Cheers Phil

Hi All After being chastised (quite rightly, too) in another thread it seems that some of us would like to throw our hat in the ring for a Wish List from the newly announced Kotare Models company, so here goes. www.kotare-models.com Heres what we know so far: They are made up of some of the key players from the now-defunct Wingnut Wings. This company had a reputation for extremely high quality …. Wait…wait … I’m gonna say it … kitsets (!). They seem to be producing in 1/32 scale (at least for the time being) 2 images posted to their home page seem to indicate a subject hint of some kind. And that’s about it so far. So what would you really like to see boxed in high quality in 1/32 scale? And/or What do you think the subject images could indicate? Although this is meant as a fun post, try to keep within limits of what you would actually like to build and what you think would actually make some money for the company in order to stay in business. Everyone’s opinion is valid, so no arguing please. Over to you

Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin Wingnut Wings 1:32 Of the aircraft produced by the Sopwith Aviation Company, the majority such as the Tabloid, Baby, 1 ½ Strutter, Pup, Triplane, Camel, Snipe, and Salamander were all powered by rotary engines. Only the Dolphin and Cuckoo made it into wartime service with an in-line engine. The Dolphin using the same 200Hp Hispano-Suiza V8 fitted to the SE.5a and SPAD XIII, and the Cuckoo (although it was too late to see active service) used the Sunbeam Arab . The main design aim of the Dolphin was to give the pilot improved all round visibility, seating him close to the top wing, with a completely open centre section. The top wing was also negatively staggered (I.e. further back than the bottom wing) to assist with visibility. There are all sorts of complex aerodynamic features associated with negative stagger, suffice to say that it never became popular. Patchy reliability of the Hispano-Suiza engine notwithstanding, the Dolphin became a very good high altitude fighter and was favored by several aces, many of whom earned all their kills on it. Initial deliveries were at the end of 1917, with twin Vickers guns over the engine and twin Lewis guns pointing upwards in the centre section cutout, giving the Dolphin is classic aggressive look. In practice the drum fed Lewis guns intruded into an already cramped cockpit, so often only one was fitted and the weight saving also benefited performance. Comparatively few Squadrons were issued with the Dolphin, only 2 going to the RNAS and the rest to the RFC, although of course both services joined to become the Royal Air Force on April 1st 1918. Within three years of the Great War ending, the Dolphin was completely retired from RAF service, although a small number carried on with the Polish air force. Over many years the RAF museum gathered a large number of parts from several Dolphins, and today a beautiful restoration/replica can be seen at the Hendon museum. The kit. I bet few of us saw this one coming! It suddenly appeared on Wingnut Wings website in early December, just in time shoot straight to the top of every Great War aficionado’s Christmas List. Packed in one of Wingnut Wings standard silver edged boxes, the artwork features a 23 Sqn. Machine in combat with a Fokker Triplane high above the western front. Lifting the lid reveals three large sprues, one smaller sprue for the engine, one for the clear parts, an etched fret, a set of decals by Cartograf, and Wingnut Wings sublime instructions/reference booklet. A bonus is that you also get that buzzing feeling of excitement from opening a new Wingnuts kit! Sprue A. This holds all the smaller and detailed parts, with some superb moulding. Note how good the Lewis guns are, and the underseat box for storing the ammo drums. Also the fuel tank is a very impressive single part. Everything is sharply defined, with some very delicate detailing. The parts cover a lot of the interior fittings, as well as exterior components such as the undercarriage, struts, bombs, choice of propellers etc. There are a couple of wing mounted Lewis guns for option E, the 87 Sqn machine. Unusually for an aircraft of this period, the guns were mounted on the lower wing outboard of the propeller arc, and fired by cable. I don’t know how successful this was, but it must have limited the rounds that could be fired, as it would not have been possible to change the ammo drums in flight. Note that the centre section Lewis guns would have been omitted, this was an ‘either or’ option. The instrument panel has the usual compliment of super fine decals for the dials, all of which are readable under a magnifying glass. My references state that the panel itself was gloss black painted American pearwood, confirming the colouring instructions. Sprue B. Here we have the mainplanes, with separate ailerons. The lower wing is a full span single piece moulding incorporating a section of the lower fuselage. This has the twin advantage of making a strong unit and removing the need for you set the dihedral. The two upper wings are also single mouldings, with beautifully depicted fabric and rib tapes. All the wings have thoughtfully been given their sprue attachment points along the leading edge, thus eliminating any possibility if damaging the fine trailing edges when cutting from the sprue. This is another subtle example of how Wingnut Wings think of things from the modellers point of view, and why they stand ahead of all other manufacturers. The training edges are remarkably thin, perfectly capturing the look of the real thing. Sprue C. As well as the windshield, the clear panels for the pulley inspection covers on the wings are provided. Option B is a night fighter fitted with lamps on the wing tips, rudder, and fuselage, all of which are on this sprue. Sprue D. The Dolphins distinctively shaped fuselage is found on sprue D, along with the tailplanes, fin & rudder, cowling parts, and interior frames. The fuselage shows some really outstanding detail, with very stitching and fasteners. The interior frames are moulded with a lot of the metal brackets and copper piping on, and will look really spectacular when painted up. There is a fair bit of internal rigging to be applied using your favourite method, but all is illustrated clearly in the very comprehensive instructions. Every stage is clearly explained, and if you are not familiar with Wingnut Wings Instruction books, they are better described as reference manuals. Assembly sequences are clearly explained with CAD drawings, and period photographs showing the details of the real thing. The fin/rudder features really excellent rib tape detail. The early and late versions of the Dolphin had some subtle variations which are catered for on two sub sprues. The differences are in the tailskids, side radiators, and central cabane frame. The tailskid differences are that the early was wooden, and the late made from steel tube. This being a Wingnut Wings production you get both. Interestingly there is a late production front cowl(D8), marked as ‘not used’ on the sprue plan, and pointed out on a photo of the real thing on page 19, so at least we know that a further release of this kit is probably due in the future. Sprue E. This one has been seen before, in the SE.5a kit. Having previously made the SE.5a, I know that it builds up into a lovely little representation of the 200hp Hispano Suiza. The only difference is that the Dolphin had a different intake manifold & water tank unit, which is supplied on sprue A as part 22. The only thing you might want to add is some ignition wiring from the magnetos to the spark plugs. Etched brass. Lap type seat belts, gunsights, gun cocking levers, and a footstep surround are all supplied on here. There is also a removable nameplate with ‘Wingnut Wings’ logo and ‘Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin’ etched on it. These present on all of Wingnut Wings etched frets if you wish to display a nameplate with your finished model. Decals. The sheet is printed by Cartograf, which pretty much guarantees the quality. Printing is sharp and flawless, the colours are excellent, and carrier film is minimal. Best of all is the mass of little stencils and instrument faces that add so much to Wingnut Wings finished kits. Sopwith liked to apply their company logo onto fittings like struts, and you get a full set of miniature ones here. These little items really catch your eye when looking at a finished kit, like when you notice that around the fuel filler opening it says ’Main Petrol 22 Gals’ in letters about 0.3mm tall. These little items really catch your eye when looking at a finished kit, like when you notice that around the fuel filler opening it says ’Main Petrol 22 Gals’ in letters about 0.3mm tall. Options. Option A. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3785, RNAS Dover, early 1918. Option B. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3803,”Red Star 6”, SARD, March 1918. Option C. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3824 “U”, JW Pearson (12 victories) & CE Walton (1? Victory), C Flight, 23 Sqn RAF, May to July 1918. Option D. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3879 “Q”, RB Bannerman, C Flight 79 Sqn RAF, August to November 1918 (17 victories). Option E. Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C8163 “A”, HJ Larkin, A Flight 87 Sqn RAF, August to November 1918 (11 victories). Conclusion. Another absolute beauty from Wingnut Wings, and one that has made many Great War enthusiasts very happy. The quality of the mouldings is absolutely top class with intricate and sharply defined components, fine surface details, and no flash or sink marks. As always, there are parts on the sprues that make me wonder ‘how do they do that?’ such as the Lewis drum ammo box (part A30) and the main petrol tank (part A20). I now take it for granted that fit will be faultless, as it always is on a Wingnuts kits, provided you keep paint off all mating surfaces. There is a moderate amount of rigging to be done, both internal and external, so I would place this one in the lower middle range for experience required. The view into the cockpit should be very good, revealing all that woodwork, copper piping, and instruments to advantage, and leaving the top cowl off will expose that lovely engine. With its pugnacious and aggressive look, the Dolphin is bound to find its way into most collections, and it makes the perfect companion for the Sopwith Camels released earlier this year. With Wingnut Wings producing the Pup, Triplane, Camel, Dolphin, and Snipe, all we need now is the 1 ½ Strutter to complete the line-up. Oh, and I’d quite like a Sopwith Baby too please! There can only be one verdict - Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of As an aside, there are few references on the Dolphin. However, there is one book which supplies virtually everything you could need. I got mine from 'Cross and Cockade' a few years back.

Building the Wingnut Wing Albatros D.VA in 1/32 Scale Build Guide Series No.10 KLP Publishing Online publishing is now starting to find its way into the modelling community. KLP Publishing is one of the new online publishers, specialising in eBooks for the scale aircraft modelling community. Their debut title Building Brick’s Sabre in 1/32 Scale: A Scale Tribute to K.J. "Brick" Bricknell reviewed here has proved to be a success. They have since done titles on the Bird Dog, Spitfire XIVe, AEG G.IV Late, FW 189, He 219. P-51 and Ki-45 amongst others. Their latest title tackles building the Wingnut Wings Albatros D.VA. This was done by modeller Karim Bibi. Here the book looks in detail at the kit, as well as the aircraft itself. For the build itself construction and painting techniques are looked at along with some aftermarket being used such as HGW belts and the excellent looking Aviattic lozenge decals (links are provided in the pdf to all the aftermarket products used) . A mini tutorial is includes for making your own prop if you want to go that far. A large gallery of finished model pictures is included, along with photos of a real Mercedes engine. This is one area that e books do excel in as printing these pictures in a traditional format would be expensive. Conclusion This is the type of publication that the new digital format is made for. If you want a book for a specific build having a digital publication saves you space on your bookshelves. This is clearly a book written by modellers for modellers. The text is clear and concise and the great selection of crisp pictures is welcome, many more than you would get in a printed publication. Links to the various aftermarket sets is also welcome. A reminder that if you set up an account with KLP then you can download the revisioned copies of books you have already purchased to no extra cost. Very Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Well this is good news https://www.kotare-models.com/

Hi All, Thought I'd offer a few WIPs of my Wingnut Wings 1/32 Albatros DV that I wanted to present using their 'Wooden Wonders' decal sheet markings. Here the fuselage is together and Pheon Models beautiful lozenge decals have gone on with no problems with the help of a little Micro Set and my wife's hair dryer! The wings are now taped in readiness for some Tamiya Smoke to highlight the rib shadings. Now the fuselage will be prepared for my first plunge into Uschi Van Der Rosten's Woodgrain Decals, which have attracted me for a while. These decals are transparent, so I'll highlight and preshade the individual panels with Gunze Radome and Tamiya Desert Sand that will show through them. That's all for now. More soon. Thanks for looking.

Albatros B.II 1/32 Wingnut Wings The Albatros B.II was an unarmed 2 seater, almost unique in having been produced in 1913 before the Great War broke out, and remained in production until the Armistice in 1918. It was produced by many companies ,and with lost of subtle variations. The Observer sat in the forward cockpit, but I assume did not have the best of views, with the lower wings blocking his view downward, and the engine the view forward. His position was somewhat precarious, with his seat being mounted on top a the large petrol tank, another auxiliary tank above his head, and radiators with boiling water to either side. I just love the look of domestic type radiators plumbed in to the fuselage sides! The pilot sat in the rear cockpit with a big ship-type steering wheel. Fortunately I bought this kit before Wingnut Wings suddenly closed, and I'm glad I did because it was an absolute pleasure to build. I decided not to use the supplied woodgrain decal as it looked yo coarse and yellowish to me, so I instead used Uschi van der Rosten woodgrain decal over Tamiya XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan. The clear doped linen is my own brew of Tamiya acrylic, also using XF-78, white an yellow. I painted a representation of the upper wing crosses on the underside of the top wings, to represent the see through effect of the light coming from above. Can you see it in the next 2 photos?? The wheels come with etched brass spokes, 1 'disc' per side, and were very easy to, and look great. Plastic spoked wheels are also provided, but don't look anywhere near as good. Thanks for looking, John

Sopwith Pup "Gnome" Wingnut Wings 1/32 This is WnW's Gnome engined version of the Sopwith Pup, and it's the first kit of theirs that I've built and way out of my comfort zone, being an AFV and Sci-Fi modeller generally. The kit went together without any real issues, although handling it become more difficult as the build went on and a few repairs were needed along the way. The single biggest job was the masking for the stripes, although I simplified it as much as possible by breaking the painting down into stages, rather than trying to mask and spray the whole thing in one go. I wasn't looking forward to the rigging due to my zero experience with it, but it went reasonably well once I got the hang of it. Thanks for looking Andy

Fokker D.VII (OAW) Seven Swabians 1:32 Wingnut Wings Got a week off work so plenty of time to pull a 'big' build out of the stash and make a decent start. I've been itching to do the Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII (OAW) for a while now, but had a massive problem in that I could not decide on which colour scheme to finish it in. It is a problem in a good way, because there are so many really attractive ones to choose from. For sure I want to do 3 OAW versions, Franz Buchner's and Willhelm Leusch's...... ...and the 'Seven Swabians' from Wingnut Wings own 'aftermarket' decal sets. I knew that if I chose just 1 of these schemes and stared the kit, I would regret not choosing one of the other 2! I solved this problem by dipping my hands deep into my pockets and ordering 2 more of the OAW kits. 'A modellers got to do what a modellers got to do' and I can't get enough of Fokker D.VII's. Anyway, good progress has been made, and this week has reminded me why I enjoy Wingnut Wings kits so much. This has been pure modelling pleasure, such a beautifully engineered kit. All this is out of the box, apart from the stretched sprue bracing wires & control runs, plus the ignition leads on the engine from black and yellow twisted thread soaked in white glue. Cockpit & engine bay; Daimler-Mercedes 200hp D.IIIau engine; Engine & Prop in place; In one fuslage half. Note the 'faded interior' side of the external lozenge fabric. Although this aircraft has a painted pale grey fuselage, it was delivered in lozenge fabric which was the overpainted on the outside. Wings will be covered with lozenge decals, but I have undercoated these with sutable base colours. A painted finish is essential to give the decals something to bite on to. The 3 builders of the D.VII (Fokker, Albatros, & OAW) all had their own distinctive cowling panels. I've prepared the OAW specific ones, and airbushed the insides with Citadel 'Runefang steel'. Next stage is to zip up the fuselage. Thanks for looking, John

A Wingnut Wings WWI aircraft build is always a cosmic nirvana modeling experience. This is my fourth WNW build, the excellent two seater Roland C.IIa "late", also known as the "Whale". My wife gave me this gift about six years ago for Xmas so she was especially enthusiastic and supportive during this build. She picked the kit out for me because she thought it was "cute", lucky for me her "cute" = my "awesome"! Other than EZ line and Bob's Buckles for rigging, it's pretty much OOB. Tamiya acrylic paints were used per the instructions except for a slight amount of Alclad aluminum and brass in the engine area. I built version 'A' of the kit's five options, ("Kasta 2/ Kogohl 1, 1917) in which WNW guessed at some color and feature aspects so I deviated a little here and there. As always with WNW, everything fit perfectly and the finished product comes out much better than my skills should allow. Too bad WNW shut down. Despite the crazy price escalation of these kits on eBay, I refuse to not build the remaining WNW kits in my stash. Life is too short and I'd rather have a bunch of dusty built models than unbuilt $$$ kits when I'm too blind and feeble to even separate the parts from the runners or spend the money on other things that wouldn't be as fun (other than good Irish Whiskey 😁). Cheers, John

The engine was completed but was short of bits and bobs so added some of the pieces from This is not the best PE from Eduard, the instructions are hazy in part and there aren't enough spark plug leads. The WNW instruction book is required to reduice its short comings. Having spent the best part of a day to lead wires form the two magnetos into the pipe-work and then from this piepwork to the 12 spark plugs (I hope its the magnetos and spark plugs 😂). Waiting for the below to harden the engine was dirtied. I've used the excellent article in 'Air Modellor's guide to WingNut Wings Vol 2; Jeroen Veen Jess'. The vertical part to the Pilot's seat is a ball ache! It's almost impossible to fit seamlessly. My work around is to thin it from the rear glue to the Nacelle and then split it and paint the seat and blend into the rest of the cockpit!! More to follow...

Hello everyone, best wishes, hope you are all coping as well as possible. Just posting my latest effort. I seem to be whizzing through some builds, due to the lockdown, so went with this plane. Im not totally sure I have got the colour right, but in some respects I guess there isnt a right colour with these old planes. So just went with what was in my paint box. Picking a colour scheme is becoming as hard as picking what to make out of my stash lately. This is my ninth wing nut build (currently Germany 6 England 3) and for the first time I came across a couple of little problems. Had some warped sprues, some odd numbering for the build - bottom wings before undercarriage was definitely wrong. Also a few decals not numbered in the instructions. But dont want to quibble as they are by far my favourite manufacturer (fingers crossed they carry on). I also had to make my own rigging holes for some of it, which was unusual. This is a fairly large plane, 410mm wingspan compared to 265mm for a Sopwith Camel, im running out of space to put these. I think I made a few mistakes, 1 or 2 bent struts. I bonded the wing struts to the bottom wing, way, way to early, wont do that again. They are so fragile and I snapped 3 off. Quite a nice amount of rigging on this one, compared to the AMC DH2 or the FE.2B for instance. Ive stopped putting in the internal rigging, as there doesnt seem much point really. But do enjoy the external rigging. Am always reading about it putting people off, which was an outloook I used to have myself, then I had a go and really enjoyed it. Am a brush painter and am reasonably happy with the finish, for some reason, crap as I am at taking pics, they always show up the mistakes and not the good bits. I do like trying to recreate the wood effect on the propeller, there are so many different techniques for this, sometimes it just works, other times not so much. Would love to hear any comments, thank you for looking and take care, cheers, Martin

Hello all, I have had this kit in my stash for about 6 months now and I've been trying not to scratch a constant itch that demands I build it …. but now I have to give in …. as it's driving me mad! These WnW kits are sheer quality, with some beautifully moulded parts, loads and loads of detail and a superb instruction booklet to ease construction. As soon as you open the box and see one in the flesh, you just know that you've bought a quality kit and regardless of the higher bracket prices that they demand, these kits are definitely worth every penny - money well spent! I normally like to scratch-build bits and super-detail my models (it's just a habit I have) but this kit will be built mostly OOB with very little added detail other than maybe some ignition leads on the engine which don't appear to be included. To be honest it doesn't very much else! Kit and contents in the photos below: This is the scheme I will be using in my build, which is the same as the box art: Thanks for looking in on my build, all comments and criticisms welcomed! Kev.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Ninetalis/photos/a.288358611331509/1490326114468080/ V.P.

Hey everyone, It has been a long time since my last post on this forum. I'm still working on finishing my Wingnut Wings Fokker EII (see my other post), which has progressed rather slowly since last September as i had to focus on the reconstruction of my house instead (model building in 1:1 scale i guess!). But, work on the house is almost done now and whilst i'm looking to finish the Fokker, i've also picked up & started with another Wingnut Wings kit: their Albatros D.Va "Bavarians" limited edition. I've decided to build the version as flown by Michael Sigmann, which i've named the "midnight" Albatros due to de darkblue/stars decoration. Here's a snapshot of the kit + the version i'm going for: I've made a start with the engine, which has turned out quite nice (see photo below). As i want to leave the engine cowling partly open, i've decided to add extra detail to the engine. I've added Taurus spark plugs + have used electrical wire to conncect the sprak plugs to the engine as per the photo's of the actual motor. Man, those sparkplugs & wires are TINY! It took me an entire afternoon with trial and error to make just one side look a bit like the real thing. I'm ok with how it looks now. I didn't want to make a bright and shiny factory fresh engine, so while painting i added some subtle rust, oil and chipping effects. Apart from the engine, i've also started with the pilot's seat, but i managed to drop the seat compartment while working on it and in an automatic reaction trying the catch it before it fell to the ground i crushed all the small parts..............ouch. This will need some time for carefull repair. Will be posting again when i've made some progress!

My apologies, but this should've been posted into 'Ready for Inspection'... anyway, the end result is the same... ;-). This is my third venture into the world of 1/32 scale WW1 aircraft. The work on this kit was inspired by the front cover and article in the 'Iron Cross' publication from last summer, Issue 2. This is a relatively new quarterly publication regarding the German armed forces from 1914-1945. The article covers various matters, not least the day today life of a pilot of the Imperial Fliegertruppe during the last months of WW1. It also sheds light as to why the initial interpretation of the colour scheme from period photos is possibly now inaccurate, and offers the colour scheme on this model as a more likely representation of Josef Kister's aircraft. This kit has been finished to represent a D.Va variant, although due to my own mistake, there are errors with the aileron actuators and consequent lack of some associated rigging; in fairness, this is the 'Richthofen'-specific WnW kit and although it has the correct interplane struts for the outer wings included as part of the kit, the parts for the correct D.Va aileron detail would not have been required in this kit. If nothing else, it should teach me to pay more attention. In my own defence, this was apparently the only available version on the market when I bought it. No matter, on to the build; the first image below shows the internal surfaces of the fuselage painted up to represent a wood effect finish. This comprises a base coat of white, followed with pale tan, then mid tan. All colours are enamels. Thereafter, some small spots of transparent oxide yellow oil paint were applied behind the bulkhead location and gently buffed to the appearance you see here, and burnt sienna oil paint to the forward section. Although the colour behind the bulkhead will not be seen, it provided an area for me to hone my oil painting skills a little more. Once fully dry, the burnt sienna shade was carefully and very lightly reapplied to the framework on the forward fuselage interior just to highlight the detail. This was left un-buffed. The various additional parts representing the internal frames, the sides and rear of the pilot's seat and the propellor were all treated in the same manner, with a very light dusting of homemade blackwash to darken the propellor blades slightly. The wings and horizontal tailplane were all finished in lozenge pattern; the transfers seen here are from the Aviattic range; they settle very nicely with a little patience. Always remember to pre-paint the relevant surfaces to be covered with lozenge transfers white and then gloss varnish; this brings out the best from the transfers during and after application. As my subject model had an extremely pale blue, almost off-white, background to both upper and lower wing crosses, and having clumsily attempted this with painted strips of transfer sheet, I eventually elected to hand-paint the backgrounds. This was a slow process and care had to be taken in measuring out the correct position and dimension, and the progress made can be seen in these following three photos, applying the coats very thinly and building up their strength gradually. In the last of these three photos, you can also see the assembled fuselage, with seat belts in position along with the engine and other sundry items. The machine guns have still to be attached at this point. The markings of this aircraft included a large yellow '6' and a smaller red '6' above and below the wings respectively, on the left side, and a red six with yellow outline on both sides of the fuselage. Again, I chose to apply these freehand, by paint brush. The first photo below shows me outlining the dimension of the upper wing numeral. The strips of black transfer for the crosses were sourced from the spares box and applied to the wing. In this image, you can see the completed yellow '6' on the wing; the wing crosses have received their thin white outline, just visible against the very pale blue backgrounds. A block of yellow has been applied to either side of the fuselage and once dry, a red '6' will be superimposed, with the excess yellow thereafter being painted out with a further application of pale blue, thus creating a yellow outline around the number. Next up, a view of the completed sections so far. The underwing red '6' has been applied and the outline to the fuselage number has been finished as well; this takes time and patience to go round the number with a small, thin paint brush, touching up the detail until it looks acceptable. The lower wing roots are left in natural wood presentation. The following photo shows the preparation for the next characteristic of this colour scheme. So, a question.. where would we all be without the ubiquitous Tamiya tape? Answer - heaven's knows! Strips of tape have been applied over the fuselage to block off the relevant sections of pale blue, naturally after the paint on the numbers has dried; they were later cut away from around and behind the number for reasons that will become apparent soon. I deliberately left the rear fin unpainted so as to give me a place to hold the fuselage while painting it. The unusual red flecking on the wing crosses has also been added, as can be seen on the upper wing in the background. This is the bit that excites and frightens me in equal measure! In this case, flame red is applied to the exposed areas of the fuselage, brushing inwards from the tape towards the centre. Thin paint and slow application are best - the paint will dry quicker if thin, and going slow reduces the risk of seepage under the tape, thus hopefully ensuring a clean finish. Here, you can seen where the tape was cut away prior to applying the red. The main section at the front of the fuselage is just about to be uncovered. The reason for not extending the red stripes up to the number 6 is because there is an optical illusion of a blue background to the cross, and that it 'cuts through' the red in the area of the number, and because the stripes (intentionally) cut through the crosses at a slightly different level on either side of the fuselage, I though it best to complete them by hand. Below, you can see the red stripes have been 'carried through' the number 6 with very careful hand painting; the fuselage cross will be applied in due course in the area behind the number, and then the red stripes can be completed as appropriate, in order to produce the optical illusion of a blue outline to the national marking. You may just be able to see the the first red stripe on the upper fuselage starts aligned to the right side of the fin edge heading forward; the first blue stripe starts from the left side of the fin edge, thus creating the irregularity of position of the stripes on the sides, and this has to be taken into account when creating the illusion of the background to the cross. In the next two photos, the lower wings have been attached; slight droop may be noted in the second photo, but this was rectified when the struts and upper wing were attached... no need to panic! It isn't readily obvious here, as the discrepancy is so slight, but the engine front sits fractionally too high. The frames holding the engine did give cause for a few heated exchanges between me and them, but I won... well, almost. Nonetheless, it does look very smart once the engine is installed; you may also see a lozenge pattern to the front of the fuselage bulkhead, behind the pilot's seat. The fuel tank, MG magazines and various aspects of engine detail are all in evidence here. The fuselage was blackwashed slightly to bring out the panel detail, and at last, you can see the completed stripes and the blue 'background' to the cross. You will see the subtle differences on either side if you look closely. So, now we're approaching the end of the build. First up, a nice shot of the undersides of the model along with a hint of some of the rigging in place. There were a good few turnbuckles required for this model, sourced from the GasPatch range. The Albatros must have been one of the most heavily-rigged single-engined fighters possessed by the Germans. Additional blackwashing was applied to the tail skid, wheels, undercarriage legs and propellor spinner. The front of the engine block was made flat and a plastic card tab of appropriate dimension was added to the engine front and painted accordingly, as it can just be seen through the open cowling. The propellor spinner was then able to be permanently fixed at the correct position without anyone knowing that the engine itself was slightly misaligned. The rear of the tail fin, plus the rudder, were painted with white oil paint. The forward fin on the right side was blue, and red on the left side; the the small windshield was also attached in front of the cockpit area. These last three images are ones which I think really show the model off well. I like the colourful camouflage scheme as it is a little out of the ordinary compared to other, better known options. Thanks for looking in, and I hope you like the finished model... 😉 Regards, Paul

1:32 WNW Albatros D.Va Pheon 'Jasta 17' Decals Jagdstaffel 17 was formed in October 1916, and went on to produce many well known aces before the Great War ended in November 1918. Pheon decals produced a fabulous sheet in 2015 depicting many of their aircarft Reviewed here. I resolved at the time to build aone of them, and promptly ordered an Albatros from Wingnut Wings. Work got underway, but the project suffered delays due to work commitmnets, and work was only resumed on it a couple on months ago. I was torn between Hubertus Rudno-Rudzinski's 'Gisi' and Rudolph von Esebecks checkerboard marked D.Va. Von Esebeck won! If I can obtain another Albatros kit I will do another. At least the Roden D.III is still available, so Julius Buckler's 'Mops' may well be joining this one at some stage. Studying the photograph of this machine at the front of the Osprey Jasta 17 book showed what looks like a flare pistol port under the cockpit opening, and in front of the wappen shield. These were often fitted as a field modification, so I scratched on up from plasticard and tube. It then made sense to fit a rack of flares to the outher side of the cocpit opening. I went for a slightly darker coloured fuselage to provide more contrast with the yellow squares. The fuselage is covered with individual panels of Uschi van der Rosten woodgrain decals, which give a fantastic finish. Pheon's deacls performed flawlessly and that big checekerboard went on in 1 piece and fitted perfectly, joining precisely on the underside. Rigging is with Maxima Chameleon fishing line and stretched cotton bud turnbuckles. I found the book written by the CO, Julius Buckler, for only £3 on Amazon! Thanks for looking, John

Hi everyone, thought I'd post my latest build/attempt. I'm not totally happy with the finish but I enjoyed building it, which is the main thing. This was my first attempt/foray/failure into the lozenge type of decal, or indeed any type of large covering decal. I am pretty sure I made a mistake, dont know if anyone on here can confirm that I did indeed go wrong? I decided to apply the lozenge decals onto bare styrene. I had a hell of a job getting them to stick, also they became very brittle. After they were dry just the slightest touch to trim them would make part of them shatter. Dont look too close to the leading edges of the wings. Over the last couple of years I have come to enjoy doing rigging on my WW1 builds, this plane had next to none. I was finished in ten minutes, whereas I made a AMC DH2 a while back which took me over a week to rig. I am very happy with my wooden propeller and loved the little map on the drop down table in the cockpit. I'm still very much making it up as I go along when it comes to weathering. I put too much dried salt effect on the floats of this I think. One day I will take a good pic. Would love to read any comments, all the best, Martin

Source: http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/productdetail?productid=3206&cat=5 - ref.32077 - Hansa-Brandenburg D.1 New model in development. Release date and subject TBA. Engine looks to be a Austro-Daimler 6 - so https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Daimler_6 There's another Hansa-Brandenburg D-1 kit in 1/32nd scale in design by Copper State Models: link V.P.

Model in development - type ? - ref.32075 Source: http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3207 Engine V.P.

Hi there, just thought I'd post my latest attempt. Although Im not totally happy with the end result, I thoroughly enjoyed making it, which is what counts. I chose this colour scheme as it was the only option that didnt involved lozenge artwork, im not a huge fan of that look. Im quite happy with the doped linen look but not sure I have nailed the blue. Had one nightmare session when putting the top wing on. I scratched the paintwork, drilled a hole through the wing, bent a strut. Then when I had finally got it on and glued, I went back a few hours later and another strut had actually snapped. Still I got there in the end. Its quite a big kit in relation to other Wingnut kits I have made, the wingspan is 375mm which is about 100mm bigger than the Sopwith Camel of the same scale. I seem to have become addicted to Wingnut kits lately, my stash has plenty of ww2 aircraft and various tanks and ships but I cant seem to make any of them and just start another Wingnut. Thanks for looking, apologies for the poor photos, would love to hear any comments, all the best for the new year, Martin