k5054nz Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 (edited) One of my dream builds has been a model of one of the two Pfalzes built for The Blue Max, the more accurate but poorer-handling G-ATIJ: 'TIJ flew in several other films until ultimately being retired to a hangar in Alabama. There it was found and its location passed on to Blue Max fan and collector Peter Jackson, who then bought it and had the sad old plane shipped to NZ. The aircraft was restored to flight - in its film scheme - at Omaka in New Zealand and flew as ZK-JPI, making its debut at the 2005 Classic Fighters Airshow. That was a highlight for me! It is now on static display at the Omaka Heritage Centre, appropriately on a red carpet, but is apparently still ready-to-fly. They have it displayed under a projector screen which shows the first "dogfight" of the film on a loop, which features this aircraft and its sister Pfalz...which Sir Peter also owns, and is used as a training aeroplane for The Vintage Aviator Limited. Like many aviation enthusiasts I love the film and when I lived in Blenheim in 2007 I visited the museum often to see this machine in person. One of the reasons was to photograph every inch - over the barriers - in preparation to build it from the 1/72 Roden kit. This is the said kit with the Encore decals and a few mods to better represent ZK-JPI. It was a looooong build but it was great to get some rigging practice and experience with pre-cut lozenge decals. AND I've finally got ZK-JPI in my collection. Now to do it all over again in 1/32 sometime down the line... Edited July 5, 2015 by k5054nz 39 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Very nice Zac. I've got one of these squirreled away, nice to know how well it comes up with the appropriate application of modelling skills. That might be my problem. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lipkicker Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 very nice, a flawless build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboydim Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Very nice. The camouflage looks excellent. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reini78 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 very good work on that bipe! especially with all that lozenge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 That looks superb, I recently bought the film on DVD. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Superb work looks great, very nice job on the scheme and finish..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dude_gan_ainm Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Fantastic finish on the Pfalz,you have done a great build mate.Very informative on its more recent history ad well.The Blue Max was one of the best movies ever filmed here in Ireland & it's always a pleasure to see it on TV every year or so. I'm sure your 1/32nd version will be class,you've hot the skills. Jimbob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doozer1974 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Liking that vivid colour scheme, very good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Moore Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Nice model...I've never seen that configuration of the interplane struts before...the bracing and the "X" in between. Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod bettencourt Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Very nice, thanks for sharing. Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiRho Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Loved that movie when I was a kid. You model does it proud. Great, great work. Must check out the Omaka next time I'm down that way. I hear a lot of good things about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Thanks very much everyone! You're very kind! It's great to see there are other Pfalz fans out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ c Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 That looks great, really nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I just popped my Blue Max DVD into the PS3 having been inspired by your model. I have a special interest in the film because as a small child I watched it being made overhead, formations of British and German biplanes even dogfights. Probably inspired me to become a pilot. I later actually did most of my flight training at the same airfield used in the movie. There was still evidence of the set there right up to the 2000s. As I write this I'm watching 'your' Pfalz in action. Great model. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Great story with beautiful build to back it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Very accurate!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveinns Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Stunning doesn't do it justice ! Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Thanks everyone! You're very, very kind! I still need to do touch-ups before taking properly-lit photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaVenom Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Very nice job from me too. I came across this older thread whilst trying to find out the differences between the 2 replicas and started this thread over on LSP........  http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=66918  If you're around Zac (plus anyone else of course) you said G-ATIJ is more accurate than the other replica. Do you know the differences?  Could I build one machine without using the resin parts in the Encore kit?     Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Didn't realize this thread was raised from the dead when I opened it, but still.... Â A really great model. I remember the film from when it first came out; it showed in a downtown theater of the sort where you put on a sport jacket and tie at least when you went there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Having just built Mac Distributions DIIIa I can safely say that I would never have guessed that this was 1/72. Looks brilliant. The lozenge must have been fun to apply!  The Blue Max is one of the best aviation films ever, in my opinion.  I have watched clips from Pearl Harbor, Flyboys, The Red Baron and Redtails (I can't bring myself to watch the whole of these travesties) and they just go to show that using real aeroplanes, even not quite 100% accurate replicas like the Blue Max or Messerschmitts with Merlin engines, is about a zillion times more convincing than ridiculous CGI which just look like glorified video games. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 On 2/7/2017 at 4:21 PM, SeaVenom said: Very nice job from me too. I came across this older thread whilst trying to find out the differences between the 2 replicas and started this thread over on LSP........  http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=66918  If you're around Zac (plus anyone else of course) you said G-ATIJ is more accurate than the other replica. Do you know the differences?  Could I build one machine without using the resin parts in the Encore kit? The other one uses a Tiger Moth fuselage frame as its base, so it's longer than it should be. Apparently it's quite nice to fly so TVAL uses it for training their pilots. But as a model it'd mean a lot more work.  'TIJ needs a four cylinder engine plus support struts between the fuselage and lower wing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonix Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Completely agree with Meatbox - that is difficult to tell that it is 1/72 scale - at first I thought that it was a WNW 1/32. A model to be proud of - first class in every way.  P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 You're very very kind P! I see in the photos the decals on the top wing were already flaking. Better luck next time, I guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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