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Wingnut Wings 1/32 Roland D.VIa


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Hi all,

 

Following on from the positive feedback I received from my RFI of the Hinchcliffe Camel I have decided to try my hand at a WIP thread on my next build which is of the Roland D.VIa. from Wingnut Wings and I plan to do it in the 'Bonus' scheme of Emil Koch which is on the instructions for this kit on the Wingnut Wings website but NOT in the instruction manual that comes with the kit.

 

Highly subjective and may be totally inaccurate but I am opting for Red and White stripes even if for no other reason than it will make a very eyecatching model.

 

One thing to note is that, while the printed instruction manual for the kit give the Emil Koch option as having a later 200hp Mercedes D.IIIau(Does anyone know how to put Umlauts on letters?)  engine the 'Bonus' instructions say it is an early Roland D.VIa with photographic evidence for a Mercedes D.IIIa engine. This being the case, the engine in my first photos here is incorrect, however, as I have another kit of this model I will be building a D.IIIa engine and using this engine in the other model at a later date.

 

Anyway I hope you like the images and feel free to ask any questions about how I have achieved effects.

 

P1000093

 

 

P1000092

 

 

P1000090

 

 

P1000098

 

 

P1000094

 

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Great start. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

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I haven't followed a WnW build thread before. I'm fascinated to know how they go together.

 

Unfortunately a little out of my normal

price range, but one day.... :pray: 

 

Lovely wood effect :thumbsup2: 

 

Is the seat fabric real fabric? It looks like it :).

 

All best regards 

TonyT

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Hi Tony,

 

It isn't real fabric although it is pretty convincing. It is a molded piece with a piece of decal applied and a little staining added. Even the cord securing it to the frame is very well molded in although it is too small to be seen in the photo.

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Well, not a great deal of visible progress today although I have spent some time working on this one. I have got the engine ,

which is a brilliant wee model in itself, almost completed although I am not sure why I have put so much effort into it considering that it will be mostly invisible in the completed model.

 

Strbrdeng

 

prteng

 

I have been trying out a new technique for the sparker wiring. I have used some 0.09mm wire (apparently it is designed for vaping(?)) which I thread through a length of 0.3mm albion alloys brass tubing and then, I rolled my scalpel blade on the tubing to cut off small lengths of the tubing and moved it along the wire then gave it a wee touch of CA and created plugs complete with wire, repeated more than 12 times of course in order to have spares. Thes fit neatly into the holes molded onto the cylinders and then I painted them yellow to stand out and glued them to the tube that would carry the HT cables on the real thing. Hopefully I will manage to use the same wire to wire up the distributors as well.

 

As well as the work on the engine I have assemble the seat, set the harness on it and weathered it with Jacksons Glaze medium tinted with some dirty green Humbrol enamel.

 

Before

 

After

 

Apart from this work today I have given the wings and ailerons a coat of shiny (jacksons glaze medium) ready for applying the lozenge and painted the horizontal tail/stabiliser a dark blue as per the colour scheme I have chosen.

 

Next I will be working on the outside paint scheme of the fuselage which I have already painted gloss white and will be masking to spray on the red stripes of my chosen scheme.

 

This is part of an experiment which I first started on the Camel. I painted the outside of the two fuselage halves of the camel prior to glueing them together which is something I have never tried before but it worked surprisingly well. I only had to sand back with some P5000 and didn't even cut into the plastic on the upper seam of the Camel and then a quick mask and spray down the seam and it was totally invisible even under magnification. If all works out the same thing will be true of the Roland and it will only need a slight touch-up after bringing the halves together, I guess we shall soon see :D

 

By the way, anyone who fancies a Roland D.VIa of their own better snap one up from their chosen retailers as Redcap just let me know tonight that they have now been added to the 'Sold Out' list on the Wingnuts website.

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Thanks Martin,

 

This one is going to be even flashier. I am currently spraying the fuselage halves in rather fetching red stripes. Taking a little time as I am doing them one stripe at a time so that, should I get bleed under the masking I will only have to clean black one stripe rather than the whole lot.

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Lovely job on the powerplant and interior. (I particlarly love the slightly-open access door on the ammo bin---a marvelous little detail.)

Eagerly following along as your bird 'gets its stripes.'

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I thought that was a nice touch too :D I wondered what they meant in the instruction manual when they said "paint exposed ammo brass" as I hadn't noticed it until I was 'staining' the ammo bin.

 

As to the stripes, I only have one to go on each half so things should start moving ahead shortly. With the 'clinker built' construction of the fuselage it is quite easy as each stripe covers two strips of the fuselage wood making it pretty easy to mask off and the division of parts in the kit mirroring the real aircraft means that it is a pretty straightforward job. The most difficult part is the curved paint on the tail which is not visible in the photo in the instruction manual of Emil Kochs' machine but is visible (just) in the new photo in the 'bonus' instructions on the Wingnuts website. For this I used a French curve template which just happened to be about perfect for the job. I drew out one curve on a strip of masking tape the flipped the template over and marked another piece of tape from the other side of the cure template giving me a mirror. Then it was just a case of very carefully cutting out the curve with a fresh scalpel blade.

Apart from the aforementioned the biggest trick was keeping the white areas of the fuselage clean as the slightest trace of the red (19) Humbrol enamel on my fingers resulted in highly visible marks on the white enamel although, as this was in areas which were clear of the red stripes a cotton bud with a touch of white spirit easily removed it up to a few hours after the paint had been applied.

 

It is proving to be yet another fun build. :drunk:

 

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Can't wait to see how this turns out. 

I really like your wood effect, looks so real. If I didn't know better I'd assume it came out of a tin marked -wood. Much like tartan paint 😉

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I am quite happy with the way that has turned out myself. I first sprayed the parts with 121 Humbrol Enamel and then, once it had dried, I used an orangey brown enamel, yellow Humbrol 24 enamel and my favourite Jacksons' Glaze medium to give a streaky wood effect and finished it off with a couple more coats of the glaze medium and, finally,once that had dried I used more glaze medium with a tiny amount of black enamel to darken the seams etc.

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Thanks Simon,

 

Almost finished the engine tonight and the stripes are done on the outside of the fuselage so, hopefully, I will get the innards all together tomorrow and I will post plenty of photos as I put it together. After that I have to think about putting the dreaded lozenge decals on the wings.

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C'mon Marty, we are waiting for more photos ;)

Excellent progress so far, I like the plug wires on the engine. The trouble is, now that you have done it, you will be obliged to do it on all future builds!

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Hi John, I know what you mean. I did it on my last Roden Albatros D.III but I used a thicker wire and it was out of scale. The big problem is flexibility of the yellow paint. I think I will use a gloss yellow on the next one (it will either be a Pfalz D.IIIa or an Albatros D.Va (OAW) which will hopefully be more flexible and less prone to come off when bending the wires into their final positions. I will be taking some more photos in half an hour or so to show where progress is up to now. :thumbsup:.

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Hi Folks, as promised here is a little update on my build.

 

Firstly I have finished the stripes on the Fuselage and painted the inspection covers on the forward fuselage.

P1000104

 

 

Next  up we have the, all but finished engine, just the early model air pump to be fitted over the camshaft.

 

P1000109

 

P1000108

 

 

It all looks a mite clunky at this magnification but, at real life size I think it looks pretty convincing.

 

Finally I have assembled the fuselage internals and rigged up the control lines to rudder and stick. One problem I had in this area was that the throttle control mysteriously disappeared. I searched everywhere but was totally unable to find it despite crawling around on the floor for hours and moving everything in sight. I guess that one has to be chalked up to the dreaded carpet monster. I had to do what I could to bodge together a replacement but, I guess, once the cockpit is all buttoned up it won't be very obvious so should do OK.

 

P1000107

 

 

P1000106

 

 

P1000105

 

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Who knows how the carpet monster works? I must have a whole kit hidden away in my workroom carpet. Good recovery though, making your own.

Those stripes are very striking, certainly the rest of the Jasta would be able to recognise their colleague in the melee of a dogfight!

 

Cheers

 

John

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It is a real 'stand-out' scheme isn't it? It seems to have been a popular pattern of camouflage. I have seen Pfalz D.IIIa schemes with silver stripes and green stripes and I believe I saw a scheme for an Albatros with bright blue stripes then there is the Roland D.VIa of Marchner which had the same scheme but in Dark blue.

 

I can deny contemplating doing representatives of all these schemes. I have the sneaking suspicion that they would look like a bag of sweeties :drunk::humbug:

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It looks amazing! Very bright indeed, as I understand it, that was the idea?

 

The interior looks superb, It's a model in itself and could be displayed just like that.

 

The same goes for the engine. It looks just right, not so covered in oil and grime that it looks too worn out to be in service. Just a nice hint of (fresh) oil here and there in the recesses.

 

Really looking forward to seeing the lozenges go on :).

 

Great stuff!

 

Best regards 

TonyT

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Ach they are no bother Duncan. Easiest WWI aircraft kits that I have ever put together as long as you follow the manual carefully and keep the mating surfaces clean they go together beautifully.

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Well not a great deal of visible progress although I have been putting in the hours on this one. Hours and hours of sticking down lonzenge decal and rib tape decals which is a thorough going pain in the butt. Anyway I now have the fuselage together and undercarriage assembled with only about a dozen rib tapes to finish on the top wing it won't be long now before I get this one all sewn up.

 

P1000141P1000138

 

P1000143

 

P1000144

 

I have to say that I think that lozenge decals are my least favourite part of WWI modelling, especially rib tapes.

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6 hours ago, Beardie said:

I have to say that I think that lozenge decals are my least favourite part of WWI modelling, especially rib tapes.

 

I heartily second that sentiment but oh, my, that's a splendid-looking aircraft you've got there! Truly exemplary.

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