Wingnut Wings Roland D.VI.a

[Viking]

Well at last work has got under way on my Wingnut Wings Roland D.VIa, and what a complete pleasure it is. Everything about this kit is just perfect, from the level of detail to flawless fit of all parts. The Instruction manual leaves you in doubt about where everything goes, what colour it is, and with photos of the real thing to giude you.

I like replicating wooden aircraft, and this one has plenty of wood in it. It is unusual in having been clinker built like some wooden boats, but produced a strong and lightweight fuselage. It eneterd servive about the same time as the superb Fokker D.VII, but was not thought to have any advantage over it, so is a realtively obscure aircraft if you are not a WW 1 buff.

I started with the engine, A Daimler-Mercedes D.III 160 HP. This would stand on its own as kit, maybe Wingnut could be persuaded to release them on their own like Roden do as I'd quite like a collection of them. The only thing I added was some wiring from the magnetos to the spark plugs, otherwise it is as it came out of the box. The Crankcase is sprayed with Alclad aluminium, and the cylinders Citadel Chaos black.

The fuselage interior is all just push fitted together, apart from the brass fuel tank which is in 2 halves and the brass pumps on the fuselege skeleton, nothing else is yet glued. The fit is that good that everything fits together and holds together by itself.

I haven't yet fitted the seatbelts or wires to the rudder pedals & control column, I'll tackle those once I get all this glued together.

Any comments/suggestions/thoughts etc welcome.

John

It's going to finished as this one;

but without the white spot, as that is thought to have been added by the Americans who test flew it after the war.

[crobinsonh]

Lovely work - really nice wood effect and the seat looks fantastic

[Paul RH]

Looks wonderfull..I like the leather effect on the seat

[ollieholmes]

You have made a realy nice start on it. Ive just finished the RE8 and im onto the Pup next.

[gcn]

nice job, you are a little bit ahead of me, i'm waiting for oils to dry and to finish detailing the engine. I shall be doing that scheme as well.

Info re white spot noted as well

[woody37]

Stunning detail, love the way you have done the cushion.

[HOUSTON]

John

That is IMPRESSIVE, AMAZING bit of detailed work...Simply SUPERB and it is unlike anything I have ever seen before..

I think it is GORGEOUS..and can't wait to see MORE..

HOLMES

[gishuk]

awesome work so far. ill be watching this as its one of the many other wingnut wings kits i fancy building

[Viking]

Thanks for the comments guys, gcn - one tip I have is that I use Windsor & Newtons quick dry 'Griffin Alkyd' oil paints. I often paint on Friday evening and they can take masking tape the next morning, they really are bone dry by then. The only downer is that I went and a new one yesterday and they have gone from about £3 a tube to £4.25. Still, they last 3 or 4 years.

I've done a bit more yesterday, putting the control wires on the rudder pedals & stick. I'm not sure it was worth it though, as once the seat went in they all but disappeared from view!

I suppose that I know they are all there though. the seat went in as well, after I put the belts on. They were annealed first by passing through a low flame on the gas cooker and allowed to cool. It seemed to help. I Bent them all to shape on the seat first, then in pegs sprayed them with halfords grey primer, followed by a brushed coat of Citadel bleached bone, and when dry, a wash of burnt umber. I've had problems painting them on the brass first, as the paint will flake whenyou cut & bend them.

I've made the guns too, and primered the wings & tail unit too, ready for a bit of lozenge decalling!

Next task though is to join the fuselage. I'm trying to build up the courage.

[Carts]

This really is a thing of beauty!

[Viking]

Got the fuselage together - carefully!

I just glued the top seam and let it dry overnight. The next day I did the bottom seam. It saved trying to clamp both at the same time and seemed to work well.

Leaving to cure, I've started on the wings & tailplane.

The underside of the wings are sprayed pale blue, the topsides in dark green and brushed with johnsons kleer. It going to be covered with lozenge decal but I prefer to givie it paint to key onto, and the 2 colours used will help if there are any tears or problems.

Tail painted white first, then black, & lozenge decalled.

Fuselage undercoated with halfords white primer.

Rear half sprayed with Tamiya white, front with deck tan.

....I'm now spening hours lozenging those wings

Edited March 22, 2011 by Viking

[Bobs_Buckles]

Fine work, indeed!

Looking forward to seeing more.

Cheers,

Von Bobski

[rowmk9]

simply gorgeous, keep up the beautiful work!

[Viking]

A bit of an update, and opinions sought!

The wooden bits of the fuselage have been covered with a light coat of raw sienna oil paint, the rear part sprayed with Tamiya black,and the metal bits done in grey/green.

Now here is where I need thoughts/opinions. The white area behind the cockpit is meant to be coloured, leaving 2 white bands. The Wingnuts instructions show it as black, but suggest it could have been red. Looking at the B&W photos of the real thing in the instructions, the 'band' has a different tonal value than the black of the rear fuselage. there are 3 or 4 photos and to my eye they all have this slightly differnt tone. I haven't been able to come to a decision as to which colour to use, so I haven't painted it yet!

However, using some strips of paper a blu tac I have done this temporarily to illustrate what I mean;;

I'm inclined to go for the red, but every drawing & other model I can find on the web has it in black, and thats the cause on my being unsure.

Anyone got any thoughts on this, I need help!!

John

[andy hood]

Very nice build so far, well done!!

[gishuk]

id go for the red myself. not like working out colours from old black and white photos is an exact science

[Moofles]

thats incredible, how did you get the wood effect on the cockpit?

[Rowan Broadbent]

I'd be wary of using tonal difference as a real indicator that both the tail and the band weren't black. I've seen a number of photos of other aircraft where I'd have bet money that they were different colours, only to find that there was documentary proof that both areas were black (Muller's Jasta 15 DrI, for instance, which had black/white fuselage and black/white tail chevrons - the tail stripes are noticeably lighter than the fuselage ones in the photos).

As this D.VIa was flown post war by an American unit, and had red (outer) blue and white (centre) cockades applied, with the white centre being aligned on the fuselage band (that's what the white dot seen on the band probably is; the early stages of the US cockade being applied), I'd say that red was unlikely and go with black, as the US cockade outer ring would have all but disappeared on a red band. Another consideration might be that red paint was nowhere near as easy for the German air services to obtain (despite Jasta 11's copious use of it) as black and white - particularly late in the war when everything was in short supply. But it's your model, so your interpretation.

Great work on the model - especially the fuselage woodwork!

Edited March 24, 2011 by Rowan Broadbent

[Viking]

Thanks guys.

Rowan especially for you valuable input. I think you are right on the money, your explanation of what that white spot is has to be right, it is or going to be a US roundel. It puzzled me why they should have just painted a white spot, and of course they couldn't have painted a red outer ring for it on a red background. It seems simple now that you have pointed it out and makes me wonder if that black band does actually have a red ring on it, but we can't see it in the B&W photo.

ll sera noir monsieur! merci beaucoup.

I'm sure your comments are as close to certainty as we can get, thanks again.

John

Edited March 25, 2011 by Viking

[Nico Teunissen]

I am doing this kit myself at the moment and am almost at the same point of the build as you are . It went together quit well, but I skrewed up a bit with the alignment of the engine and the rest of the interior. My engine ended up a bit too far to the right and your way of including that big ring behind the propeller at the start would have been of good use to me. Therefor I also had to cheat a bit with the engine covers..... But so far it looks decent enough for me:)

I am going for the same marking option as you are going. I tried to emphasise the more yellow look by coating a layer of Tamiya clear yellow over humbrol 93 Sand before doing the burnt umber oil paint. Seeing your fuselage already looks convincing enough, what did you use as base color?

Good to have red Roan's comments, I do not have to thing anymore about the red or black option. WNW's advices to use Hb 90 for things like the inspection panels. Probabaly like you too bright an option and I mixed HB 90 with HB 31.

Looking forward to your next step.

Cheers, Nico

Edited March 30, 2011 by Nico Teunissen

[Rowan Broadbent]

Thanks guys.

Rowan especially for you valuable input. I think you are right on the money, your explanation of what that white spot is has to be right, it is or going to be a US roundel. It puzzled me why they should have just painted a white spot, and of course they couldn't have painted a red outer ring for it on a red background. It seems simple now that you have pointed it out and makes me wonder if that black band does actually have a red ring on it, but we can't see it in the B&W photo.

ll sera noir monsieur! merci beaucoup.

I'm sure your comments are as close to certainty as we can get, thanks again.

John

Hi John,

Perhaps you might consider a different surface finish for the two black areas - semi gloss for one and matt for the other? it would help duplicate the apparent colour difference in the photos. WNW's own Richard Alexander did that with the upper wing crosses on his Pfalz D.IIIa build on the WNW site and it looks very effective.

[Viking]

A bit of an update, I've been busy doing lozenge & ribtapes, but also finally painted that band behind the cockpit.

I was bit chuffed to have painted the black & white parts of the rear fuselage & tailplane;

and then fit them together for a perfect match of the transition of the black of the tailplane to the black of the fin;

Anyway, the interesting bit was the band behind the cockpit. was it black or was it red? Following Rowans expert advice I went for black. Then Rowan suggested;

Hi John,

Perhaps you might consider a different surface finish for the two black areas - semi gloss for one and matt for the other? it would help duplicate the apparent colour difference in the photos. WNW's own Richard Alexander did that with the upper wing crosses on his Pfalz D.IIIa build on the WNW site and it looks very effective.

Great idea! I refined it slightly by making a mix of Tamiya German grey with black about 40-60%, so I had an almost but not quite black shade. I think it has come out well, the efect is really subtle but just gives that sort of change in tonal value seen in the old photos of this machine seen in the instruction manual.

The really interesting bit is when I made a black & white photo in photobucket 'edit';

Thats damn close to the effect seen on the original B&W photos.

Moofles - the wood is a coat of Tamiya deck tan (airbrushed), a coat of Johnsons Kleer (brushed) and a coat of Griffin Alkyd raw sienna oil paint, obviously with time to dry in between. Its really simple to do.

Nico - yes, that fuselage is all a tight fit! You reminded me that I had a slight issue with the engine fitting. All was fine in dry fitting test runs until I fitted the oil tank (F6). The spout seemed to interfere with fit a little & push the engine to the left. I trimmed the spout flush with the outer face of the tank & solved it. It may have been me fitting the tank too far forward, I'm not sure. Such is the quality of wingnuts that I would easily accept it was my fault and not theirs.

Thanks for looking

John

Edited April 2, 2011 by Viking

[Viking]

Some more progress. A long pause while I studied rigging techniques on WW1 Models

Never having tried turnbuckles before, I had a go. Eventually I made enough to get started. (Note to self - try some ready made Bobs Buckles next time!)

Anyway, here we are.

Some fitted to lower wing.

Fuselage side;

Other wing;

And fully finished control wires on rudder & elevators;

She's all rigged now & the top wing is on. I'll do some pics at the weekend.

This was really hard work, right at the edge of the limits for my aging eyesight. I must be daft.

John

Edited April 20, 2011 by Viking

[Paul RH]

Not daft at all...the result looks excellent. I love the BW photo

[Nico Teunissen]

I got my Roland in the fridge for a few months (got a free WNW Albie DV to do a review, so of course I am focussing on that one at the moment). Anyway, I still got quit some Bob's Buckles in a bag, I suppose I do need ti put some messing tubing around them I guess?

Cheers, nico