Beardie

It also appears that they have increased the amount of 'Weta dollars' you earn with each purchase from one for every twenty US dollars spent to one for every ten US dollars which, if you buy a kit at £68.60 shows a return of 8.90 Weta dollars which equates to £6.93 (Weta dollars are equal to US dollars) I wonder if they are still going to double the percentage of Weta dollars you earn after you spend more than £500 on the site. That would be a considerable discount.

Tony, I feel your pain, I am on a short budget myself and, in order to buy some of the Wingnuts kits I took the decision to flog everything that wasn't nailed down so my entire stash of other kits went on ebay as well as various other things I had accumulated over the years. I tried flogging the kids on ebay but apparently that is frowned upon Just kidding on that last one of course

Ah but the beauty of the Wingnut kit is the finished example of a WWI aircraft with minimal fuss plus the learning experience provided by the booklet which details not only where the bits should go but also what they are, giving you an insight into what instruments went where on a given aircraft, what different pieces of equipment are, rigging locations and what particular rigging lines did and it also contains plenty of pictures of the real aircraft including current replicas and surviving aircraft. Therefore a relatively straightforward and beautiful build without needing to be a master modeller plus picking up information on just what all those interesting little bits did. I know that information is available and in much more detail in special publications on different aircraft but, if time is limited and you want to cover many different aircraft without spending a lifetime learning the ins and outs of each particular aircraft they are a 'total package'. I have to say though that I don't kid myself that they will be all that easy. Just getting some of those delicate components off the sprue intact will be a challenge and painting them without ruining the detail will also be no mean feat. They really are quite incredible compared to any other kit I have ever handled. I originally thought of them as being too big but, I realised that, if I stick to only WWI subjects in 1/32 scale then my existing display cabinets will hold at least several years worth of builds.

I think that I can, at least, remove enough of the lip at the top of the fuselage halves that everything will true up. Sadly it is too late for the one I am working on as the frames are firmly glued in place with CA and I have now buttoned it up so none of the problems I encountered are visible any more but, on my next one - Werner Voss' F.1 I will be taking the neccessary steps to make it right. I am guessing as well that, as the Fokker D.VI from Roden is, I believe, made pretty much from the same molds, I may well have to do the same for it although it might not be a problem as the fuselage halves should be slightly different.

It kind of looks as if the internal frames were designed without checking the internal dimensions of the fuselage halves. Perhaps they had originally planned to have the framing molded on (There is a 'woodlike' framing molded into the fuselage halves in the empennage which peters out just where it is indicated that the seat bulkhead should go and there is also a 'lip inside the top of the fuselage forard of the cockpit which pushes the upper part of the internal frames inward and I am guessing this is what meant I needed to trim the crosspieces of the frame. I am guessing that, if I trim these inner edges on the fuselage halves of my other kit the frames will fit nice and squarely.

Hi all, Well I started out building this as Encores' version, the F.1 of Werner Voss but I ran into problems with fitting the internal framing and, as I wanted to make sure I did Voss's machine correctly and had a Dr.1 kit in the stash I decided that this would become the Dr.1 of Josef Jakobs and swapped it out with the plastic of the Encore kit. I hadn't used any of the resin yet and the eduard PE is a pretty good swap for the PE in the encore kit. The problem I had was that the internal framing of the cockpit seemed to take up too much space meaning I had to trim the cross pieces to fit and also cut the corners of the rear bulkhead in order to get it to fit behind the tubular framing also the ammunition bins and fuel tank were a little 'uncertain' as to exactly how they should be located. Is it between the top frame tubes or butted up below the top tubes? I build reviews I have noticed that some of the reviewers removed the projecting part which butts up agains the area of the fuselage with houses the spar of the bottom wing which would bring the whole cockpit assembly a couple of millimeters forrard. Is this correct or is the positioning dictated by the intact frames correct? I addition I also found that the bulkhead behind the engine sits to high unless I trimmed off the parts that butted up against the bottom of the fuselage. After that was done the bulkhead fitted into place very well.

With the upgrade on the site I couldn't figure out how to track down John at first however I have now figured it out and so, in case you haven't found it yourself, if you put ' John Aero' into the search box (top right) and then click the dropdown menu nexto to it set it to members and that will bring him up so you can drop him a PM. Hope this helps

Hi Art, John is still a member here and he might be able to sell you some. I bought some from him last year. Just look up 'John Aero' in the members list and he might have some.

Forgot to say that, if you don't have a burnisher, then something like a screwdriver shaft which is nice and clean and doesn't have any dents, dings or other imperfections should do the job fairly well.

Hi Troy, The directions in that link are pretty much all you need to know and that is indeed the proops burnisher in the other link. It is a very simple idea but works a treat. I first learned when I was studying how to make and refinish violins a moon or two ago. A proper violin maker/repairer never uses sandpaper or any other kind of abrasive as they believe the dust clogs the pores in the wood and affects the sound. All smoothing and fine finishing is done with a variety of scrapers and, if the scraper edge is prepared correctly, it planes material off very nicely and smoothly.

Scrapers are very handy. You should get a burnisher as well (Proops also do them). You run the burnisher hard along the scraping edge at a slight angle whenever the scraper seems to be a little dull which actually curls over a very fine lip of metal along the edge which is what is actually neededfor the scraper to work well. This little lip of metal acts like a super sharp 'plane' removing a fine layer of the surface smoothly.

I think they are only planned to be incorporated into 'DeLuxe' kits that may be released at some point in the future. They don't give much away about when things will appear unfortunately. I tried to wiggle a hint or two about future releases but everyone I have contacted at Wingnuts/Weta have been tight lipped about what is coming in future.

I suppose I could have a diorama with just a pair of legs sticking out of the cockpit as if he is in there head first trying to fix it. It has brought a thought to me, if a bracing wire on the internal framing, control cable etc. came loose in a real WWI aircraft how would you get at it to fix it without tearing the fabric off the beastie or doing some sort of major dismantling?

I have been toying with the idea of making up 'ready made' rigging lines with some sort of simulated turnbuckles already glued to the ends which would double as positive mountings to glue into the wings. Being stretchy, as long as it is a bit shorter than the gap it is to span then it doesn't have to be that accurate and just grab the end and CA it into pre-drilled holes. Need to think of a suitable material for the turnbuckles.

Well chaps I have been in touch with Mr Richard Alexander at Wingnut Wings and he has cleared up a few points for me and I thought I would share them with everybody here who is interested. This is what I have drawn out of the answers and I don't represent the company in any way. 1. Will there ever be a re-issue of 'Sold-out' kits? Answer: Definitely not. The company is not aimed at continuously churning out kits of subjects that they have already produced but is primarily concentrating it's efforts on developing kits of other aircraft that have never been produced in kit form before. Previously released kits however may appear in duellist boxings in the future where they are applicable. 2. Is the price likely to come down? Answer: Sorry but no.The kits don't actually make much money and the price they sell for is not much more that it costs to develop and produce them. Free postage was ended as the company couldn't afford to continue to take a hit on postage. The price they are at covers the cost of development and production with little left over and, in my opinion isn't comparable to any other kits on the market simply because the kits themselves are not comparable to anything else on the market. 3. Will there ever be a 'budget' version of the kits? Answer: No. To lessen the package in any way in order to make them cheaper would go against the whole reason the product was created. That is, to make the absolute best kits of World War One subjects ever produced in a format that was buildable to all, with detailed instructions and aircraft information. All you need in one very nice, quality package. 4. Is the lack of new kits so far this year an indicator that we might be seeing the end of Wingnut Wings? Answer: Definitely not! The company are working on numerous subjects for the future. So basically, if you want Wingnut Wings kits grab them while you can! Once they are gone they are gone and while they are pretty expensive they are like no other model kits on the market and it is unfair to compare them to the price of any other model kit on the market. While they have taken quite a jump in price it is not because they are robbing us but that in order to continue to produce kits that we want they need to be more realistic about the price they charge. I for one have become a devotee of Wingnut Wings kits and hope that they continue to produce great kits even if I will struggle to get my pennies together for them.

My Snipe has arrived and a day earlier than stated too! I have to say that, other than the time taken to sort it out I am happy. I am guessing that the problem occurred because I bought the kit straight off rather than making an account with Weta first and this somehow affected the ordering process. I have to thank Anthony at Weta for sorting things out.

A little update - I received an email yesterday from DpD couriers saying they had a parcel for me that they were aiming to deliver by Wednesday though they don't tell you who it is from which leaves you guessing however I received an email today from Anthony at Weta confirming that the Snipe was sent out on Friday. I can't fault the chaps at the New Zealand end of the organisation as they are helpful and friendly but I do think the European end of the distribution chain might require a little fine tuning.

Yup that is one of the things I always struggle with when using tiny PE parts and delicate cockpit/engine detailing. Anything that goes wrong or is left out is a wee black cloud over the finished models. I know the error/omission is there.

Hi all, Well last night it was time to zip up the fuselage of my Bristol M.1c. Glued the cockpit assembly in place then started the process of bringing the two halves together and getting them nicely aligned and all welded together. Job done!................................. then .......................... I took a torch and had a look inside to see how the pit looked now it was firmly in place and aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh! One of the bracing lines across the bottom of the cockpit framing (EZ Line) had somehow let go during the assembly. Anyone else suffered a similar situation? How do you deal with it? I think it is far too late to try and separate the halves as they were well bonded together with liquid poly. Don't even know if I can get at it with a pair of tweezers and somehow pull it out without damaging the cockpit. This is something I have always dreaded with interior lines but, until have never had happen. It would happen to be one of the few lines you can see, albeit with a magnifying glass and a bright light.

I do agree. It is very disappointing. I have 11 kits which I bought from other Britmodellers and ebay and service for each one was exemplary, quick and in nice sturdy packaging. You would think that the company could provide a similar quality of service. The kits are not the sort of prices that you can readily write off to experience if they go missing and, in this case, it seems that it somehow slipped through the cracks in their ordering system rather than gone missing in transit. It is particularly troubling in that I am hoping to have a reasonable amount of loot soon to acquire a few more kits and I am very reluctant to part with a few hundred pounds and then have to spend weeks chasing the goods.

Well another day with no word and no kit I have emailed Weta again but there won't be anyone in their offices until 8pm UK time so I am guessing it will be at least another week before my missing Snipe is sorted out. I suspect that they don't actually have a Wetaworkshop warehouse in Europe but are actually paying for warehousing services from an independent company. I was trying to locate the home of the Netherlands warehouse and my search threw up a company that provide warehousing services. Sorry scratch that I am forgetting that Friday has already come and gone in New Zealand so my email won't be picked up until 8pm UK time on Sunday night. Very frustrating.

Hi FZ6, I have been bouncing emails back and forth with two of the Weta chaps in New Zealand over the last couple of weeks. I originally contacted Anthony Upton about the weta dollars program as I bought the first kit before I registered with the site and he generously credited me with more of the Weta dollars than would have been earned by the kit. After a week had elapsed and I had already received the kit I had bought three days later than the first one (it only took four days to arrive from the Netherlands) I emailed Anthony at Weta NZ again and a couple of days later he got in touch to say that he could find no record of the order having left the warehouse in the Netherlands and had emailed them asking them to send out the kit ASAP. I emailed him requesting an update two days ago and he got back to me yesterday to say that he still hadn't received any information from the warehouse in the Netherlands to say whether they had indeed despatched the kit yet. As I said previously it sounds like a case of me contacting Weta NZ who email Weta NL and then wait as days elapse until Weta NL get back to Weta NZ and then Weta NZ may need to clarify something with Weta NL and authorise the shipment and then Weta NL might finally go ahead and ship to me. I have known situations like this with international companies in the past and it can add weeks onto the time needed to remedy the problem.

Thanks for letting us know Graham. I do hope that they go online or are published in order that those interested and not local to the exhibition can get to see them. Every single image from those days is a little treasure to be preserved and shared among the descendants of the combatants.

Yup the prices are a bit tough to swallow although they are coming down a tiny little bit (I take it the £ has strengthened a little). I have been in communication with one of our members (Dal) in Austalia and he was looking at grabbing an Albatros D.Va but he found that, as there are none left in New Zealand, it would head back south from Europe making it cost way too much. Unless someone works late (or early) either in New Zealand or the Netherlands in order to be able to communicate directly rather than picking up emails (something we all know doesn't neccessariy ellicit a quick response) I can see it taking a long time to sort out problems between the different ends of the operation. I think I may well be placing a want ad on Britmodeller to see if anyone has spare kits that they will part with (at new rates) rather than trusting to Weta. I trust my fellow BM'ers to give better service than Weta seem to be capable of so far.

Well the saga continues and no Sopwith Snipe as yet. I have received a message today from Anthony at Weta in New Zealand to say that he is still waiting on confirmation from the EU warehouse as to whether they have now sent my kit out. Looks like my prediction about communications difficulties between facilities working in different time zones was right on the money.