Paul Thompson

I did that in my review because I'd noticed that the KP wings used the Revell wings as masters, which leads to non-trivial fit problems later because the KP fuselage is new, and not the same width, as I found when building both side by side. Paul.

Yes. and I was unimpressed, despite myself. I reviewed it in the newsletter of the Great War sig, Cher Ami. Free to download at https://sites.google.com/site/greatwarsig/Resources I did an in-box review in the last but one issue, and built it for the last one, starting on page 28. Rambles on a bit I'm afraid. Paul.

From Hannants, a Model Alliance set: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ML72136?result-token=IHQmD Paul.

I don't think many people realise that. Patches to cover bullet holes, yes, but any major re-painting would take place when the machine was returned to an air park for repair etc. The other thing not appreciated is that most aeroplanes where kept under cover, and idle hands were kept out of mischief by giving them a bucket of petrol and a rag and telling them to clean the things. Which of course lead to different weathering than often assumed by modellers. Anyway, my point was only about the difficulties of settling on a modelling colour that has more than a 50:50 chance of being right. I still get a little distressed seeing otherwise lovely models that are painted green, considering that after the war had been in progress for more than a few months the ground in Flanders and surrounds would no longer be anything but churned mud colour. Paul.

I've a bit of SE5a fabric from one of the recoverings of the Shuttleworth machine, and that changes colours if you walk out of the house in sunlight, and depending indoors if it's an incandescent bulb or a fluorescent tube. I'm only assuming they followed the old recipe though, someone gave be the fabric so I couldn't ask. Varies from brown/green to dark brown. Paul.

Don't forget, when you get to them, the propellors are handed............................ Can't see mention earlier, but have you seen this? http://modelingmadness.com/review/w1/gb/attardf2a.htm . Carmel Attard always does nice work - I wouldn't recommend his propellor finish though, he always does them that way and it spoils the look to my eye at least. But the rest is really nice.It does, however, point out how the props are oriented. Paul.

Looks very promising. I'll be getting one despite it being in bloat scale. Paul.

Bob, apart from the mirrored blob difference in the underside shots, the thing that stands out is the different widths of the wheelbays. But that might be an illusion caused by the tapering centre bit on the Tamiya kit. How does it look in to you in real life, unless you've already re-stashed them) ? I tried putting a straight edge up to my screen to be sure but it's morning and my hands are too wobbly. Paul.

Slight ammendation: DH2, Eduard. Goes together suprisingly easily for such a birdcage. The rigging, OTOH, might take a while. Unless I'm missing the point and the Revell kit has deals for 17(F) Squadron? Can't remember which decals Eduard supply, but there were I think 4 options in the kit I built. Anyway, a sheet of Pegasus (now Freightdog) serials would sort you for the right machine - they wouldn't have had zig-zags back then. Paul.

Can't help, had the same problem. Misterkit sell a range of acrylic paint that has become impossible to get here since Aeroclub wrapped up (they imported it). Lots of WWI colours, which is my thing. I've emailed MrKit about it several times and asked for help here and elsewhere, to no avail. Paul.

Understood. I dimly recalled an old Profile, but since my bookshelf is more of a book midden it can be hard to check sometimes. Paul.

I'm okay thanks, I have the book, but think Bill the original poster would probably like one unless it's what he meant by Profile book - I assumed he meant the original Profile series. Paul.

I was trying to answer this and came across the very sheet in my stash, but in my example at least although the decals are there, the profile for the Gauntlet isn't in the instructions. It is, however, in the book that accompanied the series. Paul.

I think I read at the time that the swirly bits didn't fit all that well even when used on the kit they were meant for. Paul.

Alternatively, if what you have for ribs are grooves, lay thin sprue in them and attach with a very light application of liquid cement, although if you're worried about melting the plastic (which depends both on the exact plastic formulation and the thickness) use enamel varnish. Leave for a day then lightly sand until you're happy with the result. This way is easier to retain the thinness of the wing, which in 1/72nd is quite important. A coat of Halfords Grey Plastic Primer before sanding won't do any harm. The kit you have is probably the Classic Plane if vac, which IIRC wasn't that accurate shapewise, but if injection moulded plastic is a very early Amodel kit which needs more sanding than the vac. Paul.

As I recall, and am likely to trot out repeatedly to anyone who shows the slightest interest, the main problem with the Roden Gotha G.III was the nature of the plastic they used back then, which was (usually) very brittle, which made getting the finer parts like the struts off the sprues intact a bit more of an adventure than you'd want. Still, by doing as much flash removal and parting seam cleanup as possible while the parts are still on the runner, you can minimise the risk. I'm quite clumsy and still only broke one strut. That's the main thing I've read complaints about.Well, that and the modifications required due to Roden maximising the number of versions you can do, which you've probably already seen in the instructions and involve mostly minor things like knifing off unwanted fuselage protruberances. The worst bit is changing the sweepback on the wings. The theory is nice, but how you get on is down to your own accuracy in cutting the wings (as I recall - it's been a while). Again, I said all this to someone intending to build a Roden Gotha of some flavour in the last few years, so I hope it wasn't you, but erring on the side of caution and since you haven't started yet, be aware that getting the engines into the nacelles needs advanced whittling skills. The Roden engines are more or less the right size which doesn't allow for the thinckness of the nacelle plastic, and you'd need to sand the insides to a true scale thickness for them to fit unmodified, by which time they walls would have suffered complete structural integity failure. A pity, because both the nacelles and engines have some nice detail on them. Having discovered the fit problem after everything was painted and ready for assembly, my 'solution' if you can call it that was to hack away most of each engine and carve and sand the edges of the openings as thin as I could until the exhausts could more-or-less fit in the right place. Knowing about it beforehand should make it a lot easier. I don't recall any other issues with the kit, and it's held together quite well over the years despite several house moves. I got the Rareplane kit to the rigging stage and stopped due to disillusionment with the job I'd done, particularly the handpainted fuselage markings, which was utter pants. No suitable off the shelf decals back then, unlike today. I might re-do it one day though, just so I can say I finished it (same reason I use to keep a Contrail Staaken hanging around even though I built one of the Rodens). I hate brush painting red enamel for just the reason you describe, when using gloss Humbrol colours, mostly H19. Not so bad with matt versions, I find they'll stand overcoating in half the time. Paul.

Ray, I've used the Part set on the Roden Gotha G.III, and it was very useful for many of the bits. Very fiddly though, but worth it in this case. I also have a set for the G.IV which (since I mislaid my Roden kit) I may use on a Rareplanes one I bought before Roden were a gleam in the eye of Toko. The only bad thing about the latter kit is the tail surface control runs being moulded on the fuselage sides - you really should delete those. If you ever see one, the white metal accessory pack by Aeroclub really helps the kit out (full engines and exhausts, all guns, that sort of thing). Paul.

I only noticed this today or would have commented earlier. Very nice so far. I have one cut out (sprayed with grey primer) and then shelved a few weeks after it was released. Can't remember why now because its a cracking little kit. Also have one of the Roden kits, and recently picked up another Aeroclub off Fleabay which was going for a fiver because there were no instructions and it was all cut out. Bit of a risk, but although the previous owner hadn't primered or marked up the plastic before cutting, he was pretty accurate, so it will be do-able with some extra effort. The canopies in both of mine are very yellowed though, which will determine how I eventually build them ( working of course on the basis that I'll live forever, despite being 63 today). Anyway, far too late to help, but thought you should know that there is a Part PE set which would have helped you a lot with the interior. But if you ever do another, now you know (sorry if that was mentioned before, I'm getting really good at being selectively word-blind when playing catchup with a thread ). Paul.

Humbrol 71, satin oak, is a great all round colour, I find. Looks more like CDL than the official Humbrol colour H74 for RFC/RAF aircraft, although the H74 is IMHO good for the yellow version of French CDL finishes. H71 is a good start for Albatros fuselages, too. Paul.

The thing with undercarriage struts, they were originally unfaired steel tubes, but later were wooden, and faired so visibly wider. It gets harder to tell because they could also be fabric wrapped and doped (off the top of my head - I'm about to go out to walk the dog so not checking, but if you look up the instructions on the Wingnuts website they probably go into a bit more detail). Paul.

H71 will work but you may need an extra coat or two of clear orange. TBH, although I also used to use that (but with a base of H63 or 93 according to how dark I wanted it) although a few years back I switched to a Citade 'shade' colour. Favourite was Chestnut Brown, but the since they renamed everything I'm usingSeraphim Sepia. Not as orange as the Tamiya stuff, and much thinner, which is a Good Thing. Depending on strut size I sometimes scribble a grain effect first using a brown watercolour pencil. The Citadel colour then blends this in slightly. Double check the centre section and undercarriage struts. They may have been painted PC10 or black. Paul.

Very nice. A little known fact - Joystick vacs are still available from Hannants. Not particularly cheap, but usually a lot cheaper than Ebay types would have you pay for them so long as you don't need postage to Abu Dhabi (so not very helpful, I'm afraid). As of today there are 23 different kits available. I'm not sure but have an idea they've gone up a bit over the last couple of years. The average price is £14.20, including the Batboat (which was they last one I bought, I dimly recall). Sad that Rosemont wound up. Their vacs were very nice, and the vac wing blank sheet was enormously useful. Paul.

At least when you next get the chance, what you've done is far enough along to inspire you to finish them off rather than long-term-store on the Shelf of Doom. Paul.

Aviattic. This is their product news page, scroll down to find the decal sheet due this month. https://www.aviattic.co.uk/news.htm Paul.

Vickers-Challenger synchronisation gear, so no dodging needed. I hope KP do a better job than with the Sopwith Triplane. Paul.