Brandy

That's a pretty impressive interior, nicely done! And thanks for the background history, it makes interesting reading. Ian

Ahh, the joys of ill fitting wings. Still, at least with this one there is a decent excuse - they weren't intended to go together! Nicely done too! Ian

Nice work! Hope the casting comes out ok. I think the lines around the tank were so that it could be rolled down a railway line to save transport costs.....they were obviously allowing for a multitude of different gauges... Ian

Thanks Col, I wanted to have at least one Ottoman Turk aircraft in the collection, so here it is! .A little more progress today. Got the undercarriage and a few more bits of PE fitted. I hope to get the undercarriage and wing-warping rigging on tomorrow, maybe the engine and cowling too.... Ian

Thanks Darby, There is no question that this is not going to be any where near where I wanted it to be when I started, but it is still a huge improvement over the basic kit. I'm more concerned at this point at having it accurate to the shape and dimensions of the real thing than any individual aircraft. The paint issues and subsequent change of scheme have left it with no underwing shadow details and a blue rather than clear underwing finish, but I'll live with that. I got the undercarriage rigged today, attached all the flight control surfaces and the coolant header tank, applied the wing decals, then made a start on the observer's Parabellum. I also made and attached the windows and pilot's windscreen, and did a little more work on the exhaust. Getting close now.... Ian

Beautiful work, absolutely gorgeous. No wonder the new keeper was pleased! The only thing that really stands out to me is the roof being too narrow, the other issues are very minor. In fact they are all minor if you don't show the 2 together..as my old man used to say "a man on a flying horse wouldn't notice" Ian

Very impressive indeed! I like your thinking re the springs...but I had so hoped to see you do it all in minute detail.....just for the hell of it..... Ian

Beautiful, clean, scratch building. Very impressive! Ian

How on earth have I missed this? Not like it's small or something... The usual jaw-dropping workmanship I see. You must have shares in Evergreen.... Ian

I feel your pain, after the debacle with my Roland. I did the same, took a day off and came back refusing to let some iffy paint ruin my hard work! She'll be fine, and you know you'll be thankful a few months from now when looking at her on the shelf! Ian

Curious to know what the "terrible thing" was that happened to the Pegasus kit...but I'm watching anyway! I have the Roden version in the stash to be duly treated with the sworl camo as and when I get around to it. Ian

Even if your cooking is only half as good as your modelling, dinner will be very special! Fantastic mini-engineering! Ian

Thanks Sergey! Good spot, i hadn't noticed that on this aircraft. However, I'm not going to add it (I think it's actually an additional roll-over bar for the observer). My excuse is that there is a pic of this aircraft upside down - I'm guessing that was the first "spots" and the replacement, painted the same, had the bar fitted after the previous observer found out the hard way that it might be needed. That's my story anyway, and it makes sense to me! This is starting to be fun again now. I got all the structural rigging done yesterday, and got it all cleaned up today. After that little job, I tackled the exhaust. The slot in the kit part was filled with Milliput and 6 lengths of 15 thou plastic rod were pushed into it and aligned as close as I could get them. The last thing I did this evening was add a touch of CA to help hold them all in place. I'll continue with that tomorrow. Further progress was made with some of the smaller items too. Wheels were painted and attached, the claw brake is now on, and the prop logos and reference guide lines for the pilot were added. Finally the ailerons were attached so they can dry overnight and will be ready for decals tomorrow. Besides the wing decals, there's not much left now: the non-structural rigging (undercarriage, ailerons, and rudder) will be done with wire, then there's the observer's Parabellum, and the windows. I might also make an attempt at an anemometer as it was very obvious on this aircraft. Thanks for looking in Ian

Nice touch with the cemetery. There's one in Georgetown, Guyana too. I seem to remember the last date was mid 1800's but stand to be corrected. Ian

Awsomer and awsomer...(I live in the US now, it's a requirement to bugger up our fine language!) Rub it in about the hair and the gut, why don't you..... Ian

wow, and I thought Airfix had got their act together! Nice job with the rivets, and I won't even attempt to figure what it says about you! Ian

A day of decaling today, on this and the Roland. The wings are just resting in place for the pic, but it's certainly looking smart with its black squares on! Ian

Thanks Adrian and Tony, much appreciated. I must say that with a little more planning it may not have been necessary to have the extra patience.... I've had the first fun day on this for a while! I reprinted the spots this morning and sealed them properly (the first effort smudged)...Most of the decals have now been applied, only the wings to go and I'll do them after the rigging has been done. Tomorrow I'll give it all a gloss coat to protect the decals.....onwards! Ian

Great work on this one so far! But surely this is a rebox of the old tool kit? I'm no expert but the 3 or 4 new tool kits I have all have pretty good internal detail. The 109E-4 includes cockpit detail moulded into the fuselage sides, a 6-part cockpit including instrument panel plus decals, separate exhausts and under wing radiators, and none of those old style pegs inside the fuselage.... Ian

All the best for tomorrow, see you back here soon! Ian

You're doing sterling work (pun intended) on those wheel bays...keep it up, she's looking great! Not so sure about the panel lines though...who designs these things..Airfix are just as bad! Ian

Looking fantastic! I hope you're right about the whingeing...it gets very difficult to do any modelling when your fingers are stuck in your ears! Ian

Nice save on the aileron, looks like you fitted one of the F1 type! Looking very nice indeed now. If you want to add a little more detail, I believe all Jasta 2 aircraft were modified by adding small extra struts between the rear undercarriage leg and the back edge of the spreader bar "wing" to stop it fluttering. Certainly Kempf's aircraft had it, you can just make it out in this pic http://www.fokkerdr1.com/images/Dr1_213_17_kempf.jpg Ian

Thanks guys! I did have one more small problem though. I was masking for the black stripes and decided to use the Jammy Dog thin tape to get the lines right. I wasn't happy so removed it and guess what...I got two lumps of paint off with it! After nearly throwing it at the wall, I realised that both the spots of missing paint were in a fortuitous place - I changed my plans from doing the black striped plane, to the black spotted one, as the front right hand spot is right where both the missing pieces are! I touched in a little white paint to fill the small indents where the paint had been and went ahead with drawing and printing some black circles. That was done this morning, so this afternoon I touched up the engine where my masking wasn't quite up to scratch, and painted the radiators, observer's gun ring, and pilot's leather cockpit padding. A gloss coat is now required, then the nose markings will go on before the aircraft is rigged, and the rest of the decals will follow that. Thanks for watching! Ian

I got around to repainting the red-brown today and then managed to remove the masking without taking any paint off! Result! Ian