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Good day! Today I would like to present a most delicate and fiddly recent completion of mine. It is training version of the Caudron G.III, which can rightly be called the first plane of many successful Allied aviators of the Great War. I didn't feel like documenting this build with too many in-progress pictures, but I was more than a little intimidated when I first looked in the box. It is entirely made of somewhat flexible resin, with photoetched wheel spokes. The major components are of course the wings, the engine, and crew nacelle - with interplane struts and the twin tail booms making up the majority of the model, it was mostly just lots of resin sticks to be cut off of casting blocks! Indeed, the preparation of each strut and beam took time, and I fashioned a simple jig out of styrofoam to hold all the wooden parts upright for painting. Then, after lots of cussing while getting the sesquiplane wings oriented correctly, I filled in the remaining area where some interplane struts weren't long enough, and started the rigging. From the kit description: The Caudron G.III was designed by René and Gaston Caudron as a development of their earlier Caudron G.II for military use. It first flew in May 1914. The aircraft had a short crew nacelle, with an engine in the nose of the nacelle, and twin open tailbooms. It was of sesquiplane layout, and used wing warping for lateral control, although this was replaced by conventional ailerons fitted on the upper wing in late production aircraft. Usually, the G.III was not equipped with any weapons, although rifle-caliber weapons and hand-released small bombs were carried. Most G.IIIs were the A.2 model, used by numerous air forces for reconnaissance and artillery spotting on the Western Front, Russia, and the Middle East. The G.III D2 was a two-seat trainer aircraft, equipped with dual controls, and powered by a 80hp Le Rhône air-cooled rotary engine. The latest versions were equipped with more powerful 100hp Anzani 10 radial engine. Operators: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela. I used two types of rigging material here, in an attempt to portray the difference of thickness between bracing and control wires. For the interplane bracing, I used EZ Line "Fine" .003" material and this was especially difficult to work with. I wish I had gotten a lot of the rigging to look more straight, but I think it is partly a downfall of EZ Line to curl up at the end when dabbed in CA glue. The control wires were done with Uschi .001" superfine line, and this was the stuff I should have been using all along. It's basically spiderweb and hard to see, but coincidentally much easier to glue. It also looks much more in-scale for 1/72. Safe to say, I will use exclusively the Uschi product from now on. I won't pretend to have done all the rigging as on the real deal... but I did most of it! 😁 Overall a very different and challenging build. I am still getting used to working with resin. To tell you the truth, I wish I had reserved the effort for the fantastic looking G.III from Copper State Models in 1/32. Who says I can't have both.. 😅 Thanks for looking!

This figure represents a leading seaman of the Royal Naval Division at Antwerp in October, 1914 (the rank is indicated by the 'fouled anchor' patch on his left sleeve). The unit was formed from naval reservists called to the colors t mobilization, who were in excess of requirements for manning the fleet. Mr. Churchill saw to their being sent to reinforce the final Belgian defense of Antwerp in October, 1914. They were fitted out as a naval landing party at this time. The unit continued as an infantry division through the Great War, though after Antwerp in more soldierly attire. The figure is from Tommy's War, in resin, and comes in several pieces. It is rated 54mm (an old measurement from the ground to the eyes), but is actually a bit taller --- scaling it out at the standard 1/32 equivalent, he come out a good 6' 6". I cut fine strip of white decal strip for the stripes; the rank emblem is painted free-hand. I may eventually take it off this simple base and place it on something more elaborate, but certainly the figure itself is done.

I don't do figures often, so when I do get one, it's because I really want to do one, and therefore I tend to pile straight in whatever else I may have planned or on the plate. I have had some interest in the Naval Division at Antwerp since back in high school, when I came upon an article on it in an academic history magazine in the school library, and then read Mr. Churchill's history of the Great War. I was interested to discover the Tommy's War people did a figure of an enlisted man in the unit, and found I could get one from a state-side supplier. There was a pretty significant mould mis-alignment on the legs.... I dealt with this as my first step, it being something I know how to do.... After this comes the tricky bit (ie just about everything else...).... I started with the eyes and face because if these aren't at least passable, nothing else is going to matter much. I am pretty much a duffer at figures, and will spare you the preliminaries: what is pictured here represents the result after the third complete stripping of the face down to white primer.... I'm going to put head aside for a bit, so I can come at it with fresh eyes. I expect I will try and get a little more dark color at the edges of the eye-lids, and perhaps a couple more touches of glaze/wash on the cheeks and chin. But next on the agenda is putting on the arms and beginning to paint the clothes.

I don't do figures often, so when I do get one, it's because I really want to do one, and therefore I tend to pile straight in whatever else I may have planned or on the plate. I have had some interest in the Naval Division at Antwerp since back in high school, when I came upon an article on it in an academic history magazine in the school library, and then read Mr. Churchill's history of the Great War. I was interested to discover the Tommy's War people did a figure of an enlisted man in the unit, and found I could get one from a state-side supplier. There was a pretty significant mould mis-alignment on the legs.... I dealt with this as my first step, it being something I know how to do.... After this came the tricky bit (ie just about everything else...).... I started with the eyes and face because if these aren't at least passable, nothing else is going to matter much. I am pretty much a duffer at figures, and will spare you the preliminaries: what is pictured here represents the result after the third complete stripping of the face down to white primer.... I'm going to put this aside for a bit, so I can come at it with fresh eyes. I expect I will try and get a little more dark color at the edges of the eye-lids, and perhaps a couple more touches of glaze/wash on the cheeks and chin.

McCurd Model "C" 1914 Lorry. Pics mine taken at Shuttleworth.

The first two are 54mm white metal figures: The third will be from the recent ICM French Infantry 1914 set, in 1/35 scale.... I did figures frequently when in my teens, but have done only one in recent years, so I expect a learning curve. The ICM set, in fact, I view as being practice of a sort for the metal figures, but I intend to get at least one decent figure out of the lot of four. The Dragoon (of a line regiment) is billed as in campaign dress, but is not really. I am probably going to do it as a different regiment, one with yellow facings rather than pink ones. The Voltigeur sergeant is of the voltigeur company of a line battalion, not of a voltigeur regiment. As was common for the skirmishers in Spain, he has discarded his outer coat, and is wearing only the waist-coat. It will be a little while before I can start in earnest, as I have two biplanes going in the Lesser-Built Air Forces GB here, that must be finished before the end of April, and are only about half-done at present.