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My current 'big build' is Wingnut Wings lovely Albatros D.V, which has been in my stash for nearly 3 years now. I want to do it in Fritz Rumeys black and white striped Jasta 5 machine as shown on the box top, but have been put off all this time! I have tried to figure out how to do the stripes by temporarily using strips of tape wound around the fuselage halves, but something just did not work with it. I could not make the pattern shown. Then recently I noticed Wingnut Wings have updated the instructions on their website with a 3 view plan, showing how the pattern splits on the underside. Mystery solved, so before Christmas I opened the box and got started. Engine; Interior parts; Fuselage zipped up now. Engine just dry fitted. I will prime and paint the fuselage before fiting it permanently. Got to deal with this next! Thanks for looking, John

I've finally reduced the number of builds on my workbench to a sensible level, so feel justified in making a start on this, the Hannover CL.II from Wingnut Wings. Review is here of The Kit And here of the Pheon Decals Getting it all together, this is where we start; I'm looking forward to this!. A start was made by removing the fuselage halves and then all the interior components in the order they are needed. Everything is prepared by removing moulding lugs and and scraping any slight seams, and then storing all the components in zip lock bags according to the numbered stage of the assembly instructions. These are then primed with Halfords grey primer from a rattle can, and the wooden parts sprayed with Tamiya XF-57 Buff. When the buff is dry a coat ofJohnsons Kleer is brushed on top of it ready for the oil paints that will create the grain effect. Stage 1 Cockpit; Stage 2 & 3 Cockpit (continued) Stage 4 Fuselage; And getting ahead of myself I prepared some of the 'halved' engine parts so that they are ready to have the seams sanded down later. There is a choice of 3 props, given that I can usually mess one up I chose the Niendorf and Germania ones, and can use the one that comes out best. Stage 6 Argus As.III Engine. Thats all for now, thanks for looking, John

This is the newly released Fokker D.VII from Wingnut Wings, an inbox review of which can be found HERE It is a beautifully moulded, engineered, and presented kit and I couldn't wait to get started. Firstly I had to choose which one to do and after a lot of thought decided to go for 286/18 flown by Willi Gabriel of Jasta 11. Two things helped form this decision, 1) The colour scheme is fabulous, plus it requires the fuselage to be finished in 'Fokker streaky green' which in reality is a rough brush painted multi tone green finish, quite hard to do on a model. The kit provides a nice set of decals for it so I am keen to see how they work. 2) Willi Gabriel was an interesting character, and I always like to learn a little about the guys who flew the aircraft I model. He joined Jasta 11 in May 1918 and was given 4 weeks to start scoring victories or be kicked out. On his fisrt day he shot down a DH.9 and so confirmed his place. Other victories followed, but in June Herman Goering (yes, the Herman Goering of WW2 Luftwaffe fame) arrived as CO, and he and Gabriel did not get on. On 18 July 1918 when returning from a patrol led by Goering, Gabriel spotted a flight of Spads and broke formation, shooting down two of them, followed a a flight of three Breguet two seaters, which he also attacked and downed one over his home airfield. Goering was furious at Gabriel for having left the formation, and reprimanded him. Later that same day on an afternoon patrol Gabriel did it again, shooting down a two seat Spad. The culmination of all this was that Gabriel was busted off the Jasta, bringing his war to an end. He returned to active service in the Luftwaffe in ww2, flying Ju88's and Me.210's, and died in 1968 aged 75. The build starts with the interior components, and Wingnuts provide a great deal of them. The interior framework and engine mounts; The 'metalwork'. The fuel tank is painted in Revell 94 Gold, which I think gives a better Brass finish than their Brass paint. The firewall, ammunition tank, and spare link collection tank are all done with Alclad Aluminium. The seat & etched belts, Cockpit floor, rudder pedals, and control column; The wood effect is Tamiya XF-55 Deck tan varnished with Johnsons Kleer. The grain is done with Griffin Alkyd oils mixed to give an appropriate wood shade from Raw Sienna, Light red, and Burnt Umber in various proportions. The gun mount, Compass, and instrument panel. All interior components together; The Mercedes engine is a little beauty. Major components; I have left the two magnetos on a section of sprue, as I have drilled them to take spark plug wires, and they are easier to handle like this. Metal areas are again Alclad Aluminium, black is Citadel Chaos Black. I have made 2 props in case of accidents with one of them. Like the cockpit floor they are done with deck tan, but then masked to give a laminted effect. Red brown is sprayed on, leaving a very strong 2 tone look. This is covered with a dark mix of Griffin Alkyd oils, so that the laminated affect only just shows through under the grain; The top 3 pictures are various stages of the same prop. All this lot needs to come together now, and the fuselage 'zipped up'. Cheers John

Just before Christmas 2012 Wingnut Wings released their long awaited Fokker D.VII kits in 1:32 scale in three versions. All three are beautiful kits reviewed here. I started one as soon as possible, deciding to go with the Fokker built version (Other boxings are for the OAW and Albatros built versions) mainly because it featured the Fokker 'streaky green' brush painted finish as decals, and I wanted to see how they would look. I chose Willi Gabriels machine on the basis that it was colourful, and because Gabriel was an interesting character. He rapidly started scoring kills when posted to Jasta 11, but his maverick lack of discipline style saw him infuriate his CO, Hermann Goering, who had him kicked off front line flying. Anyway, back to the kit. It was a total pleasure to build, but everything needs to be done carefully. Fit is of the highest standard and the instrctions very clear so you must follow them to the letter. There is a build log here. The model is fully rigged, the D.VII was designed to do away with rigging wires between the wings, so the only wires are between the undercarraiage, and on the control surfaces. Enough of the talk, on with the photos; Thanks for looking, John