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  1. I know I have a couple of long term builds on the go, but facing a major relocation and 2 to 3 months without any modeling, I don't want to get the other builds unnecessarily fragile for the trip, or masked for an extended period, so I'm going to start looking at another one I've always wanted to build. Although my main interest is WWI, I also have a long standing interest in the opening year of WWII and the Battle of Britain. To that end, I have built up a small stash of early WWII types, mainly new Airfix mouldings. However, there is one early type that is not yet represented by the new Airfix mouldings, and it needs to be included in my collection. That aircraft is the Fairey Battle, and the only readily available kit is the old Airfix offering, which, as we all know, is woefully lacking in accuracy! So, just how bad is it? Let's take a look at it against the plans in Ian Huntley's book on the subject, which seem to be pretty accurate and match the dimensions.... Rear fuselage and tail I lined up the underside of the fuselage with the plans, which gave the most accurate comparison. Not too bad - the rudder is totally wrong, and the top side of the rear fuselage is a little low, but both fairly easily corrected. Forward fuselage Not good! The nose is about 4mm too short. I drew around the fuselage on the underside to see how that matched up. OK, so the line is a little below the actual kit fuselage, but it's close....and not close enough to where it should be! So I have quite a bit of work to do on the fuselage to get it even close. How about the wings? The wing roots look pretty good! That's a good start.. The chord, however, is another issue.... Some work needed here to correct the chord of the outer wing panels. That, though, is a minor problem compared to what we find underneath...... The wheel wells, bomb bays, flare bays, and landing lights are all way too far outboard. I ran a pencil around the inside of the apertures in the lower wing part and this is what I found.... Not pretty! I think the best way around this is going to be to fill them, recut the openings for the wheel wells, and rescribe the rest in the correct positions. The panel detail on the kit wings is pretty awful, especially underneath (the flare bays and access panel for the machine gun are not even represented) so I think I'll sand it all off and rescribe it anyway. Finally, the tail surfaces Not bad! Compared to the rest of the kit! Fairly easily corrected. The prop needs the centre hub added. I have resin wheels, which are actually a little too thick, but far better than the kit offerings and easily thinned by cutting them in half vertically and reattaching the halves (minus what gets sawn out when cutting, so thinning them). I will also add a Falcon canopy, exhausts from the new mould Airfix Hurricane Mk1, and a Miniworld Vickers K gun. The undercarriage and wheel wells need some serious detail improvement, as does the cockpit. I'm going to enjoy this one - my type of modelling! But, come on Airfix, how about a new, correct one? let the Battle begin....... Ian
  2. Well, I've gone and done it again..... I need to give the Muromets a gloss coat before going much further, and I decided to order a painting stand/turntable to help, so that put it on hold for a little while. Then I saw a resurrected thread on a couple of Do17s, and since my other area of interest is the Battle of Britain, I got an itch to do something outside my comfort zone. Here is that something! I haven't been able to find any other threads on this one, I would have thought someone would have done one on here by now! Anyway, here's what you get lots of bits of very nicely moulded plastic to play with! And here's what I'm adding to it Eduard masks and interior PE set, Quickboost exhausts, CMK resin undercarriage set (designed for the Hasegawa kit but I'm hoping it will fit ok), and some of these to replace the kit mg's. I'm having fun already! I started off by cleaning up the ejector pin marks on the fuselage interior, and removing detail where it will be replaced by the PE. I also promptly lost one of the larger cockpit pieces after having sanded the detail off. I was checking the fit, when off it went into never never land! Fortunately the PE part completely covers the kit part so I stuck the PE to a piece of plastic sheet and sanded it down to the same shape. It may turn out to be a help actually because I think the inside of this may be visible, and the kit part had huge locating lugs on it, which are now not there! Here's the bit I'm talking about I'm still not sure about those rudder pedals. The foot rests have been removed and will be replaced with PE, but I'm also thinking that maybe I should remove the oversized adjustment bars and replace them with thinner brass rod..... and the fuselage sides with a couple of pieces already added. The plan is to add as much of the unpainted PE as I can, then paint the interior, then add the self adhesive bits. I'm probably going to go for RLM02 for the interior, rather than the slightly later RLM66, just because it should show the detail better. But that's not set in stone...... I do like these new Airfix kits, I've already reverted to child mode! Ian
  3. Hi all, For those who don't follow the Great War in the Air forum, I thought I'd post my recently completed Blériot XI scratchbuild. It's my first scratchbuild, but was surprisingly straightforward, the only problems being working out a logical order for the construction. The engine and prop are Aeroclub, seatbelts and wheels are PE (the wheels came from a Meikraft Albatros which won't be needing them) and the decals are homemade (my first attempt!). Other than that it's all plastic stock, brass rod and beer can (all the body panels). I hope you like her! Ian Edit Sept 2018: Since the GWIA forum is now long defunct, here's a link to the build on WWIAircraftmodels. https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2013.msg32690#msg32690
  4. I'm about to start this one for a GB on another site, and thought I should post it here too. @John Aero, if you read this, feel free to chastise me for ruining a bloody good kit! Although I profoundly hope you won't need to! Start date is next Monday (Feb 16th) but I wanted to whet some appetites so got this posted early! As I'm sure you all know, John Adams of Aeroclub released this a few years back. Not long after, I was building up my stock of Aeroclub white metal parts, and also invested in a jig. and John very kindly, (and unexpectedly!) offered me this at a very reasonable price to go along with all my goodies! I think he was also trying to consolidate the business and I just lucked out on the timing! As a limited run kit, it is top class. The trailing edges are almost razor like, the engraved detail is very finely done, and there is almost no flash! Here's the box: Inside we find all sorts of goodies! 6 sprues of plastic: 2 for the wings, one for the tail and interior parts, the other 3 for fuselage halves, floats and sundry other bits: We then have a bag of white metal parts (wing and float struts, float parts, props, gun rings beaching trolley wheels and control column), and a resin radiator: A lot of the struts are duplicated in nice thick PE, so there is a choice of which to use: Very nicely printed decals, which include a lot of surplus items such as manufacturer's stencils etc to cover alternative aircraft: and of course, last but not least a large instruction sheet! I will be using the Datafile and a Windsock International Seaplanes Special as references: This is going to be a very interesting build and a huge challenge - the rigging is NOT simple! I'm thinking of building her with wings folded, we'll have to see if that is feasible.....I'm really looking forward to getting started on it! Ian
  5. Well folks, here she is! The first half of my Sopwith double build is now in the cabinet. The interior, all struts, beaching trolley, tail surfaces, and tail stand are scratchbuilt. The Lewis is MiniWorld, prop and engine are Aeroclub. Mods to the kit included removing the headrest and moulded front "visor", reskinning the entire top surface of the fuselage with .005" sheet to correct the cockpit shape and improve the definition of the rear turtledecking, reskinning the fuselage underside to reduce the depth, and drastically reducing the height of the main floats. The opening in the upper wing was also filled as photos show this aircraft without it. Rigging is .06mm (0.002") monofilament, with similar sized stainless wire used on the tail float. The sling on the upper wing is simply a couple of pieces of cotton tied together and CA'd in place. The model represents a Sopwith Baby with Nore Flight, Isle of Grain, in May 1916. This particular aircraft was there by 24th April 1916, and was capsised and wrecked in mid May. It was struck off charge in June of that year. She's just become one of my personal favourites, I hope you like her! Ian
  6. Aaaaagh! I give in, I'm going to have to do this! First a little background. The firm of Donnet-Lévêque was established in 1912 when French designer Denhaut and Swiss engineer Donnet got together. They built a 2 seat tandem flying boat based on earlier design of Denhaut's which had been built by Levasseur. This later machine was designated the Donnet-Lévêque flying boat and the company was formed to build Denhaut's designs. The original Donnet-Lévêque (the Type A) was a single-bay wing warper, and was powered by a 50hp Gnôme. The later B and C models had ailerons, and were fitted with 70hp and 80hp Gnômes respectively. The C also had a larger wing enabling it to carry 3 people. The Type A won the Belgian Coupe du Roi (King's Cup) for seaplanes in 1912 and was later produced under licence by F.B.A. (Franco-British Aviation) as the FBA Lévêque, (or FBA Type A) although from what I can find, the FBA types had a normal boat style prow, instead of the blunt nose of the Donnet-Lévêque. The FBA Type B and C were slightly larger 2-bay aircraft and had a side-by-side instead of tandem seating arrangement. Austro-Hungary purchased 4 Donnet-Lévêque aircraft in 1912 for evaluation: 2 Type As and 2 Type Cs. All entered service in January 1913. They were so impressed that they copied them: 3 were built in 1913 with Gnôme engines, enlarged fuselages and longer wingspan, 4 more in 1914. The kit will be built as one of the original 4 Austro-Hungarian aircraft, Number 10 (actually the decals supplied are for this aircraft). My reference (French Aircraft of the First World War by Davilla & Soltan) states that this aircraft was a Type A, but the one pic I have found of it clearly shows ailerons, so that's how it will be built. That reference also states that Number 10 was damaged in a crash on 6th December 1913, although it doesn't state whether it was repaired or not. This was such an important aircraft that I feel I have to include it in my collection. The design was of course developed further by FBA, and any cursory glance at Austro-Hungarian seaplanes from the period clearly show design similarities (particularly the curved tail) - and they were copied in turn by Macchi for their series of small seaplanes. So, what do I have to work with? Here's the pic I found online: and here's the kit: I don't have measurements for this specific aircraft, and those that I do have show the wings as far too long, so I'll see what "looks right". Fortunately the pic is taken from almost exactly front quarter so I should be able to get relative lengths of fuselage to wings from that The fuselage will need some major work. The rear is flat on top instead of triangular, and the top deck of the nose is wrong, but nothing that should cause too much trouble. Now to get the bits out of the sheet! Ian
  7. I finally finished this one today. The type really should be better known, as it pre-dated Curtiss designs and was copied by the Austro-Hungarian designers, who were in turn copied by Macchi among others. The common features on this, the early Lohners, and the Macchi series, not to mention the FBA boats developed directly from the original Donnet designs, are readily apparent. Designed in 1912 by Frenchman François-Victor Denhaut and Swiss Jérôme Donnet, the Austro-Hungarian Navy bought 4, (numbers 8 & 12 - Type Cs, and numbers 10 & 11 - Type As) which it promptly copied, building 4 more. 3 more copies followed later, they liked them so much! The aircaft depicted, number 10, was a Type A which had wing-warping, and entered service on 4th January 1913. Originally, the only markings carried where the red-white-red on the rudder and a black number 10, also on the rudder. The white "10" on the nose and the Austrian Coat-of-Arms on the tail were added per an order dated 2nd May 1913. From November 1913 a letter was added to the number on the nose. (Sources: French Aircraft of the First World War, Davilla & Soltan; Seaplanes of Bocche, Ciglic). This photo (found online) would therefore date to between late May, and November, 1913. Interesting to note is that it appears to have stagger wires in the outer bay, no actuator for the wing warping on the rear cockpit, and pulleys for an aileron return cable on the upper wing, so it looks as though it was converted to ailerons at some point. This is how I've modeled it. It was based at Pola (now Pula, Croatia), and flown by, among others, Linienschiffleutnant Heinrich Huss, one of the first party of k.u.k. Kriegsmarine officers sent for flight training in Wiener Neustadt in 1911, and who passed away in Nuremburg on 7th September 1959. The kit is the Libramodels vacform, which is sold as an FBA Leveque, although that is not correct. The wings were shortened and the fuselage heavily modified with Miliput and a 6" half-round file! Interior, all struts, and tail surfaces are scratchbuilt, the engine is SmallStuff, and the prop was stolen from an Eduard DH2 kit and modified. Painted with Misterkit, Tamiya, and Modelmaster acrylics, including the wood effects. Build log is here. I hope you like her! Ian
  8. Well folks, another double build has come to an end with the completion of the Pup. The kit is not perfect. I corrected the shape of the wingtips but didn't bother with the rest of the wing corrections: The ribs are spaced slightly incorrectly, which means that with the tips reshaped, the ailerons are slightly too short. A perfectionist might want to remove all the rib detail and correct the aileron length, but she looks ok to my eyes, and the surface detail is nicely done so I decided to leave it. The build log is here. The subject will be familiar to WnW Pup fans, and TVAL fans also, as this is the scheme worn by their Pup. It represents N6205 of 3 (Naval) Sqn in Marieux, France, April 1917 as flown by FSLt J.S.T. Fall. Joseph Stewart Temple Fall was a Canadian ace, credited with 36 kills, and honoured with the DSC (in May 1917) and 2 bars (both in December 1917), and the Air Force Cross (Jan 1919) for gallantry. He passed away in British Columbia in 1988 aged 93. I hope you like her! Ian
  9. This is more of a notice of intention at the moment, as I want to finish the Muromets before getting involved in anything else. I have decided on my next build, and as I have also decided to repaint the roundals on the Muromets, I want something to do while waiting for the previous colour to dry enough to be masked. A little reasearch and parts clean up fits the bill, so here is what I'm starting with. The HR Models Pup is a really nice kit. The detail is well moulded and crisp. The decals let it down a little as the blue is far too light, but that's easily remedied. So here are the standard sprue shots..... I think most 1:72 scale modellers are familiar with Revell's Triplane. My kit has new decals which are very nicely done, but the kit does need some work..... The fuselage will be reskinned on the cockpit sides and on the rear decking to give a better rendition of the ribbing under the fabric. I will be using an Aeroclub engine (if it fits!), prop and Vickers gun, and either my own 3d printed wheels or the spare set from the Pup kit, I haven't looked closely at them yet to see if they will work. The cowling will also need some work to open up the vents and add a little more depth to it, and the struts may be modified and used, or scratchbuilt...again I need to look a little closer at what I have. The tail surfaces will probably be scratchbuilt, the undercarriage definitely will be! And then there are the ejector pin marks.... See you soon! Ian
  10. This one is now in the cabinet. I'm very pleased at how she's turned out, especially given the quality of the original kit. Major modifications included scratchbuilt interior, undercarriage and tail surfaces, replacement engine, prop, and wheels (all from the HR Models Pup kit), and Aeroclub Vickers gun. The fuselage was widened at the rear and cut out to open up the tail section, the cockpit opening was reshaped, and the rear decking was reskinned with embossed 5 thou card. The cowling was narrowed at the front by inserting a ring of plastic card, and the cooling slots were drilled out. I also removed the lumps on the struts which Revell provide to mount the wings on, and thinned the struts considerably. The full build log is here. The model represents N5493 "Blymp" flown by Flt Lt RA Little of 8 (Naval) Squadron, St Eloi, France, May 1917. "Bob" Little was Australia's highest scoring ace with a total of 47 kills, 24 of which were on the Triplane. He was killed in action on the night of 27th May 1918. While searching for Gotha bombers a searchlight inadvertantly caught him and a Gotha gunner got off a burst at him. One bullet hit him in both thighs, and he made a forced landing behind French lines. However by the time he was found next morning, he had bled to death. Little also flew, and scored victories with, Sopwith Pup N5182 ,which is on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon. I hope you like her! Ian
  11. This is not strictly a WIP as it was done a few years ago, but while updating all my old threads to replace the PB pics, I noticed it hadn't been posted here. Since the primary aim of my posts is to provide a (hopefully useful) guide to anyone wanting to know what needs doing to these old kits to make them accurate, I have decided to copy and paste the posts from the other forum I am on, so at least it will be here if anyone wants to reference it. So without further ado.....the posts from late 2012.....hope you find them useful..... I know I have 2 on the bench already, but I needed to make sure I had the relevant info to do this, so I've made a start... I'll be building the Amodel Nieuport IVG with PART PE and Aeroclub engine/prop - hopefully this will add the weight necessary to keep it sitting on the skid properly...... I wasn't too sure of the dimensions, but found some drawings online, and references to a wing span for this model of 10.9/10.7 metres. Since 1/72 of 10.7m comes to 148.6mm I took this as the correct span and measured the drawings. The span on those was 248mm so I reduced the drawings by 60% to bring them to scale. As can be seen, the fuselage is too short but otherwise good. The wings are near perfect, but the tail...hmmm....must have been Friday afternoon when they made those moulds! Needless to say the fuselage will be lengthened to the correct length, the wings will be thinned as they are way too thick, and I will probably scratchbuild the tail surfaces as they are so far off. Other parts will be offered up to the plans as needed and corrected is necessary. I made a little progress today on this one. The fuselage mouldings don't mate down the middle as normal: the left side includes the top, and the right side includes the floor. Unfortunately no allowance seems to have been made for the additional width of the extra side when the pieces are mated, which makes the fuselage too wide by the the same amount as the thickness of the plastic! The top and bottom were therefore narrowed so that when mated, the fuselage had the correct width and all interior moulded detail was removed. Of course having narrowed the fuselage there is absolutely no chance of the PE interior fitting, but that was never going to be used anyway. I will add detail with stock rod and maybe cut the PE for the bracing wires. The fuselage was cut along the line of the rear undercarriage brace (just aft of the cockpit), and the front part was thinned extensively as this was sheet aluminium on the real aircraft, not a brick wall as the moulding would seem to imply! I added small fillets to the top of the fuselage sides, just forward of the cockpit and a piece of sheet stock under the nose to correct the profile. The upper nose/engine cover was also thinned. I've added scrap plastic to lengthen the fuselage and am waiting for this to dry completely before attempting any further work on the fuselage. A new rudder and horizontal tail surfaces have been made from stock sheet. I'll finish detailing these when I get closer to needing them. Ian I'm still working on the fuselage. The kit part for the firewall is too long (front to back) which would mount the engine too far forward, and if trimmed it would then make the engine sit too low. A new firewall and lower front fuselage was therefore made up and fitted with a piece of plastic rod to serve as engine/prop mounting. I decided to test fit the PE interior just for the heck of it, and was very surprised to see it actually fits despite the fuselage having been made narrower - this must be because the front end was also moved forward (by 7mm!) so is actually a little wider than the original! Another surprise is that all the formers actually line up to the plans (even though they are a little too thin), so it appears that the PE was made to the correct size, and not to fit the incorrect kit fuselage. These formers will be beefed up a bit with plastic rod anyway to give a bit of depth so the incorrect width isn't an issue. I've also done a little more work on the front upper decking. The edges immediately in front of the cockpit have been filed flat, at an angle to the forward cabane struts, the curve of the front cockpit rim was made more pronounced and a new "windscreen" was made from sheet stock. This piece still needs to be drilled for the filler caps but I'll do that later. Next up will be finishing the insides of the fuselage halves and painting them, then installing the PE and starting on the interior detail. I must say, I'm enjoying this one! A quick update - sorry about the quality of the pics: I just put brand new batteries in my camera and they're already running low after about 5 attempts to get the damn thing in focus! Anyway, the fuselage interior is almost done. I've scratched a new oil tank as the kit one is way too small (surprise!) and added a fill piece to the upper fuselage to cover the extension that was needed. Once the oil tank and engine are fitted I'll attach the upper front decking and scratch the upper cockpit (sides and rear) to get the correct shape for the cockpit opening. The wings have also been drilled and the front and rear spars added to the fuselage to hold the wings in their correct position. I was going to use an Aeroclub engine but it's way overscale, so I've used the kit part, removed the moulded push rods and added the PE. A little more progress today, and a small hiccup too.... at some stage during the trial fitting and refitting of the top cowling, the small gauge on the left side of the cockpit jumped out and fed the carpet monster! Oh well, it won't be seen when it's all in the display cabinet but it does p*** me off as it looked pretty good! The oil/fuel tank was fitted this morning, followed by the engine, front engine mount (PE) and top cowling. They were all filed to a proper fit and the PE representing the overlap of the top cowling piece was fitted. I also made and fitted the upper cockpit surround from plastic sheet. All has been filled and sanded ready for paint. The wings and tail were also marked out with the ribs and spars drawn on in pencil and then sprayed with Testors dullcoat to stop any smudging. The next step will be to start painting.... Ian Hi all, a little more progress on this one, but it's slow.... I've got the PE wheels and undercarriage done but I'm not sure if I'll keep the wheels - I made the tyres from plastic tube, and although this aircraft did have very small wheels, these are a little too small. Unfortunately the other PE wheels I have are all too big, so I may stick with these...we'll see. The PE undercarriage struts have been beefed up a little with plastic card, the centre ones have been replaced completely. The main longitudinal strut has been replaced with brass rod and the kit "spade' at the front has been reshaped. I still have to make and fit the warping mechanism. The tail surfaces are on and the king posts (brass rod) and upper rigging attachments are in place - the latter will be trimmed off once the rigging is done. I tried drilling out a couple of pieces of .020" rod for the upper warping wire sleeves and then thinning them to scale but couldn't sand them small enough, so I've gone for a drilled piece sitting vertically and I'll just paint the warping wires to simulate the metal sleeves here....hopefully that will look good enough..... I've also made my first effort at weathering with pastels - at first I didn't like it, but it's growing on me so I may leave it as it is.... Antonio - here is a link to some great detail pics... http://www.wwi-models.org/Photos/Fre/Nie4/index.html Ian I had a good day on this one yesterday thanks to Sandy, and the fact we didn't lose power! Decals in this kit are, I have to say, excellent! They went on very nicely and with a little Micro set, conformed well to the surface. they are all on, and the wings have been fitted. Now just the rigging to do, plus fitting and painting the control horns on the tail. It took a good few hours to make up all 16 rigging points from the PE set. Each one had two parts: the mount, which needed to be folded twice, and the tensioner, which was fitted to the mount with .010" brass wire. Needless to say it was a little fiddly, but worth the effort! A start has been made on the rigging and this is where it will rest for the next 2 weeks while I visit the UK for my Father's 80th birthday... I do hope to get to Telford while I'm home, so maybe I'll see one or two of you there...if not, see you all in 2 weeks! Ian That was it for the build, the RFI post was added at the time and can be found here. I hope this proves useful at some point! Ian
  12. Here, finally, are the pics of my finished Short 184. But first a little potted history of this aircraft: The Short 184 was the first aircraft designed specifically to carry and deliver a torpedo. The prototype, (no 184 strangely enough!) was put aboard HMS Riviera on May 3rd 1915, then joined HMS Ben-my-Chree on May 21st. No. 842 was the second production machine and joined HMS Ben-my-Chree on August 10th, in the Aegean Sea. On August 12th at 0455hrs, Flight Commander CHK Edmonds took off in 842, without an observer, and with only 45 minutes fuel - all he could carry to get the aircraft airborne with an 810lb torpedo! He got up to the dizzying height of 1,500 feet and crossed over to the Sea of Marmora. His target was spotted near the north shore, where an earlier reconnaissance flight had reported it to be, and he dropped to 15 feet, launching his torpedo at a range of about 800 yards. The ship was struck abreast the mainmast. It was later discovered that this particular ship had earlier been torpedoed by a submarine, which was given credit for its sinking. However, on August 17th, both 184, flown by Flight Commander GB Dacre, and 842, again flown by Flt Cmdr CHK Edmonds, launched to attack enemy ships at Ak Bashi Liman, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Edmonds torpedoed the middle of 3 ships which caught fire and was later taken to Constantinople. Dacre had engine trouble and landed in the straits. His engine recovered enough for him to taxi towards False Bay where he fired his torpedo at a large steam tug, which he hit and sank. He then taxied 2 miles before managing to get 184 airborne again, crossed Bulair at around 200 feet, and was within gliding distance of Ben-my-Chree in Xeros Bay when his engine finally failed completely! This made 842 the first aircraft ever to torpedo a ship....the rest, as they say, is history....... This build is in tribute to those brave and relatively unknown fliers, who faced challenges that modern pilots would deem ridiculous - and succeeded! For those interested in the build thread, it's here. Thanks to all for your support and constructive criticism throughout the build! Ian
  13. My first non-World War One aircraft in over 35 years is now complete! The kit is the new tool Airfix one in 1:72, with a resin wing conversion by Alley Cat to make it a metal winged version. I also added Eduard PE details, Rexx metal exhausts, and CMK resin 5 spoke wheels. The wing conversion is beautifully cast, with excellent detail, and fits the kit almost perfectly. I needed to sand under the nose to reduce a step there, but that was the only fit issue. My wing was also a little thick on the trailing edge so I had to sand that down, meaning I lost the detail of the ailerons and had to rescribe the rearmost panel lines, but others have stated that theirs were thin enough to not require sanding. Other issues I had were that the Rexx exhausts didn't fit so I had to open out the slots in the nose - unfortunately I hadn't checked the fit early on and didn't discover that until I was almost finished! I got them to fit, but it would have been much easier to do before anything had been assembled. The wheels also require reshaping of the mounting lug on the kit leg as the kit wheels have a slot, not a hole. Easily taken care of. The squadron codes and "N" in the serial are from the Microscale BoB sheet, while the serial number is from the Pegasus WWI RFC/RNAS serials sheet. All other markings are from the kit. The full build log is here. The aircraft modelled is VY-P, N2319, of 85 Squadron based at Lille-Seclin in early May 1940. Flown by Sgt G "Sammy" Allard who claimed 2 He111's destroyed on 10th May. Many thanks to @Troy Smith for all the help with the details of this aircraft and very useful info on Hurricanes in general! Anyway, enough of the chat, here are the pics! ] I hope you like her! Ian
  14. In a previous modelling life (ie first time around!) I developed a love of Hurricanes. One of those was (I believe) a Revell kit to which I added a scratchbuilt interior and main gear well using the Airfix "Classic aircraft and how to model them" book. A couple of years ago I found it in my Dad's attic and brought it back to the US to finish off. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as I liked to remember so I bought an old Airfix MkI/IIB kit to use the interior in. I also bought PE flaps and a resin gear well. Then the new tool kit came out, so I bought that too....Then I realised that the kit was a rag wing, and Alley Cat had just released a "tin wing" conversion, so that too was added... The only problem now was that the wing is a solid 1 piece item so the flaps cannot easily be cut out (scrap the PE flap!) and the gear well was very nicely reproduced too (scrap the resin detail kit). Thanks to my trials and tribulations with the 2 Sopwiths, I decided I needed a relatively quick and simple build - out came the Hurricane! Totally out of what has become my comfort zone (WWI aircraft) and no rigging! This will be built as one of the subjects in the Xtradecal Battle of Britain sheet, I'm not sure yet which one..... I think most are familiar with the new tool Airfix kit so I won't post pics of the kit itself. Since most of the interior is mounted on the wing assembly i thought that would be a good place to start, so out came the new airbrush. Thanks to a post on here with pics of the Finnish MkI Hurricane, I have painted the interior the usual green, with all the framework/seat/wheel well etc in aluminium. As far as the Alley cat wing goes, it's pretty straightforward...the only possible gotcha being the fact that the Airfix instructions show the view looking down on the lower half of the wing... but because the Alley Cat wing is one piece, you will be looking at it upwards towards the upper half...consequently you will need to reverse the 2 parts A5 and A6 , so they fit properly. Don't forget to sand off the little tabs on the rear edge of them either! My wing had quite a bad warp on the inner front edge, where it mates to the lower fuselage, but nothing that couldn't be easily resolved with a little hot water and clamps. The fit is pretty good too but did need a little fettling - I gently filed inside the grooves on the upper rear to reduce the thickness of the resin there, and also filed the lower parts of the fuselage to both thin them and raise them very slightly. Most of the work was required on the underside at the front, where it was too deep and left a large lip under the fuselage. A little sanding there also sorted that problem, although final close fitting will be left until it's all mounted. The last thing I did today was add a lip to the front and sides of the seat, and that will be sanded down to the correct shape when it's dry. Actually, the last thing I did today was order an interior PE set with seatbelts as I realised I didn't have any, so those are on their way from Hannants! Ian
  15. I had some time yesterday for modelling but didn't feel in the mood for drilling all the RE8's rigging holes, and I'm still waiting for the paints for the twin Fokker build, so what to do? I decided to prepare for my next project, or more accurately, decide what it would be. Since I'm really enjoying building the 2 Fokkers together I thought I'd do another double build. 3 of my last 4 builds have been Fokkers, (E.III, D.I & D.II) so I decided to dig out 2 of the very first kits to enter my stash: Classic Planes' Sopwith Tabloid, and Eduard's old Sopwith Baby. Here's what I have to start with: First the Tabloid.. Not too bad, but pretty basic. There are no stencils or guides of any sort for either the struts or the undercarriage so I'll have to measure those myself using the DF plans as referance. I will use an Aeroclub engine and prop, and it will be modeled to represent number 168 which, piloted by Lt RLG Marix, attacked the Zeppelin sheds at Duesseldorf on October 9th 1914, destroying Zeppelin Z.IX. This will be my first vacform kit build...... and the Baby... - this one is more like a limited run kit, with a huge amount of flash on most of the parts. I assume it was one of their first! Having said that, there are 3 small PE sets: one for engine details, one for the interior, and one for struts. The latter won't be used but the other 2 look very useful! The blue on all the roundals is a little too bright so I'll use aftermarket ones, but there are 2 sets of Sopwith factory stencils so I may be able to use the other set on the Tabloid! I then made a start on cleaning everything up, starting with the Baby: I removed the humps fore and aft of the cockpit which were on the Schneider, but not on the Baby, then started on the wings. They were first thinned quite considerably. About 1mm was removed from the leading edges, I straightened the wing tips as the moulded tips had a slight curve to them, and corrected and slightly enlarged the centre section cutouts. Finally, I cleaned the flash off the float parts and glued the 2 halves of each of the 3 floats together. The horizontal stabilisers and elevators are totally wrong and will be replaced. Today I made a start on the Tabloid. After removing the parts from the sheet they were all cleaned up and checked against the plans. The horizontal stabiliser and elevators were reduced in width by a couple of mm to start with - the easy bit! Cockpit and engine cutouts were carefully opened up and filed to shape, and the 2 cooling intakes on the nose drilled out. The wings were also reduced in chord by about 1mm, corrections were made to the centre cutout, and Mr Dissolved Putty was applied to the aileron edges as 168 was a wing-warper. The fin and rudder are too small so I'll make new ones, and the top of the cowling is a little too shallow, so maybe a little milliput will help there once it's all together. I still have to remove the little dots so characteristic of Classic Planes' vacforms.... These will probably sit at this stage for a while until the others are finished....RE8 rigging holes tomorrow! Thanks for looking in! Ian
  16. Happy New Year everyone! To start off 2017 here are pics of my Sopwith Tabloid, the second half of the double build (Sopwith Baby) started in August. This was my first vac kit and I learnt a lot from it. It's a fairly easy kit for a first so no major problems. My biggest challenge was the wings, which were not very well represented. I removed the surface detail and added the ribs with plastic strip, sanded down to reduce the thickness. The aircraft represents number 168 of the Royal Naval Air Service, based in Antwerp up until October 9th 1914. On that date, Sqn Commander Spenser Grey in 167, and Lt RLG Marix in 168 left the airfield, (now deserted as the squadron had already withdrawn) to bomb Zeppelin sheds in Köln (167) and Düsseldorf (168). Bad weather stopped 167 reaching its target so Commander Grey bombed railway yards instead, but Lt Marix in 168 found the airfield and bombed the sheds, destroying Army Zeppelin Z.IX. His aircraft was damaged by ground fire, including a hit on the fuel tank, and he ran out of fuel on the way back to Antwerp. He returned to the airfield by train and bicycle, arriving to find the airfield being shelled, so he and Sqn commander Grey abandoned 167 and a BE2a and left. I hope you like her! Ian
  17. This pair is finally finished. I'm not sure I'd want to do them again so a D.III & D.IV will probably not be added to my collection! Although they started as Merlin kits, only the fuselages (very heavily modified!) and some of the white metal parts, were used, the rest is all scratchbuilt. A spare Roden engine went into the D.I, the Spandaus are Miniworld, the wheels are my own design, 3d printed by Shapeways, and the nose decals on the D.II were custom ordered from Melius Manu in Poland. As far as the history of these aircraft goes, they were both in service at the same time, the D.II having been developed due to a shortage of the inline Mercedes engines. Both were subject to structural failures, as was the contemporary E.III, (weak welds, wing attachment bolt failure, and metal tubing that had too thin a section were the usual culprits, basically a lack of quality control in the Fokker factory) and all Fokkers were banned from front line service in December 1916. The D.I and D.II both saw service on the home front and as training aircraft, as did the D.III and D.IV (basically a D.II and D.I respectively, with more powerful engines, ailerons instead of wing-warping, and twin Spandaus). The D.I represents 151/16, of Jagdstaffel 1, Bertincourt, France in early September 1916 The D.II represents an aircraft of Kampfeinsitzer Kommando (KEK) Ensheim, (later Jagdstaffel 16), based in Ensheim, Germany, in September 1916, flown by Ltn Fritz Grünzweig. (although some have speculated that he was not a pilot and merely painted the nose art...) For those interested in how a couple of shapeless lumps of plastic came to this, here's the WIP. I hope you like them.. Ian
  18. I know, I have more than enough to be getting on with, but the E.III is waiting for bits to dry, the RE8 is awaiting the postie....and I have too much spare time. I also just bought the Windsock Special on the Fokker D.I to D.IV with the aim of starting this so here we go...can we say "sucker for punishment"? Here's what I have to start with: The wing detail is actually very nice, but they are way too thick so it would have to be sanded off anyway...add to that they are the wrong length and I think the best option is scratchbuild new ones.... The fuselages are vaguely fuselage-shaped lumps of plastic, almost solid on the inside, different lengths, and way too narrow.... Then there's a bag of metal bits and a sprue with some more lumps of plastic on it. I'm not sure what most of it is...possibly wheels, tail surfaces etc. There is a cowling, which could be usable.... So, what it all boils down to, is basically a scratchbuild, combined with some plastic sculpting!! What a terrible waste of good plastic, there really ought to be a law against this sort of thing... I'll be using a spare Roden engine, modified, for the D.I. Add to that the fact that the drawings in the Windsock Special aren't consistent...the fuselages measure differently on the profiles and plan views, and the wingspans are different on the head-on views and plan views. Some of the drawings have the correct wingspan and wrong fuselage length, or vice-versa, and some have the wrong wingspan on all views (I'm taking my measurements from those supplied in the back of this same publication, so one of them has to be wrong)........I really thought Windsock put a little more care into their drawings but this is not the first time I've had this issue. I copied the various views at different magnifications and made a complete set of correctly sized drawings....now I could begin! I have made a start on the D.I fuselage. First job was to find a reference point. The underside of the fuselage matched the plans pretty well so that was my starting point. I took one half and got the underside matching nicely, then removed the plastic lump that represents the engine and corrected the nose profile. When that was done I moved back to the cockpit and upper decking until the profile matched all around. Next step was to tape the 2 halves together and match them, and when that was done I took the Dremel to them and started to hollow out the insides. I didn't go too far as I know there is some reshaping still to do and I want to leave enough so that I don't sand through..... Finally for today, I added 1mm plastic strip to the joining edges of both halves to widen the fuselage to the correct width. Correct, that is, for the front...the rear is actually ok, but it's easier to widen all of it, then sand the back end - there's plenty of plastic! That is where it stands as of this evening. This will be put aside to finish my other 2 when I get the bits I need, but it should keep me out of trouble in the meantime. Thanks for looking, Ian
  19. This one has been a must-do project for a while, having built it twice previously: once as a kid, with no additions, alterations, rigging, or anything else not supplied in the box, and once about 5 years ago when I got back into the hobby. That time I added some basic detail such as interior, rigging, and a little engine detail, but when I looked at it later on I realised it was nowhere near what it should be...Once I got hold of a Choroszy engine and Miniworld guns the project was all set to go! So, what was needed? Here's what went into this transformation: Choroszy resin engine Miniworld brass guns and Scarff ring Barracuda resin pilot's seat PE stitching, control horns, and seatbelts Aeroclub prop and wheels. Everything else was either scratchbuilt or corrected from the kit parts. The fuselage had the tip of the nose removed to bring it back about 1mm and I removed all hints of the "engine" and cooling air scoop. It was cut through the middle of the pilot's cockpit to shorten it, and again just aft of the gunner's cockpit, to both shorten it a little more and to raise the rear decking to the correct height. The underside was then sanded to give a straight line from the bottom of the tail to the rear wing spar (the kit fuselage slopes from the tail to about 1cm aft of the rear spar) - I had to add some plastic inside the fuselage just below the gunner's position to provide enough plastic for the change in the profile. These corrections gave me the straight line I needed for the upper longeron, all the way from the top of the tail to the nose, just below the front cabane strut - the upper line of stitching follows this longeron. The gunner's cockpit was then moved forward by about 2mm. The wings were thinned considerably, the span and tip shapes corrected, and the rib detail added with 0.5mm Jammy Dog masking tape - I won't use that method again as I feel it is still a little over done. especially towards the rear of the wing where it should be very subtle, if not invisible. The lower wing was cut into 5 sections: the centre section was attached to the fuselage once that had been completed, and blended in to be a part of the fuselage. The inner stub wings were drilled out and corrected for their shape, then added to the fuselage with brass pins for strength. The main wings were also pinned with brass rod. Wing struts are kit items, thinned, reshaped, and with brass pins added for secure fitting to the wings. The undercarriage is scratchbuilt from brass rod, with plastic card CA'd on for the fairings. All tail surfaces are from plastic card, including the little vertical fin on the underside. Rigging is 1.5lb test Gamakatsu monofilament fishing line of 0.06mm run across a silver paint pen to give it some colour. I'm not quite sure why I omitted to add any panel detail on the nose, it should certainly have some. It looks a little bare, but I'm not going to do it now! That, in a nutshell, is it....I hope you like her! Here are some comparison pics with the unaltered one I did a few years back.... Thanks for all the support and good wishes during this build! Ian
  20. I know, I must be mad...but hot on the heels of the Roland I felt I had to butcher some more plastic, and this one is one of the best candidates for that treatment! This is a fairly new boxing, and it looks as thought the moulds have been cleaned up as most of the details are very crisp. It's a shame most of it will have to be removed anyway! The decals are new and include a Belgian version, although for reasons best known to themselves, all 4 RFC wing roundels still have the white outer ring, instead of just the 2 for the upper wing! So aftermarket decals will be needed anyway. I'm sure we all know and love this old relic from our childhoods but here's what I started with: I also have a resin engine from Choroszy, an Aeroclub prop, and Miniworld guns/Scarff ring: So....on with the butchery! First of all I needed to figure out an accurate reference point for all the alterations. After comparing the fuselage to the Datafile plans, it appeared that the distance between the front edge of the pilot's cockpit and the firewall was pretty accurate, and from there to the tip of the nose wasn't far off either, so that's where I started. The first casualty was the moulding inside the engine compartment which represents the air scoop and the engine block, and on which the kit cylinders mount. All that plastic was cut away, leaving an open engine area to be further thinned and detailed later. Next I figured out that the pilot's cockpit was too wide, front to back, and the fuselage as a whole was about 5mm too long. The first cut was therefore made down the centre of the cockpit. Each edge was then sanded to reduce the size of the cockpit until it was correct, then the two halves were reattached. This pic shows the fuselage after both those jobs were done: That's where it sits for tonight, tomorrow the second cut will be made, probably between the cockpits to bring the observer's further forward, but I'll confirm that then... Thanks for looking in! Ian edit: I forgot to mention I also have a Barracuda resin seat for it
  21. Well, since my 2 current builds (both 1:72 scale WWI aircraft, which is my speciality) are on hold for parts, and I don't want to "start" anything new, I've decided to finally dig out the old Airfix kit that's been in my stash for over 30 years. I did make a start on it back then, but stopped due to lack of good references (I was obviously not TOO dumb a kid!). This will be a long term build, as I intend to finish the 2 that are "in progress" before I get seriously involved in this one, but I will post updates as and when I get anything done. Since I now have a good few pics as referances and a pretty good build log to check up on from another modeller, I have made a new start on this one, and have spent the last 2 days cleaning up what I'd already done many years ago, and correcting the kit parts. I've got a fair bit done, but there are plenty more improvements needed before construction proper can begin, and that will probably wait until my Muromets is finished. Here's where I am now: The chassis: I've drilled out the front end, thinning the top and bottom parts of the chassis rails and extending the gap in the U frame further forward to where it should be... (since these pics were taken I've also removed the big doughnut that is supposed to represent the stearing rack mount). The stearing column: The bevel gear end was way too big, so I removed it, cut off the plug on the top and the bevel gear housing, thinned the housing by over 1/2, replaced the shaft with 9/32nd tube, chamfered at one end to blend into the stearing column, and reattached the other bits, blending them in with Mr Dissolved Putty. I think the lower part of the bevel housing that was cut off the original may be a little small, but it'll do. The firewall: I removed the moulded oil lines and the blank over the oil tank hole, the latter was replaced with card. The moulding for the throttle mounting was added from stock rod, glued together to get the right size, then sanded to shape. I added rod to the lower edge of the firewall where it meets the floor, then sanded it to the correct slanted profile to match the slope of the floor. 5 thou sheet has also been added to the rear of the firewall to give the correct smooth surface, and the flange around the edge. I also corrected the small lip on both upper corners which shouldn't be there. The floor: the hashed steel moulding has been removed, and the floor now needs to be narrowed slightly at the front - the sloped part is only between the firewall edges, not running right up to the bodywork. The fuel tank: a start has been made on stripping the moulded detail, wire mesh has been ordered to replace it. There are also some nuts missing on the firewall, I've ordered some and they're on their way! This is turning out to be very enjoyable! Any advice from car model builders will be welcome, it's over 25 years since I built one and it was OOB! Particular help will be needed for sources for wiring/plumbing materials, replacement resin nuts/bolts (I have some plain nuts on order but can't find castle nuts or dome nuts) and any other auto specific parts I may need (carb linkages?) all of course, in 1:12th scale..... Ian
  22. I'm calling this one done. I must admit I slightly lost interest, possibly because the kit just falls together and really requires nothing other than glue and paint! It's not my best effort, but I'm happy with it. The model represents an aircraft of FA6, a German unit flying for the Turkish Air Service in the Dardanelles in 1916. The pilot was Lt Hans-Joachim Buddeke. Buddeke was killed in action over Lens, France, in March 1918. His good friends Rudolf Berthold and Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay lie next to him in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin. The colour is speculative. There is at least one pic of him standing next to a very dark E.III and whether it was red-brown or dark grey is not known. Ian
  23. Hi all, Whilst waiting for the paint on the Roland to dry I decided to start a quick OOB build of the Eduard Fokker E.III. This kit is streets ahead of the Airfix Roland - everything matches the plans perfectly, including the positioning of the wing ribs! I am in the process of upgrading my collection and replacing some of my early efforts, built when I first re-entered the modelling "arena" about 5 years ago. The Roland C.II is one of those early efforts, but my very first one, built with only the meagre supplies and tools that I purchased at the same time as the kit, in my local hobby shop, was Revell's Fokker E.III - it did its job, but it's not very pretty - time to upgrade! The Revell kit is also a little off - it's ok spanwise but is 1mm too narrow in the fuselage and 5mm too short. I'll be building this one as Buddeke's Turkish aircraft and will finish it in a red-brown colour as suggested in the Datafile. My reasoning for going for that instead of dark green or grey is that the British were known to have used red-brown in the Mediterranean theatre, and I'm surmising that they got the idea from the Turks and used it because it worked! Plus it'll add a little interest to the subject! In the box: 1 sprue of parts, one PE fret, painting masks, and decals... I did get a pic of the sprue but I cleared my camara's stash and forgot to upload it....nothing really photogenic anyway! After a couple of days I already have the cockpit done and the fuselage buttoned up... The engine and Spandau are also complete, with their respective PE parts attached... Thanks for looking in! Ian
  24. Fresh from the mammoth Short 184 build I decided I wanted something a little more straightforward. My display cabinets are getting full and they include my earliest efforts, built when I got back into modelling 5 years or so ago. Not surprisingly they are not up to the standard I now aim for so I will be remaking at least 4 or 5 of them. I was going to go for the Eduard Fokker E.III Profipack, since the Revell E.III was my first build and definitely needs an improved version, but that has everything in the box, and I need to cut up some plastic! So here it is, the Airfix (actually the Heller boxing) Roland C.II. I'll be building it in the same scheme as the one I did a few years back, which will hopefully emphasise the differences, and I'll be using a Roden Mercedes engine, and Miniworld Spandau and Parabellum. Here's the sprue shot... Nothing surprising there, standard Airfix issue! The first jobs were to remove the pegs for mounting the crew and engine, open up the front cooling vents, fill a couple of sink marks on the front of the fuselage halves, remove the overscale "vents" just below the radiators (there were also too many of them!), and remove all the surface detail from the fuselage and wing undersides. The wing upper surfaces were sanded lightly to reduce the ribs, and the rudder was thinned down considerably on its outer surfaces. It's pretty thin now as it is molded in 2 halves so I'll wait until I've got the fuselage halves joined before removing it, thinning it further and repositioning it a little further forward. Then I compared the fuselage and wings to the plans: The fuselage is not far off lengthwise When I lined the cockpits up, everything matched perfectly with where it should all be, but it showed the nose as being about 1.5mm too short. The solution to that was to cut off the nose and add a filler piece. The rudder will also be moved forward slightly later on to correct the length. The wings are a little worse. Both wings have too much of an angle at the tips, they should be much squarer, and the cutout around the fuselage is too rounded on both wings. The lower wing is not too hard to correct as the span is a little too great, so the tips can be corrected simply by sanding them down to the correct profile. Job done! The upper wing, however, has the correct span meaning that it can't be sanded. I opted to chop the ends off and glue on a piece of plastic card which will be sanded to profile when dry. The centre cutouts were squared off at the front ends and then the sides were sanded back to give a square edge, to which I glued bits of the outer wing I'd just removed! They will also be sanded to profile when dry. That's about as far as I've got today. Hopefully the pieces I added will be good and solid tomorrow and I can continue with corrections. I also need to blend in the gun ring a little more as it is way too angular, instead of being faired neatly into the rear fuselage. Thanks for looking in! Ian
  25. Well folks, after all those issues, this one is finally done. It's nowhere near what I was hoping for when I started (due mainly to the painting issues and numerous resprays required), but it is certainly acceptable, and a huge improvement over the basic kit. For those who didn't catch the WIP (here): All surface detail was removed. The nose was lengthened by 1.5mm and the tail shortened by the same amount. The rear fuselage was then reprofiled and the observers cockpit was faired in with putty. The engine is Roden, the exhaust was drilled out and a scratchbuilt manifold and coolant tank were added. Inspection panels etc were added with 5thou sheet, cooling slots drilled out, and the entire solid front of the nose was removed - the prop is mounted straight onto the engine. The interior is scratchbuilt, as is the undercarriage, (the wheels are Barracuda Resin Albatros wheels), and all tail surfaces. Wing tips and centre section cutouts were corrected with fillets and sanded to shape, and ribs added with .5mm masking tape. I still think they're too big, I'll try something else next time.... Finally a scratchbuilt roll-over bar and Miniworld Parabellum finish it off. Rigging is 4thou monofilament. and finally a few comparisons. The other one was built without any fuselage or wing corrections, just a scratchbuilt interior and slightly less "lumpy" undercarriage..... Thanks for looking in! Ian
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