What WW1 airplane kits/bits followed you home today?

[Torbjorn]

13 hours ago, KITCAT said:

Oh dear spending again.

Bought one of the last WnW's Halberstadts because I like these and it was standing lonely on the shelf. Now stocked up on these. Also a little Sopwith triplane and the Micro-Mir Fokker EV. The only thing on the want list now is another WnW's Albatros Dva( I mean you cannot have too many, can you).

Not paying Ebay rip of prices- never.

I do regret not buying a couple of those brown box DVs when I had the chance, but as you won’t pay exorbitant prices. 

 

And I receiced a 1/72 Triplane this week  Neat little thing but I’ll probably use a spare Roden engine.

[KITCAT]

Finally got my mits on a Meng triplane but only one mind you as I will wait to see if things change and I don't have a fixation one these. So maybe another at a later date and praying for so interesting decal options.

[Bear Paw]

My Meng Dr.1 arrived yesterday from BlackMike models, thank you Duncan. 
It is a Wingnut kit with out the extras ie lovely instructions with research photos, and high quality decals.  
At least it has been produced!  
 

Andrew. 

[Paul Thompson]

Okay, this came a couple of weeks ago but since I find myself still chuffed I'll mention it. Of Bay of Fleas I got an AJP Maquettes 1/48th Caudron G.4.  Always wanted one since the range was originally released and reviewed in Windsock, but never had the dosh.  I got this one for a 1/3rd the original price. Now, I've built the excellent CSM kit of the same, but this is sufficiently different to be worth a go. For those not in the know, most AJP kits were built up from a brass PE framework which once finished you covered with very fine paper a la flying models. No decals supplied, but I did build their Spad VII (again, at the time the only alternative was the hard to find Lone Star kit) and it took paint and decals very well. More 3 dimensional parts are supplied in vac form or cast metal.

 

There are a few caveats. Firstly, the shapes aren't totally in agreement with most plans. Then again, most plans don't agree with each other, and there are several variable configurations of the actual aeroplanes anyway. More of a problem, the PE is too two dimensional to look right in some of the areas it has been used, mostly for the struts and booms, which I'll replace, and also for the wing ribs, which I'll live with. The thing with the wings, the PE would have to be turned through 90 degrees to give an aerofoil section to the wing, and whereas you may not notice with a conventional wing, the Caudron had 2 features that make it more obvious - fristly, the ribs were capped with batons that would have made them look as if they were exagerated had they been a model, and secondly the rear half of the wing behind the aft main spar only has a single thickness of fabric, which is distinctive. None of this is catered for in the kit, so I'll have to be creative, which always hurts. Nonetheless it's an impressive not-so-wee beastie and I fully intend to build it, spurred on a bit by having left over decals from the CSM kit, and 3 sheets of their PE (I lost a few key parts to the carpet monster, and when I asked if they'd sell me a replacement they kindly sent 3 full sets of perfectly serviceable seconds free of charge).

 

Paul.

[Ted]

On 10/1/2020 at 5:37 AM, Paul Thompson said:

 built up from a brass PE framework which once finished you covered with very fine paper a la flying models. No decals supplied, but I did build their Spad VII (again, at the time the only alternative was the hard to find Lone Star kit) and it took paint and decals very well. More 3 dimensional parts are supplied in vac form or cast metal.

 

 

Sounds like a fun challenge, congrats.

[Bobs_Buckles]

Got me a MengNut Wings Tripe. Thankfully the forward combing was in one piece.

Looks like a tidy wee kit. The instructions are ok, but obviously nowhere near as polished as the WNW standard.

 

Happy Sprues! 

 

Von B 

[RC Boater Bill]

I’m working on a fairly large “colorful” collection of 1/72 WW1 fighters.  I’ve got ten Fokker Dr.1s, one Albatros D.V, and one Nieuport 24bis complete- currently working on an Eduard D.VII, Roden D.III, and Toko N.11.   I’ve picked up a bunch over the last month, with the final purchase yesterday:

 

 

The other recent acquisitions:

I’m putting pilots in all my builds- these guys are the best I’ve found:

 

Other recent arrivals:

 

 

There’s a guy here in the states selling the Encore  D.III (upgraded Roden kit) on Ebay for only $10 and free shipping, so I bought four of them!  I bought these sheets for them:

 

This should keep me busy for a while!

Edited March 15, 2021 by RC Boater Bill
Fixed old typos, added new ones

[Paul Thompson]

Be very wary of the KP decals. I reviewed 2 of the boxings in the last but one newsletter of the Great War SIg, Cher Ami, and built one for the issue just published (free download from the GWSIG website). They behaved very poorly, and the research was, sadly, pants. You should have fun with all that.

 

Paul

[JohnT]

I’ve been reading about Ernst Udet and couldn’t resist the Eduard triple boxing of the Albatross and Fokker Triplanes and the DVII. Bought from Dave Coleys Emporium and came with nice wee set of free tweezers which Dave throws in which is a nice touch

[RC Boater Bill]

1 hour ago, Paul Thompson said:

Be very wary of the KP decals. I reviewed 2 of the boxings in the last but one newsletter of the Great War SIg, Cher Ami, and built one for the issue just published (free download from the GWSIG website). They behaved very poorly, and the research was, sadly, pants. You should have fun with all that.

 

Paul

Thanks the reference-  great info there!  (Though I am sorta wishing I hadn’t bought it now....)

[rob Lyttle]

Looking like I've just won a batch of 3 X WW1 kites. An Eduard 1.48 Sopwith Triplane is the big winner for me. 

Plans for celebrating my namesake of Naval 8,Robert Alexander Little RN. 

So many of the blasted Fokker Triplanes everywhere you look, and so very few options for the fabulous Sopwith. 

Can I expect a gem of a kit when I open the box? 

There's a Pfaltz and a Roden Bristol brisfit included in the deal, but it's the Tripe I'm after. 

Any advisories? 

These kind of planes are not my area of expertise 😎

[RC Boater Bill]

The Triplane kit is from the late 90s, and is considered by many to be one of Eduard’s first kits that showed they were no longer a “ limited run” kit company.

Here’s a link to a nice build article on the kit, built  as your namesake, too!

https://modelingmadness.com/review/w1/tc/cleavertripe.htm

[rob Lyttle]

14 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

Here’s a link to a nice build article on the kit, built  as your namesake, too!

Wow excellent build, and a great bit of historical research! 

Thanks for the link. I haven't got my hands on the boxes yet, but I can see "profipack" on the corner of the Sopwith box. Here's hoping 

[Torbjorn]

On 3/13/2021 at 7:19 PM, Paul Thompson said:

Be very wary of the KP decals. I reviewed 2 of the boxings in the last but one newsletter of the Great War SIg, Cher Ami, and built one for the issue just published (free download from the GWSIG website). They behaved very poorly, and the research was, sadly, pants. You should have fun with all that.

 

Paul

 

Hmm, I’m building KP’s Triplane now. What was so awful about the decals? I read the article, was it something else except mot wanting to adhere?

[Paul Thompson]

4 minutes ago, Torbjorn said:

 

Hmm, I’m building KP’s Triplane now. What was so awful about the decals? I read the article, was it something else except mot wanting to adhere?

    On the copies in both kits I have, the carrier film was overly large (to quantify, on the seatbelts they were an extra belt-width either side, butting onto the adjacent images), very brittle, unresponsive to Micro Set and Sol. The cockades and rudder flashes showed a pixelated effect like the Airfix decals that afflicted some of their releases around 10 - 15 years ago. The carrier film on the cockade I tested silvered badly on a highly glossed surface, using Set and Sol, so I doubt the serials and letters would work very well. The colours were also out of register. Finally, some of the schemes have the research jumble slightly, or misprints in the placement guides attributing the wrong name (one of the Black Flight examples) although in that case the decal is the correct one, and a few wrong serials, plus one fiselage band that looks very pretty but differed from the one usually depicted for that aircraft (this latter point may be my failure to find whatever it was KP found, but I've asked anyone else to let me know if I was wrong and so far have heard nothing back). I mentioned some of that in the in-box review, issue before last. All problems solvable with a little effort, but I had the Pheon set anyway and using that was a no-brainer. Although designed for the Revell kit, the wheel disks and rudder flashes can be persuaded to fit the new kit with a lick of paint, some setting solution, and a sharp knife. The Pheon package covers most of what the various KP boxings cover and a lot more besides, with the added advantage of showing which options (tailplane and gun configuration) go with which aircraft.

 

    Don't get me wrong, I wanted to like this kit much more than I could, eventually, and expected better of the decals having used some from other KP kits. I can usually overlook a whole host of less-than-perfectionisms, and even get on fairly well with Roden/Toko decals and Merlin kits, but for a modern kit, albeit limited run, this just falls down too often where it need not have. I'll probably enjoy building another a lot more because I know now what to avoid and what to modify. I didn't add any of the missing detail to speak of because I'd never have gotten the review finished in time, but that's all simple, old school bits of sprue stuff.

 

Paul.

[Torbjorn]

Thanks Paul for the detailed answer. That’s disappointing indeed. Will have to consider options. 

 

If you mean the fuselage bands on Booker’s machine, which have a zig-zag pattern on Pheon’s sheet: these were repainted at some point to straight lines - I have seen a photo.

 

Personally I’m mostly disappointed in the wings so far, the ribs and detail are quite clumsy, more like an old 60s Airfix kit rather than a modern kit. This in contrast with the fuselage, which has finer detail, almost as if the mould was made by another hand.

[JohnT]

Just acquired an Eduard Fokker E111 in the Proipac Enrnst Udet box off e-bay for £12 to do it alongside the Du Doch Nicht Udet triple boxing bought earlier last week. 1/48 not usually my scale but doing 4 of these in Udets markings in 1/32 WNW models is wayyyy outside the wallet capacity. And in 1/48 they will display together better I hope. 

[Paul Thompson]

1 hour ago, Torbjorn said:

Thanks Paul for the detailed answer. That’s disappointing indeed. Will have to consider options. 

 

If you mean the fuselage bands on Booker’s machine, which have a zig-zag pattern on Pheon’s sheet: these were repainted at some point to straight lines - I have seen a photo.

That's the one. A nice shade of lightish blue according to KP. I haven't seen (or if I have then it didn't register) the photo you refer to, although am aware that many aeroplanes had their markings altered if they lasted long enough. If they're right then in this case KP are to be applauded for providing something other than the usual.

1 hour ago, Torbjorn said:

 

Personally I’m mostly disappointed in the wings so far, the ribs and detail are quite clumsy, more like an old 60s Airfix kit rather than a modern kit. This in contrast with the fuselage, which has finer detail, almost as if the mould was made by another hand.

Well, as I said in the review, the wings are barely altered from the Revell originals they were cloned from, and although good for their time, their time is up. So you're right, two different hands and half a century in between them. I've always liked the way Pegasus/Blue Max treated fabric covered surfaces, even though the limited run moulding usually meant you had to damage and restore them during cleanup (in many if not all cases). A pity not many current manufacturers concur.

 

Paul.

[KITCAT]

Nothing at all just a confused Kitcat who feels like a child peering in to a sweet shop window. With a pocket full of change and not able to enter because the shop is still closed and any utterance from the owners is about as clear as the Pythia of Delphi .

[Torbjorn]

1 hour ago, Paul Thompson said:

That's the one. A nice shade of lightish blue according to KP. I haven't seen (or if I have then it didn't register) the photo you refer to, although am aware that many aeroplanes had their markings altered if they lasted long enough. If they're right then in this case KP are to be applauded for providing something other than the usual.

 

 

Paul.

 

Found it online - on twitter no less:

 

 

[Paul Thompson]

Torbjorn,  thanks for the link. I'll mention it in the next newsletter. That also shows the squared off propller, offered in the kit, and not the one I used. Eek.

 

Paul.

[RC Boater Bill]

These came yesterday.  I had always avoided Smer kits, as a rule- so many of them are reboxes of ancient molds.    But these particular Smer kits are very nice-  they are basically Eduard “Overtrees” with different markings- ones I didn’t have.

The Dr.1 has just the boxtop option, but the Albatros has two options. (Word on the street is that the Smer decals are pretty good!)

 

[Brandy]

These little gems just got delivered today thanks to a post on the Resin and Vacform Kit Builders FB page. I've been looking for the two Roseplane kits for quite a while!

 

 

Ian

[Paul Thompson]

12 minutes ago, Brandy said:

These little gems just got delivered today thanks to a post on the Resin and Vacform Kit Builders FB page. I've been looking for the two Roseplane kits for quite a while!

 

 

 

Ian

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.

[Brandy]

Thanks Paul,

Although I am aware that Joystick are still available I really had no desire for the Batboat as only 6 were built, but since I was buying the other 2, and it was only $13 I went for it! Total postage and import fees from USA to UAE was $15 using Shop and Ship.

 

Ian