Walfisch - The L.F.G Roland CII

[Eivind Lunde]

Decided that I will go with the Eduard windows after all, since it wouldn't be worth the effort to replace them with something thinner. Regretted it almost immediately as the fit is pretty bad, and they need a lot of sanding and testing to get right.

It seems like they are not square, but slightly rectangular, and glueing the photo etched frames in place is nerve wracking stuff since you need them to stick and not to spill glue on the windows. 
 

I  masked them on the inside and used superglue on the first window frame, and was happy with the results until I removed the mask and looked at it from the outside...

 

The frame was glued slightly too high and reveals an unsightly brass ridge .

Well, I usually make a mistake on one side of my models and thankfully this is on the side that would normally be hidden from view. So this is on par for the course for me anyway.

 

Switched to a water based glue for the rest of the frames, and while they are not figuratively speaking welded in place, they should not fall off by themselves either.

 

Lots of work has been done preparing things, soon I will be able to glue stuff together and make some visible progress!

[Eivind Lunde]

On 25/03/2020 at 22:18, Eivind Lunde said:

Lots of work has been done preparing things, soon I will be able to glue stuff together and make some visible progress!

Hahaha, famous last words. 

 

Even if I have spent quite a bit of time working on this, there is still a lot of work to be done before the fuselage can be closed up. But I'm almost done with the cockpit parts now, having added, improved and corrected detail for the early CII version wherever possible. 

As a result I'm on the brink of chaos as the working space I carefully tidied before I started is now once again a mess of almost ready parts and tools. 

 

I really do need to start glueing things together now before tiny photo etched parts and small ammunition drums start getting lost forever, triggering an unusual amount of swearing even for me. 

But visible progress is in form of a cleaned up motor cowling with the vents for the later versions sanded off (sorry about the blurry pic).

 

And an altimeter made from a Do 17-Z10 Spanner Anlage part I had in my spares plus an Airscale decal.

 

Pretty pleased with the result, I'll take every little victory. 

[Kitsticker]

Hi Eivind,

 

I just found this and was interested because (like so many schoolboys I am sure) I made one of these in the seventies, the old Airfix Dogfight Double with the RE8 as its foe - always loved the shape of it

 

Watching with interest

 

All the best, get glueing soon!

 

Geoff

[Eivind Lunde]

16 hours ago, Kitsticker said:

Hi Eivind,

 

I just found this and was interested because (like so many schoolboys I am sure) I made one of these in the seventies, the old Airfix Dogfight Double with the RE8 as its foe - always loved the shape of it

 

Watching with interest

 

All the best, get glueing soon!

 

Geoff

I built one of them myself, not sure if it was the combo kit together with the Harry Tate though. Always liked the Roland CII.

[Eivind Lunde]

I got a couple of things crossed off my to do list today, when I finished the instrument panel and pilots seat.

The instrument panel took some time as the one in the kit is pretty different from the early model version as you can see, so I did my best to move the instruments and grease pump to its proper locations, make a brake handle and ignition switch.

All the small photo etched switches on the right made it, I have never in my life tried harder not to sneeze than when I glued them in place. 

 

The pilot <-> observer communication switch looks horrible as it is just a decal from the kit, but in my defence the real one looks pretty sloppily made as well. I may replace it with the instrument from the photo etched panel.

Instrument decals (with the exception of the lowest one) and bezels are Airscale, but unfortunately there are just three different kind of instruments with white dials on the sheet, so I need to pick different types to prevent all instruments looking alike. 

 

Pilots seat is glued in place atop the fuel tank, with primitive rudder pedal wire guides added to the floor for some detail.

 

 

The wires are just rigging thread painted gun metal for effect. I may start on the engine next, just to keep me from going nuts from all this cockpit work 🤪. 

[Eivind Lunde]

Did more work on the cockpit, adding some details and test fitting/glueing it.

 

Left hand side is basically done now. I made the fuel gauge, and even if it is too thick it won't be that noticeable when everything is glued together. It is also painted aluminium even if my phone still think it is light blue-grey as the rest of the fuselage is. Guess the flash is to blame for that.  

 

I used Evergreen strip to make the prominent bulkhead the starting magneto is attached to a bit more prominent, and glued it and the tank air pressure pump in place together with what I assume is the telegraph key in the rear cockpit.

 

The right hand side is almost done as well, I may add the voltmeter and the pilot <-> observer communication disk to the observers office wall if I can be bothered. 

I wonder what phrases they could select from using that disk? "Yes", "No", "Shoot it down!!", "Out of ammo!", "Care for some Schnapps?", and "Uh-oh...Brace for impact!" perhaps?

 

A simple Telefunken radio for the observer to play with was made out of plastic and a spare piece of photo etch from a Bf 108 Taifun project.

 

Lastly, the front cockpit is finished with its new DO-17 steering wheel in place.

 

 

[Eivind Lunde]

Both offices are (almost) good to go and the fit seems to be fine when joining the fuselage halves, so when the engine's done I can finally get a sniff of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement again. 

 

The visible part of the Eduard Mercedes DIII engine is pretty featureless, but it seems to come with the early type rocker boxes so one could get away with just sprucing it up with some lead wire valve springs, which is what I have tried to do.

 

After some time and very strong language I got the springs in place. Only need to find a way for the cam to fit naturally, as the rocker boxes are too wide and will rest on top of the valves and not in between them as they should. 

 

Even if they don't stand up to scrutiny, they do add some much needed detail. Please pretend you don't notice where the AK metallic paint has wore off, none of this will be visible when the engine is installed anyway so I will just leave it as is.

Lastly I spent some time hollowing out the ocarina exhaust and painting it in preparation for its final colour(s), metal, rust or whatever they may be. This was much easier than I feared, and I am happy that there was no Quickboost replacement available so I couldn't just chicken out and buy a resin exhaust instead. 

 

Up next: More swearing and work on the engine.

[Gorby]

Nice work so far.

[Eivind Lunde]

Everything is in place. Not too happy about the DIII engine, but it is what it is and looks OK I guess.

 

Fit is good, but I have no idea why Eduard chose to make the rear cockpit opening into a separate part instead of molding it with the fuselage halves... 

 

Need a bit of putty and some unnecessary busywork to blend the opening/gun ring into the fuselage, even if the use of different coloured plastic is a nice homage to the Matchbox kits of old.

 

Only the large coolant tank is in the kit, so I scratch built the smaller tank from some sprue and a part from a Dragon SPAD kit that got discarded because it was 30 years old and had both copious amounts of flash and yellow decals, and because I have the vastly superior Eduard ProfiPack SPAD in the stash. 

Being creative and finding new uses for old kit parts if fun! 

[Eivind Lunde]

Spent my leisure time between Netflix, Youtube, riding my motorcycles and doing boring menial work on the Roland. My attempt to backdate it to Ritter Von Schleich's early CII required more work than I thought, but in for a penny, in for a pound as you Brits say.

 

So the tail and lower wing has been glued in, puttied and sanded. Since the aileron control boxes are on the lower wing on the early models, I had to cut and sand away the ones molded into the top wings and recreate them on the lower wing instead. I also used a scribing tool to weaken the elevator joints so I could carefully bend them to drop a little bit, as you can see in pictures of the real plane.

 

That worked like a charm and is something I will do again, as it is much easier than cutting out the control surfaces with a knife or saw. 

 

The technique limits you to just a slight repositioning though, so you don't break the joint and ruin the hinges, but I think it brings a bit of life to a model.

 

Different bracing struts for the tailplane is also a difference between early and later CII/CIIa planes.

 

The ghetto modded Lewis gun used by the pilot is (almost) ready.

 

And the generator from a Henschel 126 has travelled back in time to start a new life as a propeller driven generator on the landing gear of a Walfisch.

 

[Eivind Lunde]

Every time I build something I get to a point where I just want the whole thing to be done with so I can start something else. But being able to paint it always feels like a big leap forward that inject some badly needed enthusiasm into the proceedings, after the final coat you can add decals and start some weathering, which is always fun.

 

So I spent some time thinking about what colour to choose. WWI colours are contentious at the best of times (which I find very frustrating), and the actual colour of the Roland CII very much so. It seems there are a couple of main choices,; light blue/gray blue or creamy light yellow.

At some time Ritter von Schleich described his plane as "light blue and white", so I took him on his word and chose the same light pale blue grey I have used for the interior. 

 

It looks quite a bit darker in real life, perhaps too dark when compared to the pictures, but overall I think it could be pretty close. Unless von Schleich remembers incorrectly and his plane was actually creamy yellow.

The ocarina exhaust got a base layer of burnt metal and some thinned Vallejo Rust over that, before finishing with MIG Medium Rust pigment to give it that rusty exhaust look. Sealed it in with some ultra matte varnish, added some soot, and called it a day.

Very pleased with the result, even if the picture is too blurry...

[Eivind Lunde]

I somehow managed to crack the 0.20 nozzle on my H & S airbrush, which forced me to use the 0.40 for the white areas on the top wing. 

That was horrible as 0.40 seems more suited for house painting, and it burnt through the paint in seconds even at a low PSI.

I have not that much experience with airbrush painting, resulting in a heavy layer of paint. 

 

Thank god WWI wings are mostly spars and doped fabric without panel lines and rivets, so I hope I can hide (all) my mistakes with some weathering when the time comes.

 

To make me feel better I added the crosses to the underside of the lower wing, and the fuselage. The early CII's had the fuselage cross between the windows, and the story goes that it was moved back when they found out enemy pilots used it as a target, since hitting the bullseye would puncture either the gas tanks behind and below the pilot, or the pilot himself. 

 

I also discovered that the whale mouth decal in the kit is not like the one on Ritter von Schleich's whale, his being much more close lipped and gloomy looking, so I had to cut it in half and will use it as a guide to paint the rest of the mouth by hand.

 

[Eivind Lunde]

For some reason it looks like my Vallejo white has gone bad, as it has become really thick and needed a lot of thinner. But that would be OK if it hadn't also changed to an ever so slightly yellowish white shade, which is in contrast to the stark white decals of the iron crosses.

My plan was to go over with a mix of very thin pale blue grey + white to blend in the decals and hopefully break up and lighten the fuselage and wing colour, but I'm not sure it will be enough for this to disappear completely. 

 

 

I guess I will try it, and if it doesn't succeed, just leave it at that. I'm assuming the white on the inside upper wings must have been a field mod anyway, so it could have been slightly different in real life as well.

 

But this is the second bottle of Vallejo that has gone bad on me lately. Perhaps it is time to decide on which paint to slowly replace them with over time now. 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Eivind Lunde

[Ted]

Got to hate paint drama. The sad whale mouth looks great.

[Eivind Lunde]

11 hours ago, Ted said:

Got to hate paint drama. The sad whale mouth looks great.

Yeah. Overall I have been happy with Vallejo Model Air, no fumes that make your head spin and they brush very nicely too, but they don't adhere to plastic that well. Would like to stick to acrylics, and I see my local hobby shop is going to sell the Mr. Hobby line of colours, so if they are an improvement in both ease of use, durability and accuracy, I may start to replace Vallejo with Mr. Hobby. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Eivind Lunde

[Bear Paw]

I like your build so far, I have this exact kit ready to go and so will watch your build with interest.  I will go with the rather startling brown a purple camouflage and who knows what the real colours of that were originally?   

[Eivind Lunde]

Had my first go at making a wooden propeller, using Vallejo colours and art pencils like with the floor.
First the groundwork, attempting to make it look laminated:

 

Then after sealing it with a clear gloss coat, Vallejo Clear Wood was brushed on. I've found the trick is to thin it and keep the paint strokes going in the same direction as the wood grain continuously until the pain dries, just before the paint dries the last brush strokes will leave subtle lines that adds a pleasing overall affect IMO.

 

The original Axial propellers were laminated, as most wooden propellers are, but they are much darker and more monotone than some other makes, so I made it as dark as I could while still keeping the sort of wood like finish. 

 

Eduard has added the Axial Berlin logos to the decal sheet, which was a very pleasant surprise. So I added them and then sealed it again with a clear gloss layer that finished it off nicely. 

Came out good for a first try, but next time I will not use the black colour as a demarcation line between the laminations, as it's too prominent.

 

Of course, Murphy's law of Scale Modelling research is just as strict and brutal as the laws of Physics, so while I waited for the gloss coat to dry I just surfed around and accidentally found a site dedicated to wooden propellers, the aptly named http://www.woodenpropeller.com

 

There I learned that Axial very rarely used their logo on the blades, preferring to just stamp their mark on the back instead.

 

But of course.  

 

Well, yet another lesson learned, but there shouldn't be many more lessons to learn before this project is finally done. 

 

[Ted]

22 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

 

There I learned that Axial very rarely used their logo on the blades, preferring to just stamp their mark on the back instead.

 

 

Your propeller looks great, so real..

 

Thanks for the propeller link. There must have been much variety with manufacturers, the Axial logos are evident on Werner Voss' triplane prop. 

[Eivind Lunde]

On 18/05/2020 at 18:27, Ted said:

Your propeller looks great, so real..

 

Thanks for the propeller link. There must have been much variety with manufacturers, the Axial logos are evident on Werner Voss' triplane prop. 

Thanks!
Yeah, there are examples of Axial propellers with the logo, but they are not present in any Roland CII pics I've seen so far. But it is not exactly the end of the world, just a bit annoying.  

[Eivind Lunde]

This being a ProfiPack kit, Eduard has supplied photo etched details for the gunners Parabellum. I compared the pictures of the kit supplied gun and Karaya aftermarket gun I bought to pics of the version on the real aircraft, and decided that a combination would be the best way to go.

The Karaya gun is resin + etch, and needs some cleanup of the resin as the casting doesn't look that good. Oh, and looks to be the later version with a smaller cooling jacket too.

 

So I took the barrel from the Karaya and glued it to the Eduard gun, having cut off the plastic barrel first. I used a candle to heat up the brass cooling jacket, that makes all the difference as it becomes MUCH easier to roll and form into a round shape. I still had to hunt high and low to find something to use as a rolling tool, anything bigger or smaller than the exact right diameter would not be usable. In the end I found a nail used to hang pictures on the wall, that padded with a tiny bit of tape became the perfect size. I wish Eduard would have supplied a simple plastic tool for this as WnW does.. 
 

I made a primitive D shape reinforcement to align the cooling jacket, which then fitted perfectly when tested:

 

The stock (which may be too long) was painted wood in the same way as I did the prop, and the Karaya front part and sight completed it.

 

Not perfect, but overall a vast improvement of the plastic part and well worth the effort! 

[Eivind Lunde]

Hand painted the mouth using the kit decal as guide. Not perfect, but more than adequate as you need to lift the model up/turn it over to see the mistakes, and it adds to the slightly miffed look of the original.

 

I also glued the radiators on, which looks like ears when you look at it from the front. The Roland is actually kind of cute! 

 

Lastly, I have roughed up the paint a bit with some Flory washes and various shades of pastel chalk. Easy to improve a model with some weathering, but "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master" as the Othello game box says.

The Flory washes are really quite excellent, being water soluble and with extremely fine pigments. So you can touch up and redo every mistake even after is has dried. I bought the complete set which cost me a small fortune to ship over to Norway, but a little goes a long way so I will enjoy it for many many models to come.

 

I try my best to be subtle, thinking it would be pretty well maintained but that wear and tear would still be visible as seen in pictures. So breaking up the monotony of the pale blue grey colour is my main goal.

 

 

[Marklo]

Prop looks very good. These days I make my laminated propellers from paper and CA.

https://ipmsireland.com/paper-laminated-propellers-t2969.html

Edited May 23, 2020 by Marklo

[Eivind Lunde]

On 23/05/2020 at 21:10, Marklo said:

Prop looks very good. These days I make my laminated propellers from paper and CA.

Yeah, I'm aware of this interesting technique but I ain't quite ready for that yet.

Guess I will stick to building planes with Axial non-laminated looking laminated propellers for the time being. 

[Eivind Lunde]

Something fishy has been going on for some time now, with my attempt to recreate the fish-anemometer from the original.

Did some testing, and ended up cutting out the fish profile from thin Evergreen and using Tamiya putty to build on it. After some sanding and painting, some swearing and re-sanding and painting,  I got a pretty good result.

Didn't manage to capture the exact psycho look of the original, but I'm no artist so it'll do.

 

The kit has a lot going for it, including spare parts for different versions of the Walfisch, but it has one big omission in the lack of an anemometer. Even if Ritter von Schleich's aircraft was the only one with a fish shaped one, the others would've had a regular one in front of the upper wing, or on top of the lower AFAIK. So Eduard really should have had one in the kit.

 

I have searched in vain in my kit collection to find a spare one to use, without result. So that can only mean my kit collection is not nearly as big as it should be, right?

Right?

That also mean I will have to scratch build one and add to the fish, which I would think could be difficult since it is so small and delicate, or just leave it.

 

Any tip on how to make a 1/48 scale anemometer would be appreciated!

[Ted]

That's a great little psychotic fish.