Silver Machine: The Pfalz D.IIIa

[Eivind Lunde]

I have to admit that I have feared the building of WWI kits almost my whole life, the reason being the rigging and recreating the wood these planes tend to be built from. But a Roden Polikarpov PO-2 cured me of my fear of wires (you only need patience and a pillow to punch when things go wrong), and wood is easy once you find the right technique and colours. 

So after getting brave I have finished two WWI kits, a Fokker D.VII and a Roland C.II, and they have both been among the most enjoyable kits I have ever built. My Vought XF5U-1 was started to do something else, but it has kind of stalled since I just can't stop thinking about these WWI planes. They can be a lot of work and a pain in the rear end, but they can also be incredibly rewarding and enjoyable to deal with.

Not to mention the pride you feel when you actually manage to finish one without punching it through the wall in frustration! 

 

Well, enough rambling, this is my choice:

 

Many people find the Pfalz D.III series to be beautiful airplanes, but I find them pretty "meh" and a bit boring to be honest.

As did the pilots, they never were very popular.
Hell, even the kit decals are a bit boring since it is a Weekend edition, but when I managed to track down the out of production Aeromaster decals depicting Max Holtzem's gorgeous plane, it was no turning back.

 

The decals are still underway from Canada, but they should be in excellent condition so fingers crossed. Some brass barrels for the Spandaus are also heading over the North Sea as we speak.

 

TL;DR
I just started building a Pfalz.

[2996 Victor]

It's a very elegant design, IMHO, far more so than the majority of its contemporaries.

Thisshould look fabulous in Holtzem's markings, so looking forward to seeing your progress!

Kind regards,

Mark

[Old Man]

Welcome to the dark side, Sir.

 

That is a good-looking scheme.

[Eivind Lunde]

19 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

It's a very elegant design, IMHO, far more so than the majority of its contemporaries.

Thisshould look fabulous in Holtzem's markings, so looking forward to seeing your progress!

Kind regards,

Mark

Yes, it is elegant, but it really doesn't do anything for me. It's like the Spitfire versus the Sea Fury, I prefer the brutal elegance of the Sea Fury or even the Tempest, even though I do think the later Griffon engined Spitfires and Spitefuls are as pretty as they come. 

[John Masters]

Always pretty.  Looking forward to this one.

[Brandy]

There's no turning back now, you have been drawn in to the dark side of WWI aircraft and cannot escape! Welcome aboard!

I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

 

Ian

[Eivind Lunde]

Quite a lot of work has been done without much visible result. The cockpit colours of the Pfalz DIII series is as hotly debated as anything out there including immigration, Trump and Brexit, because there are very few existing pictures and one cockpit can be different from the others for a myriad of reasons. 

But after some research I have decided to go with Stephen Lawsons theory as he seems to be highly regarded for his knowledge, and his theory also makes sense to me. His theory, and others, is that the inside of the fuselage is the same colour as the outside, the same way that the Roland C.II' s (supposedly) were.

 

I know WnW suggests it should be light grey-green, but first of all I think that looks like vomit, second of all WnW aren't always right as I have discovered when it comes to Holtzems plane itself.

 

So that meant I had to whip up something that looked like Silbergrau, which should have been aluminium powder mixed with varnish or dope. Two parts MIG Ammo Aluminium to one part Vallejo Light Grey Blue seemed to be close, and the result was indeed what I would call silver gray. Not quite silver, not quite grey.

An added bonus is that it should contrast nicely with the decals when they arrive.  

 

I used pieces of square sprue to accentuate the more prominent "bulkhead" where the seat will be, the rest of the more vaguely depicted parts of the framework will just have to be made more noticeable with a wash.

Then I sprayed the cockpit walls and picked out the parts that should be light wood in MIG Ammo New Wood. The wooden parts will wait a bit until I have found a satisfactory way to get some texture on them before giving them a coat of clear orange to them to make them look like... Well, wood. 

Light wood is much more difficult to pull off than dark wood IMO. I may have to dive into the deep end and use artists oil colours for the first time in my life, but it is always fun to try out new stuff anyway. 

 

As usual my Samsung phone sucks when it comes to replicating colours correctly, everything looks more silver in real life.

[dragonlanceHR]

21 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

I know WnW suggests it should be light grey-green, but first of all I think that looks like vomit, second of all WnW aren't always right as I have discovered when it comes to Holtzems plane itself.

 

Could you please elaborate on that?

 

Cheers,

 

Vedran

[Eivind Lunde]

3 hours ago, dragonlanceHR said:

 

Could you please elaborate on that?

 

Cheers,

 

Vedran

I'm just referring to a picture posted on www.theaerodrome.com showing a row of planes with what certainly looks like Holtzem's in the background, and that plane has both the star on the right side inverted in colours, ie black part of spike at the top, and it has also a black nose, and not just a black spinner. The black nose just covering the front part of the engine cowling, like other D.III has been painted. 

I can send you a copy of the picture if you're not able to find it on the site.

 

And to be clear, I'm not having a go at WnW. I have often wished 1/32 was my scale and I have downloaded all their relevant manuals for reference. But this time they may have overlooked something.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Eivind Lunde

[dragonlanceHR]

No, no, I'm sorry if it came out as if I thought you were "attacking" WNW.

 

I'm also preparing for this a/c but with lozenge wings. Haven't been on the Aerodrome since Dan-San passed, I'll go have a look.

 

Cheers,

Vedran

[Torbjorn]

On 9/15/2020 at 9:45 PM, 2996 Victor said:

It's a very elegant design, IMHO, far more so than the majority of its contemporaries.

Thisshould look fabulous in Holtzem's markings, so looking forward to seeing your progress!

Kind regards,

Mark

Indeed very elegant, but unfortunately for the Pfalz many of the lot drawn to this era of aviation seem to share a love* for the quirky and ungainly, so it doesn’t help to make it popular 😛 That said, I have built one in 1/72 and have an unstarted WNW  which I used as reference for the main build (the 1/72 build that is!). It is a great help to be able to look at the 1/32 parts while building a smaller version - if you have any queries about the look of some detail or another give a shout.

 

 

*) guilty as charged

[Eivind Lunde]

On 23/09/2020 at 10:31, dragonlanceHR said:

No, no, I'm sorry if it came out as if I thought you were "attacking" WNW.

 

I'm also preparing for this a/c but with lozenge wings. Haven't been on the Aerodrome since Dan-San passed, I'll go have a look.

 

Cheers,

Vedran

No worries, I didn't think you accused me of it. I just wanted to make it clear that I have nothing but respect for WnW, but everyone can make a mistake and the research for a kit can take so much time that you just have to cut it short for financial reasons I guess.

 

I'm going for the lozenge covered lower wing as well, it seems to be pretty clear this aircraft had one. It could even have had lozenges on the upper wing too, but there are only so many rib tapes a man can handle without going nuts. 

 

[Eivind Lunde]

More than a month since the last update, and not much to show.

 

I have spent a lot of time trying to get the light wood structure looking right, and I finally got something that is good enough for now.

For some reason I have spent my energy on finding alternatives to oil colours, and ended up with acrylic "oil" colours and glaze, as used on a very pretty Sopwith Pup here on Britmodeller. But beware, even if both acrylic artist colours and the AK Glaze are supposed to have very long drying time, in practice they dry in a few minutes. So you better work quick and know what you are doing, the end result is very tough and difficult to remove as well.

 

This picture shows that I really don't know what I am doing, but it is not as bad in real life and I have no more patience for this so it will have to do.

 

With a bit of experience I can see that it will be possible to make very nice panels for an Albatross or any other wooden plane, as paint, glaze and a sponge works very well on larger, flat areas without any moulded detail that will hinder your strokes. The detail is actually quite magnificent with hair thin brown stripes just like real wood.

The upper part will be painted RLM02 as it is part of the gas tank, so just ignore that. 

 

Other than that, I have made most of the engine ready for painting. The prominent valve springs are made of lead wire superglued around plastic sprue, and the simplified scratch built air pump is better than nothing, which is exactly what you get in the kit.

 

Eduard actually shows an air pump in the instructions, but I guess they decided to make all their Mercedes D.III engines the same to save monies.

 

And, after a lot of nail biting the decals arrived from Canada, a week late due to Covid I guess. They look very lovely, there's even an extra sheet to fit the Glencoe model fuselage which should make it possible for me to make the complete star with the comet trail on the upper wing, as the sheet only has the star there.

 

I'm trusting WnW on this one when they state that they assume Max Holtzem would have the ground crew complete the design when they had the time.

I mean, why wouldn't he? 

 

[Eivind Lunde]

Nothing happening here for a very long time due to me getting a cat, and also because of Covid draining me of all will to do anything but watch TV. So to celebrate the resurrection of this thread I have renamed it to something a bit more kind towards the design of the Pfalz, it has indeed grown on me a bit.

 

The engine is complete and added to the fuselage, took quite a bit of sanding and testing to get it to sit right and be able to close the fuselage without gaps.

 

The cockpit has been completed, added a few bits and bobs like a proper compass made from sprue and Airscale instruments to replace the decal on the floor solution in the Kit, and a seat harness from an old Dragon Nieuport kit.  The latter doesn't really fit as it is way too short, but it is much better than nothing.

 

Cockpit looks pleasantly busy, my attempt at reproducing light wood being acceptable. I have no idea why I forced the acrylic paint route though, proper oil paints would likely have been both cheaper and easier to work with.

 

 

 

I guess I could have a go at painting more interesting leather seats with oil paint as well, the lack of colour shift and nuances really bugs me. 

[BerndM]

That looks really nice.

[Eivind Lunde]

More than 6 months have passed with embarrassing little work being completed.
But I have scratch built what I assume is the fuel filler neck on the upper wing and the rear view mirror that Holtzem had on his plane.

I have also hollowed out the nostril like air intakes in the nose of the plane using my Dremel and, after some researching of the colour, spray painted all the major components:


The colour comes off all wrong here thanks to the camera in my Samsung, but it seems that Pfalz Silbergrau was something close the RAF's High Speed Silver, light silver gray, so that's what it is.

 

While not at all impressive progress, it does lay the groundwork for some visual quick wins (or failures) since I now only need to give it a clear coat to protect the extremely fragile paint before I can start with the decals. And boy do I need to cross my fingers then, because they are big and complex and I get only one chance to get it right. 

 

When the decals are on I will spray the nose and tail black, as I need to align the black tail with the decals.

 

[Eivind Lunde]

So, I jumped into it and did the decals. But even if I went through it in my mind many times I still screwed it up!  

I mean, the wing is fine. The decals were good and reacted well to decal softener and even if the two part balkenkreuz on the wing was slightly nerve wrecking to get aligned, it was easy. But the fuselage decal is in the wrong place. The last black band should be just behind the cockpit opening, not noticeably behind where it ended up. I was so super busy trying to make sure that the stripes are vertical and also not lopsided across the fuselage that I didn't notice before it was too late. 

 

It certainly didn't help that the Aeromaster decal instructions are not correct either. They have the last black band slightly touching the wing root while it actually should wrap around it. Not only that, but following them I also put the weight table on the other side in the wrong place to high up on the fuselage. 
But of course I should have checked references before I did this, so this just boils down to me being stupid.

*sigh*

Well, after yelling and punching some pillows I have come down to two choices:
Either just live with it (if possible) or respray the fuselage and use the decals for the Glencoe model that was supplied on a separate sheet. 

But why was there a separate sheet for that I wonder? The Glencoe is very old but should be 1/48 as well, but maybe it is slightly different, like 1/50? 

Anyone know? 

 

[Tweener]

Considering that the Glencoe kit is just the Aurora mold, from (I want to say) the very end of the 50's, the scale is more likely than not 1/50. That said, I know next to nothing about the Pfalz, and less about Glencoe. Best of luck!

[Eivind Lunde]

I decided to just keep it as is.  There's still plenty of work left and time to mess up other parts of this build, so better just finish it to the best of my abilities.

[Macsporran]

Great progress

 

I remember building the Eduard kit when it first came out in the nineties - at which time Holtzem was one of the decal options, so no need for AM sets.

 

I put a little blue in my silbergrau to simulate the shade it would reflect high in the French sunshine over the trenches.

 

But I'm definitely in the camp that thinks it a very pretty aeroplane,

Looking forward to seeing your's finished.

 

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Adam/Pfalz/HoltDIIIa_2.jpg

[Eivind Lunde]

Tail and nose sprayed black and decals completed. If there are any raised eyebrows because of the black nose it was my choice based on a picture posted in the Aerodrome forum, as mentioned in the beginning of this thread.

 

I think I will try an over spray with very thin grey to sort of blend the decals in and reduce the shine.
 

But the worst part is yet to come since I still have to cover the lower wing with the lozenge decals from Techmod, and a brief test of them showed that they are breaking up pretty easily. 
I bought some Microscale liquid decal film that should hopefully help keeping them together, but I'm still very nervous about this step... 

[Marklo]

Lovely build. I’ve used some old Glencoe decals recently and found them to be surprisingly good despite their age .