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Kit: Pegasus (1:72)
This was built to add to my floatplane collection. I built the kit floats, but then decided I wanted to make an early version, so scratchbuilt some pontoon float replacements from plastic card. Some simple cockpit instruments were scratchbuilt too. The exhaust was also scratched, so that it fits around the front cabane strut. I experimented with two new techniques (for me) on this model. The wood finish is decal sheet painted and cut up into panels. Steven Perry from the list suggested the method. For rigging I normally drill through the lower wings and tension the 'wire' as the glue dries. This time I glued both ends and tightened the nylon with a heated pin. With this method it's more important to get the angle correct at the ends first, a couple of wires still need adjusting. It's also important not to touch the adjacent wires :) I'm very pleased with the woodgrain effect, but not too happy with how I painted the prop, I may have to strip that back and start again. The last picture is how the thing will be displayed, taken from a picture in 'Albatros Fighters in Action'
Kit: 12 Squared (1:72)
This is the 12 Squared 1/72nd scale kit of the DFW T28 "Floh" or Flea, an apt name for a strange looking aircraft. The model was built out-of-the-box, with a joystick and control panel added to hide the empty interior. The rigging is nylon monofilament coloured with indelible pen. The decals were cut down from a modern luftwaffe sheet, using a coin as a guide. The prop stripes were done with thin strips of masking tape cut using two knife blades taped together.
Kit: Meikraft (1:72)
Designed at the Zeppelin-Lindau works the D.I had torsion-box cantilever wings with the rear covered in fabric. The fuselage was of all-metal stressed-skin construction. The underslung fuel tank could be jettisoned. Oblt. Reinhard was killed when the top wing detached during the second Fighter Competition in 1918. A BMW engined model was entered in the third competition, but was outclassed. Two D.Is were taken to the USA for evaluation after the war. This is the first lozenge-covered model I have finished, and I had trouble getting the decal to go around the curves on the wings, and also getting a clean edge at the trailing edges. No trouble at all with the wing struts and rigging though. The rivet detail is done with a tool I bought at a show last year, a set of toothed wheels that fit in a modelling knife handle. Choose the right wheel and just run it along the edge of a steel rule. Unfortunately it barely shows in the compressed pictures.
This is the 1:72nd scale Pegasus kit. The tailplane is scratchbuilt, as I thought the original was far too thick. I made a tool from a filed-downscrew to cut the corrugated surfaces.
The colours are my interpretation of the description in the datafile. I started out by painting wings, fuselage and tailplane in Misterkit Albatros Pale Green with Gotha/LVG Dark Violet patches, and pale blue underneath. I then applied a thin chocolate brown over the fuselage, and a white coat underneath and over the whole tail, so that the camouflage pattern just shows through. After the decals were applied I painted another thin coat of chocolate over the serial numbers.
The undercarriage and roll frame are made from Strutz brass and guitarstring, with copper wire for the suspension bungee cord. The prop is from the kit, and matches the Ian Stair drawings in Aircraft Archive Vol 3, but from looking at pictures and the Junkers drawings in "Vom Lilienthalgleiter zur fliegenden Annelise" the prop should be much larger, about 9ft 6inches diameter.
The exhaust is an Xtra Parts resin, cut down, painted in gunmetal with awash of matt rust. After I closed up the fuselage the seat supports came adrift from the wire bearers I had made. After a lot of shaking and prodding I finally managed toget it back nearly into the right place, and glue it down.
Kit: Phonix (1:72)
This kit was finished in 2001. It's the Phoenix vacform, with a few scratchbuilt items in the cockpit, and a partial engine filling the space that shows in the cockpit. There's a build review in Internet Modeller for June 2001.
Kit: Eduard (1:72)
This is the1/72nd scale Eduard kit, mostly out of the box. The radiator pipes, pilots step, and gun mounting pole were made of wire. The lozenge fuselage is taken from a picture of 852/17 in the book "Vom Lilienthalgleiter zur fliegenden Annelise". The picture appears to show a pale stripe along the bottom of the lozenge and no pattern under the fuselage, so I have interpreted this as being finished in pale blue underneath, rather then lozenge. 852/17 has no wings or tail in the picture so the rest of the colour scheme is taken from the kit instructions for 822/17.
The original aircraft may have been very strong, but the kit isn't, and I live in fear that the top wing will come off at the slightest provocation, there are already two snapped struts from the two wing installations done so far.
A reasonably simple build, except for getting the top wing on straight. It makes a monster of a two-seater, that looks huge amongst the rest of the collection.
Kit: Phoenix (1:72)
The V19 was designed to meet a requirement for an aircraft that could be carried on a submarine as a spotter. Constructed entirely of duralumin it could be taken apart for stowage in 15 minutes and erected in 30. Volker Haeusler surmised that it was "maybe the most advanced all metal aircraft build during the war - seemingly, it used a stresssed skin concept that in that completeness was not used by Dornier and Zeppelin, let alone the Junkers designs." V19 and 'Putbus' were post-war designations.
I started this model on 18 May 2002, according to a post to the list on that date, but most of the work was done in the last couple of months of 2007. The kit went together reasonably well, though I had to fill out the front of the fuselage to match the cowling. Instructions are patchy, and studying the two photos I have I think I have positioned the control panel too far aft. One photo shows the V19 sitting on trolleys and trestles, so I scratched some of these, and made my first attempt at a concrete hardstanding for the base. The third picture shows the notch in the rear struts that made a step.
Kit: Scratch (1:600)
This R-plane design has always intrigued me, ever since I first saw pictures of it. I still have the dream of building it in 1/72nd. The model is made in a very similar fashion to the Staaken R.VI, but the use of decal for the lozenge scheme meant that the sequence changed. The lozenge pattern was scaled from 72nd scale 5 colour night scheme and printed on decal paper. The model was assembled by fitting the lower wing into the fuselage, then applying the decal and markings to all surfaces. The markings are built up from black and white decal strips cut to width. The strut positions were then marked out in the top of the lower wing, and small dimples drilled out to locate the bottoms of the struts. The top wing was then glued to the inverted V cabane on the fuselage. The stretched-sprue struts were then cut to length and glued to the lower wing one at a time working outwards. When they were all in the upper ends were fixed with white glue. The lower tail plane was cut out to fit around the end of the fuselage, the central fin and rudder set in place and the support struts added, and the top tailplane stuck on top. The outer fins and rudders were then slid into position and glued. The prop blades were shaped from 1mm diameter rod, then glued to the spinner. The undercarriage is stretched sprue and brass rod. The finishing touch was to add the stub-wing radiators on the sides of the fuselage between the wings.
This is another model to go with the Adlershof R-plane. The wings and tail are from plastic card, the struts from stretched strut stock. The model was assembled by fitting the lower wing into the fuselage, then building the inverted V cabane on the fuselage. The assembly and the underside of the top wing were then painted. The strut positions were then drilled out in the underside of the top wing before gluing it to the cabane V. The struts were then cut to length and glued to the top wing one at a time working outwards. When they were all in the lower ends were fixed with varnish. The nacelles are shaped from plastic rod, and the main supports glued on before fitting to the lower wing. All the other struts were then stuck in with varnish. The radiators were stuck to the engine struts with the paint as they were painted. The props are shaped from 0.5mm square strip. The lower tail plane was fitted into a slot at the end of the fuselage, the fins and rudders stuck in position, the fin support struts added, then the top plane attached. The wheels are cut from plastic rod, the groups of four are one piece, the indents cut using a machine screw as the cutter. The front wheels are on guitar string Vs, the main wheels have the string axles but are on V struts cut from thin plastic sheet. The camouflage is a green base with spots of brown, black, dark blue and mauve. The markings are built up from black and white decal strips cut to width.
After the end of the war some project drawings of R Class aircraft, (the German giants), were found amongst material that came from the Zeppelin works at Staaken. This model is of the smallest of the monoplane designs. This had six 500hp engines buried in the wings, driving four propellers. The wings are made from foamboard, cut and filed to shape, then skinned with plasticard on the underneath to get the correct thickness. The fuselage is made of balsa, again with a skin of plasticard on the top surface. The tail is plasticard, as are the undercarriage frames. The eight wheels are shaped from plastic rod in groups of four. The top cabin is made from shaped plastic sheet, with the windows notched out at the sides. This was then covered top and bottom with plasticard and the whole assembly sanded to the shape you see. The props are shaped from strip, and the guns are bent wire with tiny discs superglued to the side to represent Parabellum. The colour scheme is based on the surmise that the structure was all metal, and for trials would not have been camouflaged. The serial is based on what I could find in the spares box, but follows on from numbers allocated to Zeppelin for all-metal designs such as the R.VIII, which started at 201.The last picture also shows a Handley Page O/400 and a Bessaneau hangar to give an idea of the size of this machine. Reference: The German Giants, by Haddow and Grosz