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Kit: Karaya (1:48)
This is the excellent Karaya Airco DH-5. A9507 was flown by Capt. E R Tempest on November 30, 1917, when he sent down an enemy aircraft out of control. This is one of the best kits I've ever built in any medium.
This is Karaya's superb resin Ansaldo A.1. Although the rigging was a bit tricky, she was really a joy to build. Very good fit and excellent detail. Except for a couple gauges in the floor board and some cockpit wiring, plumbing and cables, this was built oob.
Kit: Roden (1:48)
This is the Roden BE12b that I built as part of the Roden Group Build on GWITA. It's a great kit and was a blast to build. What little difficulties I had with the decals were resolved with a hair dryer. Here is a link to the build log. http://www.greatwaraviation.com/forum/index.php/topic,2905.0.html
This is Roden's superb BE2c which I started about 3 months ago. Due to some question about the actual color of the subject I intended to model, progress has been slow. With that, I think I'll post some progress shots in hopes that it will motivate me to finish this thing. I did most of the engine first. This is a really nice kit in it's own right. I then completed the cockpit adding some Copper State and Eduard instruments, a pair of Part wicker seats Eduard lap belts and a scratched observer's map table. Got the fuselage together, bottom wing, horizontal and vertical stabilizers then painted a base coat of sand gelb and tan. And it sat for a long time. Just recently, I masked the underside of the top wing ribs, spars and formers and shot a coat of Model Master Modern Desert Sand. Unmasked and shot another light coat. So far, I'm happy enough with it. Beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. 02/21/10: Took a photo this morning showing the undersides almost completed. Fuselage and bottom wing are now weathered, top wing is not. Tonight all undersides are weathered. Top surfaces tomorrow.
She's finally done! Five months in the works, but over 80% of that time was deliberating over scheme, planning the rigging and making turnbuckles. The Roden box art and kit instructions suggest that 4395 was "brown". I was thinking PC12 or AMAPDT reddish brown, often applied to RFC aircraft in the Middle East. I posted inquiries here and on the Aerodrome and the consensus was overwhelmingly for CDL. I had a hard time swallowing that since the photos all appeared to be quite a bit darker. I gave in (sort of) and went with a heavily weathered CDL to replicate the ravages of the Arabian sun, wind and sand. She was built oob except for wicker seats, lap belts, instruments and some internal wiring. Roundels are Blue Rider with the white cut out on the fuselage. None of the photos show top wing roundels. Hope you like the results.
Kit: Blue Max/Eduard (1:48)
I built this Camel Comic using the excellent Blue Max resin conversion kit with the Eduard Camel. Decals are from Fantasy Print Shop and come with the conversion kit. Although the conversion kit includes Lewis guns, Foster mounts and Holt flares, I chose to use guns from Gaspatch, scratched the Holt flares and the Foster mounts are Roden spares.
This is Roden's excellent Puma engined D.H.4, N6416 Moorq, as she appeared while serving with 'F' Squadron on Imbros in 1918. I chose the more "drab" scheme as opposed to the box art representation since Roden's depiction seems a bit off. What they show as red looks more like yellow in the Datafile photo. I went with PC12 instead of PC10 given the time frame and location. A great kit and fun to build, even the Roden decals went on beautifully. I used Misterkit PC12 and CDL. Fred Hultberg came through with his wonderful Cooper bomb carriers and Scarff ring from Fotocut.
Kit: JMGT (1:48)
This is JMGT's beautiful resin HD.1. It's the last model I had built prior to a haetus of 18 years. Even by today's standards, the detail was superb. Everything was included. Beautiful decals, great pe, even stainless steel wire for the rigging. Seat belts made from nylon medical tape with Tom's Model Works buckles were the only things I added. I had only the kit instructions as a referrence, hence the aluminum struts and the black tail skid. The dihedral is wrong. Sorry, guys.
Kit: Eduard (1:48)
This is Eduard's new release of the Morane-Saulnier N. I chose to build this kit as a break from rigging and pe (I hate pe...so I added some). This is really an easy build taking all of 15 hrs. The only issue I have with the kit is the brightness of the roundels. The red is really closer to orange. Kept them, though. Wanted to keep it simple. I did add some of the pe parts from the original kit to add realism and overall I think they enhance the finished model. I used Humbrol French CDL and Tamiya Gloss Black. Final coat is Micro Satin. Rigging is aluminum painted 2 lb test. Very nice little model. Eduard's on top of their game.
Kit: Blue Max (1:48)
Pheon decals were used and the engine is the resin Fly rendering. Gaspatch turnbuckles and Aviattic CDL decals.
Kit: Aeroclub (1:48)
The Mono Pup is the second of Aeroclub's recent Pup releases and It was as much fun as the first. Wonderful kit. I used the kit decals this time. Some very nice options.
This is Bishop's controversial B1566. Lacking any good photographic reference, I chose to model my Nieuport after the cover art on Datafile 20. I mean, if it was good enough for Ray to put it on the front cover...Anyway, this is my second attempt to make turnbuckles and I went a little overboard. I'll make them a little more to scale next time. Promise. I added some cockpit detail and gauges, very little of which is now visible. Markings are from the kit, roundles are Aeromaster. Rudder is painted to match cowling and wheels. The kit Lewis was replaced with one from the good ol' Roden Strutter. The overly thick aileron control horns were replaced by ones from Tom's Modelworks. Gunsight was scratchbuilt using brass tubing. I wish I had a better camera (sigh).
This is Eduards 1/48 scale Nieuport 11 in the markings of Raoul Lufbery as depicted in Bob Pearson's revisionist profile in the Windsock Special, Nieuport Flyers of the Lafayette. Thanks to Tony Sherry for the inspiration.
This is Karaya's very lovely little Nieuport 25 kit. If you're a 1/48 scale builder, this is it as far as this rare little fighter goes, unless you can still get your hands on the HiTech kit. But with this one still available, why bother. This one is so much better. Very few Nie25s were built, and from what I can gather, they were probably built just for Charles Nungesser. Not many markings options, but a great kit. Fit is exceptional and decals go on beautifully. Highly recommended.
Kit: Special Hobby (1:48)
This is Special Hobby's great little Nieuport 10 kit done in the markings of 3964 of the RNAS used by Flt. Cmdr. Reginald Bone to drive down a Friedrichshaffen FF33 on March 19, 1916.
This is Roden's 1/48 scale Nieuport 28 done in Rickenbacker's markings. Very nice, crisp kit with few fit problems. Since it's one of Roden's earlier efforts, the decals are horrible. The "12" and "Hat in the Ring" are too large and had to be positioned too far forward. Aside from that, none of the kit decals would respond to Micro Set and Micro Sol. In fact, they displayed an uncanny ability to levitate off the paint. Freaky. I ultimately had to hand paint around the markings to hid the silvering. The final coat of clear satin smoothed it all out. The 5 color camo is all Humbrol. Rigging is 2 lb test stretched across my garage door and spray painted Tamiya flat aluminum. The dual wood filled flying wires were replicated by 0.04 Strutz brass painted wood color. A stretched clear sprue pulse gauge, Parts lattice seat and seat belts, Parts instruments and a fuel tank were added, most of which can't be seen. Bad decals aside, this is a wonderful little kit.
This is the Blue Max Sopwith Dolphin in the markings of Capt. James Pearson of 23 Squadron, a 12 victory ace, an American and my Great Uncle. A very nice kit that proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable build made even more so by the superb Pheon decals and the wonderful jig provided.
Kit: Wingnut Wings (1:32)
This my first WNW kit and my only foray outside 1/48 scale. Fantastic kit. Pheon decals and Gaspatch Vickers.
This is Aeroclub's new injected Sopwith Pup in the livery of Joe Fall, Naval 3, 1917. The kit decals are excllent, produced at Fantasy Print Shop, the same folks that do Pheon Decals. They're pretty basic, though. One marking option, that of Ray Collishaw's plain Jane 6160. I turned to Rowan's decals, using only the rudder flash from the kit just to make sure it would fit. Speaking of fit, this kit goes together beautifully and I used very little putty around the wing join. John Adams is to be commended on an excellent new release.
Extensive modifications done. Sanded down all ribs and replace with HGW rib tape decals. Cockpit completely scratched and scratchbuilt Rotherham pump. Pheon Decals and Gaspatch guns.
Kit: Special Hobby/Eduard (1:48)
This was a Special Hobby Sopwith Schneider. I sanded off all the fuselage surface detail, cut off the nose, scribed new panel lines, added Eduard pe details and turned it into a Baby. I chose this route because all the wing and tail mods that I would have to do on the Eduard kit were already done on the SH kit. It was a pretty simple kit bash/conversion and it was loads of fun. Scratched a lot of stuff. The Lewis is from a Roden 2 seater (of course). Decals are Eduard and they were surprisingly well behaved.