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Kit: Eduard (new mold) (1:48)
This is Eduard's re-tooled release of the Morane-Saulnier Type N. The kit was a nice, simple project I built on the side off and on for the last month and a half or so. If I had worked exclusively on it, it probably would've been a 2 week project. I built it OOB. Rigging is mostly 4lb fishing line with the rudder and elevator control lines made of 8 guage guitar string. Paints were a combination of my usual, Polly Scale, Model Master, and Tamiya acrylics. Weathering was done with artists oils and oil washes. My only complaint about the kit is the red on the decals was very, very bright, almost an orange. I decided on the black nosed aircraft for that reason, to minimize the bright red and make it easier to do touch up.
Kit: Roden (1:48)
This is Roden's 1/48 RAF S.E.5a. It was built mostly OOB in Major Mannock's July 1918 machine. Looking back, and seeing some different, more colorful S.E.5a paint schemes, I would have gone a different route. The kit's choices are pretty drab. Photoetched control horns were used from the spares box. 4lb monofiliment fishing line was used for rigging, painted black. I simplified the rigging somewhat, in the respect that the lines that should have been doubled, aren't. I'm pretty sure the rest of the rigging is there, but I found that in many photographs, even period ones, the rigging was slightly different. The was apparent in the cabane strut area. I'm not a rivet counter, so I won't stress about the slight inaccuracies of my rigging. I realized them as I was building and considered them sacrifices for my sanity. On the next S.E.5 I will probably attempt to do it correctly. I finished it with a variety of Polly Scale, Model Master, and Tamiya acrylics. The wood surfaces were finished with an acrylic base color, Futured, then oil paints applied with a raked brush and finally varnished with Future. The mud was a mixture of ground pastels and Microscale Flat. This was my first time using this method, and I'll probably use it again in the future. The exhaust manifolds/pipes were finished as I usually do, with Sophisticated Finishes iron surfacer and antiquing solution. The rest of the weathering was done with a variety of pastels and oil paints. I enjoyed this project, once the basic assembly was completed. Roden chose a fairly complicated breakdown for the fuselage and this was the cause of all of the fit problems that required further attention before paint. Suprisingly, everything, including the top wing, ended up very sturdy. There isn't any give with any of the assemblies, including the landing struts.
Kit: Eduard (1:48)
This kit was built as a break from the, well, experience, of building the Hi Tech Voisin 10. Being on convalescent leave, I have had a lot of time to build. This kit took less than 5 days from start to finish and was probably the easiest OT build I've ever done.
My usual techniques were used, a little bit of pastel for weathering along with straight oils and oil washes. Rigging is 4lb monofilament fishing line, left in its natural clear/silverish color. Control lines are bits of guitar string. Wood surfaces were painted using an acrylic base, then Tamiya clear orange, thinned oil paint for the grain, then Futured.
The silver finish is Alclad. I used an acrylic flat black as a base, then Futured the parts of the aircraft that were natural metal and left the fabric areas dull. Future is funny in that the glossier the base, the more polished it'll look. Giving the metal areas a good gloss meant that I could spray the entire aircraft with one shade of Alclad, Polished Aluminum, and have the metal areas noticably shinier than the fabric parts. The effect is subdued, but still noticable.
Although this is the basic Eduard kit, I used the decals from the Limited Edition kit. The roundels are from the basic kit, so I still have a full set when I build the L.E. The rudder is painted.
This was a great little kit. It's nice to build something OOB for a change I had no fit problems at all and the colorful paint scheme makes it stand out on the shelf.
This is Roden's 1/48 Nieuport 28. I really had a hard time getting into this project, having just finished the Voisin and working on the big Model Airways Nieup. Originally this was going to be done up in silver dope/natural metal as a Swiss machine, but the plastic was too pebbly to give a good silver finish. The next one will be polished before I even start to smooth out the plastic. Other than that, this is a standard, out of box build. Finish was done with Poly S acrylics and a little bit of Tamiya and Model Master thrown in here and there.
The upper roundels were ruined with masking tape, so they were masked and airbrushed on. The little bit of weathering done was done with artists' oils. The wood effects were done with an acrylic base, clear orange, oil "grain," and varnished with Future. Rigging is my usual 4lb monofiliment fishing line.