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Kit: Ardpol (1:72)
This is a very nice, pure resin kit, that caused me endless grief with warped wings. Sometimes you can bend the stuff back in shape with hot water and it stays that way. Sometimes it doesn't. I tried 6 times with this one, and failed miserably. Some correction was attempted after assembly using tensioned monofilament for some of the rigging.Definitely a qualified success. Maybe. The markings are from the rear cover profile section of Datafile 53, after a photo on page34. The machine is an anonymous one from Fl.Abt. (A) 287, in 1917. Small additions were made from odds and sods around the house. I couldn't find a suitable decal for the rigging table, but since this was stored in a pouch on the side of the nose I just put the pouch in and pretended someone had nicked the table itself. Can't see the damn thing anyway. Nothing else remarkable to report, except that the lozenge is of the venerable Almark 5-colour variety.
Kit: Classic Planes (1:72)
A nice old-fashioned vac kit, made mostly as it came, but with the addition of an interior, modified spare wheels from a Roden Fokker D.VII (metal kit wheels too small), claw-brake from an Ardpol kit, struts from old Pegasus stock, undercarriage legs and tail bracing truts from brass Strutz, strut mountings from scrap strut stock,control horns from sprue,gun mount from a Roden Gotha, scratched radiators (the kit comes with 2 choices but too softly molded) and various bits of wire and stuff. Forgot the step on the left forward undercart leg. Underside is MrKit Gotha blue-white, top are Humbrol colours, based on the rather lurid front cover profile on Windsock volume 7, no.3. The note in the magazine says this is the first LVG built DFW C.V , configured as it was in Jan/Feb 1917 while being type-tested at Adlershof. The national markings are ones I'll not be using on the Ardpol kit, the serial is in the wrong font but about the right size, from Superscale scraps.
Kit: Karaya (1:48)
Interesting kit. Very good, but with plenty of challenges. Anyone trying this should know the following - not all boxes have wire re-inforcement in the struts (and those in the interplane struts can sometimes not protrude through both ends). This boxing has a Maxim that I think you should leave out - the fuselage castings lack a cut out for it, although there is a gap for it in the nice PE control panel. Colour scheme is based on the single photo in the Windsock datafile. The sun is from straight in front of the aircraft, which is itself in profile, so figuring out the scheme is more or less guesswork, with reflection making it look as if the wings are outlined in a lighter colour. Which I doubt. Colours in later versions were better (but still confusingly) documented. The winter cowling was absent at the time of the photo. There seems to be some support stuff around the exhaust, but could just as well be something behind it. The kit was built mostly OOB except I had to replace 4 of the interplane struts, and drill and pin the undercarriage and cabane trestle. I wanted to replace the latter with brass Strutz, but the lack of location marks combined with my usual clumsiness to defeat me. The elevators are drooped a tad too much, and a couple of the struts are wonky. Oh woe is me. Good kit, anyway. I had expected the wings to sag badly, but so far they're okay. The decals went on nicely, but I think the DFW logo on the nose is too big. Rigging is ceramic Wonder Wire, courtesy of that nice Mr Ken Schmitt.