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Kit: Copper State Models (1:48)
Dornier D1. Copper State Models 1/48th. This was relatively easy and quick. Not much else to say except nice kit, even though one of CSMs earliest.
Kit: Roden (1:72)
Gotha GIII. 1/72nd, Roden
Excellent kit, but I made life hard for myself by 1) adding the Part PE set and 2) repeatedly wiping the top wing off. Still, it's finally on the shelf and I'm not touching it again, even to clean it, in case it goes for an unauthorised flight. Oh, and in a fit of madness I decided to use the Part rigging fittings, but wouldn't do it again 'cos it requires more dexterity than I have, and really needs monofilament rigging to work properly. Due to the flexibility of the wing and thinness of the struts I used stainless steel wire instead (except the control wires, which are monofilament. Top wing isn't on straight, the bombs are not all alligned well, and the mudguards are on upside down. But I think it looks like a Gotha GIII.
A model of a Gotha G.III of Kagohl 2. The serial isn't visible on the real thing, so the one supplied in the kit is open to doubt. I'm now officially a looney. I started this kit when it was released, centuries ago, and finished it in February 2006. The kit itself is a wonderful effort, my model less so, with several enormous own goals which I'll leave you to figure out for yourself. They're fairly obvious. The model was rigged with ceramic wire (thanks Ken) in order to stop the long resin wings from sagging. This seems to be successful. I made the struts from bamboo satay skewers and used Part PE Parabellum guns. I decided only to mount one PUW bomb since very few photos I've seen have many in place. Anyway, maybe this aircraft has just returned from a mission with a hangup. No turnbuckles this time. Well, hardly any. Thanks to many members of the wwi list for help with this. Final note - the thing I took longest over was the instruments panel, this being quite different from the G.V panel supplied. Need not have bothered because it's nigh on invisible, of course. And on examine the photos just now I see that one wheel is about to fall off. Ho hum.
Kit: Pegasus (1:72)
W.29. Pegasus, 1/72nd. Fuselage halves had warped a bit, and the inside took a bit of work to clean up (I don't have any motor tools), but still a very nice kit. I like the barking mad colour scheme. Maybe the green is too weird, but to be honest I don't really mind too much.
Pegasus 1/72nd Halberstadt D.II. Based on photos and profiles in the Windsock Datafile, this could be virtually any light coloured D.II from 1916. Colours are close to one of Ray Rimell's profiles, but as he says could also be light blue. The main struts are Strutz brass, the cabanes from thin rod (the measurements given with the kit assume they are symetric, but they're not). Tail skid struts are also rod, and I only see 3 in photos, so that's what I've done. The interior was based on the Datafile photo of a D.V, suplemented by sneaking a look at Tom Morgan's excellent scratchbuild that you can find by searching this site. The colour of the over head shot is yellowed due to the proximity of the lamp used to aid getting the camera to focus on the cockpit.
Kit: Joystick (1:72)
Pegasus 1/72 Halberstadt ClIV. This is based on some photos and a profile in the Datafile. I replaced the fin and rudder and scratched the interior but otherwise just followed the instructions. Rigging is monofilament.
Kit: Phoenix (1:72)
Junkers J2, early form (later tinkered with). No corrugations. Yippee. A bit of interior structure added. I had to mostly guess the control horn locations and interior structure. I'm now inclined to believe that the engine is exposed where the exhaust pipe comes out, but I'm not sure. Paint is Humbrol, rigging, such as it is, is HSP and copper wire. Exhaust is plastic tube and too big. The Spandau started life as the Aeroclub supplied kit part, but I added an Airwaves PE jacket I had spare. There's 2 coats of satin varnish on this model, but it was just getting glossier, so in the end I just stopped.
Kit: Hit Kit (1:72)
LVG CV - 1/72nd Hit-Kit. Omigod. At least I finished it.
Kit: Special Hobby (1:48)
Special Hobby Lloyd C.V. Here I have sinned many times, but mostly: the rigging wire is too thick, and I shouldn't have bothered with the PE turnbuckles. The rear fuselage appears from the photo in Windsock 6 no. 1 to be covered in linen (as shown in Ray Rimell's profile in that issue) and this I only realised after finishing. Don't feel like changing it now, so this is an alternate reality model. Doh. The fuselage crosses are a bit too large, so I've sited them 1/2 cm too far forward so that they fit. In the photo, the real one has a fuel tank on the top where the kit instructions and Mr. Rimell go for the baby-coffin gun. Something else I checked too late. On the fin and rudder there a re a few small markings I couldn't make out so left off. 2 of the exhaust pipes are out of alignment. The skinning I decided had the outer grain spanwise, and have attempted to suggest mahogany using Humbrol 110, overbrushed with burnt sierra and burnt umber oil paint, sealed with Tamiya clear orange. This took weeks, and the result, while pretty, is more in keeping with 1:1 scale wood than 1:48. There was a little resin bit for, I think, a strut mounted annemometer. Not in my kit, though. Finally, the entire Parabellum pinged off into the distance, probably only to be seen again when this page goes up. Oh well. As usual, not the fault of the kit, which was really rather nice. Time for a change I think. Maybe ....... another Brisfit?
Kit: Blue Max (1:48)
Kit supplied markings for a K.U.K machine based at Alture in July 1918. Fuselage could have been brown mottle or varnished wood, for a change I decided to try the mottle. Thoroughly nice kit once cleaned up. The instuctions are a bit confused about the cabane strut arrangement, so photos are essential.
The markings are from the kit, based on the photos on page 34 of the Datafile (they may be of different machines, so the name on the starboard nose may not be there really).This is a Marine Feld Flieger Abteilung machine, taken in August 1917. The kit interior was trashed as fictitious. A new one was based on the Datafile and Jane's books, assuming the machine was built before they started specialising at the factory, i.e. I've included an internal bomb rack as well as a camera port - later machines had one or the other, I think. I've given it a stick rather than a wheel simply 'cos that's what I think I see the top of in the photo. Paint is Xtracolour topside green and purple, and Humbrol light blue 65. Note how the flash highlights all the glue sploodges around the rigging! And the black chevrons on the port side are out of register. I overpainted them on the other side but forgot this side. Come to think of it, some of the struts are a bit bowed, too. Oh well............
Kit: HiTech (1:48)
This is the HiTech Roland DII in 1/48th. Made up out of the box except for extra invisible cockpit stuff and some Part turnbuckles. Rigging is stainless steel wire. The decals disintegrated despite a coat of Microscale liquid decal film, and took some re-assembling The kit was mostly an enjoyable build despite some vagaries in the instruction sheet. Knowing in advance that the cylinders won't fit where intended on the crankcase of the engine helps. Oh, and the opening the engine coyly peeks through needs a lot of thinning and re-profiling I think in order for the exhaust manifold to locate properly - I think I got the engine a couple of millimetres too far back, which didn't help.
Kit: Eduard (1:48)
A few fixes needed to backdate this to a 1916 configuration, and the decal for the lower wing was for the wrong side so needed hacking about and patching. Eduard would have you fit a Spandau but I don't think it has one. Markings are for the Datafile cover subject, about which nothing is known. There should be an ammemometer on the port top wing but I've left it for now since I'm sure I couldn't make one well enough.
Finished as the machine used in the 2nd fighter competition, 1918. This is one of the kit decal options, but take care, you're told to use the balanced tailplane and cover it with lozenge, whereas the photos in the Datafile show the unbalanced variety, painted a dark colour. Otherwise it was a very nice kit to build, the interior fitting with less fettling needed than usual, and the white metal struttery being (just) strong enough. Since this machine is the one that has survived in Poland and been restored (sans wings) over the last few years, I added the various pulleys and exit patches that can be seen in restoration photos in Windsock, and painted the fuselage a fairly dark colour. There are a few obvious gauges between the m/gs in the Datafile shots so I faked 'em too. I used the kit guns but replaced the barrels with Eduard fretted ones.
Another excellent kit, another mediocre model, and the culprit is once more me. I don't think I've got anything aligned plumb on this one, and the engine is 2-3 mm too high, resulting in a cramped Spandau and a fictitious connection point for the lower radiator hose. All my own fault. the rigging was at one point quite good, but I did it during a recent heat wave. Now that it's cooler the invisible thread has all sagged. At this point I decided to forgo the turnbuckles and just finish it. The markings are from the kit, there's a photo on page 8 of the Windsock Datafile. This shows what may be a bullet hole patch between the J and the national marking, so I've used one over from a suitable decal sheet. The Parabellum is partially Copper State and partially Aeroclub. Everything else is from the kit.
LVG C.VI from 1918, profiled on the back cover of the Datafile and based on a crash photo on page 5 of the same publication. The markings are one of two options supplied in the kit. The kit itelf is excellent, except you need to scratch build a fuel tank, and the metal fuselage formers are too wide. After thinning them as much as I dared I decided to remove all internal detail, score grooves for the formers, and replace the detail with plastic strip. I took the opportunity to refine it all a bit, and added Eduard PE seatbelts, a load of spare instrument gauges, a wireless reel and guide tube (which is hard to see) and added a camera left over from a CSM Rumpler. I also replaced the m/gs with PE and resin items by Karaya. At some stage I replaced the underside external details after losing them while getting rid of the seam. One thing that only sank in when it was too late was that the rear bench I've installed is an atypical fitting in the Brussels Army Museum's example, which was flown post war and modified. Tish, crikey, and hey nonny-nonny. You live and learn. The lozenge is Blue Max. Rigging is wonder wire. The January 1973 Scale Models has really good plans and details, and our own photo gallery has bags of photos of existing airframes.
Kit: Eduard (1:72)
Once more, nice kit, mediocre model, my fault for rushing - done in 3 days (a.k.a. 'Dennis Time'). This is the IMHO more interesting scheme from the Profipack boxing, OOB except I replaced the underside lozenge with some old Almark stuff I had hanging around. Just as I finished I found the article about the J.I in an old Windsock magazine, which says the camo was sprayed. The photos seem to show very soft edges, so my model shows the machine after emergency repainting while the spray equipment was brokem. Ahem. No Datafiles were harmed in the production of this model. It shows, too.
Kit markings for aircraft 1 illustrated in the Windsock Dataile, from Kampfgeschwarder 1, Staffel 6, Mont aerodrome, 1916.
Kit: Roden (1:32)
First model of 2010. A very nice kit, marred by overdone panel lines and a few detail errors and simplifications, but nonetheless an enjoyable build. Finished in the markings of Kessler, a pilot of Kest 4b. this is seen in the centre photo on page 11 of Windsock Datafile 29. Seat holes drilled out, a few instrument faces from the spares box, messing about with the pushrods to reflect the aileron deflection, and a set of pre-painted Eduard late war fighter-type seatbelts. Otherwise unmodified. If this went according to plan, there are some more comments in a review done for Internet Modeler, which is yet to appear at the time I'm writing this.