Big Scale WWI fighter updated 6-20-13

[cobraman]

Any problem with the panels cracking when trying to bend even when wet ? Do you soak the panels ? Do they want to straighten up when drying ?

[Harry P.]

They're very thin. Don't even have to soak them, just wet them and they become very flexible. They straighten out a little as they dry, but by wetting them I get that initial bend... so even if they straighten out a bit as they dry, they still dry with a bend in them. Once that bend is in there, I can always bend them a bit more when dry to go around the curves.

The hard part isn't wetting and bending them, it's getting each panel cut to the exact shape so it fits in without huge gaps on the joints.

[cobraman]

Do you make each panel direct to trying to fit wood or do you make the pieces out of something like card stock first ? Seems like a almost impossible task as you get to the back part of the fusalage. No ?

[Harry P.]

I used pieces of clear acetate, taped to the fuselage, then drew my cut lines with a fine-point sharpie, then laid my acetate template on the veneer and cut through both at once. Still, though, I had to finesse each veneer panel to some extent. And yes... the further back on the fuselage, the harder it got!

[TooOld]

Another impressive build Harry ! Actually it looks like it would be kind of fun to try one , one of these days , maybe .

[Harry P.]

Covering the fuselage with the birch veneer was a huge pain. It's like creating a jigsaw puzzle by cutting out each piece by hand and getting all the pieces to fit. I tried my best to keep the panel gaps as tight as I possibly could, but they are definitely not perfect... not even close! I'm hoping that once the fuselage is stained and all the markings are in place, you won't notice the seams so much.

Here's the front part of the fuselage... the "easy" part. Those square holes in the fuselage are where the landing gear mounting brackets will go...

The further back you go, the tighter the radiuses become, so I had to wet the panels to soften them, then form them around the fuselage. The hardest part, by far, was getting the compound curves on the pieces that cover the tail fin and around the rear stabilizer. That hole directly behind the tail fin is where the shaft of the rudder will go:

And below, a shot of the fuselage upside-down, looking at the bottom side. That triangular piece is where the tail skid will attach to, and that little white tubular thing is where the stabilizer control lines will feed through. Getting the wooden panels to conform to the complex shapes here was a major headache...

The part of the tail that's still open and not covered with veneer will be covered in fabric, like the real plane... along with the rudder and the wings. More to come...

[cobraman]

My hat is off to you. I could NEVER do that. Looks like a huge PITA to do. Once done it should look terrfic ! Still kind of a shame to cover up the great "bones" underneith.

[Harry P.]

I painted the fuselage to look close to what photo references show... a mixture of Future and some yellow, red and brown acrylic paint. A also added all the screw heads by drawing them on with the tip of a regular pencil. They're pretty faint and hard to see, but that's the way they look on the real plane, too.

Then I started doing the fabric coverings. I have never done this before, so I know I'm probably doing it "wrong," but I'm doing it in a way that makes sense to me. First I cut out a piece of cloth and glued the straight edge that runs parallel to the tail fin. Then I stretched the fabric tight and super-glued it all down and around the edges...then painted the fabric with Future to seal it.

Then I flipped the fuselage upside down and trimmed off the excess fabric. The bottom side gets fabric, too... but this time the fabric has to be cut to exact size first... I don't want the lower side fabric to extend up and past the edges of the stabilizer fins. I made a template out of clear acetate and cut that out. To keep edges of cut piece of fabric from unraveling while I work with it, I laid the acetate template on the fabric and traced around it with a pencil. Then I painted over the outline with Future so that the edges will be sealed when I cut out the fabric panel:

More to come...

[george 53]

Lookin at this tells me your a REAL glutton fer punishment! Must be WHY your still the head mod!!! GREAT skills in gettin the veneer to stick so nicely to the curves of the tailplanes! It's comming out REALLY nice Harry. It WILL BE VERY impressive when it's finished!

Edited April 22, 2013 by george 53

[Sixx]

Holy cow!!!! Man, that's AWESOME Harry!!! I'm diggin it !!!

[Harry P.]

Lookin at this tells me your a REAL glutton fer punishment!

I think you're right!

One think I've learned so far... after this one, I'm not going to try another WWI plane kit this detailed any time soon!

This model makes putting together a Pocher car seem like child's play...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Fun to watch.

[Ira]

Beautiful Work Harry!!!

[Harry P.]

These planes had all sorts of wild paint schemes... this was in the days before standardized military color schemes. Basically, every pilot could have his plane painted pretty much any way he wanted it. Here is an example of just a handful of the many different color schemes these planes were decorated in:

I'm going to do my own custom scheme. Here's the finished tail section. Static tail parts are wood covered, movable flaps are cloth covered:

I also added the rubber trim around the cockpit opening:

Since there are no sources of readymade 1/16 scale WWI German fighter plane decals (at least none I could find), I created my own graphics and will use homemade decals.

More to come...

[cobraman]

Looks great ! What paint are you using ?

[Harry P.]

Acrylic craft paint. There are several different brands, but they're basically all the same.

[Tony T]

Great progress, Harry. Looking sharp!

[Harry P.]

It's not ready to fly... but it's ready to taxi!

The landing gear struts, axle, wheels, hubcaps, etc. are all cast metal parts. The reinforcing cables are silver thread supplied with the kit, and the turnbuckles are also kit supplied (cast metal). I painted the landing gear with Model Master paint. Since this model is meant to be built as a "skeleton," with the structure exposed and no skin, all of the outer detail parts on the fuselage do not come in the kit. I used my reference photos to create the small fuselage surface details, like the small squarish plates near the cockpit, the round flaps near the nose (made of the "pupil" of "googly eyes!!! and a "hinge" of styrene rod) and the vents that I made of strips of thin aluminum, bent to shape, and glued onto "flanges" made of this sheet styrene:

Also finished up the tail skid:

[Custom Mike]

Unbelievable work Harry, the screw heads look great, and all that work with the veneer really paid off, it came out beautifully!

Now you'll really enjoy your next Pocher kit, when you gonna tackle that one?

[Cato]

Beautiful as always Harry.

How are the vertical and horizontal stabs covered? Is that silkspan and dope?

[Harry P.]

Unbelievable work Harry, the screw heads look great, and all that work with the veneer really paid off, it came out beautifully!

Now you'll really enjoy your next Pocher kit, when you gonna tackle that one?

My next Pocher will probably be the brand new Aventador (is that how you spell it?). Due out this October.

[cobraman]

Looking very nice.

[Harry P.]

Beautiful as always Harry.

How are the vertical and horizontal stabs covered? Is that silkspan and dope?

Not exactly... It would have been if I was an actual model airplane builder and knew what I was doing!

Actually cheap cotton cloth (leftover sail material from a ship kit!) and Future.

[Harry P.]

BTW... all along, I've been thinking about how I was going to form the metal parts of the fuselage... the cowling over the engine and the cone shaped piece between the front of the engine and the propeller cone.

For the cowling, I'm thinking sheet brass or aluminum. Should be straightforward enough. If Gerald Wingrove can make body panels out of brass, by god, so can I!

But the conically-shaped piece up front... I wonder. I'm talking about the piece in red on the plane on the top, between the propeller cone and where the wooden panels begin (and actually, the propeller cone itself, I guess):

I'm thinking that a section of a L'eggs pantyhose egg could be just what I'm looking for. Does anyone know if they still come in those plastic eggs? Or is that a thing of the past?

[Cato]

You can try the L'eggs part but the contours may differ from the subject. I'd get some Renshape and carve / sand it.

For the hood panel (s) in metal-you have to practice beating it, maybe with heat to shrink the curves. I think the thinner the better. And you'd need a curved anvil to beat against-maybe the wife's daily driver??

Should have asked me about the silkspan-I built and flew 1/4 scale R/C in the '70's and 80's.

Last was a 6' span CAP-10B with some fiberglass cloth covering and prior was a1930 Fleet mail bipe--7+' span.

CA was used extensively on spars and rib joins and epoxy on bulkheads. Would have speeded-up your process faster than the tube glue.

Jus' sayin' .