Roden Sopwith Triplane, 1/32.

Roden's 1/32 scale Sopwith Triplane

And here's the real thing, Colishaw's two gun Tripe, N533.

The Sopwith Triplane was a remarkable development of the more conventional Sopwith Pup. The three narrow cord wings gave the Tripehound great maneuverability and rate of climb. Used primarily by the Royal Navel Air Service, the Triplane enjoyed a brief but successful career  before being replaced by the Sopwith Camel. 

Canadian Raymond Colishaw was probably the most successful Triplane pilot. He actually flew two. My model represents his second, a rare two gun model. The weight of the two Vickers had a negative effect on the Triplane's performance although Colishaw seemed to be okay with it, he downed two EA's with it.

 I decided to try the Triplane as my second attempt at a Roden 1/32 scale kit. The Roden Triplane is a very nice kit. The fit and detail is excellent. The triplane configuration has been well designed and I had no difficulty in the assembly, for the most part.

The sprue!

As usual, I started off with the interior. I used an aftermarket pilot's seat, a resin part from Barracuda that is very nicely done. I tried out Kit's World 3-D printed seat belts this time. They are tricky to use, wanting to curl up badly. It took some effort to make them settle down. I had fun with the instrument panel, adding a few instrument decals leftover from other kits. The painting of the wood components, including the propeller and struts was done at this time as well.

Interior components and propeller and struts. Note two options for the cockpit decking, one for the single gun configuration the other for the rarer two gun option.

A peek at the Barracuda pilot's seat. Really nice looking item, with Kit's World printed belts.

Nicely done Clerget.

The main components primed.

...and painted.

Decals on! If you've ever built a Roden kit, you know this is a big deal!

Assembly started and the maddening rigging is begun!

Landing gear on! These seemed a little sturdier than the Albatros' landing gear, but I still got a little lean to port.

Rigging finished! Quite the chore.

A peek in the office.

Here are the glamor shots of the completed Triplane.

 To sum up; This kit went together nicely. Most of the problems I encountered were self-induced, nothing new there!  There is one minor problem which I did not address; There is a gaping void behind the pilot's seat! I should have come up with some sort of panel to fill it in but I had forgotten about it so the gap remains! It's not too noticeable for the most part.

One other major screw-up on my part was with the lovely molded-in inspection panels on the Triplane's wings. I thought I'd use a super glue to simulate glass over the sculpted pulleys but unfortunately the glue I used only resulted in an opaque mess that I had to cover with black paint! Too bad, because Roden had done a good job there.  

Hobbycraft Israeli Avia S.199, 1/48

Hobbycraft Avia S-199, 1/48 scale.

A survivor on display in Israel.

 The story of the Avia and it's unlikely service as Israel's first fighter is pretty interesting. The Avia itself was produced in post-war Czechoslovakia. There was a factory building Me-109G's there. After the war, it seemed like a good idea to keep cranking out the fighters to generate a little income. Unfortunately, the supply of the excellent DB-605 engines was destroyed in an fire. The Czechs had a lot of Jumo power plants however and with a little modification, they installed them into the 109G airframes. Sadly, that powerplant was totally unsuitable for the airframe, with handling characteristics described as being vicious!  

As it happened, the new state of Israel was desperately in need of combat aircraft. An international arms blockade kept them from procuring any decent fighters, but Czechoslovakia needed cash so the deal was made and Israel procured 25 of what may be possibly the worst fighter of that decade.

The Avias soldiered on during the first critical combats the new nation fought with it's neighbors and incredibly, scored some successes. But attrition was high and eventually Israel was able to buy surplus Spitfires and Mustangs and the Avias were sent to pasture.

This build was in response to Facebook's $20 Modeler's Club IDF build. I've had this kit in the pile for a while and was looking forward to assembling it. I also came across an Eduard PE set for it to help me along.

The Eduard PE set for this kit is a very extensive one. It includes a complete cockpit tub with sidewalls and pilot's seat. I soon discovered I was not skilled enough to integrate the entire tub but instead I used the PE sidewalls and assorted other bit combined with the kit parts.

Hybrid cockpit construction.

The Eduard instrument panel is very nice, I reinforced it with a bit of sheet styrene. 

First paint attempt with RLM Grey. I didn't look right, so...

The 2nd try was a mix of Khaki and RLM Grey, it looks better to me.

Sadly, the kit's decals, while looking beautiful, had not aged well. The first roundel on the fuselage shattered, forcing me to go for a slightly different scheme from the one I originally planned. Eventually, my scheme is a bit of a hybrid, probably not dead accurate for any one A/C, but representative of the type.

Well, with great care, I was able to use the other roundels but the rudder stripes and fuselage band were hopeless. I had to mask and paint those. I was able to use the various data stencils, and with great difficulty, the walkway "dots". I used the black ones since I destroyed the red ones which were also included on the sheet.

Masks on...

Masks off! Came out pretty well.

Another problem  encountered was with the canopy. My kit included the "blown" sliding canopy found on the later Czech Mules. To be accurate for an Israeli version, you need an "Erla" style canopy found on the later German 109's. I stole one of these from an old Monogram 109G-10 I have. It fit pretty well.

Installing the Monogram canopy.

Early in the build, I had broken off the barrels to the underwing 20MM cannons. I found some extra barrels with the spare parts left from the old AMT G-6. These turned out to fit quite well and were easily drilled out to look a little better.

All done! The AMT gun barrels worked well, as did the Eduard RDF ring atop the fuselage.

Here's a comparison with an AMT 109G-6.

Overall, this was a pretty straightforward build. It's a very interesting version of the venerable 109 and a credit to Hobbycraft for putting one out. I have a Hobbycraft Buchon in the stash which will make a nice companion to this version.

1/32 Scale Fokker E.V, (Mikro Mir)

 

Mikro Mir Fokker E.V

A Jasta 26 machine.

The Fokker E.V, aka D.VIII, was a revolutionary product of the fertile imagination of Reinhold Platz, Anthony Fokker's chief designer. It was really a brilliant design, but it's service was marred by inferior production work and ultimately contributed little to the German's war effort. Still, it was a striking example of Platz's ideas of simplicity in design and an attractive aircraft. 

The kit is the Mikro Mir 1/32 scale Fokker E.V/D.VIII, (the D.VIII designation was assigned to it when it was returned to service after the initial wing failure debacle). This kit is actually a re-release of the older Avis molding. Atlantis, an American model company sold the Mikro Mir kit for a brief time at a pretty attractive price. Actually, if you can find an Avis issue of this kit, I'd recommend it over the Mikro Mir one because of the better decal options.

The MM kit with an Atlantis sticker slapped on, and my main reference.

I began construction by trying something new to me; forming the cooling jackets of the Spandau machine guns using the photo-etched pieces found in the kit. I've never tried this before but I figured I'd have to get used to this process because I have a lot of Spandau equipped models to build!

It's not too bad of a process. You have to anneal the metal, which is simply exposing it to heat to de-temper it. It is now malleable enough to roll into little cylindrical forms which I then fixed with a dab of solder.

The finished Spandaus.

I was satisfied with the result, although they weren't perfect, the final result really stands out.

Another first for me in this build is the use of Aviattic lozenge decals. There is a sheet specifically for the E.V which I purchased. This sheet included pieces for the interior, including simulated wood grain and a reversed effect of the back of the printed lozenge. Very nice effects indeed. One thing about these decals tough, they are really translucent and any mistakes in painting underneath them will show! Careful preparation of the surface over which they will be applied is a must!

Working on the interior. Decals used for the cockpit sides and wood grain. The framing looks pretty sloppy here but I was able to clean it up in the end!

Since I was unfamiliar with the whole lozenge process, I decided to do a trial on the landing gear wing. I was going to do a Jasta 6 machine with a striped tail, so I used the lozenge decals supplied for the tail for the "wing". They just barely fit! But it did give me confidence in tackling the fuselage. One key step is to apply a coat of gloss white paint to the surface that the lozenge will be applied to. This gives the decals a good surface to stick to and really makes the colors pop!

I decided to do a trial with the exterior lozenge on the landing gear "wing".

The Jasta 6 colors included a starburst effect of the cowling. If you are lucky enough to have the Avis boxing of this kit, a decal is provided for this. Also, Pheon decals produced a nice set of decals for the E.V, now unfortunately long out of production. 

So, I had to come up with a way to make own starburst. I eventually cut a stencil out of Friskett sheet.

It took me a few attempts to create something I was happy with. While not perfect, it came out okay.

The finished cowl. 

The next step was painting a stripe on the fuselage, the personal marking of this particular aircraft. 

Now it was time to begin the decals onto the fuselage! First, I shot forward fuselage with an olive drab, then the rest got a coat of gloss white. The first decal applied was 

Lozenge applied!

Next came the fuselage top. This was split at the stripe. 

Lastly, the fuselage sides. Lozenge jobs are relatively easy on a slab-sided fuselage such as the Fokker. 

Fuselage done, the cowling dry fitted, wheel covers painted.

The propeller on this, and almost any Fokker type, is completely uncovered with no spinner as was found on the Albatros. I needed to simulate the laminated finish by using thin masking tape when painting. The effect worked out pretty well.

Details coming together, the prop finished.

Fuselage completed!

With many details finished, it was time to address the wing!

One problem with 1/32 scale WWI types I have found is that the struts are usually molded to close to scale thickness, this makes them incredibly weak! The solution is to replace the flimsy plastic struts with something a little more substantial. A little online research led me to this procedure. I took a length of 1/16" brass tubing, inserted .016" brass wire into it and then squashed the tubing flat. This creates a nice, strong strut that is reasonably scale-like in appearance. 

New brass struts.

Next came painting the wing. It was long assumed that the E.V's came with a finish of solid green, but research revealed that they were probably finished in a multi colored scheme stained on the plywood. i attempted to recreate this effect by first applying the basic colors with regular model paints, then adding a wash of artist's oil paints over them to give a brushed effect. 

The finish of the top of the wing.

With the wing completed, the next step was one of the more difficult of the whole build, installing the wing! My new struts did not fit perfectly so it took a little struggle to get things lined up. When dried, I found a slight misalignment, but it really isn't too apparent so I'll let it be.

So here is the completed model. It has been a pretty fun project with several firsts for me. The Mikro Mir kit is a nice one and is somewhat reminiscent of Roden kits in assembly and detail. The E.V is a very attractive aircraft in my opinion and a nice addition to my shelf!