Greif8

Hi Richard thank you for the information. I suspected the cables would run towards the engine. That makes their end points pretty easy as they will be hidden. Ernest

Thank you Michael, I hope I can do this nice kit justice. I see you are building the Special Hobby Yak-3, how do you like it?

Awesome engine work!

Superb work on both the engine and cockpit, the engine is especially stunning.

Top shelf work all around Brett. I have this kit in the stash and hope to get it built this year. If I can get the results you have thus far I will be a very happy camper!

Very exceptional cockpit work!

Finally here is the lower wing after decaling. Top of lower wing. I still have to paint the tread plates. Bottom of lower wing. By the way I decaled the bottom first than the tops. I bit of a closer view. I can see the need for rib tape. Close up of top of lower wing. Getting the decals at the wing tips to lay down was a challenge!

The couple of posts show the engine ready for assembly and the wings after assembly and decaling. This is the first time I have done this and the results are "passable" at best; I was not able to eliminate every single tiny wrinkle which can be seen under fairly high magnification, but they will do for a first try I guess. I still have to do some minor trimming at the trailing edges in a couple of spots. I used the Aviattic Decals which were quite nice, I airbrushed a base of Tamiya "Deck" color as that looked close to canvas to me. I know the instructions recommend white or off white, but I rather like the result here. I have a two questions for the more experienced builders of these kits. I have read a lot about rib tapes and looked at several builds. I am guessing either blue or camo is the right type for this build, but I am very open to those who have better knowledge of this then me, so if anyone can lay some "truth" on me here I would appreciate it. Question two is "Which brand decals should I buy?" I see Aviattic sell rib tape as does HGW. Are there other manufactures out there and what are your opinions of them, as well as the other two? Thank you to everyone for sharing your knowledge here! Ready for round two! Top of upper wing. Close view, training edge less than perfect. Close up of bottom of upper wing. I still need to work on the training edge. I am guessing the inspection door is painted rather than covered with fabric "green/grey" perhaps?

Reboot of the Build Happy New Year everyone. I hope this year brings you all good health and fortune for both you and your family - and you all get some sweet builds completed as well! As some of you following this build know, it suffered destruction at the hands of my nephew. I decided to order a new kit and start from scratch. The kit arrived a couple of days prior to Christmas and I got to work; while waiting I assembled the wings and decaled them (which I'll show in the next couple of posts). Below are some shots of the new construction. I used the opportunity to either correct some mistakes in construction, or add something because I have a better, still far from perfect, knowledge of "what right looks like". Those of you that have built these kits please feel free to weigh in at any time with recommendations or critiques about something I can do better. Enjoy the photos! Ernest New Interior, the seat was the only thing I saved from the other build. I still have to attach the right seatbelt to the frame but this subassembly is pretty much done. A closer view. I added three "cables" from the control stick grip and correctly doubled the bracing wires at the rear sides, on the last build they were single. Close up of the trigger cables. I know they ran under the IP and I am guessing two of them attach to the Spandau trigger assemblies, but I don't have a clue where the third one goes. Any wisdom is greatly appreciated. Another close up of the build showing the doubled bracing wires, compass and the seat. For some reason the gloss I used to replicated glass is not showing up well.

Very, very nice build. I am also building my first WNW kit and hope it turns out as well as yours.

Très bien exécuté. Le singe est une touche très soignée.

Very cool and impressive diorama! Everything looks very good, especially the steel reinforced concrete.

Nice build Sergey, the Cyberhobby 109s are the best in 1/32 scale (IMHO). Glad to hear you are doing better health wise.

Great diorama. How did you replicate the bomb crater?

Yet another top class build here John. I would like to try the "Brillo" technique, but I think it may be a bit beyond my current skill set. Ernest

I admire both your skill and your patience with is build. I admit that the fit issues would have made me put this kit away. I really like your riveting and appreciate the tips as well. Ernest

An absolutely master class build! Your airbrushing is exquisite. Ernest

The replacement kit has not arrived yet, no surprise given the Christmas package crunch. I have finished the pilot figure. It turned out pretty average, but will do for diorama purposes. The figure is from a European firm and its sculpting is really not up to the quality of say Andrea Miniatures or Ultracast. I thought I would give them a chance though. Again the final result is not what I really wanted, being merely passable. I don't have the skills to take a slightly below average sculpting and turn it into a work of art. The first photo shows the figure after all base colors have been laid in and I have started with the shading of the trousers. The following photos show the model in its finished state. The only thing I am really satisfied with is the dark grey coat; the highlights and shadows turned out pretty well on it.

Thank you for all the kind words and support guys1 While waiting for the replacement kit to arrive. I have been working on the nice Gaspatch Spandaus. These are very well made resin MGs. The pictures show the finished product. I have also been working on the figure I purchased for this build. The resin casting was not perfect and it took some work to get rid of seams and fill tiny holes left by air pockets. I paint my figures by laying down an acrylic base of colors and than adding highlights and shadows with artist oils. The three photos show the primed figure with airbrushed flesh for the face and the current status after I added the base colors. Once they have dried for several hours I will begin adding the highlights and shadows. Ernest

Hi Richard, thank you the kinds words and wise counsel. I am already past the worst of my anger about this. Working on both the very nice Gaspatch Spandaus and the pilot figure this evening were very therapeutic. The replacement kit should be here in 4-5 days and I should be able to get the pilot finished and wings primed, clear coated and decaled in that time. You are right about the "now" extra parts. I will wait until I am finished with the build (probably 3-4 weeks) and see how I feel about the extras. I rarely build WWI subjects, but I admit I have been eyeing the WNW Göring DVIIF for the past few days and will probably end up buying, so your suggestion about using the parts for a diorama is well worth considering. Thank you and sincerely, Ernest

Well this project met an unexpected and unhappy end yesterday. While I was out my sister-in-law visited with my 10 year old nephew. I did not know they were coming over or I would have locked my "man cave" up as I know the young lad does not do well at keeping out of places he does not belong and even worse keeping his hands off what does not belong to him. Well he got ahold of my build and ended up smashing it pretty completely. When I got home the look on my wife's face told me something was amiss and when she showed my the remains of my hard work I was not best pleased. I managed to salvage only the aftermarket seat and seatbelt and the parts that had not been built yet of course; the rest was a total write off. It took me a good day to cool off enough to write this. I have ordered a replacement and will start again once it arrives. I am a fairly patient and understanding person but I admit this whole issue is still very vexing for me. While waiting for the new kit to arrive, I will work on the pilot figure I bought for the build, as well as the wings. This means I am going to have a fair amount of left over parts and when I am finished I will very likely offer those to any of you that would like them for the price of shipping as I don't think I will be able to use much, if any of they left over parts on future builds. Ernest

Hi Bill, thank you for the advice and kind words. I also made sure no paint was on the mating surfaces before gluing and it looks like that did the trick. I use Tamiya Extra Thin cement and have found it pretty bullet proof once it has cured. Thus far the build had been pretty smooth, and I think the fit of the parts is excellent. I followed the advice on here and shaved down a couple of the mounting holes at the rear of the cockpit tubing and test fitting has shown I won't have a problem getting the upper part of the fuselage closed up. Also thanks for your advice on the Aviattic decals. I normally use the micro set/sol setting solutions, but I have read that both the kit decals and the Aviattic decals can react poorly to that. I had planned to use the old standby of using a damp hot cloth pressed on the surface to get any decals that don't want to lay down to conform, but the hair dryer method works the trick as well. Hopefully my painting plan for the red and blue sections of the fuselage won't backfire on me. I already airbrushed the parts that make up the red section separately. Given how well everything has fit thus far I think I will be able to assemble the painted sections without having to fill and/or touch up too much. I am glad that I purchased the kit from you as it has been a fun build and thank you for your generous offer to send extra decals if I need them. Sincerely, Ernest

Hi Kevin thank you for the reminder on using damp tissue to mask. I had forgotten about that method as I so rarely used it in the past. Sincerely, Ernest

Hi I plan to try to replicate Hugo Schäfer's aircraft. My 5 year old daughter likes the winged snake, and red and blue are her favorite colors. I also want to try getting the A/M lozenge decals down as they look pretty cool. I have decided to take a bit of a risk and am in the process of airbrushing the parts that will be red in color before construction. There is a lot of fragile parts in the cockpit and engine area, and I don't want to risk breaking something while taping those areas off. So far the fit has be excellent so I think I will be able to get everything together and only have to do some minor filling/sanding and touching up. That is the plan at least. The blue does not look like it will be nearly as involved vis-à-vis protecting already assembled areas so I plan to take the traditional approach of build as much as possible than paint. Ernest

And here is the engine after weathering. I used Tamiya clear yellow to try to get the effect of spewed castor oil as I have read that these engine sprayed a lot of it while operating.