Aviatik 'Berg' D.I

[sandbagger]

7 hours ago, R Palimaka said:

That engine looks like you could start it up! Beautiful work. I'll be following this build for sure. Your Sopwith Swallow was superb.

 

It's great to see something different, the Austro-Hungarian aircraft are very appealing to me and seem to be ignored. That being said I'm looking forward to the Copper State Starstrutter.

 

Thanks for taking this kit on.

 

Richard

 

Hi Richard,

Yes - I also have my eye on the 'Star Strutter', either from 'Copper State Models' or the 'Wingnut Wings' release,

 

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I've been hammering away at the fuselage internal details.
Everything is fitted to the right side of the fuselage with regular testing for the fit of the left side.
Included are control lines, trigger cables, control rods to the engine etc.
I still have some bits to do, like the two machine guns and final weather etc, but I'm getting there,

 

Mike   

 

 

[monthebiff]

Wow, that is fantastic work.

 

Regards. Andy 

[sandbagger]

Hi all.
I forgot to take shots of the internal fuselage before closing it up.
I still have a few bits to do - windows in the front decking, rear cabane cross bracing, top rear engine pipe, blast tubes for the machine guns and crash padding on the breech blocks.
Also seam filling and checks,

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The basic fuselage is now completed, with the addition of the blast tubes for the two 'Schwarzlose' machine guns, crash pads and top rear engine pipe.
I also added lead wire to represent the pipes/wires connected at the back of the instrument panel, although its virtually impossible to see them and worse once the upper wing is fitted.
There's a lot of photo-etch detail to be added to the fuselage and another engine pipe, but those will be left until later in the build to prevent the getting damaged,

Now it's time to move onto the wings and tail unit,

 

Mike

 

 

Edited October 20, 2019 by sandbagger

[blackbetty]

very nice! i see one of theese in my future....

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Well, starting on the tail unit there are a few areas that needed to be addressed:
The 'Berg' had pronounced 'wash-out' (upward flare) at the outer trailing edge of the ailerons. Although it looks as though this was attempted in the kit parts, the 'wash-out' was nowhere pronounced enough. This required careful bending after heat soaking in hot water (boiled).
The combined fin and rudder had a few areas that I felt needed to be re-profiled after comparing the kit part to drawings in several notable publications.  
The tail planes and elevators, when laid together with the rib tapes aligned were found to be off-set to each other. I also felt these parts needed re-profiling.

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Great work! 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Before starting on the undercarriage changes, the lower wing need to be prepared.
The front spars of the lower wings were connected by a steel bar, which was located on the bottom surface of the fuselage.
As such the leading edges of the lower wings sat slightly below the fuselage. 
This is different from most aircraft of the time where the lower wing front spars were integral to the fuselage construction.
To locate the lower wings to the fuselage, 1.0 mm diameter holes needed to be drilled into the wing roots and one hole each side of the fuselage.
Metal rods were inserted into holes in the wing roots.
When test fitted, the wing root rear rods insert into the fuselage holes and the longer front rod against the underside of the fuselage.

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,

The supplied undercarriage struts have solid axle ends solid with bungee suspension cords include.

However the axle fairing has a solid steel rod moulded into the fairing, which can't be fitted into the struts without drilling out the moulded axle ends.

Even if possible, it would leave the weight of the model on the flimsy resin suspension cords, which I don't think would take the weight.

Instead I've removed the moulded axle ends and bungee cords to allow the rod in the axle fairing to locate onto the struts.

I've yet to create the bungee suspension cords from wire. I also replaced the kit supplied bracing bar with 0.9 mm diameter tube, as the kit part was too short,

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The undercarriage assembly is completed.
Struts modified by removing the pre-moulded axle ends and bungee suspension cords.
Cross bracing anchors points added to the bottom front of the forward undercarriage struts.
Axle secured to the undercarriage struts and 0.4 mm diameter lead wire used to replicate the bungee cord suspension.
Bracing bar in kit replaced (too short) with 0.9 mm diameter brass tube,

 

Mike

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by sandbagger

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I've been working on preparing the wings, fin/rudder, ailerons, tail planes, elevators and their associated support struts.
The struts should, I think, have steel reinforcing pins moulded through them, but I found the 'Z' shaped cabane struts had ends without pins.
Also the fuselage indents for locating these struts had no locating hole.
The single piece fin and rudder had no locations for attaching it to the fuselage and neither did the tail planes.
The separate ailerons and elevators also has no locating pins/holes.

Therefore I added support pins of 0.6 mm diameter for the wing struts and ailerons and 0.4 mm diameter pins to locate the fin/rudder, elevators and tail planes.

 

Mike 

 

 

 

[Fvdm]

Great work! I really like what you're doing.

[sandbagger]

Hi all,

On the top of the fuselage and to the rear of the radiator is a condensation matrix for cooling radiator steam back to liquid and returning it back into the cooling system through a pipe connected to the rear of the assembly.
Apparently this avoided a build up of steam pressure being lost through the filler cap and losing coolant. 
Anyway I wasn't happy with the resin one piece part in the kit.
I felt it was too large at the base and anyway the top was slightly off centre with the bottom.
Also the kit doesn't appear to have the 90 degree pipe at the back of the assembly.
So I cut the part in two, re-shaped the base, connected them with brass tube and added the rear pipe using annealed 0.8 mm brass rod.
Strangely the photo-etch in the kit supplies only one 'matrix' disc for the condensation matrix, which presumably like a radiator, would have the matrix from front to rear?
I used the photo-etch from the front of the matrix (as that will be more visible) and drilled 0.3 mm diameter holes in the rear face to replicate the matrix,

 

Mike

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by sandbagger

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific work, Mike!

 

Kev