1:32 scale - Siemens-Schuckert D.III

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The upper wing, as supplied in the basic kit, has a pronounced bow across the thicker, centre section of the wing.
As the underside of the wing in that area has a glossy finish, I can only assume the bow was caused during the injection process.
Unlike resin parts, polystyrene seems to retain a shape 'memory' once moulded, so it can be more difficult to correct distortions without introducing white 'stress' marks in the part.
However I applied heat on both sides of the wing centre section from a hair dryer (on high setting).
The heat was maintained for a few minutes Then the wing was flexed and held in position whilst cooling.

 

Mike

 

 

 

[BiggTim]

Loving this one, Mike! 

[Out2gtcha]

Me too!

[Troy Molitor]

Me three!  

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Earlier Siemens-Schuckert aircraft designs were basically copied from French Nieuport fighters, such as the Nieuport 11.
The method of aileron control used for the Siemens-Schuckert D.III was not the usual cable systems, but was a copy of the French design using control rods from the cockpit to the upper wing.
The pilot’s control column was attached to a torque bar, which was located across the cockpit floor.
The ends of this tube were attached by universal joints to control rods, which were routed up and out of the cockpit forward decking.
The control rods attached to bell crank levers in the upper wing and control rods from these routed outboard to the ailerons.

 

 

The cockpit to upper wing control rods/bell cranks are represented in the kit, but only to the underside of the upper wing.
Photographs of the aircraft show what appears to be cut outs, which allows the tops of the aileron bell cranks to protrude slightly through the top surface of the upper wing.

 

These cut outs are represented on the kit wing as recesses on the underside and raised solid moulded rectangles on the top surface.

 

Also the kit control rod/bell crank part have round rods, whereas the actual rods were flat sided (streamlined). 

I drilled out the aileron apertures in the upper wing then scrapped them to the required shape.
The kit aileron control rod/bell cranks were reduced in thickness to more represent the actual parts.
Small squares of 0.85 mm thick plastic card was cemented onto the bell cranks and were then rounded and drilled with a 0.5 mm diameter drill.
Short lengths of 0.5 mm Nickel-Silver tube were cut and secured through the pre-drilled holes.
The modified parts are a snug fit into the wing apertures and will be fitted later in the build,

 

Mike

 

 

[Dutch Man]

Me four.

 

Robert Jan

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The aircraft had padding protection for the pilot in three areas:
Padding at the front of the cockpit decking.
Padded headrest on the front of the fuselage fairing.
Padding around the centre section cut out in the trailing edge of the upper wing.
The padding on the headrest is moulded on the fairing but is slightly offset and hardly visible. The padding on the upper wing is not represented in the kit.
I added both by using 'Milliput' two part putty.

 

 

 

The ‘Brengun’ Siemens Schuckert D.III (BRL32014) photo-etch set has the parts to create a pilot’s seat.
However I chose not to use those parts as photo-etch parts are in some cases too thin to be realistic. The pilot’s seat is such as case.
Therefore I used the photo-etch seat back as a guide to drill out the kit supplied seat, then added a seat cushion made from 'Milliput', as the kit does not supply a cushion.

 

 

That's the last modifications at this preparation stage, so now I can start the actual building phase.

 

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The top decking panel has its photo-etch panels fitted (the quarter turn fasteners will be fitted later).
I'd previously fitted photo-etch hinges to the panel, however the 'Brengun' photo-etch panels include these hinges.
Also the tail skid support brackets are fitted.

 

 

 

Well, I thought I'd covered all the necessary changes before starting the build.
However I've found other changes that need to be done.

The right fuselage half from the kit has a scooped vent, which was not fitted to the early D.III, so that was removed and filled.

 

 

 

That allowed me to fit the two photo-etch side access panels, which again are different in desin from those fitted to the later D.III. 

 

 

The kit fuselage halves are missing a panel join at fuselage former E - this needs to be scribbed onto the fuselage halves.

 

 

 

The underside vented panel is different from the later D.III, which had two scooped vents fitted. The early D.II had no vents, but an access panel was fitted.
This means the photo-etch panel supplied with the 'Brengun' set is not correct for this model, so I'll probably modify the kit panel.

 

 

 

The left fuselage half from the kit has a poorly moulded pilot's foot step, which in reality was a retractable to close off when not in use.
The kit location for the foot step is incorrect as it's too high above the lower wing root. I'll fill this foot step and create a new one.
 

 

 

Apart from that it's plain sailing so far!!!

 

Mike

[Troy Molitor]

This will be another epic build.  Thanks for showing us the way forward Mike.   

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I've used the kit under panel and opened up the louvre vents and added the panels retaining screw and louvre rivet locations.
Also filled the original pilot's foot step and created a new one in the correct position.
Finally added the missing panel line at the fuselage former.

 

Mike

 

 

 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
A few updates for the build.

 

When I temporarily joined the fuselage halves I found the seat support frame was too short and didn't reach its locations in the fuselage sides.
To correct this I cut the frame cross members and added 1.4 mm diameter tubes to extend the width of the frame.

 

 

The 'Brengun' photo-etch side formers and box cover were added - tricky to fit under the cockpit side 'Z' frames and required thinning the frame and filing the photo-etch.

 

 

The 'Brengun' set has a side panel, the location of which is not clear in the instructions.
However a photo shows where it locates.

 

 

 

The front decking panel and the replacement 'Gaspatch' machine guns were modified to allow the guns to fit the panel.
The kit supplied ammunition feed and ejection chutes were used and pinned through the gun breech block with 0.5 mm diameter rod.

 

 

Mike

[Out2gtcha]

Very nice! The brass really does seem to add a "crispness" to the build if that makes sense. 

[scvrobeson]

I'm not 100% sure, but it almost looks like that little side panel should face the other direction? It sure looks like the right side of it is curved in that picture.

 

 

 

Matt 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I did some research to ascertain the purpose of the rectangular access panel under the early D.III aircraft.

 

 

It seems that the loaded belts of ammunition for both machine guns were stored in the ammunition container fitted under both guns.
The loaded ammunition belts were fed to the gun breech blocks through feed chutes.
The empty ammunition belts were directed from the breech blocks through chutes to box containers, which were fitted to the fuselage sides inside the cockpit.

All of the empty ammunition cases from both weapons were ejected through a tube connected to the lower front of each breech block and from there into a combined ejection pipe which was routed down to the bottom of the fuselage.
On the later D.IV aircraft the cases were discharged out of the aircraft from the ejection pipe opening under the fuselage.
However, in the early D.III aircraft the cases were retained in a container inside the fuselage and to access the container for emptying, the rectangular access panel was fitted under the fuselage.

 

 

Mike

[sandbagger]

On 6/14/2020 at 6:10 PM, scvrobeson said:

I'm not 100% sure, but it almost looks like that little side panel should face the other direction? It sure looks like the right side of it is curved in that picture.

 

 

 

Matt 

 

Hi Matt,

I can see your point.

The photo-etch panel in the 'Brengun' set has only the one curved edge (fuselage side) and doesn't have enough photo-etch past the fuel/oil selectors, the legends of which are embossed onto the panel.

So you only have around 1 mm to bend before you're onto the legends.

Consequently the panel doesn't have the full curved side piece that you refer to.

Also if the panel was fitted differently, the fuel/oil selectors would face across the cockpit, rather than towards the left of the pilot.

Thanks for bringing it up though - you made me look again at that panel 

 

Mike

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by sandbagger