This one will be the Sieben Schwabben (7 Swabians), available on this wingnuts decal sheet. Lozenge decals will be Aviattic and I can tell you, boy do they look beautiful on the paper.

Progress so far: lots of thin strips of masking tape and preshading of some fuselage parts. Wings are painted now in Tmaiys XF-57 Buff.  Ailerons will be a slightly different shade to vary up the finished look of the fabric once the decals are on.

Aviattic 4-color lower loz on the cockpit rear bulkhead, kit "cookie cut" loz on the steel former tubing (finally had to resort to using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to get this to settle properly -- a decalling first for me). Main structures have gotten some initial washing and drybrushing.



Using the kit "cookie cut" reversed interior loz as a (rought) cutting template for the Aviattic replacement.

Cockpit components coming together, not rigged yet. Steel former "chipping" done with brush and Tamiya enamel XF-1 Flat Black. Kit loz used on firewall upper section.

Homemade turnbuckles (heat-stretched plastic lollipop sticks) and 0.8 gauge monofilament fishing line magic-markered and drybrushed with Tamiya enamel Dark Iron. Flooring is a custom "generic new wood" lacquer mix sprayed on and given a burnt sienna artist's oil wash. Ditto instrument panel, with a little darker final effect there (suggesting a higher quality and more thoroughly worked wood than the floor).



Kit PE belts were replaced with custom cut Tamiya masking tape strips (approx. 1.5mm wide). Buckles, detailed reinforced stitching areas were retained from the kit PE, and glued onto the tape belts with CA. Note turnbuckles are now Dark Iron to match rigging wire.

All interior wiring pretty much done here (and the last time a lot of it will ever be seen!): rudder/elevator wiring for control column and rudder pedals; pipe from fuel pump; electrical trigger wires for the Spandaus; throttle connector.



Scratched 1/32 spark plugs: Core is 0.3mm diameter brass wire: "hex nut" is from an old Modelkasten tank nuts/bolts set, drilled here to 0.3mm to accept brass core; "insulator" is more heat-stretched lollipop stick, in this case heat-stretched with a 0.3mm piano wire running through it to act as a sort of "male mold" for the desired diameter here.



Welding and drilling (0.3mm holes) jig for replacement plug-lead guide pipes for the Daimler engine.



Dry-fitting test for plug lead guide pipes on engine construction/painting jig (CA'ed balsa); note "port" note on jig to remind me to keep the starboard and port guide pipes from getting mixed up. Rocker "springs" are stripped electrical wiring (0.15mm) wound directly on top of the kit piece "springs". Next time I build a Daimler, I think I'm going to use the Taurus parts for this area of the engine.



Plugs in, not painted yet.




Plug leads (stripped copper electrical wiring, 0.2mm -- later painted up to a better scale thickness) attached to plugs, threaded through painted and installed guide piping.



Plug lead ends, using same 0.2mm copper wiring, attached to magnetos. All wiring will get a final coat of dark grey paint after I'm reasonably sure I won't have to be touching the engine any more. 



Piping from manifold to sump water pump is 0.6mm solder wire. Triple pipe leads attached to this are 0.3mm solder wire gathered in a section of heat-stretched lollipop (the Spanish brand "Chupachups") stick. Wiring from the air pump at the top front of the engine is 0.5mm annealed brass wire soldered together, run down to a "valve" attachment point kitbashed from an unused part on the kit's "E" sprue. 


Bullets first painted flat black, then drybrushed with Mr. Hobby buffable brass lacquer. Belts for the 7.92mm Spandau ammo are cut from clear decal stock painted with one of the Vallejo colors -- IIRC (I've used this same piece of decal stock for years now, on many projects) Khaki Grey.




Aviattic "factory fresh" 4-color loz with HGW "faded" 4-color loz ribtapes.
For reasons that should be evident in the next photograph, my particular method for weathering ribtapes requires that they be 3-D (I need the hard edges to catch and hold wash material)



Top wing (Fokker made, minus 5-color loz-finished Albatros ailerons) oversprayed with the 1:10 Tamiya acrylic XF-52 Dark Earth/X-22 Clear mix suggested in the kit painting instructions. I'm very pleased with the color shift here, which really matches the sort of "lentil soup" pallette I've always associated in my mind's eye with late war D.VIIs (the better to give even an extra second or two of reaction time to the beleaguered German pilots flying over devastated brown Western Front moonscapes, spied from above by Allied pilots with height advantage)

More to come soon. My next major construction phase will probably be to glue up and loz the fuselage.

I have to apologise on behalf of Large Scale Modeller in the delay but holidays . etc, etc .. well, you know the drill, but hopefully the anticipation will have built to a suitably, dramatic TV style, levels 

Before arriving at the actual point of this post (and the part you've all be waiting for), I feel we should thank all the staff of LSM, the supporters, the entrants and the sponsors who have made the Group Build possible.  The top prizes are truly wonderful and well worth the effort of all concerned, and truly hope you will agree (Arrow Wolf aside) they are both generous and of amazing quality.

Special mention should go to HGW whose support has been extremely generous in that that the gift of a set of seat belts per entrant was very far sighted and unique in its undertaking!

SO!!!

In First Place and winning an amazing O.O.P Wingnut Wings 1/32nd Scale Hansa-Brandenberg W.29 

PLUS:

Is <<Drum Roll>> is ....

Whitey with his WnW's Roland D.VIb

In the Runners' Up Spot and winning a gorgeous signed Steve Anderson Print, 'Aces High' (Wingnut Wings box artist):

Is Ssashoo's Wingnut Wings' Roland D.VIa:

And the Arrow Wolf award for the Non-Wingnut Wings model entry winning two of Roden's best:

Is Wackyracer's Albatros D.III (OAW)

I'd like to thank every one who entered the competition and added to what was an epic build.

Congratulations to the winners, PM's will be sent to you each to determine where to send your prizes.

Thank you everyone! The choices and decisions were mine and mine alone so any feedback should be directed in this direction.

Grant

The full Works In Progress can be viewed at http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/2664-wnw-roland-dvib/#entry37630.

Construction started on 31st May 2014 and completed on 9th July 2014 well in time for our club - Scale Models Wellington's BSK competition coming up on the last Wednesday of July.

Cockpit and Engine bay.

There'll be a lot of firsts for me.. mainly centered on this being my first biplane. 

I was trying to get some practice on a Roden Albatros, but the engineering makes it quite hard, harder than a WNW kit, so I'll turn to this one.

No idea which markings I'll go for yet, kit or maybe Pheon do a set...?

Any advice or pointers from anyone who's done this kit already welcomed.

Matt

I have been following everybody's work on this forum for quite a while now and would like to start by saying thank you to all of you for sharing your talent and techniques with everyone on this forum. I can honestly say I wouldn't be stepping into this if I concerns about you as a group of modelers being supportive and accepting of my humble attempts at this hobby.

I decided to start my foray into the scale model world of posting a work in progress on a forum with an entry in 'The Great War' Group Build. I picked up a couple of WnW kits a little while back and was looking for the right motivation to undertake one of these WWI kits regularly regarded as the ultimate tour de force for WWI subjects. After leafing through teh schemes provided, "Betty" stood out to me as the most compelling, which is convenielty the box art of this kit as well.

Being a fair bit intimidated with this build I decided to go all in and make this an epic build of "firsts" for me as a modeler. This list includes, but is not limited to:

• First WnW build
• First WWI build
• First bi-plane build
• First build with rigging
• FIrst attempt at woodgrain
• First time posting a work in progress on a forum
• First time taking my model photography "seriously" (feedback and suggestions welcome)

I am sure there are others that will come up, but either way, I am excited to be tackling this fantastic kit.

I started working on the Pup about one month ago. I am a little slow on getting this thread started, but I wanted to make sure I had some progress before starting a post that wouldn't see its way to completion. As I am working towards a deadline (wife is expecting our first child mid-March) I think I will be able to stay on track and get this wrapped up before he gets here, and my bench time slows down.

With that introduction, let's get down to business!

This is the kit lozenge. It's bright, so aviattic next time.

Here's my entry into the GB. I've never done a GB before, or even posted builds online, so in at the deep end!

Got the Eduard PE set and some Montex Masks as I had a nightmare with my Fokker F.I decals previous.

Not sure what markings yet. Rather drawn to the box art of Joesef Loeser's candy machine but also like the 2 options from Montex.

I just found this group build and think I will participate. I have been working on Hippert's Fokker D.VII on another site, but I am going to move the blog here so I can enjoy the company of others who build WWI. I will post a few old pics to get up to date and then continue here. I hope this is ok and isn't a flagrant violation of etiquette.

I have also been using the build to learn how to make my own masks. These are done with an inexpensive craft cutter, which is just a computer controlled plotter that deploys a cutting blade instead of a pen. In this case, mine is the silhouette portrait. It cost about the same as a mid-level airbrush and I suspect that over time it will be just as useful. The first thing I did was make a stencil for the “Mimmi.” that was painted on the upper wing. I used the native software to trace a scan of the "Mimmi." lettering on the top wing - this came from a "skin" I found on line for a flight simulator, I forget which one - and then cut a stencil using a sheet of Tamiya masking material. Unfortunately, in my excitement to use my new toy, I failed to take pictures, but here are the results. I sourced the lozenge decals from Aviattic. These look fantastic. Rib tape was post-shaded with Tamiya smoke and both upper and lower surfaces where given a burnt umber filter. Finally, the whole thing was sealed with Vallejo satin clear coat. Here are a couple of pictures.

Having satisfied my need to experiment with the cutter I turned my attention to building in sequence with the instructions. I did not take pictures of the cockpit build, fall has been busy for me and others have shown how the interior to great effect. Here are a couple aspects of the interior that I did document.

The fuselage of Hippert's D.VII was covered in a black and white checkerboard. To achieve this finish, I drew up a cutter file that consisted of a page of 9.5 mm squares and used the cutter to generate a sheet of square masks. I painted the fuselage white and then covered it with masks, when finished, I removed every other square and shot the fuselage and tail suraces with flat black paint. Here are the results.

I have now started to work up the engine cowling and weather the fuselage and this is where I am today.

Fuselage engine access panels weathered with oils.

Fuselage weathered with a series of burnt sienna oil filters and washes, as well as a little Tamiya smoke to add some depth.

That's what I got to date, next up is finishing the front end and undercarriage.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

See the pictures.
Basic kit Roden Fokker F.1
A lot of it has to be scratch built, and there are only a few pictures (3 or 4?) of the bird, no detailed drawings or so.

I have one more question:
Should this be a building report, where each builded part is documented with pictures?

Servus

Bertl

I bummed this kit of Jim (thnx buddy!) and Cees dropped off (as usual) some great reference books.

At first I wanted to do one in Dutch markings of the LVA. Number 266 (as can be seen in our militairy aviation museum - see walkaround posted by Erik) or number 265 (as can be seen at the hangar of 'Early Birds' in Lelystad). Both of these planes are in a two colour scheme. Green and blue. 

Linky to 'Early Birds'

BUT...

then Cees gave me something that changed everything and made me decide to do the scheme below. More later.

Yesterday I visited the 'Early Birds' hangar at Lelystad airport. It's a collection of mostly WW1 planes. Most of them are replica's but with many original parts. Their Fokker DVII features an original Mercedes DIIIa engine, prop, radiator, fuel tank, etc...

As soon as a hole and dent in the wing are fixed, it should be able to fly again.

They also have a Sopwith Pup, Fokker DR1, Camel and amazing Nieuport 28 on display.

Cheers,

Jeroen

My second entry is the 1:35 Emhar kit of the Mk.V 'Hermaphrodite' Heavy Battle Tank.

I also plan to do it in captured German colours 

I've also bought the tracks and barrels upgrade set from Panzer Shop too, so I'm serious about this one. 

I will start here my build of the new Renault FT kit in 1/16 from Takom.

I usually build in 1/72 or 1/700, so it will be a different build for me

Eric

As part of this sponsorship agreement we thought long and hard about what could be done to mark the modellers’ achievements and because of the build being 12 months in duration we decided that was too long to wait for a prize of sorts.

So, as Sponsor, HGW have agreed to:

• Provide each modeller (entrant to the GW GB) with one free, complimentary set of seat belts applicable to the aircraft model being built. 
• If the current build has gone past the point where seat belts would normally be added then a set of exterior detail part equal to the value of the seats belts can be substituted.

Please PM Grant of Arrow Wolf with the details of the seat belt set you would like or the exterior detail set as a substitute (but to roughly the same value of the belt set).  Please note, this offer is limited to one gift per entrant, not to each model.  Your message should include an address to where the set may be posted.

Meanwhile , we have created a sponsors’ GW GB signature banner which can be found <See Below> and we would ask that you add it to your personal GW GB signature (and, if possible, use it elsewhere to fly the flag for LSM)

I hope you will agree that this sponsorship is both prestigious and a very welcome act of generosity on behalf of HGW and I equally hope you will join me in thanking Jan Bobek of HGW by “flying” the Sponsors’ banner in your personal Post Signatures.

or

Just have to add one more instrument, rudder pedal bar and cables...
All painting done with Gunze and life color acrylics. Weathering done with oil paints. 

Thanks for looking :-)

Flip

Cockpit is pretty much done.. Just have to do the rigging and control lines and the fuse can be closed up.. To speed things up I will will be just building straight from the box!

This is the build review of the Wingnutwings Fokker D.VII F.

As this is my first WW I and WNW kit, and as I'm not really into this kind of planes, I have to apologize to this kind of job for the specialists.

I will build it Out Of The Box, just made the rigging as it's put in the instructions.

I want to made this build review as I would like to see all, with "how too" and "how I do this".

So, enough Blabla....

Page four of the instruction start with the cockpit:

Here are the parts used in the first row:

Start with the floor.I painted a base coat of Tamiya XF-59, through my Infinity Airbrush, as this is the base for the wood "color"

When the pain is dry (a few minutes) I took my oil pains.

From Left to right:

Titanium White - Yellow Ochre - Burnt Sienna - Burnt umber

I use two brushes, one old fin pointed and a flat one:

With the fine pointed brush, I put some "drops" of paint, randomly.

Using the large brush, I "painted" the dots in the length of the floor.

I then start again changing the size and pattern of the dots.

And here is the result. I know there are a lot of manners to simulate wood (decals from Ushi, etc...) but I like doing it "the old fashion way"

I then let the oil paint dry for a day or two.

When dry, i painted a coat of Tamiya Clear X-22 With the airbrush.

Let it dry for at least one day.

To simulate the metal shields, where the pilot feet stay, I decide to use a piece of domestic aluminum foil.

It is glued with liquitape.

I burnish a piece of foil using a cotton stick.

I also use a wooden stick to burnish the foil in the recesses.

Plus i can pick up tips along the way

is that ok?

Iam looking at the Roden Dr 1 kit any advise for me greatly received

cheers

Darren

(See the New Sponsor Announcement in the GW GB Thread)

If you would like to partake of this kind offer then please would you PM me and include your full name and address PLUS your choice of item.

Thanks everyone ... this is a cracking Group Build and I hope that HGW's products will help !!

Grant.

This one will be the Gotha G.IV 602/16, Walter Aschoff, Kagohl 3, May-September 1917... The snake!

I start the epic kit on September of 2013, and it has been a quite slow build...

Sorry for the poor pictures... They do not turned out very well!

Cheers

Francisco