Wolf Buddee

Thanks Harv! Much appreciated my friend. Did you get the engine sorted out on your Fw-190? Cheers, Wolf

Thank-you Kai, All three are Wingnut Wings, ok the Dr. 1 is Meng but from the WnWs stable and each one is an amazing kit. I have at least 5 more of their kits in the stash including a Felixstowe which will take a huge amount of room in the display case if it’ll even fit at all! Cheers, Wolf

Thanks Peter, They kind o’ do look good together eh? A real flying Circus. Cheers, Wolf

Here’s my finished Meng 1/32nd Fokker Dr.1 and a couple of ‘er WnWs stablemates. Cheers, Wolf

Martin, Harv, Peter, Rob, Kai, Hubert, Thanks for checking in and leaving your kind comments! They are always much appreciated! Cheers, Wolf

The Rittmeister’s ride is ready! ………but there was a challenge or two before I called it done. The first step was fitting the upper wing which went on without problems. Then the fun began! The next step was adding the 4 aileron control cables that run from the upper fuselage cowl to the bottom of the upper wing. Sounds easy right? I felt a bit of trepidation in doing these and it proved to be justified as they were a real PITA! I figured it would be easiest to secure the lines to the holes in the upper fuselage cowling and then glue them into their holes in the bottom of the upper wing. NOPE! Don’t do it that way! After eleventeen or more attempts I couldn’t make it work. I couldn’t contort my hands, eyes, tweezers, or the model, and see the holes in the wing bottom through my magnifying lamp to secure the lines where they needed to go. I really really tried! In the process I also managed to knock off the rudder and the right upper aileron. To make things even more interesting I also broke off the upper portion of the right aileron’s control horn. Suddenly the air turned blue and I invented an entirely new vocabulary that I’m sure even the neighbours heard, couldn’t understand, but recognized as pure frustration! After cooling off I ripped out the control lines and figured I’d try installing the lines from top to bottom which proved to be better but not a lot easier. Nevertheless I got ‘er done. For a while I was tempted to forget about the aileron control wires but decided I wasn’t going to be beaten by a little Fokker come hell or high water! My left eye still twitches a bit from the trauma but it usually settles down in a week or so. Each line was tensioned with a heated dental tool and my nightmare was over. I really should have thought the installation of these lines through a bit more as it should have been relatively easy. Of course I had to do it Wolf’s way first to prove I never made it in to the Midvale School for the gifted! See, the aileron control lines are all there now……..all *#@&*# 4 of ‘em! The engine was glued to the firewall, the firewall glued to the fuselage, and last but not least the engine cowl fitted. The last bit was painting the prop with a Tamiya acrylic tan paint and the the wood grain was done using Burnt Umber artist’s oil paint. The Axial Propeller logos came from spare WnWs decals and the data stencils on the prop are Aviattic’s. So is the data placard on the engine cowling. The prop hub was removed from the propeller before painting and replaced with another hub removed from one of the kit’s alternate props. It just made adding the wood grain much easier. All in all this is a great kit and the problems I experienced were more self induced than anything else so I can wholeheartedly recommend this kit to anyone with experience building WnWs kits. With Aviattic’s streaked, faded varnish decals, IMHO,this model turns out a real gem. I hope you like it. Cheers, Wolf I’ll post some outdoor pics in the “Finished” forum tomorrow.

Isn’t the engine supposed to be like that? You know, thrust vectoring, and the like. The A-5 could roll right better than any other WW II fighter! 🤪 Cheers, Wolf

Well done Sir, What a beast and very well built and weathered. Cheers, Wolf

Damn, that looks great Carl! Cheers, Wolf

Awesome paint work Nick, I love using paint masks as the finish, in the end, is something that can’t be achieved with decals. However, I’ve learned from experience, checking the dimensions of the masks is critical. I discovered that the upper wing roundels from Montex for my Spitfire Mk IXc were too small after they were painted. When spraying the yellow leading edge stripe the roundels should have touched the trailing edge of the yellow but didn’t. When compared to the kit decals and BarracudaCals decals the masks were slightly undersized. I left ‘em as is but I always double check now. Nonetheless Nick, fantastic work! Cheers, Wolf

LOL, Kevin, My Waldron punch and die sets have been a staple tool for more than 30 plus years now. I was fortunate enough to have purchased their sub-miniature set as well as the standard set and use the sub-miniature set way more. Cheers, Wolf

Thanks Harv! It’s a wonderful kit. Like most all WnWs kits you have to think at least 3 or 4 steps ahead and dry test fit everything. In the end though it’ll be a beautiful example of a Dr. 1 in 1/32nd scale. Cheers, Wolf

Thanks Pete, I always appreciate your kind words. Yes, the finish line does appear to be fast approaching and I’ve already made a start on my next project, although I doubt I’ll be posting anything. I have a friend who drove a concrete mixer truck for many years and as a surprise I’m building a 1/25th AMT kit of a Kenworth Concrete Mixer for him. The moulds however are from the early 70s so literally every single part needs to be cleaned up by filing, sanding, filling, and reworking in one way or another. Most of the chrome parts need to be stripped as well as they are either too bright or their mating surfaces are so rough that saving the chrome plating is impossible. I won’t be super detailing it either as I can’t find enough reference photos and parts clean up has already been a real time killer. After that I think I need to get back to my Tamiya F4U-1A. We’ll see. Cheers, Wolf

Thank-you Kai, Rebuilding the rear gun mount assembly really wasn’t all that hard. Luckily I have a good set of drill bits and a 5 diopter magnifying lamp. Without those I’d be stuck as my vision isn’t what it used to be. Trust me though, if I can do it anybody can, having the right tools makes all the difference. Cheers, Wolf

Thanks Paul, She’s not too far away from being done now so I hope the last little bit is trouble free. I always seem to get caught up in a bit of Murphy’s Law. Hopefully the rear MG mount was it. Cheers, Wolf