sandbagger

Hi all, The basic model is now completed. Here's a few shots of the model areas. I'll post reveal shots once the figure and display base has been done, Mike

Hi all, the Upper wing and fuselage have been pre-rigged. The upper wing now fitted. Even the elastic bands are colour matched 😄 Next it's final rigging, Mike

Hi PW, The factory finish was varnished plywood for the fuselage. During 1917, this scheme was created by sponging on darker coloured paint over the plywood and before it was all varnished. The overall effect shows some of the natural plywood showing through the paint covering, Mike

Hi all, The basic fuselage is complete. For this particular aircraft, I've added: Modified 'Gaspatch' machine guns. Centrally suspended central gun sight (above the machine guns). Gun sight viewing hole in the windscreen. Altimeter in left side of cockpit. Rear view mirror. Flare pistol on its mounting. Flare rack. Kit supplied engine exhaust pipe hollowed out. Now it's onto weathering the fuselage, Mike

Hi all, The Phonix D.I is now up in the Ready for Inspection. Thanks for your support and comments during this build, Mike

Hi all, 'Lukgraph' 1:32nd scale resin/3D printed. Phönix D.I, Serial No:J.12 (previously A.110), operated by the Austro-Hungarian ‘Kriegsmarine’ (Naval) from Abwehrflugstation Zaule, Trieste, 1918. As usual my website has a PDF build log (on Logs page 1) covering this model. Mike

Hi all, The pilot figure. 'Kellerkind’ KuK pilot in leather jacket (54086). Painted with 'Tamiya' and 'Citadel' paints, Mike

Hi all, Progress on the Albatros. Fuselage painted and plywood effect by Raw Sienna oil paint over Dark Yellow base coat. Decals from the 'Pheon' set. Kit circular access panels and cooling louvres removed and slots made under louvers. Replacement were from 'Proper Plane. 'Aviattic' decals used for flying surfaces and on a mid-grey base coat (to slightly darken the decal colours). Wing decals are from the 'Wingnut Wings' decal sheet. All clear gloss coated to protect painted surfaces and decals from future handling, but will be semi-matte for final finish, Mike

Hi all, Apart from the propeller, figure and display case, the Phonix D.I is finished. Here's a few shots until I post the completed model, which will be once the figure and display case arrive. Until then I'll be carrying on with my started Albatros D.V build, Mike

Hi all, The inter wing and gear rigging is fitted. Flying wires, landing wires, incidence wires, drag wires and landing gear bracing wires. Now to finish the engine and aileron controls, Mike

Hi all, The upper wing has been pre-rigged and fitted. Also added the windscreen, gun sights and other photo-etch parts. The suspension cord around each end of the axle is 'EZ' white line (Heavy), stained with 'AK Interactive' Kerosene wash (AK3029). Now it's onto final rigging the wings before moving onto the landing gear and tail unit, Mike

Hi all, The fight surfaces have been painted and decals applied. All were primed with 'AK Interactive' White primer (AK759). Several layers of ‘Mig’ A-Stand Aqua Gloss (A.Mig-2503) were airbrushed over. Red sections are ‘Tamiya’ Flat Red (XF7) mixed with Rubber Black (XF85) to 80/20%. The Clear Doped Linen (CDL) decal is the ‘Lukgraph’ Phönix Linen Clear Doped Linen (DEC010) (kit supplied). These decals are very similar to those from 'Aviattic', as they are semi-translucent. Other individual decals are also kit supplied. Now to apply a semi-matte clear coat before weathering is applied, Mike

Hi all, The basic fuselage is complete. Added the decal lightening marking and serial, engine intake manifold, blast shrouds for the machine guns and photo-etch parts. Weathered with 'Flory Models' dark dirt clay wash and 'Tamiya' Weathering Master (Soot and Mud). Sealed with 'Alclad' Light Sheen (ALC311) semi-matte clear coat, Mike

Hi all, As this particular aircraft had a brown/beige mottled camouflage on the fuselage, I decide to use the decals from 'Lukgraph'. These are very similar to those from 'Aviattic', in that they are semi-translucent so overlapping their edges will show as a darker colour. I used the darker of the two kit supplied mottled decals, but used a different, slightly darker plywood decal from 'Lukgraph', rather than that supplied with the kit. I cut two complete decal for both sides of the fuselage (forward and rear), joining at the panel line at the rear of the cockpit. The four decals joined at the centre line, top of the fuselage. The fuselage shape is unusual and the forward side of the fuselage have heavily raised access panels, louvres and other protrusions. Therefore, I laid the decals onto the fuselage sides and pressed the decal onto the raised details to create an impression of them. These impressions were then cross cut through the decal to allow then to seat over the details without trapping too much water or air. The following photographs show the basic decals applied, but yet to have the cut decal removed from the raised details (they need to be painted later). Also I still have to trim away excess decal from around the cockpit, Mike

Hi all, The last bit of 'metal work' required. Holes in the fuselage decking panel elongated. Recesses drilled into the underside of the upper wing centre section. Brass rods of 0.8 mm diameter cut to fit, Mike

Hi all, UPDATE Those 'tubes' are in fact auxiliary cabane struts. Most likely to support the weight of the over wing radiator, Mike

Hi all, The upper wing has been test fitted onto the cabane and interplane struts. The hollowed out interplane struts need to be drilled out at the bottom where print resin filled the hollow. Also I used 1.0 mm diameter Brass rod again instead of the supplied 0.8 mm diameter rod (too small). During test fitting, I had to resort to using 'UHU' White Tack to hold the struts in position and elastic bands to keep the wings together. In addition, the aircraft had two tubes or struts between the engine side panels and the underside of the centre section of the upper wing. Although the kit instructions show these parts, there is no reference to the part or fitting them. As I couldn’t ascertain what these were for, I chose to make them from tube. Slots were cut into the engine side panels and recesses drilled into the upper wing centre section. Brass tube of 1.0 mm diameter was used to make the tubes, Mike

Hi all, It was necessary to add support rods to more parts. Some parts were again only 'butt' joints. I've added support rods to the tailplane supports, landing gear axle and struts and the fuselage cabane struts. These rods were a combination of 0.4 and 1.0 mm diameter Brass rod. Now onto the interplane struts, Mike

Hi all, When the upper and lower wing halves were laid on a flat surface and viewed from their leading edges (front), I found that the wings varied noticeably in thickness. The upper left wing half was thicker than the upper right wing half. The lower right wing was thicker than the lower left wing. Given how pronounced the different thickness of the wings was, I decided the only option was to remove, as necessary, all of the surface detail then re-profile the wings. Apart from the upper wing sections, lower wings and tailplanes, all other flight surfaces and the fin are intended to be 'butt' glued. Being resin held with CA adhesive makes for a weak joint. Therefore I pinned them all. Only the 1.2 mm diameter Steel rod is supplied in the kit for supporting the wings. For the other parts I used 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 diameter Brass rod and 0.7 mm diameter Brass tube. Care is needed when drilling into the thin resin parts to avoid the resin from breaking away, Mike

Hi all, The closed up fuselage. I've added the tail skid, head rest pad and the rectangular panel and small intake under the nose of the fuselage, Mike

Hi all, The kit supplies 1.2 mm diameter steel rod for use as the supports for the lower wings. However, once the fuselage is joined together, I found that rear rod locating holes on both sides of the fuselage were obstructed by the internal cockpit bulkhead. Therefore, new locating holes needed to be drilled, Mike

Hi all, The fuselage is now ready to be closed up. As the fuselage and internal parts are 3D printed, there are no locating stub or recesses for most parts. Therefore they have to be individually test fitted between the fuselage halves, then all secured to one half before closing up the fuselage. So aligning the various parts as you close up the fuselage can be tricky. Due to the deep fuselage, most of the internal detail, as usual, can't really be seen. Like the cockpit frames, I found that the instrument panel was too wide to allow the fuselage halves to fully close. So that had to be reduced in width. The only extra details added are: The control rod from the engine speed selector The two trigger cables from the control column Rudder control cables Elevator control cables The ailerons were operated by control tubes, so will be added later in the build. These tubes were between the cockpit control lever on the torsion bar of the control column and the underside of the upper wing. Mike

Hi all, The kit has transverse panels on the underside of the fuselage nose. However, some early Albatros D.Vs had longitudinal, not transverse, fuselage underside panels. My problem was I couldn't confirm this as there is no photographic evidence of my build, serial number 2006/17. Although I searched, it never occurred to me to look for similar production batch photographs. Thankfully another modeler found photographs of serial number 2005/17. That same batch aircraft clearly shows longitudinal, not transverse, underside panels. It also seems to confirm that the batch was fitted with just the lower wing drag wires and did not include the drag wires for the upper wing, which later aircraft had, Mike

Hi all, Just a quick update as I work on the Phonix D.I as well. The fuselage top green has been applied. This was ‘Hataka’ (Orange line) Dark Moss Green (C246) with Light Green (C020) to a ratio of 50/50%. Thinned with ’Mr. Colour’ Levelling Thinners 400 by arbout 10%. Now onto the plywood covering, Mike

Hi all This aircraft had what seems to be a mirror, flare pistol and flare rack located on the right side of the fuselage, just forward from the cockpit opening The flare pistol appears to have been mounted on a supported tube, so that the pilot could load a flare, lock then fire the pistol (directed away to the rear right of the aircraft) The breach of the pistol looks to be open, not closed and locked. Possibly the pistol is of the 'Hebel M1894' type To represent this I used a 'Wingnut Wings' flare pistol from my 'spares' and cut the barrel off and pinned it in position using 0.2 mm diameter rod The mounting was made using a combination of 1.4 and 0.8 diameter tube with 0.4 mm diameter rod Mike