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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

Hi all, Today I delivered the model to Theo Wilford at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, Bedfordshire. David Bremner was there with Scout 1264 doing his monthly air test. I had a long and informative chat with David and Theo before being kindly offered to ground run the Scout. Being 6' 3" tall made it a real struggle to get into the cockpit. More so as my foot slipped out of the foot step, but luckily David was there to hold me up. It was a great experience to run the Scout and way different to running Tornado's, which I did many times in the RAF. So a great day all round, Mike

Hi all The engine is test fitted now I had to carry out a lot of adjustments to the engine support frames It'll all be detailed when I release my usual PDF build log on my website, once the model is finished But in summery All three frames have no locations in the fuselage sides and are simple butt jointed, which makes aligning the frames difficult All three support frames were too wide to allow the fuselage halves to close up The main bulkhead frame did not have corner cut-outs to fit over the upper lower longeron's on the fuselage sides When I test fitted the engine, I found that the fine detail printed on the lower sides of the engine (magnetos, housings, carburettor components and pipes) fouled the top edge of the fuselage right side Also the engine was tilted up at the front, as the front frame is too tall However, I managed to sort these anomalies out eventually Mike

Hi all, The fuselage is now closed up. The kit supplied machine guns were replaced with the ‘Spandau’ 08/15 extended loading handle (14-32061) from 'Gaspatch'. These needed to be modified to allow them to locate correctly in the fuselage front/rear gun mounts, Mike

Hi all I've made a start on the fuselage parts The 3D printed parts, which includes the fuselage halves, is of a high standard with no visible surface layer lines However, the very finely printed detail, such as those on the pilots instrument panel, must be handled with care, to avoid crushing/breaking them. Also, take care when removing the parts from their print support trees, as being the same colour, it's easy to cut through a component thinking it's a support tree. Mike

Hi all, Despite building the Albatros D.V, I've decided to start another build. I have the recently released Phönix D.I resin kit from 'Lukgraph'. I'm impressed with the quality of the 3D printed parts, including the fuselage halves. The struts have been printed hollow so the supplied metal rods can be inserted all the way for additional strength. The major parts are resin cast and of good quality. The aircraft I'm building is Phönix D.I, Serial No:J.12 (previously A.110), operated by the Austro-Hungarian ‘Kriegsmarine’ (Naval) from Abwehrflugstation Zaule, Trieste, 1918. Mike

Hi all, The fuselage is now ready to be closed up. I've added the cockpit control cables for the rudder and elevator (ailerons will come later) Also pipe/tubes from the water pump greaser and the starter magneto The control rod from the engine spark advance control lever can't be added until the fuselage is closed up, as it has to route around or through a cockpit frame The engine has ignition leads to the spark plugs but not from the magnetos Wiring those is a waste as they can't really be seen on the completed model Mike

Hi all I've to paint the fuselage internal parts This includes creating wood and leather finishes The light colour wood finish is ‘Windsor & Newton’ Griffin Alkyd oil paint (Raw Sienna) applied by brush over 'Tamiya' Desert Yellow (XF59) base coat The dark colour wood finish is ‘Windsor & Newton’ Griffin Alkyd oil paint (Burnt Umber) applied by brush over 'Tamiya' Desert Yellow (XF59) base coat The leather finish on the pilots seat is ‘Ammo-Mig’ Oil brusher (Earth) and when semi-dry, stipple brushed ‘Ammo-Mig’ Oil brusher (Dark Brown) over 'Tamiya' Desert Yellow (XF59) base coat Mike

Hi all The forward sides of the fuselage halves have pre-molded circular access panels and cooling louvres The cooling louvres have no slots under them through the fuselage I've chosen to replace both with 3D printed parts from 'Proper Plane' ‘Proper Plane’ Albatros D.V/D.Va louvres (RD-011) ‘Proper Plane’ Albatros D.V/D.Va inspection hatches (RD-015) I've removed the pre-molded panels and louvres from the fuselage sides. I've also drilled cooling slots through the fuselage sides. These will have the louvres fitted over them I've also drilled slots in the lower, rear of the fuselage halves for the lower elevator control cables 'Wingnut Wings' issued correction sheets for the instruction manual These require the removal of pre-molded internal cockpit detail from the left fuselage half and removal of pre-molded straps from the lower, rear of both fuselage halves Mike

Hi all, Now I've finished the Bristol Scout and Macchi M.5 builds for others, I can get back my modelling. So I'll now be progressing the Albatros D.V build, Mike

Hi all, The model is finished and up on the Ready for Inspection page. Thanks for your support and comments throughout this build Mike

Hi all The Scout is now completed This model shows David Bremner's reproduction of Scout 1264, as it is now I chose not to apply any weathering and to show the aircraft 'clean' The main differences between David's Scout 1264 and a WW1 Scout are Cockpit layout and details Pitot static probes and associated pipework Separated upper wing centre section and outer wings As usual my website has a PDF build log (on Logs page 1), which covers the differences between this model and my previous build log for Scout 1260 Where the build details are the same, this build log refers back to the other build log Thanks for your support and comments throughout this build Mike

Hi all, The model has been pre-rigged and the upper wing fitted Now it's onto final rigging Mike

Hi all After the dog destroyed the original upper wing, I've now finished the replacement wing I've added the intermediate wing spar on both upper and lower wings, which I missed before Now sorting out the cabane and interplane struts before pre-rigging starts Mike

Hi all As the build of the Bristol Scout 1264 will be completed soon, I've started on the next build This will be the Albatros D.V, Serial No: D.2006/17 as flown by Ltn.der.Reserve Bernhard Kilian of Jasta 21b during September 1917 This is a 'Wingnut Wings' model kit Little information is recorded for Ltn.der.Reserve Bernhard Kilian, other than he was born in Neideburg in 1894 He served with Jasta 21 until his death in a flying accident at Pauvres airfield in December 1917 He was not reported to have been awarded any combat victories Mike