GazzaS

Frank, Glad to see you powering along. Gaz

Poor MiG driver. Always coming out second best i.e., dead.

So much better than plastic!

That's funny... but not so disturbing as the imagery I was preparing for you...lol BTW... love your little Easter sig!

Harv, I have both back and hip issues, including sciatica because once a piece gets rotated or sublaxated, the whole area is affected. The muscles in your calves, thighs, and lower back form a chain. Tightness puts pressure on the nerves in the chain causing numbness and pain down south. Just before I got out of the USMC me and a guy were wrestling. Just grabassing to waste time... Anyway...he got under me and threw me, causing me to land on my hip. What I didn't know then was that this caused my lowest disc to be crushed into the shape of a wedge. So, the holes where the sciatic nerve passes through the pelvis are now smaller. If I get tight, or sublaxated, the holes get even smaller putting pressure on those nerves. Six months after getting out of the Corps, I couldn't even feel the bottom of my shoes. Just the shock from my feet hitting the floor. So, I sought out a chiropractor. I see one every three weeks. I saw a few different ones before one actually recommended stretching. And then the missus and I tried yoga. The yoga instructor was hardcore. The kind of woman who could bend over far enough to look up her bottom without even breathing hard. I think the type of yoga was called Iyengar Yoga. Every position from The Warrior to The downward facing Dog had to be just right with feet straight, pelvis opened, and on and on. The change in how I felt was amazing. We moved away from the area, but I still use some of the basic stretches. Anyway... stretching is still free, and your body is a chain. Gaz

Were this not a family oriented site I would post a picture for you of an old, large hirsute man bent over with his pants and underpants around his ankles and his posterior point in your direction! lol

HI Jeff, Thank you!! It seems you may have more rigging experience than me anyway, but using other methods! I'm amazed your old Spad is still around. I built the same kit when I was a kid, but had no way of tackling the rigging question. Thankfully the old kit holds shape without rigging! Stren 2 Pound test is monofilament fishing line. The kind you'd use for little fish like Bluegills. Probably available at any bait and tackle shop in the US. You can use any fine monofilament fishing line, but I used Stren because I found it on EBay easily. Here in my part of Australia there isn't a need for fine line like that because the rivers are murky, and the ocean is full of bigger beasts who are nowhere near as line-shy as Rainbow Trout. If you're curious about Bob's Buckles, you can see more of them here: https://www.bobsbuckles.co.uk/ He provides great service. ....though there are ppl and tutorials about making diy eyelets and tube. Gaz

Hi Rob, I use 3mm for the structural cables, and 2.5mm for the control cables. Gaz

Love the interior work! Though, I probably wouldn't do such a thing, myself. I'm lazy that way. Gaz

Blown away, too!

Good start, Peter! I'm glad to see you got all of those tubes together. Strange construction for such a late period. I almost expect to see it covered with canvas! Gaz

Will the 109 hate never end??

Harv, Buddy! I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles. This growing old thing sucks ass. I'm not as sexy as Delores, but as a long time back pain sufferer, I can recommend stretching and an acupressure type mat can help reduce pressure and pain by relaxing the muscles around your pelvis and lumbar area. You may have a regimen, I don't know. But stretching is free and a Shakti mat isn't very expensive. Despite my pain, I'll never let a doctor cut my back open. I've seen back surgery on video, and it scares me to death.

R2D2 was cute. Jawas acceptable. I can even accept the prissiness of C3P0. OK... I'm just gonna say it. I'm an ex-Marine, Damnit! With my M-16 in my hand I was the baddest motherfucker in the woods. I would find it terribly insulting for my fire team to be unable to cover the forest floor with dead Ewoks. You know... When Cortez got to the new world, he conquered the Aztec Empire with 150 flintlocks and a few cannon.

Heh... remind me never to get into an accuracy debate with you!

I'll tell you what you need for rigging. Good tweezers, lots of light, good magnification, and a way to work with your kit at eye level. I've only rigged three models. My first was just gluing EZ line into holes. The second time I used Bob's Buckles and EZ line (probably easiest, but has the drawback that EZ line is flat and twists show up really well in photos). The third time I used Stren 2# test and Bob's Buckles. Here's #2: And #3: So, for these German fighters it's really not hard. the British dual-line stuff.... now that's intimidating! Another disadvantage of EZ line is that CA will run up the line and cause it to get funky curves in it. If you keep your CA to a minimum this shouldn't happen. Some ppl claim that threading EZ line through eyelets and tubing is difficult. But snipping it at the end of the brass tube causes the excess to retreat into the tube leaving no disturbing nub, which is cool. Monofilament has to be heat shrunk. I use an incense stick so I can add rigging and remember my mom unsuccessfully hiding the smell of freshly smoked reefer at the same time. This process needs a little patience as it's easy to be too aggressive and melt the line, or affect the wrong line. Or, the one I haven't done yet is to shrink it too much and cause the struts of the kit to bend. Also, you have to snip away the excess really close to the brass tube if you are using brass tubes. I would rather use eyelets and tubes instead of drilling holes all the way through the wing and snipping it on the far side. I also use a sharpie to darken the line both before and after adding it to the plane. It's all easier than you think, especially with these great WNW kits. The Roden kits need a bit more care as their struts don't have the large attachment points required for a strong bond. My next Roden kit will see me pinning all of the struts. Gaz

Martin, You never cease to amaze! Love the result of your window works! What paint scheme were you going with, again? Gaz

It sure is a nice looking plane.

Thank you everyone for the great support! My first WNW build was an Albatros D.Va. One of the things I noted was the attachment points for the control surfaces were quite frail and sometimes the gap between the two parts just looks too big: So, I've developed a strategy for early in the build: I use tape to guide me in placing drill points to pin the surfaces later. I just slice through the tape and use the tape lines to guide me. The rear of the right aileron joint: I'll be using pins made from .5mm brass rod. I've done some minor work on the interior, but not much to show there, yet. Thanks for looking! Gaz

Hi Jeff, I really have no plans to mess with the kit's plumbing. I just wanna do a cool scheme.

Back again, Folks! It's weathering time! As the boss says... I won't go crazy. I started with the missiles and the paintless area of the engines friday with oils over the Alclad. And the missiles. The real missiles have this deep blue heated/treated look to them on the fins that seems to have over colors in there, too. So the missiles look a bit dodgy at the moment. The body of the missiles have some bare metal components I will try to emulate as well... crappy picture... Sorry! I've found a Facebook site that has some good closeups of a working bird that I'm using to inspire my weathering. The underside was inspired by this photo: And here is my result. The glare from the freshly laid oils subtracts from the subtleties I've tried to emplace. And for you MiG lovers... you know who you are... A sexy shot lighted from below: Thanks for looking! Gaz

Jeff, . Thanks for the cool links and pix. Now that the question has come up... The answer has been meandering around in my head for a few days.... I guess the plainest way to say it is that it will be something in between. I'll be using the kit lozenge as much as possible as well as some other lozenge I have on hand if I need to. Same thing goes for decals. I'll probably stay with the black nose and struts. I'm still up in the air about the large white areas around the upper wing crosses as I can't say that I've seen that on any Pfalz. To do the large white area I would have to either mask over the lozenge decal (don't really want to risk that), Use some plain white decal paper I have which is still too thick compared to the kit decals, or paint the wings white, and place the lozege decals around it. So... Clear as mud.... I'll do whatever works and isn't too difficult. Gaz

Peter, . I'm so glad to see you back! And I'm glad you've re-found your interest. Gaz

Steve, I used to frequent WWIaircraftmodels for a while but drifted off as I worked on other genres. BUt I do remember The Gotha and the amazing amount of work you put into those engines and other details. Gaz

Thanks for the recommendation. It's certainly one of those colors I'd like to see in real life. Gaz