GazzaS

Thank you for that, Hubert. I am still tempted to buy a metal one... but short on space and fearing anything that I have to buy sight-unseen that costs that much.

A clear coat will tone them down, and still leave you with a slight lustre. I just find too many metallic paints turning to gray once everything is done.

Kai, Those wheel wells look quite nice. Tell me... have you ever considered the Molotow chrome pen to highlight those hydraulic lines? Most metal paints just don't look too great painted on small parts. I really like my pen. I find it's a nice piece of gear.

Thank you, Peter!

Thank you, Peter! Always glad to have you around.

Oh, you must tell me about your lathe! Is it usable for metal parts? I've been tempted to get a lathe for ages.

Keep up the goodwork! Painting looks great!

Heh... You guys posting all of those great new models... almost makes me ashamed of my little book. Had a leaf through it. Some great info and great profiles. The coolest fact I got from the first page I read was that to claim a kill, the pilot had to submit his info on a standard form as well as a sketch of his aircraft and the colors of the aircraft. Most of the records were lost in the final days of WWII when the archive was bombed. Otherwise we'd know what every claiming pilot's aircraft looked like. I ordered it from Amazon on March 18. From Kentucky to my door in Australia in 11 days.

Cool!

Awesome job, John! Quite an attractive finish thus far.

Thank you, John!

Thank you, Rob! I'll admit that some things are rewarding. But sometimes the battle lasts too long for my limited attention span. Thank you, Phil! I truly am an exteriors guy. I just don;t have a love for interior parts. Thanks, Mate! Thank you, Harv!

Thank you, Rob. I don;t know why the panzer putty acted this way. Maybe because it absorbs the over spray it has developed a penchant to be attracted to other paints. Anyway... it's gone. I don't have any washable white. I'm tempted to get some. But I was hoping to get away with using some oils.

Thank you, Rob! I have always had a great fascination with the Hohenzollern's.

Thank you, Jeff!

Thank you. Rigging isn't difficult at all once you provide yourself with three things: A: A workspace where the area to be rigged is at eye level. B. Plenty of light, behind the model as well. C: Magnification. The rest is all tweezers and super glue. Most German fighters have blissfully little rigging. You really should take the chance and let your creative juices flow. Remember... I am a big, clumsy guy with no previous hand talent like playing the flute, guitar, or banjo.

Kai, It's not quite as nice as a WNW kit. But it is workable. The only thing I dislike about Roden kits are the small gluing surfaces between struts and aircraft surfaces. I believe I will make some brass struts as Rob did for his Fokker D.VIII. Oh... and the decals are less than trustworthy. This is Karl Bolle's D.III I built from the Roden kit as my first 1/32 scale WWI subject. I rigged it with EZ line, and it eventually collapsed because the LG legs are a little weaker than the WNW legs, and the connecting surfaces are far too small. I had a heck of a time rigging it because the top wing kept popping off. But this D.I will have pinned parts. I have learned! The Albatros is my favorite WWI aircraft. I also have this one in my stash: ....as well as two WNW D.Va's.

Nice work, Kai! Those oils bring the shapes into nice relief! I'm curious, do you press the parts into the styrofoam, or attach them some other way?

Thank you, Kai! Fortunately for both of us, the community came together and provided me with useful photos and information. This pic was instrumental in helping me to be so adventurous: Note the MG151 bulge!

Thank you, Kai. My next bird will be the final mount of Prinz Friedrich Karl von Preußen. There has been a lot of ugly illustrations of the green used for the fuselage. I will use some form of fledgrau. Roden will supply the plastic, and hopefully at least the Albatros factory decal is still usable. I have some resin parts to dress up the engine and I'm not sure what I have for Spandau's. But I will use PE jacketed versions for sure. Apparently the the machine belonged to Boelcke and the Prinz would borrow it once Boelcke got a D.II to fly.

Well... for better or worse... it's finished. As I went to attach and unmask the canopy, all of my best-laid plans seemed to come apart. The canopy didn't fit closed, and attaching it open kept failing because other parts didn't fit, and the glue joins were too tiny to allow for fine adjustment. In the end, I used blutack to fix the canopy in place so that I could add the aerial. Anyway... you can see the RFI photos here: And... who knew... you can see past the engine fan...

More...

A learning experience, for certain, this kit allowed me to try out a few new techniques as well as suffer through a few problems associated with short run kits.

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

Thank you, Kai. That Panzer putty is more of a threat because I don't know what will happen to it later. Will it migrate? Ooze? I know most of it will be hidden by the wheels and tracks. It's just very annoying is all.