1:32nd scale Phönix D.I

[sandbagger]

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 

[HubertB]

I just love the Lukgraph kits. High quality, and on top of it, my kind of subjects.

As usual, I’ll be taking a seat o watch the Master at work 

Hubert

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

 

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

Hi all,

UPDATE

Those 'tubes' are in fact auxiliary cabane struts.

Most likely to support the weight of the over wing radiator,

 

Mike

[sandbagger]

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  

[sandbagger]

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

[HubertB]

Very convincing result 👍 !

Hubert

[sandbagger]

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

 

 

 

 

 

[GusMac]

Looks great. Really unusual cammo as well to add to the attraction.

[PanzerWomble]

Excellent skills on display Mike 

[Martinnfb]

Beautifully rendered surface. Top notch as always Mike.

Cheers

Martin

[sandbagger]

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

[sandbagger]

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

 

[sandbagger]

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

[PanzerWomble]

You make it look soooo damn easy ....when it is soooo damn hard ! 

 

Beautiful looking model . 

[sandbagger]

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

[HubertB]

And another masterpiece « expedited » in one month  

Well done, Mike.

Hubert

[PanzerWomble]

Amazing finish you have achieved Mike . So unusual , congratulations on the build