A GOTHA

[krow113]

And production.

A bit of another slog as I wasn't watching some of my settings in Corel ; what I thought was 2.2 inches was really 2,.2 mm , weird shit happens when you try to work with sub-visible vectors.

Anyway got it done:

And with the kit decals:

The '3' is .375" This is a test , a paper copy with the mask on top. Its not perfectly in line but it fits and now I can print the decals off.I'm sure they will be easier to align.

[krow113]

I've been thinking about these props:

I wanna do them in light/dark laminated wood , base color on:

Almost 'zebra' contrast for maximum visual effect.

Anyone have any techniques?

[Lothar]

Epic build, will be a joy to look at once finished - hats off!!!

Lothar

[krow113]

Thanks Lothar.

Nice to go back and see the work from years ago , pukebucket finally relenting and making the pics visible again at the start of this thread.

Some real good progression shots of the Becker cannon on page one.

[krow113]

Fuselage marking gets complicated. Begining with white.

Cross' , serials . oh ya and the deathhead:

Vector file realized , I'll try to cut the masks  tomorrow.

[krow113]

Fuse maskset includes The Deathhead , cross' ( same as tail ) and the custom serials:

Applied wet they will sit for a while , and obviously filler masks will be applied then some white mix.

For the Dhead I dunno , the well known pic show an off white , and in a brilliant observation , I notice the shade match's the engine pod behind it almost perfectly. The plane is a G III and was most likely delivered in the light grey-green color so well known to Gotha's.

I'm not grabbin' the g/g just yet  though.

[crazypoet]

This is utterly gorgeous!

its a joy to watch it come together

[krow113]

Thank you , cpoet.

And the rigging.

I've avoided it as long as I can.

At this point in construction not addressing the min9mal needed will make it a lot harder later on.

Specifically in the engine pods and the front 6 wing struts. ( A note : There are 8 of these front struts supplied , you only need 6 of them.) .

Here they are laid up vertically to allow the wires to hang down. All I did was nick the moulded on patch where the wire exits from the plywood fairing and a little med cyano , very little, to hold. I then go in with the thinned white glue and wick in a solid joint:

I do my rigging in stages , eyelets and turnbuckles are installed during assy , some are in after. With the 6 wires involved in an engine pod , only 2 are visible as they exit the top of the pod. As one of mine is exposed there are two to address on each side. All of these ae in the WNW instructions.

Here is one side of the pod. You can see the wires pulled through the eyelet and turnbuckles , this has been dabbed with the white glue and will be left to dry as I do other work.

**WARNING EXTREME CLOSEUP OF IMAGINED WW 1 BOMBER ENGINE POD FOLLOWS**

Here is the tool setup for today , a pinvice and drill hold the bobbin for easy length layout . The drill for clearing the eyelet and tbuckle holes , tweezers for , well , you know. And the rest is obvious.

DO NOT  leave the drill case open , I did for the pics  , but simply brushing my hand past the first row took them all out!

As I rotate through the work, the glue sets and I'm able to pull the wire and loop it through the eyelet crossing over itself , and hung with lightweight clothespins and secured with the wicked in white glue. After all is set , I'll go back inand wrap the loose ends back over the wires:

 

A few hours later and nicely done. You can see the white glue 'beads' on the doubled back wires , simulating the wrapped or intertwined wires. Also the 2 wires going to the upper wing have been secured in the exposed pod:

When the top wing goes on ,I'll connect the 2 wires for the exposed pod .And since there are no wires from the complete pod , I'll use the 2 exposed pod wires to visually guage where  the 2 wires drop into the complete pod. These will most likely have a weight attached and dropped be into the pod in the appropriate spot.

[krow113]

Tryna do a bit each day , here is the outer lower wing walkways done in white then silver, wash to follow:

[krow113]

Threw the gas tanks on , plumbing and rigging to come:

[GusMac]

That looks like a safe place to put the fuel??

[GazzaS]

56 minutes ago, GusMac said:

That looks like a safe place to put the fuel??

I don't think there was a safe place for anything....lol

[Ryan]

On 3/22/2020 at 4:28 PM, krow113 said:

Thanks BC.

Its the recovery that shows the modellers strengths....or so I've been told.

And watching your Ships Camel build I can recommend the Prym for Royal Aircraft Factory stainless steel flat rigging. I used it to great effect on The Biff Piece:

This took three days after 3 weeks of concentrated failure with p/e shit. Paint it stainless with acrylics. I used p/e ends , but again needless complications. There may be better stuff now.

Steve, what is Prym?

[krow113]

GMac Thanks for that keen observation!?

Lets face it , I have already from my studies of the aircraft , the Gotha G series of bombers were an utter failure.

Despite brilliant engineering in some areas and decent supplies of some components the airframe as designed was unworkeable in the long run.

The proof? A documented attrition rate of 70+% on LANDINGS , still they continued on with the airframes trying to make it work.

The GV series showing the design changes around the fuel storage. Still installing  two tanks at the apex of the CofG and one big one in the crew compartment!

I real oxymoron of a plane , responsible for scaring the crap outta Great Britain yet unstable in flight characteristics to the point of near unservicability.

Todays work started with the scrutiny of the source pics available for the 2 upper wing tanks.

Maddeningly frustrating is the norm for Gotha ref pics and the fuel tanks dont disappoint. Some good pics in the R.R. book , Gotha! , and the instructions , the triumvirate of Gotha ref's ,  yet a definite answer cannot be settled upon!

Specifically the hold downs for the tanks.

Some show tbuckles and VERY thin cable.

Some show the cable disappearing into the wing with no detail at all!

Some show the square patches R.R. detailed on his model.

So we can surmise that as with all things Gotha there is very little proof of any one method of securing the tanks.

Todays fuel tank rigging tool/ supply  setup :

You got your 1/32 tbuckles , p/e nuts and guage mounts doubling as rigging mounts.

I see you guys are all over this thread right now...

[krow113]

24 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Steve, what is Prym?

Pryn is the elastic thread WNW recommends to use for the R.A.F. flying wires on British WW 1 aircraft.

Easily gotten from sewing supply stores , it stretches into a racetrack or flat oval shape , the closest anyone has conme to the correct flyin wire profile.

You could have gotten it from WNW at $16.00 , or this pic may help with procurement :

The Biff Piece was rigged with a combination of a number of rigging materials.

[Martinnfb]

Impressive

[krow113]

Thanks Martin & Leo.

In continuation of the fuel tank rigging I used a p/e guage bezel with a p/e nut and 1/32 scale metal tbuckles. I selected  Prym for the actual cable as I do want to stretch the lines a little. In these two pics you can see everything in palce as I wick in th thinned white glue, several applicationds wont matteras it sucks right in shrinking right out of sight. The tbuckles have been glued along their entire length , You will also see that te rigging lines are not completed yet , following my way of doing things a little at a time , coming back to the work as the glue sets.

 

 

[Clunkmeister]

PHOQUE!!!

[GusMac]

16 hours ago, krow113 said:

The proof? A documented attrition rate of 70+% on LANDINGS , still they continued on with the airframes trying to make it work.

That's a pretty scary statistic! Must be nice to take off knowing even if you make the raid safely that's what awaits you.

[Umlaufmotor]

I had already followed the construction of this model in another forum at times.
Nice to see how Gotha has grown in the meantime.
Again and again nice to see, but unfortunately often very rare: Superdetailing, which comes very close to the original.
Here, on this model, excellently realized. Bravo!

Servus
Bertl

[krow113]

Thanks Cmiester ; I can only surmise that is a new Franco/Texan expression.

Thanks GMac

And Bertyl , good to see you again.

I must agree A Gotha does progress sporadically , in spurts , erratically , however you wish to put it.

I do not get paid to model, and as I work at home in my private business , when I model I could be making money for the business.

This creates the stop & go situation described.

Here are the tanks as the rigging progressed, I've pulled the wires through and over , white glueing them in place:

Step by step like this points out the way rigging can be approached , with patience and a number of steps with time in between to let glue dry.

And coming back in here with the final step , drilling for a fuel line fitting. This will be installed later , this is the last operation before flipping the wing over:

 

[krow113]

Thanks for the interest and looking in.

Today's mission was scrubbed as the camera battery died right at the beginning of the work....

Here is the layout for the intended bomb load.

2 300kg bombs and their fuse/detonater tips.

And a plethora of parts from the AEG kit , all of them numbered . I'll most likely sell or trade the AEG kit , it holds little interest for me and these parts will be missing , its a w/d kit too. These parts are for option IV of the bomb load. I'm robbing them because they are well moulded , better than the Gotha kit parts. Scratch building option is viable but tooling up a jig to bend the flat bar bomb racks would take some item , more than 4 items are worth. I include the p/e specific set because I have it , not because it is of any use ,as it is not:

[krow113]

A   t t t  toight little bit of fabrication results in a credible bomb rack beginning. I managed to use only the 4 grey parts of the AEG  kit , all the rest have gone back in the box. I can now have the bombs in place , and ready to rig the release mech when the fuse and wing center section are joined , this means minimal time upside down in the jig.

The Rack:

Oops!

 

[GazzaS]

Tidy little rack, Steve!

[krow113]

Thanks Gaz!

She clean up real nice...:

...looks like a little more work to get the bombs settled in ...