A GOTHA

[krow113]

Contemplating this ref pic today:

I did observe the markings farther down the fuse are obviously white and the skull does not match that shade. The skull does match the engine pod behind it.

The skull appears to be grey or the grey green engine pods came painted. The subject is a GIII as well. MY skull does not appear to be the same size , as GIV's nose' were smaller in height. I think I have it sized ok:

I also didnt spray it a full white coat , there is gonna be a series of masks to get the detail into the skull shape , those paint applications will build up shades and maybe a little color.

[krow113]

Little bit every day as well as the contemplation of the more complicated work to come.

The tidy litttle bomb rack gets some p/e and eyelet detail:

Some careful drilling there , getting more used to the tiny drill bit handling and use.

[Ryan]

On 5/2/2020 at 3:15 AM, GazzaS said:

Tidy little rack, Steve!

Yes, bursting with detail.

[krow113]

Wait a minute , I'm confused , is it this rack:

...or this rack:

...couldnt possibly be this rack:

 

[krow113]

$850.00 CDN for this kit !?

The Herd can sure be counted on to show the lack of progress in humanity.

The OBC , firmly in the drivers seat, is poised to make trillions in the coming months.

Am I starting to see the end game...?

Not much to report on A Gotha I've actually seen a surge in sales lately.

[krow113]

Pandemic surge in tourism and sales in my store have been getting in the way.

Looking forward to the seasons slow down, as A Gotha is poised at the cusp of critical mass , whereby I acquire tunnel vision and go straight through to the end.

Thanks for your patience.

[krow113]

...and reaching for the box...

Meh. Just an upper management ego driven power play.

..seriously ...

I usually get a break after summer , no chance , summer sales careened into  holiday sales , orders multiplying , hoping for a traditional Xmas-NYE week sales slowing .

But.

Is anything traditional anymore?

[Jeff]

Good question, Steve...... good that you are busy with sales, but a guy needs some quiet time as well..... makes a guy wonder where this is going to end up.....

[krow113]

Thanks Jeff.

My survival formula has been pared down to its simplest form.

Watching peeps on social media arguing about masks, mask rules , where masks are to be used , where the rules apply and dont apply , seemingly no possibility of agreement on the most basic of premise'. While our child king contemplates 're-starting the country' and 're-imagining the economy' . The easiest answer to; "Why" being the making sure that the 'herd' is busy looking in each others back yards

Obviously the creative process requires none of this melange of 'information' ,social media being the 'junk mail' of our times , so it is easy enough without to much self recrimination  to disregard it in its entirety.

That is where my thinking has progressed to. I keep on making as much product as possible, keeping standards high in all regards . Everything I have made has sold at one time or another , that has become a certainty , just as customers will call and come through the door.

The tentative certainty of that allows me to look ahead and attempt to foresee slower times during the year to get some time on the models.

One thing I do is search the model forums for Gotha builds, very few , actually none that I could find on the go!

I guess with the kit selling at 1100 euros , peeps are gonna hoard for a while.

[GazzaS]

I think there are a lot of WNW that won;t get built by the 'first' buyer.  There are some guys who are 'waiting for their skillset to improve' before they build them.  If I was 35, I might thing that way...  but being almost 20 years past 35...  I gotta build em.

[Jeff]

I hear ya, Steve, "Child King"............ he is such a dip wad.... yeah the mask thing is getting to be quite an issue, our little dumpy town made the news last night and probably will again tonight, some Yahoo went to a local place for coffee, and was asked to wear a mask to be able to come in to the store as per the latest rules, and this guy got pissy and spat on one of the gals there, and it upset her so bad she had a heart attack and is now in Kelowna and not doing so well................ people......  give me a dog any day....

[krow113]

Thanks Jeff

In my rural setting it is showing up too ; goofs yelling at store clerks.

So tough spitting on people, but Canadain laws are for the benefit of the instigator, do anything to them and your the problem and you will be charged while they watch.

Thanks Gaz.

A previous thread on this forum showed the majority here would build the kits. But thats to be expected logically.

Waiting until a skillset improves?

Spurious thinking to say the least .

My skillset was achieved from making unholy mess' out of a lot of things and learned as I went.

The Gotha kit is an excellent kit , its excellence is readily apparent AFTER  its built.

[GazzaS]

Looking forward to seeing more of this.  After seeing your lozenge work, I'm tempted to try my own.  I don't really care for huge decals, and I've never been totally happy with the way the decals came out.  They get wrinkles near the wing tips, or even worse, blisters as you use a hair dryer to shrink them.

[krow113]

43 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Looking forward to seeing more of this.  After seeing your lozenge work, I'm tempted to try my own.  I don't really care for huge decals, and I've never been totally happy with the way the decals came out.  They get wrinkles near the wing tips, or even worse, blisters as you use a hair dryer to shrink them.

Which kit were you thinking of?

If I have it I can layout masks to suit. Lozenge would be dead easy after polygons!

It really is a viable method in my view , having someone else try it out will help to prove that.

 

[GazzaS]

1 hour ago, krow113 said:

Which kit were you thinking of?

If I have it I can layout masks to suit. Lozenge would be dead easy after polygons!

It really is a viable method in my view , having someone else try it out will help to prove that.

 

Fokker D.VII, Hannover Cl.II.  ,Halberstadt Cl.II.   But who knows when I'll actually get to them.

 

[krow113]

5 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Fokker D.VII, Hannover Cl.II.  ,Halberstadt Cl.II.   But who knows when I'll actually get to them.

 

I have at least 2 of those.

Lozenge would be easy layout , just watched a guy do a multiple full mask lozenge on fpratbook , there were overlaps on the colors , my method has the color edges mating. A BIG  diff to me.

For an experienced modeller , banks of properly scaled and numbered lozenges would be easy to cut to shape and apply.

I'll do my best to set aside some time for A Gotha in the near future.

[GazzaS]

Just now, krow113 said:

I have at least 2 of those.

Lozenge would be easy layout , just watched a guy do a multiple full mask lozenge on fpratbook , there were overlaps on the colors , my method has the color edges mating. A BIG  diff to me.

For an experienced modeller , banks of properly scaled and numbered lozenges would be easy to cut to shape and apply.

I'll do my best to set aside some time for A Gotha in the near future.

My trouble would be having a machine that only cuts.  Numbering them would have to be with a sharpie...lol 

[krow113]

1 minute ago, GazzaS said:

My trouble would be having a machine that only cuts.  Numbering them would have to be with a sharpie...lol 

lol

sorry i dont think in terms of those things

i would be happy to supply a set to a competent modeller who was keen to try as it helps prove the method

[GazzaS]

46 minutes ago, krow113 said:

lol

sorry i dont think in terms of those things

i would be happy to supply a set to a competent modeller who was keen to try as it helps prove the method

Well...  don't know if I'm competent.  But I'll let you know when I start my next WNW bird.

[Fran]

This is utterly gorgeous!

How I have been missing it??? Its a great great work and very inspiring.

I have my Gotha in the doom shelf waiting for better days!

 

[krow113]

Thank you.

And slowly , but because I am thinking more and more about it , steadily moving into the reaquaintance of this model.

Part of the length of time involved has been rethinking the procedure to suit my building methods. Mainly concerning the large part assy's one encounters at this stage .

I want to joint the wing lower and fuse assy and immediately turn that assy over to get the bomb rack details on.

Bomb rack work begins with some saddles cut from a slice of brass tubing:

I finally got the bombs to stay together too , using epoxy rather than crusty crap-ass cyano. This will be a full sub-assy with bombs attached all going on at once.

I also bit onto the rigging work , setting up just for the 4 wires under the wing. 1/32 metal turnbuckles and eyelets are used for this rigging:

[GazzaS]

Glad to see the love resuming on this build.  Bomb racks look nice and non-chunky.

[krow113]

Thanks Gaz.

 And part of this for me is figuring out how things work.

The bomb rack specifically had me stumped for literally years , until today.

There are a lot of pics, which is not a common statement for Gotha modellers , of bomb racks ,as they were of the same manufacturing policy as a lot of components. Made by a singular company for bomber manufacturers.

I did rob some rack parts off of the AEG G IV kit. The rest is added.

Here is how the mechanism appears to me to work;

See the lever shaped part molded to the left of the front piece of the rack:

That is the actuation lever.

It should be molded inside the tube to the right of it.

IE: at 1 o clock not 11 o clock.

Because if you look at pics there is a slug sticking out of that tube. When the commander toggles the bomb levers in the front cockpit ; the slug slides into the tube and the lever rotates counter clockwise , the hook at the bottom releases the sling . Its all there to see in pics in the instructions and Gotha! and RR's book.

The parts from WNW are not incorrect , they are just molded in the released position!

There is a decent amount of reference pics and materials to indicate the possibilty of a p/e set to do a more complete and detailed bomb rack. It appears to be mainly flat bar and tubing.

I opted for the kit parts over an available p/e set ,which I do have as well , thinking it to be of little improvement.

The bomb rack is at 90% . some more hardware detail and some paint. I used EZ line for the slings and added the brass tube cradles to fit the 300kg bombs more snugly:

[DocRob]

Interesting, I spent some thoughts on the bomb racks lately, as my Aviattic pimped 1/48 Gotha G.V is on it's way, which has added resin bombs, but no racks at all. I was browsing the manual of my AEG G.IV, which seems to have a similar rack. I will dig deeper, when the kit arrives.

Are you aware of the HGW etched racks for the AEG?

Search (hgwmodels.cz)

Cheers Rob

[krow113]

Thanks Rob

The p/e set I mention is by them for the Gotha. None of it used.

I cant see any use for the AEG set  other than maybe sizing the parts you will have to make to have a decent bomb rack.

None of the actual materials used for the racks are represented properly in the p/e sets offered.

And As I said, Gotha and AEG most likely did not manufacture their own bomb racks, they were supplied by a separate contractor building for all of the bomber manufacturers, so pics of bomb racks from many aircraft can be used. Proof of this is the bomb rack pic in the RR build book where he states the racks were all the same.