A night out with Erika - Gotha G.V 904/16 'Erika'

[FarEast]

Right so after looking at uniforms I realized that I would need to also modify the sleeves of the jacket. I used simple masking tape for the sleeves and then some appropriate sized brass rod for the buttons.





After painting it up I applied the red piping and called it a day!!









So now all that needs doing is making the jig, harnesses and reins using the parts I picked up.
 

[FarEast]

So I'm calling this part 90% done and it will be put on the back burner until ready to be placed within the Diorama - a few more items to go in the back of the limber as well as more weathering - mostly muddy things up a little.

As you can see I decided to make some blinkers for the horse - don't want the poor beasts bolting!



The coat of arms has been removed and a little weathering over it - several more coats will be applied to bring it to contrast with the other areas. I will also burnish or weather the pole arm chains as they coming up way to bright in the photos - I may even turn then completely black as they would be left with the limber and not part of the harness.





The tows replaced with scratch made ones as I didn't like the ridged lines of the kit part - these feel more natural and bowed where they needed to.



Putting it together with the MarienFelde Lorry





So now on to the next part of the build! 

[FarEast]

So here she is, the Aviattic Marienfelde Lorry and Masterbox Ltd. Horse drawn limber were nice distractions but now for the fun!

[FarEast]

Over the past three days I've had some quality bench time with the Gotha G.IV /V build.

I used a combination of Tamiya colours, Uschi van der Rosten wood decals and oils for the wood.



From there it was a case of slowly building up the detailing with the kit parts and also the HGW Super detail kit.

 

Also special thanks to Ray Rimell for the use of the Gotha! script from the Special Datafile.
 

[FarEast]

Many thanks everyone for the kind words and also the critique it does keep the wheels turning!

After attaching the turnbuckles for internal bracing wires it was time to make sure the fit was still good.





I decided to leave the rigging for another time as I was feeling a little mentally tired from 8 straight hours at the bench and completely forgetting to eat anything.

Time to turn in!
 

[FarEast]

So today was the point of no return and started chopping away at the Gotha G.IV.

The parts made by Ron Kootje are fantastic and match the exact thickness of the Wingnut Wings fuselage - once positioned I bonded it with gel type CA and left to cure.

[FarEast]

Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and take the hard route.

I started dry fitting the cockpit together and started to wonder why things looked a little strange, the answer is that the side console is missing from the Gotha G.V and it has a completely different dashboard and instrument panel!

The throttle controls and compass are now in the bay on the left side along with the airspeed indicator and all of the dials and switches are now directly in front of the pilot on a much larger console.

This meant two things, one that I would have to remove the side console and two build a completely scratch built instrument panel.

Now the problem is that this would leave a bloody great big hole in the wood flooring I had already done!

So time to bite the bullet! All the front section removed and the paint and wood decals removed.



Again its preshaded and preweathered.



So with the cockpit how it should be it was time to focus on the rest of the parts!

[krow113]

Great work.

I left a comment on your marking thread on the ww1 forum.