Aviatik 'Berg' D.1

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I thought it was about time I took on another resin kit, as the last resin model I built was the DFW T28 'Floh' from 'Planet Models'.
I've had the 'HPH Models' 1:32 scale Aviatik 'Berg' D.I in my stash for quite awhile, so thought it was about time I gave it a go.
Already I've encountered a couple of things that may cause problems.
1. The instruction manual, normal I think for 'HPH Models', consists of a small booklet with photographs and arrows showing where parts fit.
However these illustrations leave a lot to be desired, especially those for assembling the engine, which has many parts and the smallest in the entire kit.
Some of the call out illustrations for parts are not the same as the actually resin parts supplied in the kit, which is a bit confusing.
2. More of a concern is that the kit is supplied with mask sheets for painting the lozenge - not the easiest route to take.
So I ordered the optional decal sheets.
These arrived in polythene bags and without the normal tissue paper protection sheets. Consequently the bags stuck to the exposed decals and despite being careful extracting the decal sheets, some were chipped where they's stuck to the bag. Also the bags had left an imprint across every decal, which I'm not sure will show after the decals are applied.
Thinking this might have been a 'one off' I ordered another set of decals, but these packaged the same way and in the same condition.
I emailed 'HPH' and suggested they revise how the package these decals - I haven't had a reply!!

Anyway we are modellers, not assemblers, so on I go.
I decided to work on the engine first, contrary to the instruction manual.
Unless I'm very carefully, some of the tiny engine parts may end up feeding the 'carpet monster' - we'll, but at least the kit is supplied with some spare parts.
I'm using 'Alclad' lacquers on the engine and have dulled down the copper water jackets on the cylinders and the intake manifolds by applying 'Tamiya' Weathering Master (Set D - Oil Stain), which gives the copper an older, heated look.
Long way to go on this one I think,

Mike   

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The basic engine build is done.
This involved assembling the engine block, cylinders' cam shaft, overhead valve gear housing, magnetos and drive shaft, ignition rail and the carburettor housing and intake manifolds., 
The paints used were primarily 'Alclad' lacquers (Duraluminium, Aluminium, Steel, Copper and Brass).
The only weathering applied so far is the 'Tamiya' Weathering Master (Set D - Oil Stain), which was sponged onto the copper cylinder heads and intake manifolds, in order to give an old, heated look.
There will be more weathering applied once the engine is complete.

Now onto the fiddly bits - support frame, pipe and water pump, timing handle assembly, valve gear, spark plugs, ignition leads etc,

Mike   

[Jeff]

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The engine is now completed.
I've added the ignition leads and spark plugs, timing mechanism, oil filler caps, water pump and coolant pipe, vale levers and springs and carburettor lever.
I've also made the exhaust pipes from 1.8 mm diameter brass tube mounted onto 1.4 mm tube - the kit items had 'solid' bores.
Test fitted into its mounting frames.

Mike   

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Contrary to the models instruction manual, I'm making a start on some of the internal fuselage details, as I need to see how the completed engine sits in the nose.
The reason being I want to cut out the engine access panels from the one piece fuselage halves, so more of the engine can be exposed.
After removing the various parts from their resin backing and base blocks, I spent a few hours cutting and sanding away the residue resin, which is normal for resin kits,

Mike   

[Bomber_County]

Mike, this one slipped past me, another masterclass in the making I do believe.......

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I've been hammering away at the fuselage internal details.
Everything is fitted to the right side of the fuselage with regular testing for the fit of the left side.
Included are control lines, trigger cables, control rods to the engine etc.
I still have some bits to do, like the two machine guns and final weather etc, but I'm getting there,

Mike   

[sandbagger]

Hi all.
I forgot to take shots of the internal fuselage before closing it up.
I still have a few bits to do - windows in the front decking, rear cabane cross bracing, top rear engine pipe, blast tubes for the machine guns and crash padding on the breech blocks.
Also seam filling and checks,

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The basic fuselage is now completed, with the addition of the blast tubes for the two 'Schwarzlose' machine guns, crash pads and top rear engine pipe.
I also added lead wire to represent the pipes/wires connected at the back of the instrument panel, although its virtually impossible to see them and worse once the upper wing is fitted.
There's a lot of photo-etch detail to be added to the fuselage and another engine pipe, but those will be left until later in the build to prevent the getting damaged,

Now it's time to move onto the wings and tail unit,

Mike

[DocRob]

Another masterpiece, thanks for letting us peek.

Cheers Rob

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Well, starting on the tail unit there are a few areas that needed to be addressed:
The 'Berg' had pronounced 'wash-out' (upward flare) at the outer trailing edge of the ailerons. Although it looks as though this was attempted in the kit parts, the 'wash-out' was nowhere pronounced enough. This required careful bending after heat soaking in hot water (boiled).
The combined fin and rudder had a few areas that I felt needed to be re-profiled after comparing the kit part to drawings in several notable publications.  
The tail planes and elevators, when laid together with the rib tapes aligned were found to be off-set to each other. I also felt these parts needed re-profiling.

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Before starting on the undercarriage changes, the lower wing need to be prepared.
The front spars of the lower wings were connected by a steel bar, which was located on the bottom surface of the fuselage.
As such the leading edges of the lower wings sat slightly below the fuselage. 
This is different from most aircraft of the time where the lower wing front spars were integral to the fuselage construction.
To locate the lower wings to the fuselage, 1.0 mm diameter holes needed to be drilled into the wing roots and one hole each side of the fuselage.
Metal rods were inserted into holes in the wing roots.
When test fitted, the wing root rear rods insert into the fuselage holes and the longer front rod against the underside of the fuselage.

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,

The supplied undercarriage struts have solid axle ends solid with bungee suspension cords include.

However the axle fairing has a solid steel rod moulded into the fairing, which can't be fitted into the struts without drilling out the moulded axle ends.

Even if possible, it would leave the weight of the model on the flimsy resin suspension cords, which I don't think would take the weight.

Instead I've removed the moulded axle ends and bungee cords to allow the rod in the axle fairing to locate onto the struts.

I've yet to create the bungee suspension cords from wire. I also replaced the kit supplied bracing bar with 0.9 mm diameter tube, as the kit part was too short,

Mike

[HubertB]

As usual, great attention to detail and execution 

Hubert

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The undercarriage assembly is completed.
Struts modified by removing the pre-moulded axle ends and bungee suspension cords.
Cross bracing anchors points added to the bottom front of the forward undercarriage struts.
Axle secured to the undercarriage struts and 0.4 mm diameter lead wire used to replicate the bungee cord suspension.
Bracing bar in kit replaced (too short) with 0.9 mm diameter brass tube,

Mike

[harv]

Super clean work. Very good.......harv 

[JeroenPeters]

Lovely. Looks like a sweet kit. 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
I've been working on preparing the wings, fin/rudder, ailerons, tail planes, elevators and their associated support struts.
The struts should, I think, have steel reinforcing pins moulded through them, but I found the 'Z' shaped cabane struts had ends without pins.
Also the fuselage indents for locating these struts had no locating hole.
The single piece fin and rudder had no locations for attaching it to the fuselage and neither did the tail planes.
The separate ailerons and elevators also has no locating pins/holes.

Therefore I added support pins of 0.6 mm diameter for the wing struts and ailerons and 0.4 mm diameter pins to locate the fin/rudder, elevators and tail planes.

Mike 

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
On the top of the fuselage and to the rear of the radiator is a condensation matrix for cooling radiator steam back to liquid and returning it back into the cooling system through a pipe connected to the rear of the assembly.
Apparently this avoided a build up of steam pressure being lost through the filler cap and losing coolant. 
Anyway I wasn't happy with the resin one piece part in the kit.
I felt it was too large at the base and anyway the top was slightly off centre with the bottom.
Also the kit doesn't appear to have the 90 degree pipe at the back of the assembly.
So I cut the part in two, re-shaped the base, connected them with brass tube and added the rear pipe using annealed 0.8 mm brass rod.
Strangely the photo-etch in the kit supplies only one 'matrix' disc for the condensation matrix, which presumably like a radiator, would have the matrix from front to rear?
I used the photo-etch from the front of the matrix (as that will be more visible) and drilled 0.3 mm diameter holes in the rear face to replicate the matrix,

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Things are progressing slowly right now until I receive some decals I need.
I've applied small serial number decals to the struts and fuselage and painted the condenser assembly on the forward, top fuselage. 
The fuselage underside has had wood decals (HGW Models) applied. Very thin and fragile!! Weathering and joint seams yet to be applied.
Tail skid painted and under surfaces pre-shaded and prepared for CDL decals.

In the meantime I'll crack on painting the figure,

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
Austro-Hungarion pilot completed

Mike

[Jeff]

19 hours ago, sandbagger said:

Hi all,
Austro-Hungarion pilot completed

Mike

[sandbagger]

Hi All,
The 'Aviattic' CDL decals have been applied to the under surfaces.
Weathering still needs to be applied,

Mike

[Bomber_County]

Two simple words, simply stunning.................congrats Mike......

[sandbagger]

Hi all,
The Aviatik 'Berg' D.1 was an aircraft that had many and varied camouflage schemes that were applied.
They ranged from plain varnished wood to streaking, sponged colours, solid colours joined by zig-zag borders and lozenge.
The Austro-Hungarian applied lozenge was much larger than the German equivalent and was either uniform shaped hexagons or 'squashed' hexagons.
This particular aircraft was manufactured by the 'Aviatik' Company, so had their standard uniform sized hexagon lozenge.

The decals supplied in the kit are not the best and have thicker than normal backing sheets.
Also they are not 'cookie cut' and need to be accurately cut out from the backing sheets.
They are thin and care is needed when applying them as they are easily torn.

I've primed the surfaces with white as this brings out the colours more accurately. 'Tamiya' Smoke was used (thinned 50/50 with X20a) to apply slight pre-shading before the decals were applied.  
Here's the lower left wing as an example. Post weathering will be applied later in the build.

Mike