Here's the Wingnut Wings Roland DVIb, as with all WnW kits, in 1/32. I know many modellers here aren't that interested in 100 year old aircraft types, but as I hadn't built a biplane for a couple of years, and wanted something different, I thought I'd give this a try.
The parts' detailing is very good, as are the instructions.
Here's the cage, housing the cockpit and engine bearers, etc. I used the kit's PE belts. In hindsight I should have used RB Productions fabric set, as the fix of the PE belts behind the seat frame tended to pull the seatback away from its seat cushion, once the belts were superglued in place, as the belts had to be glued both behind the seat and down the inner face of the seatback, creating tension.
Colours are simple, a grey-green mix of my own, and a little woodgraining effect. There are only three dials on the panel; the kit's dial decals worked nicely, with a drop of Glue n' Glaze for the dial faces.
If you look closely you can just make out the rudder control wires running back under the seat. Everything still needs a coat of matte varnish to pull it together.
Observations so far are that the sequences are similar to Roden, but better presented and, arguably, without the need for aftermarket items. I have however purchased a set of RB Productions turnbuckles. I used to simply pull the rigging thread through pre-drilled holes, but the use of turnbuckles, whether hand-made or PE, pretty much drives the requirement for better detailing these days.
I'm still uncertain which finish to use for the fuselage (wings have four/five lozenge camo). I was leaning towards a natural wood finish - the fuselage is made from overlapping timber strips, like a 'clinker-built' boat - but then I'd have to probably use artists oils to get the right effect, or Uschi woodgrain decals (£15 a sheet!), so have been leaning towards an unusual pale green/purple/natural wood effect, as seen on one late war machine.
Here are photos of the beautiful BENZ Bz.IIIa(v) 185ps engine, with 'altitude' intake manifold. Note the rocker arm detail. Not sure how much of this will be seen once in its bay, and the fact that it's painted black and aluminium effectively hides some of the detail, still, a great bit of plastic engineering.
I thought I'd try finishing the wiring to the magnetos with .080 steel 'scientific' wire, but will test it first. No point doing it if it sits too low and can't be seen.
There was enough of the wiring still on view to secure the wires for show.
The engine, painted. Nothing weathered in though. I may add a little oily wash when it's in place later.
And in place on its bearers. The whole unit is now ready to insert between fuselage halves. WnW provides a nice touch with its stencil decals, too. The red cylinder bands, represented here by red decal strips fore and aft, indicated over-compressed cylinders (for high altitude operations).
Here are the 08/15 Spandau guns. Two versions on offer: a moulded version and a second (as here) more detailed version using a plastic barrel and stock, to which are added the kit's own PE cooling jackets.
The prop boss, just to show level of detail, like much else seen here, to be hidden away behind cowlings, etc.
The fuselage finished and primed. I came across unexpected fit issues, particularly where the halves met behind the cockpit. It seemed to be something to do with the cage, but everything was spot-on with that so not sure what happened. I had to lightly reduce (sand) the outer profile of the cage, then glue the fuselage halves together top-first, then when dry the lower sections were glued and clamped. Also, the nose cowling sat proud, so needed a little work. Probably nothing unusual here, but I was a little bemused, having heard so much about the level of detail in these kits. Might have been me, I suppose...
Also, I seem to recall a couple of callout errors between the instructions and the sprues, a couple of small parts, on sprue 'F' I think, but easily sorted.
The instructions at this point would have you assemble tail planes/rudder, but of course this is impossible as the lozenge decals have to be in place and the fuselage painting complete before these items can be mated. Ditto the lower wings. I'm proceeding a little warily at the moment...
I've treated selected sections of the fuselage as natural wood, which I think looks attractive. The image here shows the wood effect just as it was done, without any varnish protection, which in turn will add intensity to the wood hues. Necessary too to seal the oil paints, which wouldn't suit decals laid across them. The wood effect is a base coat of a Vallejo acrylic creamy yellow, followed by artists' oils Burnt Umber, Naples Yellow, and Scarlet, to give the effect of the grain and colours of individual planks. The scheme I'm using is the fourth of five available in the kit. The 'non-wood' areas will be painted green/blue/purple.
And here's the fuselage painted and decals applied.
The prop in basecoast, and then after treatment with artists oils and attached to backplate with spinner overall.
The undercarriage is made up of only nine pieces. Here's a neat little join between the struts and the horizontal member, and a photo after everything is in place (rigging to follow).
Much is made of rigging WWI aircraft, and with good reason, but it's easy to forget the amount of work required when applying German lozenge camo. In the case of the Roland, there's a mix of four- and five-colour lozenge, and some is applied spanwise and some chordwise. The photo below shows the top side of the lower wing, with tapes. I still have to decal the edges and add stencils. I made an error with the underside of this wing. At first I was using setting solution, and then discovered that WnW recommends no solution, as the decals are vinyl and can be damaged. Simply make sure surfaces are smooth, and use a hairdryer to settle them in. I got over the initial problem, but I'm glad I saw the error before proceeding further.
And here's a photo of the underside of the top wing. As on the lower wing, when top and bottom lozenge and rib tapes are in place, a thin decal strip is applied along the edges where the different decal types meet, effectively sealing them edgewise. A long job...
The tailplane, rudder, lower wing and undercarriage are now fitted to the fuselage. Although secured at three points, the undercarriage is still a little wobbly because of the thin struts. The cross brace of rigging will firm it up in due course.
The build is effectively complete at this point, with the final application of decals and small parts. The interplane struts need to be installed, but I still need to set all the turnbuckles in place first, prior to attaching the top wing.
The turnbuckles are from RB Productions (one of several set-types on the market). The centre 'wings' fold front and back around the core to create a three-dimensional hexaganal profile.There's a tiny strip adjacent each piece that has to be removed and threaded through eyelets. These anchors will be glued into respective holes. Once all are in place the rigging thread is passed through the other eyelet on the turnbuckle, tensioned, and glued.
And here are a few of the turnbuckles, folded.
The turnbuckles in place for the undercarriage.
And here with the rigging in place. The turnbuckles themselves retain their brass centre area, with the end eyelet sections in black. The rigging line is painted Vallejo Games Color "Cold Grey". I always use acrylics for painting rigging line. If I need to apply heat to tension the line later, the acrylic doesn't affect the elastic quality of the line, whereas enamels tend to bind it. The small circular divider, by the way, is a 1/72 Parabellum sight from PE spares.
The empennage is completed, here seen port side; starboard has an identical setup.
The turnbuckles have been anchored in their respective positions on the fuselage and lower wing.
The same application, applied to the underside of the top wing. To ease the rigging process, the monofilament has been secured to each turnbuckle - a real 'cat's cradle'! As with most modelling, rigging is 90% preparation.
The interplane struts are now in place. Once everything has dried completely overnight, I'll attach the top wing.
And relax...
Here's a photo of the starboard wing section with main rigging completed. There are still a couple of complex wires with turnbuckles to run either side of the cockpit, vertically, but these have to wait until all other rigging is complete, because access to general areas would be difficult otherwise.
I may decide to add some figures to create a small vignette, but with all the additional costs involved I'll probably wait for a while to see how I 'settle in' to the idea. That said, I'm bringing this thread to a close, as the remaining work is rigging as shown here, with the usual fine-tuning of paint, etc., to follow.
One observation I'd make, is relating to the RB Productions turnbuckles. The folding process to create the profile is quick and easy and the detail is great. The minuscule anchor 'tails' however are difficult to work with, at least quite time-consuming, although once in place they work fine. RB state that once the tails are bent over the eyelet ring they will be secure, but I found it useful to apply a touch of CA glue on a tip end of wire to lock them in place; they tended to fall out of the eyelets otherwise, or to come away when the turnbuckes were fitted in their holes. Secondly, although they look good, I found that when the filament is pulled through the eyelet a drop of CA is naturally needed to secure the filament at its tension point, and because of the nature of the connection that's a slight bending of the filament where it meets the eyelet. This results in a slight misalignment so that the viewing line of the rigging line doesn't follow dead straight along into the turnbuckle length - in other words a small bump or angle appears where the line passes through the eyelet, and it's impossible to trim away the excess line with a scalpel blade without dislodging the whole fixing. A pair of sharp, blunt-nose scissors is as close as you'll get.
Gaspatch do metal versions of turnbuckles, but I think the issues would be similar due to the nature of the meeting point. Not sure, it might just be I don't model WWI aircraft enough to overcome the problem. It might be possible to secure the thread and then return it round the eyelet in a small neat knot, which would lose the off-sided appearance.
I've seen another method, probably better applied to RFC aircraft. You make an eyelet by twisting a small gauge wire around a pin, thereby creating the ring and anchor tail. This is set in its respective hole. Before glueing the thread to the eyelet, you slide a narrow diameter piece of brass tube at a length of about 3mm onto the line. The line is then secured and the tube slid down the line over the eyelet, thus hiding the connection and leaving a neat finish.
Maybe something to consider before the next project...
One other item, though. I made a couple of chocks from Milliput, and ran some 'j-e-r-k rope' between them, so these at least will make it to the final presentation.
Thanks for looking!
