¹⁄32

January Model of the Month

history

The Pfalz D.XII's history is brief and its impact is largely insignificant - with its SPAD inspired low-drag wings, nose mounted Teves and Braun radiator and 200 hp Mercedes D.IIIau, the aircraft came favorably close though still could not match maneuverability of the Fokker D.VII. Produced in much lower numbers, reaching the production after the famous D.VII and early teething issues meant that the Pfalz was largely overshadowed by the much coveted Fokker and did not receive the same crew reception or proliferation in the Jastas.

The Kit

1/32 Wingnut Wings kit captures the aircraft in all the detail while Pheon Decals provides an extra set of schemes to choose from - picking the scheme for Ltn Josef Raesch's machine, whom may have been Germany's only ace to fly the D.XII in combat. Little or nothing of negative may be said about either of the products, so I'll just state that both receive highest praise in my mind.

The Build

Interior work begins with assembly of the cockpit, engine and inner frame as one piece, then fitting it between the fuselage halves. The fit and design of the pieces were easy to follow and make fall into place - while this is the slowest and most tedious part of the process, it's also arguably the most enjoyable. This method of model building does quite a bit for learning about the subject's construction and creates a convenient canvas for detailing. I have opted not to create control wires inside the cockpit, though there is plenty of detail to go around.

Midway point is closing fuselage around the interior frame, proceeding with adding details from the tail to the nose cowls - I like to pretty much complete the monoplane until I begin working on elements of the wing struts and the top wing. It's worth noting that Pfalz D.XII looks very plain at a glance, but rather detailed in markings and complexity of parts. The kit molds the Pfalz-Roland styled seam between the fuselage halves, but I usually have trouble keeping it clean during assembly - I sanded the seam down flush, then re-introduced it by gluing down and shaping a stretched sprue, as needed.

Lower wing had kit provided lozenge applied to the lower wings before installation to the fuselage - kit's lozenge is pre-cut and with rib tapes pre-applied. This saves quite a bit of time and labor, compared to the runs of lozenge and separate rib tapes, but provides with less chance to add personal touch to one's work or provide with much needed lozenge scrap material. Rigging material (steel wire) is tapped and secured in lower wing - the upper wing will have rigging pulled through, so I leave top wing upper surface lozenge off until rigging is complete.

Rigging tends to scare off many modelers from "stringbags" - I myself had reservations about building a scout with extra set of struts and rigging lines. I was rather delighted to discover that more rigging is not always more difficult - shorter span distances that rigging has to cover actually simplifies the job of maintaining equal tension, as forces are distributed more evenly and it's less likely for lines to go slack after the fact.

With rigging and lozenge decals done, I took a few more weathering passes to tone down the bright little scout and give it an appearance of a warplane.