Howdy Stephen

Even though I've probably said this before, I don't mind repeating myself in this case...following your build ups {for me} is seriously like being in a bloody candy store!

Your attention to detail, both on the real aircraft and how it all boils down to its more attainable application on the kit itself is simply exemplary!! Not only are your obviously well researched how-tos informative for all of us interested in Early Aviation, but they at the same time possess the strange power of drawing others who may find the subject mildly interesting into the ranks of the fullfledged aficionado quite smooooothly.......

I only have one request of you dear Sir......don't stop!

warm regards,

Tread.

Treadhead; you silver tongued devil! I will try not to disappoint.

In the past weeks I have had precious little time to model but in the next two days I will be at it again. In the mean time here is what I have been trying to do. I have ooogled Brad Cancian's Mercedes from the Roden Albatros thread. The main difference between the early 170hp and the late 170hp was the tappets / rocker spring locations.

As you can see from the diagram I posted here, the late 170hp had the rocker cover boxes moved back and the rocker arms and springs were now on its leading edge.

In short the rocker arms and springs were not relocated but the box covers were.

Slight modifications to this area are the last of the engine items I am working on. Almost ready to close up AFTER the Spandaus are modified. Yes I know pictures ! Must put images up. . . I need more hours in the day. Soon I will reveal my scheme choice. You will love it.

Note if some of you have ordered the 1/32 Pfalz D.III brass from Tom's Modelworks be patient. I hear Tom is on or just coming back from vacation.

Concerning the twin Spandau Maxim machine gun (4 E X 2 ), the solid plastic cooling jackets cannot be seen once the fuselage is closed up. I replaced the cross bar on the gun trays (5 C ) with a metal rod. and cut down the front gun supports and removed the rear gun supports on the Spandaus.


One minor concern is that to get the left gun completely in place vertically the inner fuselage (1 C ) wall above the breech needs to be thinned or the breech cut down. For those of you thinking about exposing the engine and adding photoetch gun jackets. Do not add them here. Dry fit the jackets you want to use and then wait until the fuselage is closed up. This will minimize any possible damage. Just make sure they slip on and off without hindrance.

Also, confirmed by photographic evidence that none of the Pfalz D.III or D.IIIa types had a spade shaped cocking handle. These are popular items that some modelers like to add. The Pfalz fighters used ‘T’ shaped handles ( but there should be two of these.) in the cockpit leading from the cocking levers on the right side of the gun breeches and worked via a linkage system. For further detail the left side of the left gun breach add an auxiliary throttle push lever These items came as ‘O ‘ring or ‘T’ handles.

Well here we are. The cockpit is almost ready to close up. I have the Spandaus ready to receive the fretted gun jackets. I have added the cables for the machine guns back to the triggers.


Next I will add the synchroization cables from the guns to the engine. Solder is a great medium for this kind of work.

Here is Brad Cancian's early 170hp Mercedes.


Here is my late version of the engine. Not quite completed. Note the position of the rocker arms and springs at the top of the cylinder jackets in relation to the box covers.

Here is the other side of my late version of the engine. Not quite completed. Note the position of the rocker arms and springs at the top of the cylinder jackets. Note also how the left gun breech still can bump the inside fuselage shell even after I lowered it by cutting down the attachment points. In the end the guns will be where they need to.

Here is what I did to represent the lath laminations that built up each half of the fuselage shell on the original types. I did not go all the way forward with it and didn't bother filling the ejector pin indentions as they won't be seen with what I have in store.

Step 6.) Rudder and the control horn assembly.

Step 7.) Horizontal tail unit and the control horn assembly.

Step 8.) For the right fuselage half interior, make it easy on yourself, begin this project by familiarizing the areas for the internal structure of the fuselage halves ( 2 C ) and pre-drilling all rigging holes. I went further and scribed parallel lines on the inside the cockpit walls to represent the wood lath / strips that went into the make-up of the Pfalz fuselage shell halves. Paint both fuselage halves ( 1 & 2 C ) interiors and the fuselage formers either:

A a dull aluminum.
or
B. a base color of Polly S dirty white, antique white, French beige or doped linen. This gives you a nice base for the plywood effect that you need to duplicate.

After these are thoroughly dry, spray the painted surfaces with a clear flat. Allow it to dry completely , then if you are doing a varnished wood interior begin with a wash of Testors (#1166) flat (orange) brown enamel always going parallel to the lath edges. Down the length if the fuselage diagonally. The resultant streaks will simulate the wood grain. Then dry brush just the frame work with the base colour. The colour variations that you create when doing this makes a great contrast to the inside wood lath. It is known that both methods were popular for sealing the interior shells of the Pfalz single seat fighters. Photographic evidence shows that both methods were used. There are even cases where the fuselage formers were varnished wood and the interior of the fuselage shells were aluminum doped.

I used the kit fuel /air control panel ( 12 F) and mounted it per kit instructions. The attempt at scratch-building a scale wiring control harness will be fragile but will pay greatly in the end. Add a short section of painted solder leading forward to represent the tube for the water pump greaser ( 21 G )

Step 9 ) The Bosch starting magneto assembly ( 7, 11 G & 13 F ) is straight forward but note its placement and wiring in step 10.

Step 9a) Seat assembly ( 2, 7 F & 20 G ) To do this area justice it is advisable that you construct / manufacture lap and shoulder harnesses. This can be done with common masking tape with buckles cut from sheet plastic. Tom’s Modelworks sheet has some fine items for buckles and tie-downs.

Step 10.) Add the rear cockpit screen ( 3 G ). The tachometer (15 G ) on the Pfalz D. Types appears to be upright in all cases. On other single seat types they were laid on their sides. For the left side of fuselage former add the starting magneto switch assembly ( 2, 7 F & 20 G ). To be absolutely correct one could add a wire switch to the circular area as there was a key that was attached by a small chain but would reach to the circular instrument. (Much like a key to the ignition of a modern car.) The Bosch starting magneto should have a bundle of ignition wires with a faded red insulation cover leading from the lower area of along the fuselage interior toward the forward area of the engine compartment

You will only see it here. Roden sent me coloured images of their profiles.

Sometime in August 1917 the first Pfalz D.III types arrived. They were painted in the green and lilac (not mauve) on all upper surfaces. Often the all undersurfaces and uppersurface cross borders were of silbergraü. It is infered that the silbergrau was that standard from the beginning of production BUT a few early production types had the two toned camouflage to all uppersurfaces. Here are two early examples.

Greetings all I had an inquiry about the reason for the rocker box relocation. Here is a quote from someone knowlegable in this arena.

" . . . The EARLY ones are for the D. III itself ( and the early production D.IIIa), and DID reside squarely atop each of the cylinder heads, with the rockers themselves coming out slots in the sides of the boxes...they did NOT seal very well...so later on, the (late production) D IIIa engine had the rockers positioned just AHEAD of the boxes, being driven by rotary shafts coming out the boxes' front surfaces. The rotary shafts WERE easier to seal, but DID require the boxes to be relocated to a position just behind the vertical centerline of each cylinder...so the(late model) D IIIa had the boxes relocated further back. . ."

Ltn Stark's machine is well documented.

Here the original before the snake appication. The wheels might have been white as well.



It is possible as well that the white was from a previous unit and was eventually overpainted in Kest 8.

I added an oil tank from a cylindrical section for sprue with a sprue slice as a cap. This is located on the pilot's right side of the engine compartment back on the rear portion of the engine bearer shelf.

Here is a list of "other items that I added to the cockpit.
1. tachometer gauge face and bezel.
2. main fuel tank gauge face.
3. air pump gauge. / "Manometer."
4. 2 lap and 2 shoulder harness / webings and 4 PE buckles.
5. floor mounted compass gauge face and bezel.
6. 2 foot stirrups to the rudder bar.
7. Synchronizer cables from engine to gun breaches.
8. 2 Bowden cables from control coloumn to the guns.
9. 2 rudder , 4 elevator cables.
10. brass conduit pipes for the electrical wiring from the instrument cluster on the pilot's right.

Step 11.) Now glue the fuselage halves (1 & 2 C ) together and allow to dry. To get the fuselage to close up you will have to clip off the decompression handle on the upper rear tower of the engine. This was removable anyway on the real machine ( it unscrewed.)

Then erase all union seams. Add the rudder and horizontal tail unit assemblies. Careful sanding helps the horizontal tail unit ( 3 C ) fit properly. I used gap filling super glue (semi gelatin) to fill joint seams between all plastic parts joined to the fuselage. Note that canting control surfaces tends to give the piece a more natural look seen in period images of the real aircraft. The kit rigging control horns ( 9 G & 2 E X 2 ) can be used per the instructions. Add the lower wing ( 1 A ) at this time.

Concerning the lower wing ( 1 A ) attachment. I had to trim about 1/16 of an inch from the trailing end and had only minor sanding to finish. The fit is near perfect. BUT you may remember I had to cut down the fuel spout (5 Z ) and the engine carburetors ( 6 G ). Had I left these items alone I would have run into some serious fit problems with the lower wing and fuselage at this point. Images to be posted .

The comments herein are sourced from Greg VanWyngarden in recent e-mails.

Hi Stephen

I have one questioon about this profile. i always thought that the stripe should be yellow too.

I have seen one photo somewhere with a line up of the Jasta 10 Pfalz' and every decoration on the aircraft looks very dark (I would blame it to the orthochromatic error where red and yellow look black) But I am by faaaaar no WW1 expert, so what is right?

BTW the new Propellerblatt is just out

best wishes

Steffen

...............wow....... unbelievable detail in your posts my friend. It all gives my synapses both joy and challenge

My apologies, but could you elaborate a tad on " lath laminations " ?Because I must honestly profess to being ignorant of this interesting detail of the time.....

Tread.

Greetings Steffen;

Its always good to hear from you. The question of whether Jasta 10 used black yellow or . . . for personal markings hails back to the "Dicta Richthofen." MvR's attitude was that the tail unit was the best place for personal markings. BUT he allowed that each Jasta Commander make his own determination. These Pfalz D.III machine were first out in the fall of 1917. In my opinion , Jasta 10 at this time the nose was the unit colour of chrome yellow. The personal markings on the fuselage were in black and the tail units were also areas that were used for personal or kette (flight) colours.

You can check with Greg VanWyngarden's findings in "Von Richthofen's Flying Circus" from Windsock (as one of their Datafile Specials) It covers JG 1 before the units were joined and continues until the EOW. Jasta 10 is thoroughly discussed with what information was available.

We also know that D.1370/17 was discussed in a Flight review. The tail unit may have been yellow at one time, then it was overpainted a medium green then it was overpainted PC 10 after its capture. Yellow nose and tail may have been astandard at one time. BUT black was probably always used on the aluminum doped Pfalz D.III fuselages for personal markings in Jasta 10.

I'll check but I think Greg may have even discussed this in the Pfalz Fighters book published by Flying Machines Press.

Greetings Treadhead! No worries. As a method of building up the fuselage, several mnufacturers began by steaming wood over male molds. Think of it as vacuforming plastic over a male mold. Albatros did whole panel sections in 3mm plywood. Pfalz used strips of wood 1 - 2mm thick. They would steam the wood. and lay it down over the mold diagonally, then they would run another course diagonally on the opposite direction and apply glue to laminate these layer together. The reultant half shells were nailed and screwed to wooden formers and usually very durable EXCEPT for one single problem.

Germany was short on cured wood during the summer of 1917. (Manufacturers had to cure their own by the way.) Unfortunately for Pfalz Werke to keep up with their contractural demands "green wood" crept into their production of the D.III & D.IIIa aircraft. For a machine that shoud have an almost perfect flying profile it developed a nasty problem. After having served at the front for several weeks many of the Pfalz D. III and D.IIIa fighters began developing a twist or warp in the fuselage near the tail unit. Not noiceable on the ground but seen easy from above, the tail unit would be either left or right a few degrees from center. (I have a study on Jasta 64w that is due to be published in "Over the Front" next year that details some of these concerns.

Hello Stephen

many thanks for your elaborate answer!!!! Hope I think of this post when I use the Glencoe decals on an Eduard Pfalz .... one day
(I hope to do 3-4 Pfalz D.III Berthold and Degelow - I have read both liked the plane- , Klein and maybe Thuy)

best wishes

Steffen

Stephen, how do you like the build up so far? I have one but have not even opened the box yet which is different. But my desk is covered with a 1/350 Bismarck.

The information provided on this build is fantastic. Keep the pictures coming.

Greetings redalb2253;
I haven't heard from you for a while. Personally I like the Roden kit. I can say that there are some minor issues as there seems to be with all models. But I remember the hugh hassle I had when doing a review on the "Battle Axe" Fokker D.VII in 1/32. I hate to say anything bad about a kit, but after that I swore off Battle Axe.

In comparison this "Roden" Pfalz D.III is light years better. The fit is good. Typically you will want to counter sink the strut locator holes. And I will also use some brass pins there for strengthening and longevity. The detail is great for an all plastic kit.