Mark, Very well done! I like the look and color.
RAGIII

Thanks, Rick. Here's a little more progress.

The wheels with guitar string spokes...................





And here are the struts with a coat of Desert Yellow followed by thinned Brown to paint on the 'grain"....................





Mark

Nice trick with the spokes ! I remember seeing this done before , Lars I think it was . Something on which I will incorporate into my builds once I start with the 32 scale kit's .

Don't forget the valve stem ! This is looking really sweet Mark

Thanks Terri. Good luck with your move to Texas.

Here's the finished struts. It's hard to see, but I drilled holes in the protrusions on the struts to accept the rigging lines.



Mark

Here are the wing undersides. Light grey primer, flat earth pre-shade and finally a coat of CDL. Notice the edging along the front of the wings to represent the overlap of the upper color paint.






A little touch up and..............

More soon,
Mark

Hello all,

Next, I tackled the decals. I chose the London Air Defence SE5a piloted by Lt. L. Lucas in April/May of 1918. The decals separated from the decal paper and floated on the top of the water.



I used tweezers to pick up the decal and place it on the wing. They are a little thick but went down OK.



I had one decal that cracked but I was able to line the two parts up and paint the missing blue in with blue paint.




And here is the fuselage and tail................



I would probably use masks for the roundels next time. But the decals are fine with a little care. Definitely be very gentle and careful with them when applying them.

More soon,
Mark

Looking very sweet Mark ! The per-shading is fantastic .

Thanks Terri. It turned out better than I'd hoped.

I drilled holes to accept HO scale Eye Bolts for the rigging and used pliers and tweezers to bend them to an angle................






Then I painted them with flat black enamel paint..............................



Then I painted the pulley ports CDL, made pulleys with my punch and die set and put on the top wing...............




Mark

Here's how I tackled the Pulley access panels.

First, I measured and made the frames from styrene then test fitted them.................





Then I painted the frames Olive drab and the pulleys silver and drew on the pulley holders in black ink on the pulleys and test fitted the pulleys....................................




Next I cut out some clear plastic from the wrapper that the decals came in..................



Then I glued the plastic along the edge of the frames with superglue as I cut them along the edges..............



There you go, a nice easy fix for the pulleys........................



Here the pulleys and frames are installed on the wings and tail......................





More soon,

Mark

Cool way on doing the pulleys Mark . The whole project is shaping up very nicely and I look forward to more .

Nicely Done!

Seconds JackFlash's comment, wuth a "very" added to it

Thanks, guys. Here's a few pics. The propeller, engine and exhaust pipes are installed. I'll have your final pictures of the build tomorrow with a better background.





Mark

OK everyone, here's the finished bird. I'd like to send a 'thank you" out to Stephen for considering me for the build and thanks to everyone checking in, it has been a great learning experience. I hope I was able to pass along a few tips for everyone out there considering to build this kit.











Mark

Awesome Mark ! cheers to you

Awesome build there Mark, just love it.



Larsa Q

Thanks, Terri and Lars. I'm glad you like it.

Nicely Done Mark! Thanks for lending a hand here.

Very nicely done Mark. Bravo!

Regards
Steve

Mark, this is an excellent work. As always I adore your detailing.
Best regards Peter

Well done mark.
The Home defence machine is an interesting scheme...
I wish I could have had mine finished by now.

Cheers,

Hugh

Many thanks for all of the compliments, everyone. This build was really a lot of fun.

Mark

Great work Mark!
I can't wait to start my S.E.5

Cheers,

Claudio