Hallo everyone!
My passion for WWI modeling continues as the challenge posed by the build of Nieuport XI was very rewarding, at least for my standard. Also I received a lot of positive feedback from the community incouraging me to go ahead.
Finally, also this blog-thing is very enjoiable: as many of you have already said, this is a great community indeed!

So, this time I'm headet to have a 'double trouble': a more challanging build AND a WIP blog. I hope it will not turn into a RIP project !!

The subject I whant to approach is the Airco DH2 in the Eduard Weekend Edition series, but I think it will take much more than a a week-end to complete, so be patient!



One of the first thing that I do on opening a new box, is to look at the decals, and here I have been disappointed as their quality is not very good...



Since my building 'philosophy' is to improve a model with minimum use of afermarket product, I am now left with the problem of how to fix this mess... any idea?

In the meantime, I started the cockpit build starting with the seat. I knew I could not expect much from this (as also on the Nieuport it was very basic) so I decided to skrachbuild one, trying to follow what I saw here on the site.

Here you'll see how it went after 6 hours work! hope you'll enjoy.
So long, Edo.

Phase I




Phase II


Phase II (sewing with fishing line)



The finished seat



Lastly, a comparison bethween the new one and the original...

This will be a very challenging kit , looking forward on seeing this one unfold Edo !

Very nice looking seat!

well, lovely work on the seat, I have this kit half built myself but never dared tackle that. As for the dodgy decals, maybe a little localised damage repair could disguise the flaws? A few scale brushstrokes of PC10 or such or a hastily repairs roundel with a patch of rough slightly different colour dope.

K

I have two in 32nd and 2 in 48th sitting in my closet waiting for my rigging skills to improve. There was e thread that showed how to rigg one of these. Maybe Stephen can bring it forward for you. Good luck.

Hi all!
thank you for the kind words! Even if, re-reading them, I am a little scared: is the task I committed myself to, too difficult?
By hearing what you (more experienced modeller) say, it seems so...

Keith, I am sorry but I don't get you what you say:


It sounds interesting (and indeed, I was thinking to simulate damage on another project), but my bad English prevents me to fully understand... could you please restate? tank you

And now a small update:
I started to preshade the wings: here are a couple of pitures.
Unfortunately I forgot to take some pics before paint...

with masking tape still on


without masking tape


Next I began working on the blade.
I am not sure of the results, judging by the pictures I see of prop blades here in the site, I am still far away... still, the different grade of woods seems unconvincing to me, too zebra like, if you will...
Tell me what you think...



Enough for now!

ciao
Edo

Hi Edo !

First off , good job done on the pershading on the wings . Time consuming but worth it in the end .

As for your prop , it looks good . Maybe add a fliter over top of a little brown and the clear coat with clear yellow again to help break up the zebra look you are asking about .
Just a note as well that no two props are the same with grain and sheen . Ever prop is different . So don't worry if it doesn't look the same as other attemps . It comes down to practicing the method . We all have different methods for doing this and yours does look like wood !

Keep up the excellent work your doing fine

Good work on both the wings and the prop. I too get frustrated by my initial efforts to replicate wood grain, but in the end, overall I am pleased. I think overall you have acheived the effect you wanted, and that is wood grain, and it is convincing. Primo!

Seat looks convincing Terri, I will have to try that on mine. I have the Smer version and will see how it goes when I get to it. I may just sell of my 1/48 stuff and opt in on 1/32nd exclusively as the selection is ever expanding.

Edo, I think Terri's suggestion is correct. Just a little filter to blend things together. I do believe you have got the technique figured out. A little experimentation each time you try in the future will allow you to get something you are really happy with. I think it looks really nice as is.

Thank you guys!
I really appreciate your comments.
I'll try to blend the effect of the wood grain as you suggested.

In the last fiew days I predrilled the holes for the rigging and inserted the rings in copper wire.
But, in fact, I had to do it twice as on the first attempt I thought it was better looking to leave a long "stem" on the ring.
Of course, upon reconsideration, I found that the result was not so convincing, so I did it again.
Anyway, it seems ok now... I'll post some picture soon.

Ciao
Edo

Looking good Edo !

I have a pair of those from the same manufacturer, only in 1:72 scale. I plan on building one --- in the case of modeling, it's always good to have a spare!

Johannes,
you are right! Practice makes perfect!

From my side no update yet, but a question for you guys.
How do you rig those 'pins' on aerlions?
Since I don't have any picture of mine, I'll borrow one Jackflash published here on the site (hope it is ok) to show what I mean.

Thank you!
Edo

They are called control horns. Some of Eduards kits come with those as PE parts. In some of the kits, the wire comes attached to the control horn, in other kits, they are just the control horn. Eduard also sells PE sets in different scales called "Wire stretchers & control horns" These PE sets do not have the wires attached.

Eduardo, impressive level of detail and display in patience resulting from your work on the wicker chair!! Very inpsiring.

Hermann

Hi Carl,
thank you for the tip, but those control horns are linked to the cockpit via a control wire, isn't it? Now, my question is: how to glue the control wire to the control horn? I find it very difficult given the small size of the damned things! I tryed by cutting the tip of the horns in order to get a "V" like shape in which settle the wire, but the results are not satisfactory.
Do you have a particular method in doing it?

Hermann,
you are too kind! Thank you!

I have also a small update: after preshading the tail (as I did for the wings), yesterday night I painted it (wanted a testing area in case anyrhig went wrong).
Actually I am not fully convinced with the results, but may be this is due to the lightning and also the pictures don't tell the whole story... I'll have to chek in natural light (if the sun will ever come out again here...).

What do you think?


This one above is taken with the camera flash on, while the one below, without.

Nice rudder Edo it turned out very nice .

How to fix the control cable to the control horn . Once the cable is glued in place in the fuselage first and fully dried . I then place a small drop of fast dring super glue between 1 and 3 seconds . Place it on top of the control horn , pulling the cable , but not to hard lay it on top of the control horn . Place another small drop on top and let dry . When dry trim of the waste .

Hallo friends!
I have some update for you.

I spent the last nights painting the wings surfaces.
I then put toghether the fusolage and started rigging the wings.

The interior is not finished jet, as I encountered some troubles with the instruments... fortunately the kit comes with 3 different dashboards, so even if I managed to destroy 2 I still have a chance...

As far as the painting goes, I feard to over do so I tried to be very light so not to loose the preshade effect.
Unfortunately the pictures don't do justice to the final results which I find is not so stark. Also the color tones are not rendered well: the upper side is much mor greenish (I mixed nato green and kaki).




While I was struggling to rig near the fusolage, lighting struk and I found a great jig to help me do the job.
I am going to patent it, but I first whant to share with you to get some feedback.
The main plusses of my jig are:
1- wide, flat base: very stable and very difficult to flip;
2- high enough to allow gravity to tighten the rig itself when a weight is applied;
3- adaptable to all planes, also in different positions (wings up, tail up, etc.);
4- as a side feature, provides easy acces to a very useful cleaning device.

Have a look and tell me what you think!!

That is nice use of toilet paper Edoardo!

Hey!
re reading my post:

I'M NOT MEANING MY PLANE IS A COMPLETE S**T !OK???

just be careful not to get cyano on that roll, it could make your eyes water.

Well said John-Paul!

By the way,
I was thinking of decals and I have a problem which, may be you could help me to solve.
On the underside wing there is a 'bump' - see pic - (I'm sure there's a more techincal name for it...), now how do you ever get a decal to stick on it? I don't think that any amount of any solvent, setter, and such will ever do the job...
Do you have any clue?



Thank you!

ciao

How about carefully cutting the decal with knife and then using solvent?

Looking good so far Edo !

The bump you are referring to is a control cable housing . To get the decal to confrom to the surface , Tuomas has summed it up . You might have to apply super sol a few times to get the decal to confrom and you might have to make a few cuts in the decal and rebeat until it has confrom to the surface .