Thanks for the suggestions/tips Keith. Will give them a try and report back. I got paint on my build yesterday. Hoping to gloss coat today in preparation for decals. Got a busy schedule today so no guarantees there. Thanks again for the help, much appreciated. "Q"

Well Q , you are making very nice progress with your build ! Looking good

Hi Q: It looks as if you are definatley making progress. I think on Tom's model website there are instructions on how to get the spoke wheels to cone. You may want to try Copper State models website as well.
Best


Mark

When you do get them coned, it helps to put something in between the two sides. A piece of tube that fits over the axle, and in between the two sides of spokes to act as a spacer. Build is moving along well. You really are zipping through this thing.

Thanks for all the positive feedback folks, much appreciated. I think I may have shot myself in the foot. I think I trimmed my axles down too far to make it all the way through both sets of spokes... I may have to swap the wheels out on this to get them to stay in place. Arrrghhgh!! Call it a rookie mistake.
Oh well, I learned something from it and I guess that is the important part of it. The gloss coat is drying as I type. Will get some pics up here shortly. Thanks, "Q"

Pics as promised. Here you can see the axles are too short. I confirmed this by test fitting the spokes and wheels. I'll know better next time. I think the striping on the prop is probably a little overdone, but I can live with it for now. I like the way the wood panels on the front of the fuselage came out though. It's a nice contrast between the gloss white cowl and the CDL fuselage and wings. I did the black outline on the panels using a Sharpie marker. I need to touch it up a little bit. More to follow soon. "Q"

I'm beginning to really like this.. I shot some medium brown along the edges of the fuselage as a kind of shadow. The painting diagram called for some red/brown stripes to be applied along the top and bottom of the fuselage. I had some striped decals in this color and they fit like a glove and the shadowing shows through in a few places. The 356 decals slid right into place and the carrier film disappeared almost instantly. I snapped off the tail skid as I dropped the fuselage assembly, but it should reattach easy enough. Moving onto the wing decals and some more weathering from here...and then the fun part of rigging this thing I plan on using EZ Line. Have had great success with this stuff in the past. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks, "Q"

Moving right along.... Wing is attached and she is rigged. It was considerably easier than I thought it was going to be. I cut my EZ line about 3' long and just started looping it through. I ran it short in a couple of spots, glued the free running end, then stretched it into place over the support on the wing. Worked like a charm. I have some paint touch ups to do because of all the handling, but for the most part, she is almost complete. For what its worth the instruments in the cockpit are all but invisible now that the wing is installed. Should be installing the rudder, wheels and associated control lines tomorrow....and hopefully putting this one to bed. Thanks, "Q"

lovely work. She has come together really well.

On the prop laminating, An easy to remember rule is that the laminations should appear flat when you look at the prop from the side, Your woodgraining is very nice though I have to say.


Keith

Thanks for the kudos Keith. I'll keep the prop info in mind for future builds Thanks again, "Q"

Wow Q , you are moving along very well !

She looks really nice so far . Your wood grain on the fuselage side panels turn out well . What did you use ?

Looking forward to seeing the final touches

Thanks Terri. I hand painted the wood areas with Polyscale light tan,hit it with a hair dryer, then used Burnt Sienna oil over that for the wood grain effect. I use the same method when doing tool handles and such on my armor pieces. Thanks for the kudos. Much appreciated. "Q"

I'm calling this one done. This was a very humbling and learning experience. The all PE cockpit, extensive PE pieces, too short axles etc, took its toll... I can see where one would need to study the instructions thoroughly prior to beginning. I ran into a lot of little areas that would have been really helpful to know about before I got there, but that's mine own doing. I feel I'm better prepared to do another one when the time comes. I had some problems with the decals on the rudder. It was glossed beyond glossy, yet they still silvered. I sliced them and applied some setting solution and the air pockets disappeared, only to return later. Not much else to do. I did enjoy the build which is important. If nothing else, she photographs well. Thanks for the eye opening experience. "Q"

Matthew, nicely done! Model On please!

Thanks Stephen....I'm thinking about it. "Q"

Hi Matthew:

It really turned out nice, in spite of the difficulties you faced, you managed to persever and here it is, it really is nice and it is an interesting subject, not to be seen on too many shelves I would imagine. I have found over the past two years, modeling these great a/c, that each one is in fact a learning experience, much more so than their more modern brethren, tanks, ships etc., not to diminish the learning experiences there ,but I think with these the learning curve is much greater as there are many skills that come into play on these.
It is a neat looking model. Now for the big question........ What's next?

Best

Mark

Thanks for the kudos Mark. Much appreciated. As to what is next, I dropped in on WNW site the other day and took a look at the W29 float plane they have. That might make an appearance on my bench in the future. For right now though, I have an F-16 and an F-18 being readied for two other campaigns that kick off on 1 March. I have a lot of WWI subjects on the shelves as I went through a.."Those look cool, think I'll buy some" phase..lol. I need to go through the lot and see just what I have. And...here is the little ESCI DVII I was building along side this MS. I have a feeling I screwed up the lozenge so I plan on reading through Stephens threads on the subject. This little guy will get hung up with the rest of my flyers..
Thanks again for the kudos, "Q"

Hi Matthew:

You are welcome. Those 1/72nd guys are certainly small. I really admire the guys that can do these and do the detail they do.

Best

Mark

You did two complete builds in less time than it took me to finish step one. Actually, I am not finished with step one yet, and probably won't be untill this weekend.

Nice work on both. I think I speak for almost everybody here when I say we would love to see you do that WNW HB.

Great job ony our build Matthew !

Wow , that was a fast build and for your first WW 1 subject .

These are a learning experience arer't they ? Every one I do is and it just gets better . Always learnring something new

Thank-you for taking part and sharing that experience with the rest of us folks Matthew

Now , when are you going to start the W-29 ? I don't want to miss that one !


PS , nice job on the Fokker as well !

Thanks for the kind words all. I gotta confess though, I have an unfair advantage on probably everybody here. I don't have anything else to do, but work on my models. Whereas all of you have to go to work, school etc. I'm fortunate in that I don't. If I had to work or was back in school, I would probably be still at it with both of these. Thanks for the encouragement and kind words on the finished pieces. It was very much appreciated.
As to the WnW HB, I have no idea if that will come to fruition, but you never know. From all the positive threads I have read on the kits, it's really hard not to grab one...and possibly a Gotha too. "Q"