I've been lurking around the forum for years, but have never contributed. I'm a notorious buy more kits than I get around to building kind of modeller. However, I'm in the process of building my first WW1 aircraft from the Eduard PFALZ D.IIIa profipack and had a couple of questions.

I'm going to build Karl Degelow's black D.IIIa with the leaping stag emblem. From references it seems the wings were possibly painted black as well. Would I be off the mark painting it all black? Or is it more accurate to go with the Silbergrau wings and black fuselage?

For painting black on these aircraft are you looking for a matt or satin sheen to the black? I'd like to try the preshading technique on the wing ribs and wonder if they would have a darker or lighter black/gray appearance in comparison to the fabric not stretched over the ribs?

Any suggestions would be appreciated and I hope to post a few pictures of progress to get some feedback.

Hi Joseph:

Welcome to the Forum, I just finished reading "Black Fokker Leader", by Peter Kilduff. There are photo's of this a/c in the book and it appears as if the wings were painted black as well. As these were subjected to a variety of weather flat black would probably be the best choice with the ribs a more grayish/faded black appearance. In the photos in the book only the horizontal stabilizer is painted white as is also shown on the WNW decal sheet for flying circus Pfalz D.III sheet number two on their website. He may have had more than one Pfalz DIIIa. As he crashed that particluar one on a landing.
Good Luck and post some photo's of your build.

Best

Mark

White stabilizer? You mean rudder of course. See section lower right of this image.


See the review here.

Jasta 7 March 1918. The black has been held back from the cross edges leaving the silbergraü factory finish as their borders. Note how the same silbergraü factory finish is exposed as the black overcoat has cracked at the top wing ribs. D type fighters tended to flex at the wing tips in flight. Hence the reason there was a stay wire from the lower portion of the interplabne strut to the wing tip under side.

Thanks for the quick replies Mark and Stephen. I have a Wingnut Pfalz D.IIIa but hadn't realized they'd issued additional decal sheets for them. It may be worth while me buying a few just for the reference value alone even if I don't plan on getting to them soon. At least I know the all black is a go, not sure if I'll go with the Silbergrau around the crosses at this stage, perhaps my next one.

I finally have determined to crank out some WW1 aircraft. Just an indication how bad my stash has gotten, I have 32 Eduard 1:48 scale kits to work through and a fair number are dual combo's. I just love the WWI planes and I got to learn about the individual aircraft from playing the old Avalon Hill boardgame "Richtofen's War." Sorry, I digress.

One thing I wonder about is rigging. What is the best size for rigging 1:48 scale aircraft? There are so many different materials used by modellers it's hard to decide on one for someone like me. I do have some 0.5mm x 0.3mm (I.D.) brass tubing to make turnbuckles with, so I guess I need something less than half of that. Is the tubing the right size or maybe too small?

Sorry for all the basic questions, getting the proper materials seems to be a stumbling block at the moment and any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Joseph