So after a delay caused by a bad case of ‘too much to do at home and work’ followed by a bad dose of the flu, I finally jumped into my review build of the Eduard Weekend edition of the Roland C.II. This is my first ever WW.1 build, so I’m looking forward to trying out some new techniques. I started with the interior which looks to be well detailed. The instructions call for a wood finish on the insides of the fuselage but I’ve been told by those who know better, that this was in fact covered in painted fabric. The two halves of the real thing were constructed separately and then joined together (a bit like this kit). I decided that even though the inner skin was painted fabric, that the rest of the fittings inside could well have been done in natural wood and that these two finishes would look good together. Besides, I wasn’t going to be denied my chance of doing a natural wood finish by mere ‘facts’. Purists, please look away now. The insides of the fuselage were sprayed with lightened Tamiya XF23 and were given a wash of Mig brown wash, which was then mostly rubbed off again. This imparted the appropriate amount of ‘use’ to the interior walls.

I base coated the ‘wooden bits’ in Tamiya XF59 Desert Yellow.

When this was dry, I brushed on some Burnt Umber oil paint and continued to work it in straight lines with a wide brush until I had the desired effect. I thought it turned out OK for my first attempt but could do with some refining next time I try it. There is a tutorial for this on the Wingnut Wings site.

All the detail bits were painted and attached to their various locations.

I used the included decals for the instrument panel, the one on the left as you look at it being a bit oversized.

The finished item looks OK though, and will be buried quite deep in the cockpit so won’t be too visible.

The Mercedes D III engine was assembled and painted,

then it was time to get the fuselage halves together. The internal structure was lined up in one of the halves and cemented in place. There is a helpful diagram in the instructions to assist with this.

The engine was popped in and the two halves were glued together. After doing this, I noticed a gap between the internal bulkheads and the side walls so I clamped the mid section of the fuselage to close this up, cemented in the rear gunners ring mount and am now waiting for the glue to dry.

I must admit that I am thoroughly enjoying my first foray into early aviation and hopefully will be cracking on with this build in the days to come.

Hi Mike

Nice job so far! It's looking really sharp! That's really impressive for a first attempt at wood-graining with oil paint - I've run out of patience many times waiting for the darned stuff to dry.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan

I used cheap as chips oil paint from Walmart and was surprised at how quick it did dry.

I'm trying to squeeze some modelling time into a schedule already stuffed with Christmas preparations, having new windows put in, the Ontario school teachers strike and a punishing schedule at work, but finally managed to get some more work done on the Walfisch. After assembling the fuselage, I tackled the lower wing joint. As stated in my 'in box' review here , this looks to be about the trickiest joint in the project. I spent quite some time before commiting to glue as the alignment of the whole model rests on getting this bit right. The resulting joint is quite ugly though, and the 'trench like' seams of the fuselage also needed attention. These were filled and sanded as was the joint where the gunners ring mount meets the fuselage. A sink mark between the upper wing joints was also dealt with.


It was during this bout of sanding and filling that I noticed an ominous rattle coming from the inside of the model. The instrument panel had become dis-attached (is that even a word?) I then spent more time than I wanted, trying to tease the part back in place before the whole thing fell out (#@%$***&#). I also managed to dislodge 2 of the windows during this process. As it turned out, this was fortuitous as it gave me a bit more access to the interior and enabled the rogue panel to be pacified and re-attached (now, that is a word). With the build back on track, I thought I would get some of the underside dangly bits on. The undercarriage assembly has to be one of the fiddliest bits of modelling I have ever undertaken. While there are nominally, locating points for the struts, these are so miniscule as to be completely useless. I had to take great care lining these up by eye to get them to look right and I think I have managed to impart a slight droop to the right of the model. Better attachment points are definitely called for here.

So after attaching the rudder and tailplanes I am now looking forward to getting some exterior paint on the model.

Finally managed to get back to the bench and made a small amount of progress on the Roland. Hopefully be able to maintain a bit of momentum now that the holiday is over. I sprayed the undersides and tops of the wings white. These will then be masked off to provide the square white background to the national insignia.

I also sprayed on the red for the fuselage band after first spraying white to help the red stand out more. Again, this will be masked before spraying the camo colours.

More to come very soon.

Nice job so far, are you planning to rig it? If so start thinking about it before you go too much further as you will need to drill holes. I have a Blue Max Walfisch to build so I am watching how this comes out.

Yes I am planning to rig it. The Eduard instructions are vague to say the least as to the locations of the rigging points but am hoping to get some help from any WWI experten out there who may have some reference on the aircraft (hint hint Mr. Lawson).

Finally managed to get some camo on the model.

I used Tamiya X-16 purple and Gunze H320 dark green for the top and a lightened shade of Tamiya XF-23 for the underside.

The painting guide on the back of the box is confusing as the side profiles do not match up with the top view. What I have ended up with is a compromise between the two which, although not neccesarily accurate, looks the part. I also checked out the profipack instructions on-line as they have the same scheme but they have the same problem. More clarity here please Eduard. It looks a bit garish and the red band really sticks out but hopefully some weathering will tone it all down.

Next job is to get some gloss on, decals and then the rigging.
By the way, the paint stand is a cake stand from Ikea, bought for me and customised by, my two sons.

Looks very good ! I have this one somewhere in my stash.
Like the colour scheme
cheers,
Julian

Thanks Julian. There is some debate as to whether the camo was mauve or brown, but I like the mauve. So far it's been pretty straightforward but I'm yet to tackle the rigging.

After a coat of Future it was time to put the decals on

The decals on the sheet have numbers next to them but there are no corresponding numbers on the colour / decal guide and while most of them are self explanatory, the orientation of the national markings on the fin is a bit vague. Consequently, I may have put them on wrong.

I also made the mistake of being too eager to get the nice yellow number on the fin before the national marking was applied, which didn't leave me with much room to manoeuvre the national marking into position. Despite my best attempts to screw them up, the decals went on nicely, although the white of the national markings is a bit translucent. I applied them using micro set and sol.

Next: Rigging!!

Progress has been slow with short bursts of activity at the bench. It didn't seem like there was much to update but then, all of a sudden, she's finished.

In preparation for doing the rigging, I put a shout out for clarification on rigging attachment points. Stephen Lawson kindly pointed me in the direction of the Windsock book on the subject, which has some very clear drawings and photos of where everything should go (thanks Steve). Armed with this info I started drilling holes. I left the upper wings off untill I had superglued one end of the wires (made with nylon thread) into their locating holes. I also attached the rigging on the landing gear before attaching the wheels, which had been painted and washed before-hand.

With all the rigging in place I attached the struts and the upper wings. It was then an easy task to attach the loose ends of all the wires to their respective positions. well, I say easy. Barring several of them popping off randomly (and frustratingly) and needing to be re-fixed. I am quite glad that this was a relatively simple rigging job. Having previously base coated the propeller, I masked with thin strips of tape and sprayed on Tamiya red-brown which had been lightened with buff and when all was dry, applied burnt umber oil paint to simulate the woodgrain. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. When dry, I brushed on some Future and applied the manufacturer decals.

The machine guns were painted black and dry brushed with silver enamel. This made the detail pop nicely. I painted the exhaust with Gunze Dark Iron laquer and when dry, buffed it a bit. This was followed by an application of Mig Old Rust pigment.

All the small bits and bobs were then attached and the remaining detail painting done.

It was good to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone by tackling my first WW1 subject. While not perfect, I think I ended up with a nice looking model. I learned heaps doing her and achieved several firsts in the process. While I enjoyed the build, I am looking forward to getting back to my usual WW2 fare. To all who followed along, thanks for looking.

That's really well done. Congratulations for surviving your first Great War subject

Decent attempt on the build. But you were correct that some people have argued over the purple or brown theory. The truth is that the purple / mauve came in to use in the Fall of 1917 and the production of the LFG Roland C.II finished in the Spring 1917. These employed three colour camouflage on the top surface until brown was halted in the late Spring.

On the fringe there might have been an airframe repaired & repainted in the field but this would have been isolated from the already completed production series. By the way the rigging looks good.

Here are my builds.

Great build. Always liked this aircraft.

Thanks for the comments people. I take your point about the mauve camo Stephen and I bow to your superior knowledge of the subject. I wanted to do an OOB build and liked the included scheme so went with that. I will strive for better accuracy when (if) I do another one. Thanks for alerting me to the Windsock book, that really helped with the rigging, especially the location of the claw brake actuating cable, which is slightly offset to the right of the centre line when viewed from the front.