My first attempt at making a "blog" build - I have irregular access to photograph my work, but I'll try my best to document the process...

So - WingNut Wings Pfalz D.IIIa as flown by Max Holtzem. Completed cockpit framing and engine, ready for installation into the fuselage.

I do not yet rig control lines / rig the cockpit and this is pretty much assemblying the WnW out of the box and following manual to the T.

Any concerns in the construction?

So far, the only concern is tightness of WingNut Wings' general tolerances when fitting unpainted VS painted elements together.... I paint with brush and Acryl paints, so parts that test fit flawlessly when unfinished, have just that extra micron of thickness to throw off the fit...

I've been making due with that by sanding edges of the frame where it will adhere with fuselage and not visible when fit together - I do paint rather thickly, so this is to be expected.

Great start Ivan and given I am just on the home run for finishing my own D.IIIa I agree entirely with your comments about tightness of fit and tolerances caused by too much paint prior to assembling and gluing parts.

Look forward to seeing the end result.
Gary

Fuselage is closed up and partially painted and decal'ed - I usually do decals as the last step, but I wasn't going to mess with wrap around fuselage decals with wings in place.

Decals applied with combination of pre-basting of MicroSet and MicroSol after, following JackFlash' advice for hot water to submerge decals into. It's a large decal, so I did miss an airbubble or two, but I've removed them next day (once cured) with fine sanding stick and touched up with paint.






Experimenting with less silvery Pfalz paint whilst trying to differentiate between aluminum cowling color and painted wood portions of the fuselage.

Also note Max Holtzem's Pfalz with individual "organ pipes" for exhaust, in progress on being installed - I've drilled out the ends with "just thick enough" pin wise bit.

Looks good.

Very nice so far






Terri

All right, this wasn't much of a "blog" build but 3 progress updates is a good start I hope...

Here's the finished result:












No gripes about the design of the kit - all things that went screwy during the build are my own fault.

A fine build. Max would have been impressed.

Thanks, Jack!

It's worth noting that WnW provides decal option for finishing the shooting star on the top wing - giving the modeler choice whether to portray the aircraft in its historical or "as if finished" schemes.

Kit leaves the modeler with a good amount of spares for the scraps box. Even without arranging my lozenge cut outs very carefully, I was left with entire length of lower / upper lozenge (for those pesky kits shipping sans lozenge / poor quality decals)...