My entry for the Canvas Falcons II 1915-16 campaign, is Eduards 1/48 Roland C.IIa. Looks to be lovely kit and even has some PE and pre-cut masks. These are the older vinyl type, so I hope they still work! I picked the kit up last year at Cosford Model show for £7, a price I could not say no at!
The Roland is one of my favourite designs from the Great War. Beautifully streamlined and the low wings gives it a nice sporty look. I'm hoping that the relatively simple rig will give me the experience I need before I tackle something more elaborate and bigger.

Started work on the Roland today.
First job was to paint the interior parts. The instructions call for all interior parts to be painted wood, except of course for seats, fuel tanks etc.. But I looked decided to check this against the instructions on WNW's site. They suggest blue-grey so decided to go with that. Once weathered it will make for a more interesting finish I think.
I used Revell Acrylic 57 Grey, thinned with a spot of Winsor & Newton acrylic flow improver. This stuff transforms Revell acrylic from thick gunge, into a paint that brushes beautifully and adheres to plastic well. I've yet to try it on other brands but it should work. I painted the parts while they were still on the sprue as it gave me a convenient hand hold.
I also glued the engine halves together and when the paint was dry, cut the fuselage halves from the sprue to test fit them. No major surprises were found.

Concur! I recall Albert Ball thought it was the most dangerous German to face at the time.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks. It looks to be a good kit and it should turn out well. Have to confess I have a few of Eduards WW1 planes in my stash, both 1/72 & 48, but this is the first I've started. I really should get them done.
Doing a bit of reading up on the Roland, I found that Von Richtofen flew one early in his flying career and made an unconfirmed kill in it before moving on to single seaters. If I can find the specific markings, I might build the olde Airfix Roland as his machine.

Hi Stephen,
This is the same model I'll be doing for the campaign, though mine is in a different boxing. I'll be following along. I haven't quite decided whose plane I'll model. Perhaps von Schleich.

Best Wishes,

Gaz

Hi Stephen

I've always had a soft spot for the Roland too, so I'll be following along with the others.




It does. It's great stuff. I use it all the time with Lifecolour and many other acrylics.

All the best

Rowan

Cool, it will be good to see another built. This boxing just has generic markings and no particular pilot is named. The old Airfix version I has Von Schliechs marking. Interesting early type of shark mouth scheme. I'm going to build it as Von R's machine just as soon as I can find out how it looked. I do know it had a Lewis gun on an improvised mount firing over the prop. My long term plan is have a collection of Von R's aircraft, easy to do as Roden give his marking in most of their kits.

Didn't get anything done on the Roland today. Ended up painting doors and made a start on decorating my modelling room.

Hi Stephen,

I will follow this build. I have 2 of these birds here at home. The Eduard boxing (with PE and masks) and the Revell boxing. My daughter is building the REvell issue and I want to build the Eduard one. Maybe I will join the group build but I dont think I will finish in time....

Well good luck to you anyway.

gr TC

Hi Lars,
Thanks for following. It's a good first biplane I think. Only test fitted so far but haven't found any problems. Looking forward to seeing how your and your daughters cone together.

My build has been halted while I repaint my new modelling room /Man-Cave. Got to build a desk too but hopefully should be finished by next week.