“ Eyes in the high and empty blue...”

Described generically as an all-purpose reconnaissance biplane the Rumpler Werke AG’s C.IV was the development of its earlier C.I - III machines. It came to be used as a high altitude long range reconnaissance machine. The first operational examples arrived for dispersal at Armee Flug depots in February and March 1917. Initially there was a noted weakness in the rear and front of the long fuselage. This was reinforced with plywood veneer panels and thicker struts. Two types of engines were factory installed at 245 - 260hp. In the end 1151 airframes of the C.IV were manufactured through July1918. Typical war load equipment included radio transmitter, bombs, electrical wiring for heating flight suits, Parabellum machine gun drums, various cameras, liquid oxygen cells and bladders. By July 1917 the C.IV was regarded widely in the Fliegertruppe as the best performing C type. Yet she was known as a handful to fly and not the meat for less experienced crews. The common theme of performance reports read, “...she could stall in turns very easily but in a shallow dive or climb there was nothing faster...” Eventually she became the backbone, ribs, and legs of the two-seater operations. Aircraft began being assigned specific designations for the engine and permanent equipment assigned to the airframe. The Rumpler C.IV - IX were look-alike aircraft with specific operation capabilities. The remaining kissing cousins were sold to fledgling air forces and wore many and varied national markings. All total there were about 2201 airframes.



An elegant profile makes this kit a real joy to have on your shelves. As far back as February 1975 when a conversion article appeared in the old “Scale Models” magazine, this kit has been envisioned. Concerning 1/48 scale it was the late 1990's that Jager, the Scotland based resin kit manufacturer produced a 1/48 scale kit of the Rumpler C.IV. It was beautiful but cost a hard $75.00 USD. Jager closed its doors in 2003 and we believed that these kits were just a memory. Yet in 2006 Planet Models announced their contribution of a Rumpler C.IV in1/48. It is definitely a new mold and extremely well detailed. Its cost is roughly $53.07 USD.. This review will deal with the Planet Models kit. As it is mostly resin these parts will be referred to as RP. Plastic parts are referred to as PX. Though the instructions clearly label them as photoetch the PX items are in fact resin too. Originally the parts marked PX were supposed to be white metal.

Step a.) Begins with the interior pieces. This details the assembly of the 260hp Mercedes D.IVa inline six motor. On the basic motor ( RP 34 ) water jackets covering the cylinders should be painted a “blued gun metal” color. The crank housing would be a bare aluminum color. Note the rectangular plate on the back of the motor is supposed fit over the etch rectangle on the face of the fuselage former (RP 22.) NOTE!!! This is the key that helps you set the engine at the correct attitude. It will be canted to the pilot’s right. Don’t be alarmed. It was like that on the original airframes, I kid you not. The overhead cam & rockers on the cylinder tops will be steel and aluminum tinged with a black wash or painted black. The air induction pipes ( RP 32 & 27 ) appear to be copper based items. The twin magnetos and tower assembly will need to be scratchbuilt and will be aluminum with a black wash and fitted behind the rear cylinder. Later you will find that the engine cowlings don’t really permit a view to the crankcase. Use fine wire to add small sections to each side of the cylinders and paint to represent spark plug wires.



Note a highly detailed version of a 1/48 scale 260hp Mercedes D.IVa is available through Copper State Models. In this case I used an extra cylinder bank of the Copper State Models item to replaced the kit cylinders on RP 34. Note, you are not going to see much of the crank case unless you cutaway a cowling. Now to the resin fuselage former (RP 22), I modified mine. I cut out the center area including the etched square and the area immediately above it. This gives the former a “U” shape. You can add some lightning holes on each side. Then I notched the area of the engine crankcase and when in place it sits in the crotch of the modified fuselage former. The carburetor air induction pipes (RP 27 & 32) have upholstery thread wound and glued in place around them. (RP 32 only goes half way down the pipe and ends where the diameter gets smaller.) When the winding thread is dry paint it flat black. This represents asbestos / tar soaked chord. This kept heat from the motor away from the inducted air. Also add a brass rod in to the front of the crankcase to represent the prop shaft.

Hi Stephen

This is looking like a great build brewing! We should add it as a normal Review and definitely run it as a Feature and when it's finished.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Stephen

As Bones ... err Rowan mentioned it: Please can we also have a feature of the Gavia Pfalz?

Thank you!

cheers

Steffen

Hi all!

Stephen, I agree with Rowan and Steffen! You should keep your notes for a build feature...

"Pille" and Scotty, watch out for today's Portfolio by Stephen...

Engage!

Here is an example of the Mercedes engine tilt.


Step b.) The cockpit flooring (RP 5 ) is next and should be a varnished wood colour. Though not much if it is seen when the fuselage halves (RP 1 & 2 ) are together. Use some scrap plastic or resin under the flooring sections to support them at their edges as they meet the fuselage interior walls. Also the main fuel tank and seat combination ( RP 9 ) leading edge should line up with the scribed lines on the flooring (RP 5) The production type control column (RP 30) has a steering wheel and will have one aileron control cable running parallel to the column on either side down through the flooring (RP 5.) It is likely that only the early C. III type had the simple column and inverted “U” shaped control yoke. Check your references.




Concerning the pilot’s cockpit I erased the molded item and added a more detailed throttle quadrant to the pilot’s left side, interior cable bracing wires and map holder on the pilot’s right side. Also the instrument panel needs detailing, see step e.)

Now concerning the observer / gunner’s cockpit, it is barren of any equipment. To be a more detailed build you will need to manufacture a bomb release handle with a quadrant frame, cable bracing wires, a scratchbuilt bomb rack, radio transmitter and camera. I have some resin items knocked up from previous projects. So I will be going for a photographic machine in a large way. (See the previous photo image.) The rear seat also needs a semi-pyramid base in bare metal. I will also add a small antenna under the fuselage to represent the type that could be reeled in or out. I also added representative camera ports and spare Parabellum ammo reels. I would like to add that a well stocked spares box is one of the secrets of enjoying a build.

Note rudder cables attach to the rudder control assembly (RP 28 ) go back along the interior sides of the fuselage to their exit at the rear.

The elevator cables are attached to the control column under the flooring and pass back through the fuselage to their exit ports in the fuselage sides at the rear.

There needs to be shoulder harness and lap belts added to the seat (RP 9.) I went with Eduard ‘s early unpainted aftermarket items. All basic cockpit skeletal structures should be painted to look like they are varnished wood or painted metal. Check your references.


Here leaning against the lower fuselage is the kit instrument panel driilled and thinned with a clear backing. Decals will be added behind the gauge bezels and flip levers added to fuel and air pump positions.

Rowan, Steffan and Jean-Luc,
Thanks for the encouragement having a well stocked spares yard keep me busy. I had Eric Hight at Copper State Models gather up all his seconds and I paid for shipping. Wow !!! The rear seat pedestal was originally a fuel / oil tank. The round auxilary fuel cell behind the pilot's seat should have a polygonal profile. But my spare fuel cell seems to lend itself nicely to this bird. The images of the finished cockpit will be ready next week. the rudder and control column and other interior structure tubing are blackened and painted brass rod.

Certainly we can do a feature on this and if there is interest the Gavia Pfalz E.I done last year.

Another great looking build in progress there Stephen, I always enjoy reading what you have done to spruce up the stock kits! I for one put my hand up as one who would like to see a feature article!!

Where do I pick up a spares box like yours??

BC

I am afraid its grown from a "box" to a "yard" and it comes from bargain bins, swap meets flea markets and a bit of hob knobbing with the cottage people. Even Roden and Eduard have done right by me in most cases, when politely asked. But then again I have had a regular shopping list for a couple of years. But the real bounty came from a fellow modeler, IPMS Nationals winner, Cameron Lynch who wanted to copy some of my "modified" and stock pieces for his own use. He ran copies for me as well.

The value of fellow modelers in a community such as Aeroscale is as important as tweezers and glue to an enjoyable build.

Greetings all;

Just a quick update. I am building this while working on a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter for the Air Campaign. I have added more cockpit details to the Rumpler so its almost ready to close up. I am considering one of several camouflage schemes.

Stephen!

What are your thoughts about the decal option, Rumpler C.IV 8500/16, coming with the kit? The box art and painting instructions with their camo of two greens are wrong, if we belive - and why shouldn't we? - the RFC intellicenge officer who reported about the a/c after it had been brought down and captured on 29th December.

Accordin to the report, "the two-seater was camouflaged in large patches of dark green, brown and light green on all upper wing surfaces, entire fuselage and tail, whilst the under surface areas were light blue."

8500/16 had been accepted at the factory late May or early June 1917. So the a/c should have been in late mauve/ green, not in early two greens and brown camo, shouldn't it? Very intersting...

Mikko

Greetings Mikko.

There is a lot about this machine that does not fit the accepted doctrine. Rumpler C. V C.8500/16 is from the third production batch 8403 - 8558/16. Ordered in November 1916, The first round or blunt nosed airframe was 8450/16 so this profile is appropriate for the kit as is from the box. The anomaly that 8500/16 is listed as a C.V is curious. Brought down by ground fire on December 29, 1917 the resultant British inspection report identifies this machine as a C.V. But the engine and is serial place it well within the C.IV variants. C.V usually had the 245hp Maybach Mb.IVa engine with external bomb racks. This machine had neither.

The box art is incorrect for the scheme they have chosen but Planet Models may have just decided to keep the art costs down and stick with two colours. This machine is on the cover art of the Rumpler Datafile. It is portrayed in the three colour upper surface scheme you mention.

As far as having the mauve and green patterns I think that the airframe was finished much earlier than June 1917 but I am doing a bit of research on this at the time. I am checking the old Flight write up. More later on this.

Well folks I havent forgotten this build as a matter of fact I tinker with it while I am letting several others cure. Since I had my airbrush out doing a bit on 3 @ Nieuport 16 types (for two other threads), I shot the undersurfaces of this kit with a lt. blue (with touch of gray.) The resin wings, horizontal tail unit soaked this right up! When the 2 coats of paint settled down I noted a very interesting surface. Dead flat (no sheen) and smooth with the exceptionof the undersurface wing ribs. I will give it a few days then sand them down a bit. (They are still too pronounced for my tastes.) Then I'll paint the ribs again.

Undersurface wing surfaces should not be raised prominently on most aircraft. Once the general finish is completed I'll tackle the struts.

This build is now #1 on the assembly line. The fuselage is closed up and the lower wings are pinned inplace. I almost left out the instrument panel. Duho! Almost that is. Most of the time I will use two pins on each side of the fuselage to hold the wings in place. Since the wing profiles are sooooo thin and long I used three smaller pins for each side.

This requires drilling a hole from one side to the other for a pin to pass completely through the fuselage and stick out on either side. I did this three times for this kit. Also, I have acquired some spare resin parts from Copper State Models and I may convert this to an early type with a spinner.

Sorry to take so long getting back to this but, The accepted date you quoted made me go back and check. Ru. C.V 8500/16 was from a batch of 150 airframes (8403 - 8558/16) that were ordered on November 1916. Hence the "/16" suffix. It would have left the factory no later than June 1917. So the three colour upper surface pattern camouflage is well within specs. See this document on German colour scemes from Dan San Abbott published in WWI Aero and posted on the internet with their permission. See section III A on Terrain camouflage.

A little plug for WWI Aero here. They are a great little magazine and highly informative.

http://www.ww1aerojournal.org/

In the reference above April 1917 seems to be the time when Idflieg said dispense with the use of Red Brown. But the author has also stated that factories were expected to use up the stores they had on hand.

Greetings all;
I'll have some before and after images ready in a few days but here is what I have been doing. The fellow that commissioned me to build the Rumpler for him asked early in the process to have this be an early version with the spinner. I began by modifying the forward cowling ring and ground it down to accept a new version that would accommodate a spinner.

The newer items (cowling ring and spinner )were modified from Copper State Models pieces. Eric Hight (CSM owner, operator and chief janitor) donated them to this build from his Rumpler C.I kit just to see if I could do it.

1. I split the ring vertically and added a central plug / strip of plastic.
2. Then I added a sandwich of three layers of plastic sheet to act as the shroud surrounding the prop boss to the rear of the C.I spinner.
3. Then I cut in a trough to match the propeller blade pitch in the layered section.

The reason for doing it this way is that with the late version the lower longerons are positioned so that the chin of the fuselage under the engine is flat compared to the early version that is more rounded. To get this right I had to mount the cowling ring then round up the chin to meet the cowling ring.

Greetings Al;

Working away on the kit I was asked to change the build to a early production spinner version.

BEFORE




AFTER

I had a request for the view of the top wing.

This build has progressed nicely. But I decided to replace the kit resin interplane struts with Aeroclub extruded brass "STRUTZ". This was done for several reasons.
1. The interplane struts on the Rumpler C.IV types were of three different types / thickness and width. In 1/48 scale it comes to;
The front four were 2mm.
The rear outside two were 2.5mm
The rear innermost two were 3mm.

2. The Planet Models kit has eight resin struts of equal width and thickness closest to 2 mm.

So I was getting better scale realism and stronger struts using the Aeroclub items. These have set for about four days and I am beginning the rigging between the wings at this time.

How's the build coming. Been a while since we have seen pictures of the build.

You really do nice work.

How long do you spend researching, as oposed to building?

Greetings Herr Althaus (You have a rather famous family name by the way)

As mentioned previously I am about to begin rigging. images after that probably. Family issues at present limit my activities, for the time being . Thank you for the kind words. Researching comes rather easy for me. I have a large libray on WWI aviation subjects. This kit is the third such Rumpler C.IV, I have built in my life. Research is on-going. But for this build it is a simple case of review and check for posted images from new websites. I think it will take about 28 hours of research, prepping the kit and building all told.

Yes, I learned about him in about the late '60s. I have continued to find things about him. Never found a picture of his actual D.V, though. I have seen his eindecker shots. I have seen build ups pics of his yellow #1.

So when are we going to see a really good large scale D.V?

For an interesting article and views of his Alb. D.V 1119/17 see Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 20 #2 1989 titled “Althaus!” by some plugger here abouts.




Well there is the 1/16 Model Expo kit. Other than that - Hi-Tech has a master done at 1/32. We may be lucky to see it one day. . . .somewhere over the the rainbow, blue birds fly. . .

I wonder if the author could somehow manage to get me a copy of that?

BTW, I have not found any conclussive connection between Ernie and me. I'm sure if I go back far enough, there will be an ancestor in common. Unfortunately, I have not been able to go back beyond my ggGrandfather. All I can find is that he was from Prussia, born in 1835. That is an interesting hobby in its own right.