Knights of the Air

Starting the Fokker E.III

Using tweezer pressure to hold fuselage against wing for adhesion

Starting assembly

Undercarriages on Sopwith and D.VII, another coat of paint on the D.VII

Painted, first time I've mixed a special colour.

Painted, first time I've mixed a special colour.

Much more robust now the glue's gone off overnight.

Drilling for the cotton 'wires'.

Fiddly!

52 year old Revell decals working very well!

Sopwith Camel decals drying.

Sopwith decals trimmed, complicated decals going on Fokker D.VII.

Sopwith Camel finished. It's a little bit wonky - but it's from 1963!

Fokker E.III strung.

Fokker E.III decals started.

Lots of colouring in...

Interesting colour scheme

Started the S.E.5a

Most colours have to be mixed for the S.E.5a. Experimenting with a new way to smooth the fuselage join - 240 grit paper, then 1200 grit, then paint. No filler.

Finished the Fokker E.III.

For scale reference.

S.E.5a assembly.

Back to it... First coat on SE5a and start of Dr1

More modern tooled Dr1 kit nice to make.

Finished Fokker D VII

I think I can see a reason the Red Baron was so successful - his Dr.1 is tiny compared with other contemporary planes!

Dr.1 and SE5a

Comments

4 8 April 2015, 21:29

A Casirati
nice job, PJ!

20 April 2015, 10:37

P J
Thank you for the compliment. Yours is the standard I aspire to! 🙂

20 April 2015, 10:46

Es-haq Khosravi
Great job!

23 April 2015, 00:43

soheil moghisi
nice job.

23 April 2015, 09:01

Hanno Kleinecke
Nice work on these WW1 iconic birds, not an easy job I would say. Is that a template that you used for the lower half of the wings
on the D VII ?

23 April 2015, 09:27

P J
Thanks gents. Hanno: they are decals for the underside of the wings. The decals need trimming, they are oversized, and I used a little paint under any loose edges to 'glue' them down. It's quite time consuming to paint in the colours, but strangely therapeutic! I think it will look great with the second coat and a matt varnish to seal everything.

23 April 2015, 09:37

Hanno Kleinecke
Yes, amongst others, that´s what makes this hobby so recreative, it sometimes almost gets me in an
meditational state... I´m curious on the finals of these " Knights of the air" 🙂

23 April 2015, 09:45

P J
I'm going to rename the album 'Knights of the Air' – I started with two biplanes but somehow a couple of triplanes a monoplane have crept in...!

23 April 2015, 21:16

Hanno Kleinecke
👍, just the right name for this album !😉

24 April 2015, 06:35