Mike, I'll see what I can do. I do plan however to cover the D.III.
When starting this build I announced that I had to clear my bench from other half products, before I could make a good start with this one. Well, over the last three weeks I managed to get some things done.
The end product should resemble this prototype in the end:
First I started to get the 3D prints straight. Putting it into hot water and letting it dry helps significantly, but 3 out of 4 wings are still not really straight. I hope to be able to settle this with the covering in the end. I also purchased an ultrasone cleaning device as cleaning the 3D prints by hand proved a little bit too difficult. Beside the fact that the 3D prints and then especially the wing ribs are very delicate and break easily, this is a great help for thorough cleaning the prints.
Then I sprayed most parts with grey primer and most wooden parts in a light brown color and the fuselage in a grey-green color.
Because the first fuselage didn't arrive in one peace Shapeways provided me with another fuselage giving me a fuselage for testing some construction.
One of the first things to do is to attach the main fuel tank with wire into the fuselage. This is a kind of circus act, trying to balance the tank with 4 strings attaching them to 8 attachments in the fuselage. I took only 4 strings leading them through the holes in the bottom and the sides of the tank to the upper part. And then you have 8 loose ends. I attached one end of every string with a piece of tape to the fuselage and then carefully tightening the strings with the four loose ends. Then one after the other was secured with CA. Now the tank can still move up and down a little bit and later on during the construction I will secure the tank in its final position. It all seems easy when Bo showed his final result, but apart from the covering of the prints later on and the attachment of the control wires to the control surfaces and the controls in the cockpit, I expect that this has been one of the most difficult things.
Here you see the attachment with the tape:
I tried to give the tank a used look, but my weathering skills are not up to the usual standard shown here. But this tank will be only visible behind the pilot's seat.
Here the front tank, the seat, the back cover and the cockpit floor are test fitted to the fuselage:
More to follow.
regards,
Ivo