Thanks Terri and Steve! I seem to have regained motivation to see this one through. Of course, now that I've gotten this far, I found a great article on building this kit by Mike "Sandbagger" Norris which I had printed out long ago and then forgot. Had I remembered (or found) this article earlier. I might have just have followed Mike's advice from his experience and I likely would have avoided a few pitfalls. Oh well, I'll do that on the next one of these I build!
I am now into the Memorial Day weekend pause from modeling, so I thought I'd bring this up to date since nothing further will happen for a bit. The last few days have involved several small but necessary items in detailing the fuselage, getting the tail feathers in place and locating and drilling the strut holes and holes for rigging eyelets in all components and parts, along with gluing the eyelets in place and adding wire pins to the struts. Tedious non-photogenic work, but essential to moving the build forward. Here's where we are:
You may note that I have chosen to paint the horizontal stabilizer and elevators red, as opposed to matching the camo of the wings, which I have seen done in some builds of 872. I reached this decision for a several reasons. Foremost, I am relying on a Ronny Bar profile of 872 which shows the tail as red; who am I to question Mr. Bar's research?
Second, Navarre's Nie.11 No. 1130 had a red fuselage, and its tail planes were painted red also; makes some sense that this motif would be consistent. Third, when I did the wing camo painting many months ago, I did not paint the tail planes at the same time; had I thought they were camo, I think I would have painted them along with the wings. Fourth, there is no photographic evidence I know of to conclusively support either scheme for the tail planes. Finally, I am theorizing that perhaps 872 appeared
both ways. My idea is that the fuselage was painted red first, and the tail planes got painted red at a later time. This last rationale is particularly helpful, since I managed to forget which red paint I used on the fuselage and grabbed a different bottle of red from another manufacturer when I painted the stabilizer and elevators, so the shade is slightly different from the fuselage.
I was not going to repaint anything at this point, so the later painting story works well to explain the slight shade difference, as the paint used at the front could have varied a bit as stocks were replaced at the aerodrome. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
As dear departed WNW was fond of stating in their beautiful model descriptions: "WWI colour schemes are contentious at the best of times . . ."
It will soon be time to construct a jig to help support attachment of the lower wings. That will be a big step, about which I am somewhat nervous. First though, I will rig the tail and ad the stabilizer struts to finish off the rear of the aircraft, and ad the Lewis gun and windscreen to the front deck to finish it off. Getting closer now, and I am very pleased with how much I have accomplished on moving this build forward in only two weeks since I resumed, Take care everyone, and to those of you here in the US: enjoy Memorial Day weekend while taking a moment to remember those who gave the last full measure in service to their country.
Cheers,
Bob