forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Topic started by: Scaleber on August 11, 2025, 11:57:19 AM
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I?ve returned to building models when I retired a couple of years ago after a 50+ years hiatus. This is my third WnW?s build and my first posting to this site. I have always been fascinated by the dog fight between Werner Voss and the notables from No 56 Squadron RFC on 23rd September 1917. I have two SE.5a?s in my stash, WnW SE.5a and McCudden?s SE.5a from Encore.
For this build I?m doing the WnW?s SE.5a as Arthur Rhys-Davids machine at around the time of this fight.
Many thanks to FAf for cutting me an amazing set of masks for Rhys-Davids plane, bobs_buckles for his great tubes and eyelets and RAGIII for advice on correct markings. This forum is brilliant!
I started the build a short while ago and it?s pretty much out of the box although I did have the HGW Super Detail Set.
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Basic woodwork and leather done
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Great to see you post your progress here, and great progress it is as well! 😃
I hope the masks will work out for you. Don't hesitate to contact me if there are any issues. Looking forward to the coming steps.
Cheers
Fredrik
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Welcome! This looks like a great start.
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Thanks Fredrik and NigelR
Bringing you all up to date. Firstly I attempted to do some stitching on the tail plane as this detail was missing and worked on the cockpit interior plus a start on the engine.
I shaved off the instrument detail and redid them. Fairly successful but one clear screwup with the airspeed indictor
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Here are the photos
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I decided against using the HGW seatbelts and just went with the ones provided in the kit
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Closed up
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Painting commenced
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Upper and lower wings
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Engine complete. I?m closing it all up so didn?t try to do anything special with it
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Welcome onboard first of all and secondly you're off to a flying start with this one - looking good so far
Paul
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That's excellent progress. Don't worry about the minor mishap with the airspeed indicator, it won't be visible - like so much of the work we do!
The interior looks very good indeed and the rest of the build is coming along nicely. Looking forward to more.....
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Thank you both, appreciate your comments. Getting close to putting the top wing on now. Always the most stressful part for me.
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Great to have you at this forum. Fantastic work on that nice WNW kit. I am looking forward to the continuation.
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Some really nice work taking shape ;D
Alexis
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PrzemoL and Alexis, thank you both for your encouragement. I have studied and learnt so much from your builds.
Since my last post I completed the main painting including using Faf?s wonderful masks. Faf made a good point ?it's easy to go a bit overboard when you spray white on dark colours like PC10. The dark background makes the white look "dirty" and tempts you to make another pass and another until you've put it on a little too much.?
Sage advice a little too late for me. I was pretty happy with the look overall but may have overdone the weathering of the bottom wing, but hey, maybe it was a very muddy airfield?
Finally finished the rigging around the cabane struts. I found this far more challenging than anything I?d done before. I was very happy at this point prior to discovering a fairly glaring mistake I?d made when adding the top wing. The rest of the rigging is coming along nicely but still thinking of how to fix my error.
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Happy with the fuselage and cockpit area
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Underside. Maybe a little overdone on the lower wing
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Closed up and ready to start the rigging
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. . . a picture would be nice. The size constraints (which I understand) cause me to forget things and I don't know how to have images then comments then more images the way most of you do.
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Rigging connected to top wing and wing attached!
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Cabane rigging complete! Very tricky. Thank goodness for all of you who have posted their builds and I tonne of photos I took at Hendon last year.
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The rest of the rigging is coming along nicely - still thinking of how to fix/mitigate my mistake. Ah well.
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Well done!
The painted markings look fabulous, especially the more complex roundels.
Cheers
Fredrik (FAf)
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Wow, that's a lot of progress! This is looking fabulous, I really like the overall finish of the model so far and particularly the CDL undersides, they are really nicely handled. The roundels look great as well.
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Congrats on the stages that brought you to this point on your build , that is really nice work !
Not sure if this will aid in your future builds . When I have to spray white paint will use a flat base , takes less coverage and better control on paint layers . Then clear coat and move on to the next shade .
Alexis
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Lovely paint work, very nicely done! I've also taken to painting markings on as much as possible; it just gives such a wonderful consistency to a model.
Looking forward to seeing this one done!
Cheers,
BC
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Your "50+ year hiatus" certainly didn't damage your impressive modeling skills, this is simply great work! One of my favorite subjects as well and a real pleasure to follow along.
Cheers,
Lance
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Congrats on the stages that brought you to this point on your build , that is really nice work !
Not sure if this will aid in your future builds . When I have to spray white paint will use a flat base , takes less coverage and better control on paint layers . Then clear coat and move on to the next shade .
Alexis
Thank you, appreciate tips like this. Cheers / Ian
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Well done!
The painted markings look fabulous, especially the more complex roundels.
Cheers
Fredrik (FAf)
Your masks made things very easy. Thanks again! / Ian
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Lovely paint work, very nicely done! I've also taken to painting markings on as much as possible; it just gives such a wonderful consistency to a model.
Looking forward to seeing this one done!
Cheers,
BC
Thank you and I agree. It also makes handling the model a lot easier as well. Cheers / Ian
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Nigel and Lance, thanks again for your encouragement. I've tried a number of different approaches for the CDL and PC10 'look' but it was Richard Camion's write up of his SE5 build in the Air Modeller's Guide to WnW Vol 1 which I used here for the first time and I'm very happy with the result.
Not sure if I'd show any photos of my modelling from 50+ years ago. It was all Airfix 1:72, just building the model was the exciting part and having little to no money, the painting was whatever I could get at the time. But it was fun. Cheers / Ian
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Terrific paintwork Ian. I particularly like the PC-10 upper colors.
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Thanks Tim.
I've been pulled off in other directions for a couple of weeks but finally got back to finish it off. The remaining rigging was straight forward, just needed patience. Overall, fairly happy with the result. Not as much fun as building my NINAK but an enjoyable build none the less.
I'll try to post some pictures but the restriction of max 128kb for an individual picture makes the shots of the full plane pretty hard to do. I don't know how everyone else manages to get their photos so compact for such high res shots.
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More . . .
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I'll post some more in the Completed section.
Thank you again to Bob from Bobs_Buckles, FAf and RAGIII and pretty much the lot of you who's build posts I've scoured trying to learn your amazing techniques. I hope Arthur would be happy with my effort.
My next build will be the WnW Gotha G.1, so wish me luck!
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Absolutely Lovely rendition of Rhys Davids SE5a. Well Done !!
RAGIII
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Success! Brilliant modelling, well executed use of the masks and nice painting!
/FAf
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Thank you both. I really appreciate your comments. Cheers / Ian