forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Topic started by: Brad Fallen on April 25, 2018, 10:52:51 PM
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Hi all
This is my first build on this forum, and it will be the old Revell 1/28 Dr.1 kit. It's not a kit I would normally tackle, but I'm building it for a display our club is putting together on 'the last flight of the Red Baron' for Model Expo at Melbourne in June. So the model will be of von Richthofen's familiar final all-red machine. I was originally going to build it straight from the box, but after examining the contents I decided to make a few modifications. Here is an example of the original kit detail that I am working with (which, I must stress, isn't bad for the late 1950s when the moulds were cut!). More to come soon.
cheers Brad
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Welcome to the Forum just in case I have not done this before! I am looking forward to seeing your work on this Venerable Old Kit. If you have any questions we have the Worlds best Revelle 1/28th DR1 builder here on the Forum Just ask My Amigo Ed Boll and I am sure he will give any advice you might need 8)
RAGIII
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Thanks Rick, much appreciated! I am already mid-build with this kit - with a deadline of early June for completion - so these posts are a bit of a retrospective. I'm sure I'll catch up with my pace of building before too long! The combination of the time pressure I'm working with (which I don't usually respond well to in modelling terms :) ) and the age of the kit means that I am making a number of compromises that I normally wouldn't normally be prepared to do.
Anyway, here are my next steps in preparing the fuselage.
Thanks for looking!
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And now with some paint added.....
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Looks outstanding. Lovely work on the wood panels!
RAGIII
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NIce work and welcome, Brad.
Gaz
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Brad,
It's always great to see someone take on an old Classic! Excellent up date my friend and I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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Old classic indeed Brad; I built this kit when I was 13 or 14 years old, that's almost 60 years ago! It's a real classic and, as you say, not that bad given it's age. Welcome aboard, and I'll be following your progress with this one, great stuff!
Cheers,
Lance
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Nice additions to this old kit giving a new look. It's promising.
Ciao
Giuseppe
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Thanks all for your kind comments. I thought the kit would be frustrating, but it's been a very enjoyable build so far.
Anyway, next step was to build up the cockpit framework using Albion Alloys tubing. Lots of test fitting here, before gluing with slow-drying epoxy.
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Welcome to the forum, Brad.
Nice work on the Tripe ;)
von B
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Welcome, Brad. The additions look very promising.
Bye,
Manni
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Thanks Bob and Manni. If you look closely Bob you can see some of your buckles at work - fabulous as always! More to come.
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After installing the framework I then airbrushed it, which involved a fair bit of masking but the result was worth it. I considered brush painting it, but the result wouldn't have been as good. BTW, all of the messy attachment points for the frame are invisible once the cockpit is installed and fuselage joined.
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Brad, belated welcome to the Forum, and "Good Luck" with this build. I'm another of the older set (older than Lance, but don't tell him so!) who initially built this kit (and the Sopwith Camel and the SPAD, IIRC) when they first appeared back in the late '50's. I'll follow your build thread to see just what magic can be wrought with this kit using current techniques and materials. Best wishes for a super build! 8)
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Glad to see that you're working on the 'ol gal' ...
Ed
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Nice work on the tubular frames! I am liking this build a lot!
RAGIII
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Hi and thanks again for your kind comments.
While detailing the fuselage halves, I also started work on the tail surfaces. I removed the rudder from the fuselage half to which it was attached (I can't remember which), and carefully cut the elevator from the horizontal stabiliser. I removed all raised detail from these parts, to be replaced later with more subtle representation. I also filled a number of ejector pin cavities with superglue which I let dry and then sanded smooth; I had to do the same with plastic strip I used to improve the fit of stabiliser and elevator. Looking at these photos I still have some remedial sanding and polishing to do on some of the parts, but I'm happy with the results so far.
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Ah, the memories. Wish I'd known of these methods and techniques and materials when I was fifteen...! :(
Looks like you're off to a very good start, Brad. Keep on doin' what you're doin'! 8)
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Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Looking good and only getting better.
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Those of you who have built this kit will know that one of the bits Revell got wrong was the axle wing - not so much the shape as the structure. Revell has moulded the wing with fabric-covered ribs, when in reality it was covered in plywood. This was an easy if drawn out fix, using sandpaper and then polishing pads to remove the inaccurate detail.
Trickier to deal with was Revell's method of attaching the undercarriage struts to the axle wing. The parts are moulded with a small section of the wing included at the bottom of the 'v' where the struts meet. This adds strength, but unfortunately the fit between the strut and the wing is very poor - and the nature of the parts means that it is very difficult to sand everything flush. After some head-scratching I got around this by completely removing the rear strut on each side. This gave me the space I needed to get a perfectly smooth join between the wing and the struts. The rear struts were then replaced with forward gear struts from the 1/32 Hobbycraft Dr.1, which are exactly the right size - the Hobbycraft struts are the grey ones in the pictures. (I was given the Hobbycraft kit a few years back and will never build it - in many ways, the Revell kit is better than it despite being much older.) The new struts were glued and pinned, with the entire undercarriage assembly dry-fitted to the airframe while the glue was drying to ensure correct angles etc.
Incidentally this won't be the last time that 1/32 Dr.1 parts save me in this build - more on this later!
Thanks for looking!
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It's coming along very nicely Brad, I'm always amazed and impressed by the quality of work that brings an old hallmark Kit up to modern standards and this is a perfect example. It's great to remember building a Kit from now, well over 50 years ago, and seeing how far our hobby has progressed. Nice work on her!
Cheers,
Lance
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Excellent work on removing the ribs! The struts look great!
RAGIII
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It's coming along very nicely Brad, I'm always amazed and impressed by the quality of work that brings an old hallmark Kit up to modern standards and this is a perfect example. It's great to remember building a Kit from now, well over 50 years ago, and seeing how far our hobby has progressed. Nice work on her!
Cheers,
Lance
What he said, Brad: couldn't agree more. I'm having benevolent flashbacks to the '50's as I read of your excellent progress. Best wishes for continued success! 8)
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Finding it interesting how you are bringing the old kit up to scratch. Great informative posting!
Gaz
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Thanks again everyone for your comments, I think I will need ongoing encouragement as my time for building this model is running out! Deadline is Thurs 7 June which is not far off.... :-\
As well as unnecessary rib detail on the axle wing, Revell included exaggerated spoke detail on the wheels. Again this was scraped, sanded and polished off before I hit the wheels with paint - MRP's Richthofen's Red to be precise. This is the first time I've used MRP paint and I'm very impressed. The lacquer formula is something I'm familiar with and like (apart from the smell!), as I normally use Tamiya and Gunze acrylics thinned with lacquer thinner - I find this gives a good strong base for subsequent weathering etc.
You'll see I've also painted the seat red - according to the instructions in Cutting Edge's 'Baron's Tripes' 1/32 decal sheet, the seat in the plane in question was covered in red-doped fabric. I don't know how accurate this is, but it does look good! And the seat is a replacement - it's Aviattic's lovely 1/32 Fokker seat which while slightly underscale is not obviously so, and is far, far superior to the quite nasty kit offering (of which I unfortunately don't have a photo to use as comparison).
And if I'm taking some trouble over the seat, then I also need the canvas screen behind the seat that is not included in the kit. I've made this up from scrap Evergreen card and rod and - while it looks pretty rough here - it painted up really well as you can see in the following photo of the cockpit - more on this in my next update.
cheers Brad
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Here's the cockpit photo I mentioned in my previous post - still not complete, but getting there. Again I have made a number of concessions in terms of accuracy (in favour of buildability), but the result is better than the kit original. cheers Brad
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Lovely work on the cockpit Brad, the seat, belts, and the cushion are spot on and the screen/baffle finishes it all off beautifully. This is looking nothing like what would be expected from such a basic kit, great modelling! 8) 8) 8)
Cheers,
Lance
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This cannot be the same aircraft so many of us built so many years ago. Incredible results you are getting.
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Lovely work!
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Continuing to be a fantastic build. What you are doing with this Old kit is outstanding.
RAGIII
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Thanks again for the encouragement everyone - it's greatly appreciated. I'm still waiting for this kit to show its teeth - assuming it has any, I suppose they will appear when I am attaching the wings to the fuselage and trying to align them. That's a job I'm hoping to do in the next few days - watch this space!
Here are a couple more photos of the cockpit before installation in the fuselage. Details of what's from the kit and what I changed are as follows:
- the seat frame, cockpit floor and rudder pedals are kit stock - a bit chunky but otherwise accurate. I had to fill a couple of nasty ejection pin holes on the floor ahead of the foot skids, for which I used my usual filler of superglue.
- The aileron control horn on the floor just behind the rudder pedals (with the still-loose Ez Line attached to it) is from Copper State Models' dedicated photo-etched set for the 1/28 Revell Dr.1. This is a useful aftermarket set, even if I won't up using most of it.
- The rudder control lines running from the pedals to beneath the seat are made from EZ Line held in place by 1mm x .05mm tubing from Bob's Buckles.
- The bent tubing/framework running vertically up from the rudder pedal bar is a leftover part from my WNW 1/32 Fe.2b that I adapted to approximately the right shape.
- The spent ammo bin which I've impaled on this tube (not technically correct, in reality the tube does not go through the bins but I needed a method to securely mount the bins in the cockpit) is from the 1/32 Roden/Encore Dr.1 kit. (I don't need them for my Roden build because I'm using photo-etched replacements from Part which are much better.) The data tables on the bin have been lifted from the Encore photo-etched set - I'll worry about replacements when I build the Roden kit....
- The control column has been heavily modified from the kit original with spare bits of photo-etch, lead wire etc, using original Dr.1 columns and technical drawings as a guide. The photos of the control column from Richthofen's machine on the Australian War Memorial website were particularly useful. I wish I had taken better photos of the finished column, as I'm really pleased with the result.
- The compass is a combination of the (surprisingly good) equivalent part from the Hobbycraft 1/32 Dr.1, attached to the bottom half of the Revell compass and with the compass face added from the Encore set.
- The seat belts are from Tom's Modelworks' generic WW1 German aircraft interior set. There are some buckles that I've left off because I wasn't convinced I could add them without smearing glue everywhere, but I think they look ok as they are.
- As previously mentioned, the screen behind the seat is made from scrap plastic, with elastic thread used for the stitching and the usual combo of EZ Line and Bob's Buckles loops and tubing for the cross-bracing.
That's about it for now. Next step is to install all of this in the fuselage halves. ;D
cheers Brad
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I must repeat that your cockpit is Beautifully rendered! As for the wings it has been a while but I do not remember any major vices 8)
RAGIII
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Thanks Rick - it's the first lot of serious scratch building I've done, and I'm pleased with how it's turned out so far.
Time now to turn my attention to the wings. I wasn't convinced by the original surface detail (first picture below) so I sanded most of this off and added replacement rib tape decals from HGW. These were a joy to use, and the detail is excellent, especially under paint. Series of photos follows which hopefully shows this.
cheers Brad
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More rib tape decal pictures/details. The painted wing has only had one coat - it looks even better under two!
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The re done rib detail looks outstanding! You are showing me some things I can do to the Hobby Craft version of this kit I have in the stash!
RAGIII
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Absolutely amazing!
Borsos
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Aye, those rib tapes really notch up the interest factor on the wing!
Nicely done!
Gaz
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Brad,
Outstanding update my friend. Your rib tapes are very impressive. One question for you though what scale are the HWG tapes? At any rate Well Done and keep up the high excellence.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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Hi Greg, the rib tapes are 1/48. I had read somewhere that HGW's 1/32 tapes were a little over scale and that the 1/48 ones would look good on a 1/32 kit. Having used them I tend to agree - although I am definitely trying things on this build that I wouldn't do with a WNW kit that I wanted to do a really good job on. I just figure that it's a pretty good test bed for experimenting with improvement techniques, and I'm having a lot of fun doing so!
Anyway here are the lower and middle wings after a wash and some matt varnish. The decals on the lower wing are from Hobbycraft's 'Late Aces' set - I'd heard these decals were good and they were, going on perfectly (noting that while for Hobbycraft's 1/32 Dr.1 kit, these are the upper wing decals that are larger than those for the lower wing. I'll be using masks for the rest of the markings.) There is a bit of misregisration on one decal that I'll need to touch ups with red, but that will be easily done. Working on the top wing now....
cheers Brad
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Brad,
Thank you for the information. I knew of HGW's rib tapes in 1/72 and 1/48 but not 1/32. They do look great and I believe you're right the 1/48 rib tapes looking the part on your 1/28 Dr.I. Keep up the good works.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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The tapes look perfect under the red paint. The red shade is spot on and the crosses look like they were made for this kit!
RAGIII
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Very nice!
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Sweet build and educational too. I'm watching and learning (and ordering rib tapes). Keep on it.
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OK, have been a bit slack with updates. :-\
Cockpit details were cemented to port fuselage half and allowed to dry - constant test fitting was obviously a must, but overall fit was surprisingly good given the number of alterations and additions.
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I am pretty sure I said this already but just in case, your added details are superb! Really looks AWESOME!
RAGIII
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Great work. The only correction would be your compass should not be on a tall stalk (or did BvR do this?) Pretty much mounted on the floor.
Steve
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Mmmm... That cockpit do look good!
Gaz
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Thanks! Steve - I know what you mean re the compass. This is just one of the compromises I've taken in building this old kit to a reasonably tight timeframe (I have three weeks left :o) - there are more extreme ones to come I'm afraid. Like you, from my research for this build I believe that Dr.1 compasses were most frequently - if not always - mounted on the floor. However I mounted it in a raised position for three reasons - first, the Bentley cutaway of the Dr.1 in the Datafile shows a raised compass; secondly, the kit compass was raised, and it was easier to refine this reasonably clunky part than replace it in a new location; and finally, and related to the second point, a floor-mounted compass didn't fit well and was also almost invisible. So I went with the compromise....
Anyway, after all that work it was time to close up the fuselage. This was reasonably straightforward, thanks to my frequent test fitting, but the quality of the kit plastic isn't great which makes tidying up and polishing seams a tedious business.
Once I had the fuselage joins hidden to my satisfaction, I glued on the (painted) lower wing and used this as an alignment guide for attaching the horizontal tailplane. This was a bear to fit - I ended up cutting off the moulded locating tabs and doing lots of sanding and fettling to get a decent fit before I glued the tailplane in place. After the glue was dry, it was out with the liquid putty to fill some pretty serious gaps around the joins. Most annoying, however, is the incorrect profile of the upper rear fuselage - this is much more curved than the subtle shape of the real thing, which is almost flat where it meets the leading edge of the horizontal plane. I sanded down the rear fuselage a bit, which helped slightly; if I'd had more time up my sleeve I would've really gone to town, but I didn't so made another of my compromise decisions and moved on!
thanks for looking, Brad
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Coming along nicely. All is looking terrific.
RAGIII