Dear all -
Just completed this KP kit today.
Very nice little kit comprising 26 parts on a single sprue. Fairly straightforward build although some careful assembly/alignment required installing cockpit; tailplane and main wings.
Built mostly OOB with the following small aditions/details:
Cockpit including bulkheads, ammo boxes and seat harness;
Cut and posed elevators and ailorens;
Sanded back the over promiment molded rib details;
Vickers MG belt feed added;
Wind driven fuel pump added to front port side cabane strut;
Open out the additional air cooling slots/holes in cowling;
Windscreen;
Control horns
Rigged using Uschi standard for bracing wires and fine for all control cables.
According to Wikipedia, the Russians ordered around 20-30 of this aircraft but replaced the engines with more powerful types to improve performance. I therefore used the Clerget engine supplied in the kit which is really for the Mark 2 version.
Painted in the colours/markings of 'Black 12' the machine used by Grigori E Suk (2 victories in this machine shared), Imperial Russian Air Force 1917.
Regards
Dave
