Hello friends!
I have this Eduard kit in my stock in New Caledonia:
You're going to tell me I've marked Roland C.IIa when I've got a Roland C.II kit, but I prefer the decorations worn by the C.IIa.
In fact, I'm thinking of redoing the whole cockpit based on the documentation. And what better documentation than the photos of the clusters, and the WNW kit manual?
Let's see what Eduard has to say about the walls:
There's an idea! And it's not so bad. I think we can live with it. On the other hand, you'll have to get rid of those ugly ejector pins, which are indispensable, if only as a matter of principle.
But as far as I'm concerned, I prefer to eliminate everything and redo the entire internal structure independently.
You can see that Eduard wanted to show the wooden slats that make up the fuselage.
The WNW manual for their 1/32 model includes some very interesting photos:
The fuselage was actually built in two parts, left and right. You can clearly see that the laths are glued at an angle, and crossed in layers. So Eduard isn't bad at all!
If you look at the WNW instructions, you'll see that the direction of the slats is reversed compared to Eduard: they face forward:
As I've decided to redo the internal structure that I'll place in the fuselage, a thorough sanding is in order.
I took the opportunity to remove the front bulkhead, which doesn't exist on the real thing, and to refine the engine covers. To do this, I use a dremel. It's fast and efficient for roughing up as much as possible, before using fairly fine sandpaper:
To guide me, I mark them with a black permanent marker.
It's a good guide for sanding, whether with a dremel or sandpaper:
Here's what Eduard proposes: solid panels that give the impression that they were wood panels separating the pilot from the observer.
But....
So I draw the new parts on tracing paper.
These drawings on tracing paper are then glued with white glue to a piece of Evergreen, and forward to cutting with the X-acto blade:
I'm going to continue with the last panels, dashboard and so on.
A bientôt!
Arnaud
