Kette of Dr1's

[DaddyO]

A nice simple build was required after getting a bit bogged down with my recent Roland and I was lucky enough to pick up a set of Pheon DR1 decals so an idea I'd been kicking around took shape. How about a whole flight of DR1's 

In the gentleman's scale the natural choice is Eduards lovely offering which I'd already built and had a couple more sitting on the shelf so it didn't take long to make a start. On my first one the struts look overscale, but since I didn't fancy making 4 new sets from brass I decided to be lazy and sand down the kit ones to improve their appearance (?) 0.2mm brass pins added beforehand meant fitting would be more secure. The other 'improvement' would be some of Small Parts lovely Oberusel engines (including those tiny spark plugs!)

Paul

[DaddyO]

The other thing I wanted to sort out was the streaking effect

Thought the first effort using acrylics was nearly there so spent some time with various test wings trying out various colours till I got a couple I was happy with. (I know oils work, but I wanted to stick with acrylics)
Adding glaze medium slows the drying time enough so that you can get a blend and use a similar technique to oil paints and when dry you can go back and add another layer to get the more prominent streaks seen in some close up images. I used an olive shade for aircraft which had been in service for a few weeks and the greener version for freshly painted (My understanding is the green colour used in the dope faded quite quickly and the varnish yellowed giving the typical olive shade)

Paul

[KiwiZac]

Great start Paul, and what a fun project!

[DaddyO]

Great start Paul, and what a fun project!

Cheers Zac. certainly enjoying it so far 

[NigelR]

That's looking good Paul, the acrylic approach works well. I'd be tempted to add a second layer of a few thin streaks in places to emphasise the contrast between the streaks and the fabric a bit more. But that might be tough to pull off in 1/72, you wouldn't want to overdo it.

I took the coward's way out and used Aviattic decals.....

[DaddyO]

You might be right Nigel. I'll have a play about on the test piece now I've got a feel for it a bit.

I've actually got a sheet of the Aviattic decals and very nice they are too although I'd need a second sheet to cover all those wings and to my eyes they look just a tad too green  (Too many years of looking at olive green streaked DR1's probably) Also given my recent decal experiences I thought paint would be a bit more my style 

Cheers
Paul

[Dutch522]

Looking forward to this build, Paul, they're going to make a great lineup when you get them all done!

Dutch

[GazzaS]

I'm glad to see somebody using a paint brush to get the olive streaking effect instead of decals.

[Tim Mixon]

That’s looking really nice Paul. I agree with you and the others about using a real brush to get the effect.  I seem to prefer the more olive color as well. Looking forward to seeing the group build. 

[DaddyO]

  Thanks guys

I'm a bit of a Luddite when all's said and done so I prefer using a brush if possible. Decals always feel a bit 'cheaty' somehow 

Paul

[DaddyO]

Bit of a cold this week so didn't feel like doing much work. Not bad enough to stop occasional visits to the model room though 

Small Parts engines arrived safely and quickly, but they only had two in stock  . Luckily each kit comes with a pair of crankcases (early and late) and with some careful maneuvering I was able to make up 4 engines using the available cylinders on show and filling in the ones hidden behind the cowl with spare cylinders cut from an old Gaspatch Oberusel. On this cowl I've extended the cooling slots for a bit of variety, but the others will be stock. Obviously the cowl walls needed some serious scraping and thinning to accommodate the new engines . . . (I promise I'll glue them in centrally when they are on the models) 

Paul

[KiwiZac]

Lovely work Paul, that looks terrific!

[NigelR]

Those Small Parts engines really are the biz, and this looks great.

I keep reading "Kette" as kettle, and it certainly looks like this build is coming to the boil......

[Tim Mixon]

That’s a great solution Paul, using the visible cylinders on all four machines. 

[DaddyO]

Lovely work Paul, that looks terrific!

Cheers Zac 

Those Small Parts engines really are the biz, and this looks great.

I keep reading "Kette" as kettle, and it certainly looks like this build is coming to the boil......

Kettle LOL (I do the same myself Nigel) 

That’s a great solution Paul, using the visible cylinders on all four machines. 

Thanks Tim. They're a bit of a fiddle to put together and whilst it wasn't a lot easier it made sense (I used a full one in my EIII build and ended up cutting a lot of the hidden detail away so that I could fit the engine in the cowl)

Been very busy with these this week (it helps that I've already built a couple so know the kit pretty well) Sadly no pics of interiors before I closed them up 
I decided to use the moulded in detail rather than the etched frames for the interiors, but added cable detail and a few stretched sprue bits to busy them up. For the seatbelts I always struggle to get etched ones look like fabric and fold naturally so for these I painted up some paper, cut it into strips and glued all the etched buckles and fastenings to these. Probably not worth the effort involved, but look quite nice. For the flying surfaces I've removed and pinned all the movable areas to animate them and replaced the hinges lost with slivers of sanded down 5 thou plastic card. I'm not replacing the control horns on this group (although they're bit overscale the idea of replacing all 40 with etched brass replacements was just too much)

Having joined the fuselages up I'm currently playing around with layouts. They'd likely be all in a row, but that makes for quite a big base so a bit of artistic licence is called for to get a more reasonable size. Viewing from one side rather than front or rear gives a better view of the scheme colours. I want to add the group of four pilots in the front left area and probably a dog and a couple of ground crew milling around the aircraft themselves to create a busy little scene. (I'm trying not to think about painting all the eyeballs!) 

Hopefully get some painting done later this week.

Paul