There's still life in the build albeit it at a glacial pace due to other less welcome commitments.
I've made the rigging frame which goes over the fuselage out of squeezed brass tube in place of the resin version in the kit. The resin pieces seemed to be if anything thinner than scale judging from the limited selection of WWI era photos of the aircraft to hand. Also they aren't very strong & I intend to use the rigging to avoid any long term droop of the fairly heavy wings so brass replacements seemed the way to go.
It's worth bearing in mind when looking at photos that one flying replica incorrectly uses circular tubes.
I apologise for the less than ideal photo but there's a short section of tube just visible at the intersection of the four struts, this is to take the end of the turnbuckles.
The undercarriage is finished other than the tread representing the rubber bungee cord needing a touch of grey tone & some overall weathering.
The legs of the original are wrapped in some sort of reinforcing tape & it leaves a distinct ridged effect in a slow spiral up the leg. I tried to replicate this (see much earlier photo of them in grey primer) by wrapping narrow strips of masking tape around them & spraying a couple of extra coats of primer, then removing the tape. After a light sanding & a coat of black paint (very dark grey really) they look ok.
I've also painted the fuselage so now it's a matter of finishing touches such as the leather surround to the cockpit. I think I may repaint the top surface of one of the horizontal stabilisers though as the Alclad pulled off with the masking tape I was using on the ribs when doing some shading. I thought I could pass it off as 'wear & tear' with some appropriate tinting but perhaps not.
Regards
Russell
