1:32 Roden SSW D.III

[Bluesfan]

Just woke up to the need to declare myself for this! 
Very much wanted to participate, like so many I have reason to appreciate Dave's masterful and sensitive stewardship of this great forum.
And this is an excellent opportunity to get back into the world of multiple wings and rigging, too neglected of late.
I do have unbuilt SE's and Pfalzes in the stash, but this kit of the SSW D.III has been shining at me, so here I go.
I have only just started to cut plastic - first job, cutting out the louvres under the engine - and haven't glued anything yet.
I will be building this famous red machine, popular subject I know, but I find Udet a fascinating as well as a tragic figure, so I absolutely wanted an example of this attractive plane for myself.
All the best to everyone joining in this build!
Mark

[RAGIII]

Another excellent choice for the GB. Having built this one I would only say watch the fit of the cabanes as they tend to make the Interplanes lift or the center section of the upper wing bow if left unchanged.
RAGIII

[Bluesfan]

Many thanks for that advice Rick
I can also see the fit of the bottom wing will take some care
I love Roden kits!
Mark

[NigelR]

An oldie but a goodie (with a bit of work). Looking forward to this one.

[Dutch522]

Going to have to follow this one! I love these aeroplanes, and anything Udet-related always grabs my interest.

Dutch

[KiwiZac]

There's a D.III replica at the museum near me and it is such a neat-looking machine. I didn't realise Roden did a kit so I'm very excited to see this build!

[Bluesfan]

Thanks for the comments  Yes Nigel, "with a bit of work", you're not kidding!
Here's the state of play with the cockpit assembly. Some non-ideal aspects, but overall I want to move forward now and seal it up.
The seat belts and instrument dials are from old Eduard sets.
Main novelty for me was fitting control lines, I think the first time I've tried to render them. I didn't appreciate that the geometry of the control column pieces in this kit would make this a little tricky.
The plastic blob at the back is just stuck there to act as an anchor for the control lines.

Btw KiwiZac, I don't know what this says about me but regarding my imaginary list of reasons to ever visit New Zealand - fjords, mountains, amazing bird life, Lord of the Rings stuff, etc etc; floating near the top has always been that SSW replica  . Love the D.III and D.IV, I'm sure we'd have heard a lot more of them in 1918 but for the issue with the engine oil. And who knows what how good the D.VI monoplane might have turned out to be?
Cheers
Mark

[lcarroll]

    Great choice Mark and you've got a really good start. This Kit is still my favorite of my collection but as others here have noted can be a lot of work depending on how far you wish to take it.Rag III's comments concerning the upper wing "bow" are right on the mark and attention to the length of the cabanes is the cure, I didn't get it quite right on mine either. As a thought Bull Dog makes a very nice PE Set for this Model and Hannants had it in stock a year ago when I decided to build another of these, worth looking into. Here's a link to my old Build Log and Mike Norris has one on the Forum as well, I'll be following your Build with great interest.

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=6383.0

Cheers and have fun with this one!
Lance

[RAGIII]

The Pit is really looking great Mark!  I seem to recall deciding to leave a couple of those wires that were under the floor off of My build 
RAGIII

[NigelR]

Good start and well done on fitting the control lines, it's the things like that that make a big difference (and they can be seen when you look in the cockpit).

[Bluesfan]

Right, some pictures to catch up, after an intense week of building.
(I wanted to take it along to the monthly model club meet on Wednesday - which I did, more about that anon)(to be honest, not 'quite' finished, and also I'll be putting it in a simple vignette by sometime next week)

Here's the cockpit. Quite fiddly fitting in the bellcrank structure. And when closed up later, the control wires are less visible than I'd hoped. But I'm happy, it may be the most complete cockpit I've put together.

[Bluesfan]

Back and front views of the engine.
Yes, it's the kit engine, for better or worse.
I experimented with some paints from a Lifecolor metallic set. Frankly the actual colours didn't resemble the shades suggested by the packaging. I repainted some of it. I'm not an expert in the area of metallics but my feeling is that enamels render them better than acrylics.
You may be able to see that I did some basic addition of ignition wires.

I have a confession to make.
I currently possess not one, not two even, but three different examples of the Siemens Halske Sh.III engine.
The third will be found in the wonderful new Pfalz D.VIII kit.
The second - ah well, some years ago, Aviattic offered a kit of this engine, apparently designed by North Star Models. When the new Pfalz kit came out, I naively assumed it would be the same set, but no, on examination it's obviously different. The earlier kit is very fine, but consists of an intimidating mass of very small parts. It can only have been intended for the Roden kit of the Siemens D.III, being the only type existing in model form at the time which employed the Siemens Halske Sh.III. So one would think it probably does fit. I'm inclined to build it at some point, though I'll need some eyesight assistance(!). Why didn't I build it for this kit? I'm afraid what with the Wednesday 'deadline' for taking along a reasonably finished model, I realised it would take far too long.
What with the time consuming nature of the task represented by the next picture... (Breath taking stuff this, isn't it?  )

[Bluesfan]

Udet's plane retained lozenge fabric only on the main wings ie not the tail. Supposedly it was his intention to have the whole plane painted red eventually. But this is the most representative scheme of his plane.

I've bought sheets of Aviattic lozenge at several times, but for reasons I can't explain, the kits requiring it have stayed in the stash, until now. So this is the first time I've used them. They're lovely, aren't they? Both in appearance and convincing realism, and as materials to work with. I'm very pleased especially as this is my first time using them.
Yes, they're the special sheets Aviattic produced of fabric turned 45° as appropriate for this type.

The one downside was my hard experience of just how mindblowing cutting and applying rib tapes can be. I didn't check in a mirror, but I imagine I sported a classic 'thousand yard stare' after a few sessions.

[Bluesfan]

Up till now, I've usually drilled through wings or fuselage to thread through rigging. Turnbuckles have often simply been short sections of microtube, such as Albion Alloys used to sell. I've used them here to secure rigging loops. As for the rigging itself, I prefer fishing line.

But that approach didn't seem practical when dealing with all over decals, ie too much scope for messing things up.
So among other bits of experimentation, I've got hold of a set of Gaspatch turnbuckles, and I like the result; except for one thing, which as you can see all too well, is the difficulty of fitting them at the right angle. Well, this is a question of technique and I hope I'll improve on my next project.

The most annoying pair were for the lines extending from the cowling. I couldn't see how to insert the turnbuckles on the wings at a low enough angle. I think I'd have done better to stick them in at the base of the struts.

Never mind that - just look at those very pretty Gaspatch guns!

[AngryJazz]

Stunning! that paint and finish looks so smooth