1/48 Pfalz Ei - Special Hobby

[FokkerFodder]

And I managed to get this one off the work bench after the Eiii. It nearly ended up in the bin a few times but we got there. A shout out to the nice folk at Special Hobby who sent me replacement decals. It might have been a rather ordinary fighter but I love the look of these early Pfalz.

Untitled by matt Hampton, on Flickr

Untitled by matt Hampton, on Flickr

Untitled by matt Hampton, on Flickr

cheers
Matt

[Dirigible-Al]

Brilliant Job Matt. I think it is very clever to have it on a snow covered ground and the stains on the snow shows your attention to detail.
Alan.

[NigelR]

Another great job, lovely build and weathering. And a fab base as well!

[DaddyO]

Lovely work all round 

Paul

[PrzemoL]

Very, very nice. Thanks for sharing!

[2996 Victor]

Gorgeous Pfalz Eindekker, absolutely stunning!

Thanks for sharing,
Mark

[Big Sky Modeler]

I too like the look of the earlier Pfalz with the black tapes and extra crosses on the tail.  Yours turned out very nice.  I like the weathering on the wings around the fuselage and the weathering on the tires.  The Prop looks great too!

[lone modeller]

That is a first class model set off my a very realistic base.

Stephen.

[RAGIII]

Outstanding Pfalz and Terrific Display!
RAGIII

[Allan31]

Great job Matt.
I have this on my short list as well. Any linky to your construction?

[Tim Mixon]

Excellent job Matt!  I really like this build and will use this as reference for my future project in 1/72. 

[FokkerFodder]

Thanks all for the kind comments.

Sorry Allen- no build log? but a few things from my build.

The cockpit is nicely detailed but very fragile - esp if you have clumsy fingers like mine.  I struggled to keep it from falling apart, especially when trying to close the fuselage.

Test fit carefully? I thought I had but ended up with hideous seam lines as the fuselage was poorly situated when I sealed it up - it was especially bad underneath the cowling. In the end I hacked off some of the fuselage and front oil/petrol? tank so I could fit the engine mount - none of it can be seen in any event. I ended up resolving the seams after much sanding by skinning in very thin evergreen - it actually worked well and covered a multitude of sins. I used the same technique on my Fokker build (there is a log as part of the aces GB).

Finally, the decals - there?s lots of them and unless you?re a masking master you have to use them. I ended up cutting them into smaller sections as they?re quite brittle- or at least mine were. They also didn?t really like decal solution. I finally realised warm water was the best and stopped them gripping too early.

Most of the problems were probably of my own making but in the end I?m happy with it and it?s a nice kit.
Cheers
Matt

[2996 Victor]

Many thanks for adding the extra details about your build experiences, they're very useful pointers, especially skinning the fuselage.

I meant to ask, also, about the turnbuckles. I'm currently whether to turnbuckle or not, and yours look pretty convincing.

Cheers,
Mark

[Richtrad]

You deserve to be happy with this Matt. Excellent color scheme and well executed, interesting subject!
Warren Q

[FokkerFodder]

Thank you all.

Mark - on the turnbuckles, they?re the usual - gaspatch 1/48. Probably over scale but I think it just boils down to personal taste. I like to show them even in 1/48 as I feel it gives a better sense of the ?character? of these early warbirds if that makes sense.

I used the single end ones for the anchor points on the wings. On the plus they?re less fussy and look a bit more accurate. The obvious downside is it?s harder to get the angle right. I found you could get a reasonable- if not perfect- result by rigging the counterpoint but not gluing it, attach the wing point but don?t glue and tighten. When it looks right, attach the wing point and retighten and glue the other end. Hopefully you have a rigging line running the correct angle!
Cheers
Matt