Season's greetings to all.
I have a small and much overdue update to post. The holiday's have made it a bit hard to find bench time, but I have managed to make some progress. Since last I posted:
These are the RB Productions WW1 Seat Belts, and the first time I have used anything other than photo etch. The belts are made from a reasonably durable paper, which comes pre-cut into strips of the appropriate size, and p/e hardware. You assemble the belts much like you would the real deal (with glue rather than stitching!) and the end result looks very nice. I found them to be a bit stiffer than I had hoped, which I guess is the tradeoff for the durability. In order to get them to conform to the seat in a semi-realistic fashion, I wound up wetting the paper which certainly softened them up, but also degraded the glue and some to the details (like the 'stitches' I applied with the serrated edge of the p/e fret.) All in all, I was happy with the product, but will probably try the HGW belts on my next build (in my quest for realistic draping). That said, I am sure a more talented modeler could get excellent results with these.
Next up is the instrument panel:
Nothing too out of the ordinary here. The digitally zoomed camera picture is cruel. I added copper tubing to the back of the panel using wire, which is visible in the next picture below:
Since the back of the panel will only be visible from directly above, I didn't spend too much time masking and painting, so please excuse the slapdash job. I tried something different with the cockpit floor boards, which can be seen in photo as well. After the base acrylic and oil paint grain, I gave it a coat of Tamiya Flat Clear. I followed this with a layer of hair spray, and this with Alclad Aqua Gloss. I used a damp cotton swap to remove the 'varnish' in areas that I wanted to appear worn, and used muddy colored pigments (which obviously bite into the flat coat more than the gloss) to dirty the wood up a bit. It isn't very obvious in the picture, but the different finishes are apparent in the way they reflect light.
I have rigged the cockpit framing using EZ Line, which I don't love, but I wanted a bit of elasticity in case the framing shape flexes a bit after assembly. I made the turnbuckles using a small piece of aluminum tube, and suggested the wrapping using small pieces of white gift tissue paper from the Christmas presents. I thinned Gator's Grip glue with water and dragged the tissue through the slurry prior to "wrapping" them on (more of a mush than a true wrap.) Once dried, I gave them a brushing with some pigments. The framing still needs a coat of flat coat on the lozenge decals, and a light oil wash. The stick is rigged with a mix of monofilament, wire and EZ line (for the machine gun trigger cables). I used a pair of my rejected ignition wire connectors to mount the elevator cables to the control stick.
I am close to closing up the cockpit, but am still working my way through the proper appearance of the wiring and control rods that attach to the throttle and spark advance levers. The best picture I've found of the BMW throttle is from the Memorial Flight Association's website:
Their DVII F restoration photos are terrific, but unfortunately are very small so while useful, details can be a bit tricky to pick out.
Like I said above, it really doesn't look like much progress, but between the holiday schedule and my propensity to slow down during detail work, it has taken me longer to get here than it probably seems like it should have. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy [insert holiday of choice], and wish the same for you all for 2015.
Thanks for looking in,
Chris
