Pfalz D.XII (WNW, 1/32)

[Whiteknuckles]

Outstanding work PrzemoL, this is shaping up as a very inspiring piece of work!!

Andrew

[Ian from Doncaster]

Another great example from Przemol's workbench.  Another kit in my stash that I can take inspiration from...

[uncletony]

Awesome. (repeating myself, I know, but...)

[PrzemoL]

Thank you, gentlemen.

A few more steps forward.
Lower wing to fuselage fit is fine but not perfect. Some filling and sanding is mandatory. The stabilisers, on the contrary, fit like Lego blocks.





Now masking and Silbergrau fuselage spraying

[pepperman42]

By the look of the primer the filling is front and back edges of the wing. Are the roots ok?

Steve

[PrzemoL]

By the look of the primer the filling is front and back edges of the wing. Are the roots ok?

Steve

Exactly - the front and the back seams had to be filled - they fall in the spots were the fuselage was continuous plywood covered with linen. On the contrary, the root seams fall where there was the boundary between the fuselage and the linen covered wings. I reckon that tiny gaps there are justified.

[PrzemoL]

The bulk is painted and decalled. These losenge large sheets haunt my dreams recently. Even though they are custom sized and with stripes on placing them is a bit nightmarish. Or maybe I simply cannot properly put the decals on. Whatever, every single sheet needs several sessions of MicroSol treatment to conform to the rib tapes... Now it is already a couple of days of repeated efforts. And still not satisfying... Bubbles, membrane spanning instead of following the concave edges of the rib tapes... I am almost thinking it would be easier to mask and paint everything... (No, just kidding).

[coyotemagic]

Well, Prez, it sure looks good to me!  Have you tried hitting the loz decals with a little heat?  Like a hair dryer set on "high", maybe?  I've done that with troublesome decals in the past with good results.
Cheers,
Bud

[Des]

Looking excellent Prez, shaping up to be a very nice model.

I built this kit some time ago and experienced the same lozenge decal issue, it was easily solved, like bud said, by using heat from a hair dryer, this allowed me to form the decals into the desired shape and with a bit of decal set they adhered beautifully.

Des.

[PrzemoL]

Thanks Bud and Des, both for kind words and the piece od advice.

Yet, I must confess I am very reluctant to apply any kind of heat to the model. The vision of distortions, deformations and, extremally, melting plastic are right away before my eyes... Still, I may try to test this method using some spare decals and spare plastic. I am really curious how this works, since my experience is that I achieve better results with wetted (with Micro Sol or just water) rather then quickly dried decals. My feeling is that quick drying will result in more pronounced membrane spanning over the hollow/concave fragments of surface details rather then forcing the decal to conform to it. But, I have already heard so many people saying opposite, that I start feeling an urge to try this method.

Anyway, I have finally overcome the problems and started varnishing, toing down and shading the lozenge along the ribs. The lower sides are already done with crosses on. The photos will come when I am done with the upper sides, too.

[Ian from Doncaster]

The hairdryer method works - I don't use the hottest setting because too hot may damage the decals.  I stop several times and burnish out any air bubbles with a paint brush or a q-tip.  Also hair drying in stages allows for the decals to be re-aligned if necessary, before fully adhering to the surface.

When I made the WNW LVG, I applied the wing lozenge to all the flying surfaces before assembling to the aircraft, thus avoiding any heat damage to other parts.

[Adam]

I'm afraid to use decals on such big surface and I used mask, first result is good. Maybe I will go this way.

Adam.

[pepperman42]

I thought you were'nt supposed to use setting solutions on WNW decals. All the same she looks great!!

Steve

[Loki]

Lovely, just lovely. No surprise really as all your models are 

[PrzemoL]

Thank you, gents.
Also for the hairdryer advice.
Steve, you may think I am addicted to MicroSol and I do not apply any decals without it. This despite the claims one should not use it. I have used it both, for Rowan's decals and for WNW decals and did not damage them. On the contrary, when trying to work without it I could not achieve the proper adhering to model surfaces. But I may test the hairdryer with some spare WNW decals on a spare plastic.

Now I have reached an early stage of the monoplane phase. Weathering and some wash is there. I have doubts about the amount of dirt on the u/c, this time it is probably too heavy. But let us assume, Fuchs has just landed on a very muddy airfield...







Next steps will be attaching the eyelets for rigging and the turnbucles at the lower wing - I will make them from Bob's 3 mm tubes with the fishing line passing through it thrice. Then the guns, windshield, upper wing.... the end is now much closer, I deem.