CDW

Glad to have you aboard, Caleb. In the future, I have a large number of different WW1 aircraft to finish as I have become very fond of the Wingnut Wings series of models.

I'll try and get some photos up tonight, but work around the house has taken priority over model building interests lately with a series of impromptu projects that truly needed to be done and were of a much higher priority than my models. Frankly, the Florida heat has grown so high (already and not even summer yet) that I really haven't felt much like doing any modeling in the evenings after a day's hard work in the sun. I am guessing that temperatures easily reached 100 out in the direct sun I was in yesterday and the days before. My dogs didn't even want to go outside. Besides being man's best friend/s, they are probably smarter than me as well. 😎 Pretty soon, I will begin painting our house and repairing/replacing a few soffit and facia boards. Will be basically stripping it down, recaulking, priming the entire exterior with a primer/sealer/mildew paint, then applying the colors of the Admiral's choosing. Done this way, it should likely be the last outdoor paint job I will do myself on this house. Any that may need doing after this will get done by either a contractor I choose or by another owner. I'll be too darn old to do it myself unless I can still do it in my eighties. 🤥 When I have worked on my S.E.5a model, it has helped me more appreciate the Wingnut Wings kits. This one comes will all the little extras to improve the rough stock Roden kit, but man, it's a lot of extra work and sometimes difficult to figure out exactly how it's all intended to fit together. The instruction pages are rather poor in this regard. Thanks to OC and the links he shared, photos of the actual plane have helped a lot to get it sorted out.

Some years ago, I think it was Firestone who produced a crop of bad tires that would come apart at the sidewalls. It caused more than a few fatalities before the company confessed to the problem. But like Denis said, it definitely looks like the sidewalls on these failed. Once before I read where tires that have never been used will go bad over time just sitting on the rack, and that buyers need to be wary of the date of manufacture of the tires we're buying. I believe (if I remember correctly) the date of manufacture is in coded print on the sidewall somewhere. Oh well, you're safe which is the most important thing. Back to modeling, dude!

The same dealer I mentioned earlier, a couple of posts back, has another SPAD for sale.

That beautiful wood deck gets painted blue? or just the photo etch deck parts?

Right now, go to "lots-of-models.com" website. Do a search for 1:28 Hobbycraft DR.1 (or triplane). If he hasn't already sold it by the time you look, add in the code "spring10" to get a 10% discount. You can buy that triplane for $25, shipped priority mail. That is the Revell kit reboxed by Hobbycraft. That's also where I bought this SPAD. A great 2nd hand kit dealer whose prices include 1st class shipping (and don't for get the discount code for 10% off).

I received this 1:28 Revell Spad model kit today. The thing that makes this kit remarkable is the fact this is the original first production run of the kit from 1965. It's been re boxed and re released many times since over the years. This one has the parts, instructions, and decals still sealed inside in their original bag. An examination of the parts bag reveals little to no flash at all and the molded parts are very sharp and crisp. I remember building the original kit in this same box from back then, 1965 or 66 when my big brother was in Viet Nam with 1st Air Cav.

Here is something I often do for attachment points that's small, strong, and easily created yourself. Find some scrap computer component wire or other similar wire of small/fine gauge. Strip the insulation off the wire to use the fine strands to twist into loops like these (seen in the white paint pallet):

I searched on line for everything I could find that might show the rigging. There were some rudimentary line drawings that helped, and there was the official Mikasa website that shows photos of the ship on display at it's permanent home in Japan. Between the two, I was able to establish a best guess. And yes, I used some of my own attachment points to tie off the rigging on the decks and various other locations. Mostly I used photo etch pieces that were salvaged from other sets not related to the Mikasa. I highly recommend looking closely at the Seydlitz build thread found here: RGL did a masterful job of researching then rigging the torpedo net booms. Quite a complex rigging scheme. Pontos does include most of the attachment points for the net rigging, but no instruction on how to rig it. The booms, rigging and nets on the Seydlitz are very similar to those on Mikasa, If I ever get around to it, I will use RGL's example to rig my Mikasa.

I've noticed that these newer released car kits are packaged in the box far better than the old kits were. Individual parts trees in their own separate bags, and it also appears they may have retouched the tools as the parts look sharper and more flash-free than they were in the past.

Just a suggestion...If you strip this down and start painting again, try to move that red/white mask line down a smidgen to the prominent body line that sits just under the current color separation line. If you look at the box art, that's closer to where the red/white line sits. In the big scheme of things, it really doesn't matter either way I guess. It will look good in either position.

Sorry to hear about the paint woes. It will all work out.

So I got up this morning with the full intention of spending some quality model building time. But there was one little thing I wanted to do first out in the yard. One thing led to another (more yard work) and the next thing I knew, it was time to come inside and take a shower, change clothes, and take my daughter and granddaughter to drop them off at the movie theater. After picking them up, my wife wanted to take them to the mall to pick out new birthday clothing. Right, getter done. Came home and did more yard work until it was dark. It's time for another shower and change of clothing, but it's my full intention of burning the late night oil to get that modeling time in. To get myself in the mood, I like to listen to favorite music, like this one. Oh yeah, I am ready now.

Can you imagine....if just one lucky (or well placed) round was to hit and sever that cable, aileron control would be totally lost and the plane would probably spiral to earth in a death crash. Such was the life and times of WW1 aviators. A brave bunch those were when aircraft were so unreliable and fragile.

Wow, OC. You are quite the resourceful one when it comes to searching down aircraft details. Thanks for those....they will get put to use.

You've been busy, Jack. I love that Ranch Wagon Ford station wagon. You know, you are the first modeler I've seen do an online build on the Stearman kit. I am surprised what a nice kit that is, and you're doing a great job with it. When I saw that kit advertised for sale, I imagined it was a rebox of some old tooling they found somewhere in an attic, had no idea it was a new tool.

Those are very good observations on the pulleys and cables. I just don't know what type of transparent material besides glass was available back in 1917. I know plastic came along much later, but tell me about eisenglass. Not familiar with it and would like to know more. I still have a few old scratch built balsa and tissue models I finished. Some of the subjects I liked were not available in kit form, but I found it was easy enough to improvise and build something that was "close" to scale.

I think I'll save myself some work and only cut out/replace just the one cover for show. Can't see much point in doing them all that way as I can quite easily paint in and shade an opaque cover on the remainder of the locations.

Those are quite nice construction photos of the S.E.5a, OC. Thanks for the link. I'm thinking the clear covers are simply a feature of the model to show off the pulley and cables. The real thing being a simple access cover, opaque.

I need to check, but I think I may have reached the age where fishing licenses are no longer required in my state. 🙂 It's a benefit of becoming a senior citizen at some point.

Not sure if you're talking to me or to Lou. If me, then yes, the radiator pipe cam loose from the upper wing/radiator.

The kit provides clear acetate triangle shaped windows to cover the resin pieces but still allow the inner parts to show through. I'm scratching my head and wondering if this is just a feature added to the model to show off the detail, or was the actual aircraft fitted with glass over the pulley and cable for a quick visual inspection? Unfortunately, I don't have much reference for the S.E.5a that might tell me the answer to that question.

A pull-pull system with the pair of ailerons on each side linked together.

Earlier (yesterday) I described the aileron control cables and pulley systems molded in the wings and horizontal stabilizer. Here is a picture of how the stock wings look at the control system location, the triangle-shaped units. Plain vanilla. The idea is to cut out these triangles with an xacto knife or similar tool These are the after market resin replacement units included in the Encore kit. It captures the look of the detailed control cable and pulley systems. They will look something like this when installed. Of course, a little filler and sanding will be needed around the edges. A much better look...something you might expect to see already molded in to a Wingnut Wings kit, thus my previous "you get what you pay for" statement.

When I first posted these photos, it made me realize one of the radiator pipes had come unglued from the radiator. It's fixed now. It's amazing what details can be seen in photos that often escape the naked eye.