To be up in one or to have one on your tail?

To be up in one. It's damned near a parasol and just when will the wing give?

It is a parasol, and I think they were pretty well braced. I looked through the Datafiles on both the Morane and Pfalz versions, and couldn't find any instances of one coming apart in the air, with the exception of the result of battle damage. On the other hand, and to my great surprise, I did find that at least one pilot was killed after going into a spin. I would have thought the parasol design to be inherently stable, but apparently if you did manage to spin one they were exceeding difficult to recover. That trait was shared by most wing-warpers, the Fokker eindekkers being the notable exception.

Next I'll be backtracking a little bit. After building the Pfalz E.I I started re-thinking my next kit. I built a Morane 'H' many years a go by converting a Revell eindekker kit. I didn't know too much about the subject and was unaware of how much longer the Fokker was than the Morane and Pfalz versions. I was aware that AZ Models also made the Morane 'G' and 'H', and the Pfalz E.I, the difference again being the box and decals. I was thinking of building another Pfalz because of some markings I like, but they are a bit on the pricey side. I found a Morane kit for a very good price. When it came I found out why: The previous owner had already cut some of it apart. The 'G' was a two-seater and had slightly longer wings, and the sections had already been removed. No problem there, as I planned to do the same myself.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psc2313c70.jpg

Ready for paint.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps389430b1.jpg

Almost done. Tonight I play music, tomorrow is the final details and rigging.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psc7b928c2.jpg

I dug the Pfalz out to help as a rigging guide. Got it 3/4 done and found I'd drilled two of the holes in the wrong place. Ripped it all apart and started over. Didn't have time left for the detail painting, and the pilot's not in yet. Took a side-by-side photo and then found you can't see the rigging on the Morane.

Too bad. It will show up in the final pictures.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps64f6a589.jpg

Morane 'H'. I did the British version solely because I like the rudder with the serial number but no national colors. This means it has the Lewis gun rather than the Hotchkiss. It still has to use deflector plates as no Allied service had a synchronizer yet.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...pse77b6899.jpg

I was running short of pilots, and I found that there are not very many available. I bought a set of 48 WWI 'pilots', knowing that the set was mostly ground crew and other standing figures, but I figured 12 seated pilots would be enough for now, and the price wasn't too bad. It turned out that one of the seated figures was actually a cavalry officer, so now there are 10 pilots. They are all in interesting poses, though, and rather than a combat pose this one appears to be leaning against the side of the cockpit looking at something (or talking to someone).
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps2d6bd06f.jpg

The pilot doesn't show up real well in close-up, but you get the idea.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps8cfc5943.jpg

Again the seven-cylinder 80-horsepower Gnome Monosoupape engine.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...pscd35091b.jpg

Next Project: The Bristol Scout. There were four models - A, B, C and D, and the C/D were the best of the early British conversions, putting a gun on a racing plane. They were fast and maneuverable, being more than a match for the eindekkers. Originally designed as an unarmed scout, meant for the pilot to fly into enemy territory and mark enemy troop positions on a map, the plane was limited by the wingtop Lewis gun mount, which required a lot of effort to change the drum (and it had to be changed every two or three bursts), and by the fact that only 80 Scout Cs and 210 Scout Ds were built. This is roughly the same number as the German eindekkers, but armed scouts came months later and better planes were soon available.

The model is available in several forms, and can build any Scout made. This one gives markings for early RNAS aircraft, which is why I chose it.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psb22bb11b.jpg

The kit has a very nice set of parts for the interior. The floorboard, seat and rudder pedals are standard plastic, the 'wood and wire' framing on the side and the joystick are etched brass. The 'above' shots were all blurry, so you can't see the leather seat cushion, but the pilot will be blocking that anyway. They also include seat belts, but that only works with a "parked" airplane.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps69bc6452.jpg

The instrument panel is a lovely little three-piece assembly. The backing is plastic, the instruments are printed on a clear plastic sheet, and the panel on top of it is etched brass. The whole thing glued together nicely and for the finishing touch I used some Micro Krystal-Klear for the glass bezels. I took about eight pictures just to get the two I used.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps27b17c3c.jpg

Fuselage assembled, engine, wings and tailplanes mounted.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps9d7cf707.jpg

Landing gear installed, first paint coat. The cowling is just stuck on for test fit. I also haven't decided which upper wing to use - the one with or without the cutaway rear. Time will tell.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psf47cd59b.jpg

I settled on having the gun mounted on the top wing rather than the forward deck, so I ended up using the wing with the cutout. Also got some more painting done.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...pscbf520c9.jpg

Markings, propeller, wing protectors.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps9b4bfb33.jpg

It's been four days, and not much has been done. Not that I haven't been busy - I have the main rigging done, the gun mounted and some other details. One of the problems has been that for some reason they didn't include the ailerons on the lower wings, so I've had to scribe my own. Many WW1 planes only had one set of ailerons, on the top. Photos reveal that from the beginning Bristols had ailerons on both wings. It turns out the protector hoops below the wings, that help keep the wings from breaking if the landing is a little crooked, were further forward than I had them. I pulled the hoops back off and scribed the ailerons. I haven't yet put them back on. The gun is mounted but not painted, and I still need to put in the control horns and the control rigging.

The box says "Precision Kit", but this one has problems. The wings don't line up properly, nor do the landing gear. There are very precise little photo-etched control horns, but they're too weak for gaming so I'll have to use brass wire. A lot of work still lies ahead.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psa3ef2008.jpg

Hey Steve,
Did you ever finish that battleship, USS Olympia?, you were working on? I saw on in the hobby shop a month ago and started thinking about yours.

This kit:
http://www.activepowersports.com/lin...FZSBfgoduwgAKg

I've never had a model of USS Olympia. If I mentioned that ship at some point I don't remember. Color me confused. :-?

:hmmm::dead: memory fail on my end? I thought you had a photo etched/Resin kit of one of those classic Great White Fleet BBs. I think you're like me and you collect kits (that need to be built:03:). I'll laugh if you forgot you had one... or I could be thinking of somebody else?:/\\k:

I had to go into my closet and dig out all my recently purchased resin kits, all in 1/700.

HMS Royal Sovereign
HMS Mars (Majestic class)
HMS Dreadnought
SMS Weissenburg (Brandenburg class)

I have a 1/720 Graf Spee and a 1/200 u-boat, and that's about it. For my naval game I plan to paint a whole lot of different ships from all eras, but those are and will be 1/2400 scale, so they are tiny.

I must have been thinking of the Dreadnought.:hmmm: Atleast you have a model ship inventory now. Your welcome.:D