Next up: Another twofer - The Fokker E.IV and Pfalz E.IV. With the coming of the highly maneuverable Nieuport 10 and 11 Germany lost control of the air. They had no real answer available, and the best they could come up with was to try to make the eindekkers better. Oberursel mated two of their seven-cylinder U.0 engines to produce the twin-row 160hp U.III, a copy of the Gnome Lambda-Lambda. The engine was heavy and unreliable, losing speed rapidly with altitude. The E.IVs were not much faster than their single-row counterparts, less maneuverable, and were much more difficult to handle. The only advantage they had was that they were the first fighters to carry twin guns, making them very dangerous if they managed to get you in their sights.

The two planes were not really all that similar, but since they were built for the same purpose and were the last of the eindekkers, I've decided to build them together.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psce1527ca.jpg

Main fuselage and engine assemblies done.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps36e68164.jpg

Main assembly on both models is complete. I just need to add a couple of details and the painting can begin. This is going to be fun...at least for me.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps2b5062b4.jpg

Love the builds Steve! You must have a whole Air Force assembled by now:haha: Great work!

Danke, merci, gracias, arigato.

Oh, and thanks. :sunny:

First primer coat. I came across a major frustration. Neither kit allows for the engine to turn. I spent a lot of time the first day using wire and tubing to make sure they not only turn, but spin freely when you blow on the propeller. Once mounted I put the cowlings on, and in both cases the engine would scrape the cowling. No amount of grinding, filing and sanding would make it work, and after a couple of hours I gave up on both. Everything is glued together and nothing moves at all. Now I have to adjust the guns on the Fokker to make them look right. The real ones were partially covered and the kit guns don't fit correctly. Still, I'm a lot closer.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps3a388816.jpg

Great work on these models they look fantastic I just would not have the time to do one of these.
It’s nice to see the stages of you assembling and painting them Good work Steve :yeah:

The Fokker E.IV was different in having the guns partly buried under an extended aluminum upper deck. As can be seen in the last picture the kit sort of shows this by making a pair of troughs the barrels glue into. Unfortunately the cowling doesn't line up properly, the blocks where holes should be and the fact that the barrels look awful anyway all add up to a very poor representation. First I found some better-looking guns, with full breeches. Then I tried building up the deck with paper, but it wasn't enough. I didn't take a picture at that stage. Today I dug out the troughs completely, so the breeches will extend into the cockpit as they did in real life. Then I puttied in the forward troughs so the barrels will rest a little bit above the deck. After that is sanded and blended I plan to install the guns and then use the paper to recreate the upper deck in the proper shape.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psa9704b0b.jpg

Guns mounted at proper elevation and angle.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psc8d66c6d.jpg

It's taking a bit more work than I expected. I switched from paper to scrap plastic for the thicker pieces. The cover for the guns is on, and the side panels and the oil collectors, but there's still some more filling and sanding ahead. I still hope to have them finished for Thursday's game.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psfcd36c5e.jpg

At this late stage I just found out that Small Stuff, who already make incredibly detailed 1/72 engines with separate actuating rods and rocker plates, are now offering an Oberusel U.III for only $12. It's too late for this one; even though it really needs it I'm not going to pull the cowling off and replace the clunky kit engine. On the other hand I have another one coming up ahead that uses the engine. I'm going to order one, and maybe a couple others, anyway. If the future plane comes with a good engine, who knows? I might redo this one anyway.

Basic paint applied. As usual the Fokker will be CDL, the Pfalz white. I have to let the paint dry overnight before I can mask and spray the noses - Fokker aluminum and Pfalz black, also as usual. I chose this picture angle to highlight the differently-shaped vent holes they made in the cowlings to try to keep the double-row engines cool.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps5e748bf3.jpg

Main paint is finished.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps4a271d21.jpg

Decals applied, and secondary paint. I found pictures of a Pfalz E.IV with a cool paint scheme, and it's starting to show.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps19d89e16.jpg

I did get them finished for yesterday's game, but didn't have time to photograph them. Here they are today.

Fokker E.IV.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps2d3fe894.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps6bf380b4.jpg

The markings belong to Oberleutnant Ernst von Althaus.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psb351952e.jpg

I never have been able to get the machine-turned aluminum panels to my liking. Still, from a distance they look alright.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps83b598f2.jpg

Pfalz E.IV.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps88a8fc47.jpg

The model represents the aircraft of Leutnant Friedrich Grünzweig. He seems to have painted the plane himself.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps0d4ef8a9.jpg

I found a set of air and ground crew in interesting poses.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps35a524f1.jpg

This plane also had dozens of small air holes drilled into the sides of the cowling for extra cooling.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps9f742c44.jpg

I'm done with Period 1 of our game, and this will start at the beginning of Period 2 (June-December 1916).

First up is a BE.2e. It recieved a more powerful engine, and the upper wing was reshaped while the lower wing was shortened, changing from double-bay to single-bay construction. This led aircrews to be somewhat worried the plane might come apart in the air. These fears proved to be ungrounded, but the plane was forever nicknamed the 'Quirk'. The observer remained in the front cockpit, leaving the plane relatively unprotected, and while better than the BE.2c it was never really good enough for front line combat.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psa088f799.jpg

This is a low-pressure plastic kit from Pegasus, and has a lot of flash to be cleaned but otherwise looks quite good.

Basic assembly complete. I had hoped to have the landing gear on as well, but I had some other things going on as well. I'm only a month away from the 100th anniversary of the first naval (non)engagement of the war, and I wanted to play out the possible scenarios with my own naval game, but I haven't really even started on the ships and models for that fight. I'm trying to make time to get all that done.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps12ff2059.jpg

Landing gear and paint applied. This is one of the first examples of the use of Protective Coloring #10, commonly just called PC-10. As the name implies, it was partly for camoflage but mostly to protect the fabric from the sun and help it last longer.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps840a6ec1.jpg

Nice!:yeah:

I didn't do anything with the model on Monday, being too busy working on a couple of other things plus getting ready to go play music. Yesterday I was busy recovering from the playing and the trip to the gym that morning. Today I got the pilots painted and the fuselage details that will be unaccessible once the upper wing is on. I then cut four cabanes out of brass rod and got the wing on straight. I then thought about the struts. It's hot here in the summer and the thin plastic struts are susceptible to the heat. It turns out resin is even worse, so I have to fix a couple of my recent models and be more careful about leaving them in the car at the hobby shop. Brass rod is great, but many struts of the era had an aerofoil shape, wide from the side but narrow from the front, and pointy at the ends, and I don't have the equipment to shape brass that way. I would use plastic but I've run out of the spare stock I bought so many years ago and no one makes it anymore.

So I did a little online research and came up with pretty much nothing. Then I got to thinking (always a dangerous pastime) and it suddenly hit me - There was one material I hadn't tried for various reasons, but I had a supply of it right here in my home, and it may be enough to last me a lifetime; if not, I can get plenty more for an insanely cheap price at the local supermarket. It's called "wood". A long time ago I though about balsa, but it's fairly expensive and while it's great for flying models, for something the size I need it's not very strong. I needed a hardwood, something that won't bend, won't break and is still easily workable. But where to find such a wood in a size that's measured in millimeters? Then it hit me: TOOTHPICKS! I had some in the cupboard, and another little bottle is somewhere between $1 and $3, and the bottle contains at least a hundred of them.

So I got out the toothpicks, measured and cut one. I cut off the pointy ends because they're too pointy, put the handy-dandy sanding wheel on the Dremel tool and ground the square toothpick down until it had the proper aerofoil shape, then used a sanding stick to shape the ends and smooth the rest. One of the problems with brass is that if you cut it just a tiny bit too long the only way to shorten it is to cut it again, and then your run the risk of making it just a tiny bit too short, and there's no fix for that. With the toothpick if it's just a tiny bit too long you start gently sanding the end, just a little, then check it again.

Eureka! Voila! Presto! Perfection!

I only got the two struts for one side done when the Dremel started slowing down. I took off the battery pack and put it on the charger, and used some brown paint and a lot of thinner to make a stain. Now I not only have good solid struts, but they have real wood grain! I only did one, so the picture shows one stained and one not.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps28f1ca50.jpg

Nice work...you've learned well :cool::)