Sometimes I have days like that and just seem to drop, or knock over, everything I touch. Then I wonder why I put myself in these situations only to find out there's usually nothing else I'd rather be doing. Oh well. Tomorrow will be better.

Today was better. I got all the struts back in and replaced the missing one, then got the entire port side rigged. It should be done by Tuesday. :sunny:

Well, it took two more days than I had hoped, but the A.E.G. C.IV is finished. Not the best I've done by a long shot, but it'll do.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psf13517d9.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psd3eb9221.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps06230090.jpg

Next Project is an Aviatik C.III, from a resin kit.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps56059a0d.jpg

This one has caused me no end of headaches. There is almost no information on the plane. My older books have information that seems to be wrong, and Windsock Magazine never did a Datafile on it. The Datafile on the Pfalz Eindekkers quotes an interview they did with an old German crewman, who said "The old Aviatiks were white." Ray Rimmel, who is probably the leading expert on such things, says that there was an experimental phase during which German planes might be clear linen, white or pale blue. Other people disagree, saying they were probably all Clear Doped Linen. Some of the photographs look white to me, but I'm no expert.

I just purchased a copy of Aviatik Aircraft of WWI, by Jack Herris. He doesn't really cover the color controversy, but he does have the actual serial numbers for each production run, which at least makes it easy for me to make the decals with the right numbers.

This brings up a new problem. When I built my Aviatik C.I I said that older sources said that most of them had the observer in front, which limited the rear firing arc but also let them fire forward. Older sources said that the early C.IIIs were also set up that way but most of them had the observer in the rear. Herris says that is true, but not in the way most people expect. There were two production runs of 25 aircraft each, and all 50 of them had the observer forward. The final production run, in 1917, was 200 aircraft, and they all had the observer in the rear. The problem is that they were all ordered as trainers, and had that set-up because the newer planes they were training to fly on were configured that way. All the photographs of the first 50 show the guns in front, so he's probably right.

This means that now I not only have to convert the plane, because the model is based on the only survivor, 12250/17, which is in a museum in Poland, but I have to change it in the rules, and that means that I'm building models of a plane no one will ever want to take, because there are better options available. Oh well. I'm much too pedantic and much too fixed on historical reality to fake it.

Whoa
 

That looks nice! I only built one model and its a model of the RMS Queen Mary.

-Titanicgeek on stand by! :salute:
:subsim:

Welcome to my obsession, Titanicgeek.

Well, one of them anyway. :sunny:

Interior finished. I reversed the cockpit floor to facilitate puting the observer in front and the pilot in back.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psd089ea51.jpg

Apparently that was the case for all 50 combat models, so yes, it'll be just like my model of the C.I.

Fuselage together, lower wings and tail mounted.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps5a75b28a.jpg

Landing gear and tail supports installed. I had hoped to get a coat of paint on it as well, but I had other stuff to do, so it has to wait until tomorrow.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps0486eee5.jpg

Cabanes mounted, first primer coat on.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps8b6c1115.jpg

I sprayed another coat of lichtgrau for the metal parts and upper deck today. After it was dry I did the fabric. My Aviatik C.I was pure white, based on the comments I mentioned earlier. Some people disagree with that assessment. The one in the museum is tan, but it looks painted to me, and not like doped fabric. I got to wondering just how "white" white might be. If the fabric was bleached it might be almost white; enough to draw comments but not really pure white. I started mixing and got it lighter and lighter. Then I sprayed it and thought it was too white. Rather than add just a couple drops of tan I put in too much for my liking, and then I was out of white and I'm not going to wait until I can buy some more. It's a little darker than I wanted, but still I call it "Not Quite White."

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps56f3db83.jpg

Gah, I can't stand it I want to play Rise of Flight, and Wings over Flanders Fields, and Canvas Eagles, and build card model Albs and pups, and build a Graham Lee Nieuport, and, and, and... :subsim: