Steve's Models

[Sailor Steve]

Took yesterday off to assemble the bookcase I bought three months ago, and empty out the last of my boxes of books. Only four boxes to go, and they are all "stuff" - random items that need to be sorted.

Fuselage assembled and lower wings mounted. This was easy because those parts are identical between the German and Austrian versions. The only time-consuming part was the sanding that always goes along with a vac kit.






[edit] I had hoped that I could just cut down the stabilizer/elevator and give it the proper shape, but it turns out the German stabilizer was larger than the Austrian. Lucky for me I keep a supply of plastic sheet on hand for things like this, not to mention three-view drawings of both. A little measuring, drawing, cutting and sanding and I have a whole new tail assembly.

Austrian (top) and German tails.

[Sailor Steve]

Stabilizers went on easily. I had to make a new tail again - twice.

[Sailor Steve]

Landing gear installed and first primer coat.

[Sailor Steve]

Reshaping the upper wings. The Austrian B.II had much longer upper wings, with tapering ailerons (top). The German version had shorter wings and straight ailerons (bottom).

[Sailor Steve]

Another setback, but a good one. I was dreaming that I might get this one finished quickly and ready for tomorrow night's game. I did some puttying and sanding and had tentatively sprayed the nose with the proper color. There were still seams showing and irregularities in the putty. Then I realized that in the photos the rear deck is raised slightly and rounded at the edges, sloping downward to the stabilizer, whereas the deck on the model is flat from the rear cockpit to the tail. I thought about ignoring it, and no one would ever know...except of course me. And the old modeler's saying is always there: "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" And it's true - I would always know it was there and hate it that way. And the other part is that when I get in too much of a hurry and want it done now, I have to remind myself that the building itself is fun, and it will be done when it's done and not a moment sooner.

I glued in a couple of layers of thick plastic sheet. I believe regular plastic cement is better for this than superglue, so I now have to wait all night for it to dry before I can start sanding it to shape. So, the night ends with plastic sheet glued to the model's spine, looking very out-of-place until I can get it sanded to the proper shape.



[edit] Oh, I forgot; I had another setback this morning. I tested the tube that mounts the plane to the game stand, and it had a glue clog in it. I tried to drill it out, but the drill wouldn't fit straight into the tube without grinding against the bottom of the fuselage. I finally had to cut it loose, and since the plastic on a vac kit is very soft the plastic all around the tube came off with the glue, leaving a nice big hole in the bottom. I thought I might be able to drill the tube out that way and glue it straight back in, but no matter how clean the tube looked the steel pin still wouldn't go in. I had to cut a new length of tube, then glue in a replacement piece of scrap plastic, the file a trough in it, then glue in the new tube, making sure this time that no glue got inside. That wasted some valuable time.

[Jimbuna]

You should feel good...you adapted and overcame

[Sailor Steve]

Upper deck step 2: cut, grind and sand the sides of the new layers until they match the fuselage sides.