I freely admit that the value you get out of the box from Ares is impossible to beat (making repaints the way to go) UNLESS you just have to have a plane that's not n production or otherwise readily available (for a price I want to pay)
Being a DIY kind of guy I was looking for something to build / customize to suit my tastes and I thought I'd give John at Tin-Soldier.com a try. I like to lines of the Pfalz which, like the Albatros, has that molded, streamlined, almost organic look.
I have already "Blue Maxed" a triplane, so I thought let's make this Stachel's "out of date Pfalz".
Opening the package revealed a typical if somewhat dated-looking set of white metal castings - obviously well-used molds with pronounced flash at the edges. Going to take some cleanup to get that smooth formed plywood look.....
So began a period of clean up, employing an exacto blade followed by various miniature files, including a round file to smooth and deepen slightly the wing contours.
My propeller was a short shot, so I emailed John and he responded with a replacement sprue and a set of decals (Thanks!) which will wait for another Pfalz in the future. Not planning on a spinnable prop, I proceeded to join the fuselage halves and begin filing off mold marks and smoothing the shape.
Even with the filing, there are depressions and seams showing, so on goes the Squadron putty...
My usual approach is to do a reasonable first layer, file/sand it down, and then spray it with primer and look for the remaining imperfections. It cleaned up well.
I did use Model Master clear window adhesive to make a nice fillet between the fuselage and lower wing. A second bit of puttying followed by 800 grit sanding and some touch up spray finished the "body work".
I did not like to look of the landing gear struts in the kit - they were rectangular in cross section instead of round, and looked weak, so I found some straight pin material of the appropriate diameter and bent up some replacements.
I re-used the small hubs that hold the axles for the wheel by trimming them to fit in the bend of the new struts.
It came out looking reasonable, and I am less worried about mangling them in a moment of inattention. Of course, that now needed to be primed....
I also added the Engine details to the fuselage after contouring it slightly, and fabricated the radiator tubes out of a piece of appropriately sized guitar string.
I want to add decals before wing assembly so I could go no further than trimming and test fitting the wing struts.
The sheet I want is currently out of stock, so it may be some time before I can pick up this thread again. Here's hoping.......
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