The Kit...
Step 1 – Attaching the bottom wing to the fuselage
Step 2 – was to drill out the holes on the upper wing, but I glued the “W” cabine struts to the upper wing
Step 3 – cut out the wing jigs from the instruction sheet; watch how you attach these to the wings – one of them has to be reversed to make the wings line up properly
Step 4 – was to add the pilot, but I skipped it also and waited until after painting the aircraft. If you do, you'll need to trim the pilot to fit...Step 5
Step 5 – use the wing jigs to hold the upper wing into place while gluing the cabine struts to the fuselage
Step 6 – was to use wire to form the inter-plane struts. I pushed .022m wire through the top and glued to the bottom wing.
Step 7 – Assembled the landing gear struts, axle using the same thickness wire, and glued to the bottom.
Step 8 – Glued the engine to the airframe, but waited on the prop until after painting the model
Used Squadron’s white putty to fill in dents…
After clipping the wires, I used my Dermel tool to grid of the ends and make flush with the top of the wing.
Drilled out a hole for the flight stand peg
Step 9 – primed the model in white…
Step 10 – cutout a masking tape stencil for the unit and placed it in position
Step 11 – hand painted the Prussian blue, silver undersides, black-yellow-red tail flash. Added more silver for the sides/top as depicted in
several references for 9me Escadrille, Maj Willy Coppens of Belgium
Step 12 – painted Future floor was where the decals would go and waited for them to dry
Step 13 – added the Belgium cockades from Reviresco – if you use their decals, you’ll need to trim exactly at the edge to get rid of the
white backing since they were printed on white decal film versus clear film
Lessons learned:
1 – when drilling out the hole for the flight stand peg, make sure it’s done before assembly! May come apart in your hands!
2 – wash up the metal in soapy water before gluing – helps the glue bond better!
3 – find the right kind of super glue to work! (still searching – will try Zap-a-Gap Medium CA next time)
4 – instead of gridding the metal wires after assembling the wings, will try using the Dremel cutting tool.
5 – instead of going through the top of the wings with the inter-plane struts, will attempt to go through the bottom since that side is hardly seen.