Ares Games
  • Building the Reviresco Junkers D.I

    Some months ago a fellow was selling off a bunch of his kits on ebay. When I saw the Reviresco D.I come up for sale, I made a bid and won. I got it for a decent price, probably because of the big hole in the side of the fuselage. All the parts were there, but I sat it aside until I felt up to the challenge.

    As you can see, the fuselage is in bad shape. Not only is there the hole, but the tail was a bent mess too. The landing gear struts were such a mess that two sprues were included in the kit. The wing is in good shape, so it's not a total loss.




    Looking at pics of the D.I, I noticed the head rest on most of the images isn't solid, but a frame. Out came the snippers, and off came the headrest. Then I drilled three holes as guides for the frame.




    Green stuff was applied to cover the gaping hole. The pilot is getting a test fit. That peg that acts as a guide for placement of the wing has to be cut shorter.




    Using some of the spare metal from the landing struts, as well as a snippet of wire, I crafted a frame for the new headrest. The pilot has gotten shorter.




    This kit had full body decals. I primed the pieces, and when I dipped the decals in the water... oh no! Someone didn't spray these with fixative! Looks like I'm going to be doing more painting than I expected.




    The wing has been glued on. That was easy enough. The landing gear? Not so much. This had some of the thinnest metal I have ever encountered in a kit. It took a lot of patience to get this together. I first glued on set of struts to the fuselage. Then gently slipped the axle through that strut. Finally slipping the other strut in place and tacking that down with a drop of glue. Once that had dried aligning the axle and adding the wheels was fairly straightforward.




    The engine needed a bit of trimming to sit flush with the fuselage. The MGs had to be pushed apart slightly to get them to fit over the engine. After the delicate landing gear, this wasn't a big deal. The prop was a breeze.




    Another difficulty I encountered with this kit was trying to get a neodymium magnet glued under the body. I tried multiple times, finally resorted to a good bit of cutting, but it eventually saw things my way.




    I'm partially colorblind, so I asked the missus for help mixing up the mauve. I was a little worried about doing the camo, since I've never been able to do a good camo ever since I built models as a kid, but I'm happy with the results. Dom's decals rounded out the kit.




    All in all, this one was much more complex than I could have ever envisioned. I think most of that is due to the spindly landing gear struts. But if you like a bit of a challenge, you may want to give this a try. It sure looks good once completed.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Building the Reviresco Junkers D.I started by jbmacek View original post
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