Just started the Valom Fokker EIIIs. One will be done as Udet’s and one as Immelmann’s. Had thought of replacing the metal etched parts for the wheel carriage assembly but that looked tricky and when I painted the joy stick I found it was tougher than I thought. So will see how it goes. My intention is to do some minimal rigging and to use Peter Pig pilots....so why paint the cockpit interior? ...cuz it’s there? Anyway, a small start...
Will try RAF Shapeways again for EIII but with the cheapest option. (Had requested the mid range out of curiosity.)
Some pointers at this stage.
1) You will need good tweezers to place the seat, instrument panel and joy stick. It helps to have a needle type device. I have something from a zoology university class (yes, decades old) that was used in the class for dissection and moving delicate frog organs or bits of flat worms around. Now I find it useful to position fiddly bits. Anything will do with a point but not too sharp end and with a reasonable handle.
2) Supposedly one is to position the seat and the instrument panel and check for alignment of the two fuselage halves. Tough to do but you need to have some means of temporarily placing the seat and the panel to do that and there's no guide marks, ridges, etc. on the fuselage halves to help you either. Well I did my best but when it came to assembling the fuselage halves one set worked a charm while the other didn't. The instrument panel was keeping the two halves apart. So, I delicately trimmed off the end of the panel sticking out...and the two halve fit just fine....until I was gluing them....then not so much, but clamps helped. There's a tiny crack at the front but it can be filled easily enough.
3) I nicked a small hole in the fuselage for where the joystick was to be placed since it's just a straight piece of metal with nothing on the fuselage surface to hold it. Any imperfections that show on the bottom outside can be fixed later.
4) Paint the inside bits before assembling the fuselage - likely that obvious to everyone but anyone can glue the two halves together and then realize, "doh!"
5) Glues! My intention was to use modelling glue for plastic (I just had a cheap Testor's tube) and epoxy for the metal bits. Well....supposedly the modelling glue works by slightly melting the plastics for a very tough join. So I thought, but I was priming the inside when one seat went.....PING. I found it but re-glued with epoxy. Well the epoxy hasn't worked - neither epoxy steel or gel epoxy. I suspect my old Testor's plastic cement was too old. So, off to the store to get some newer stuff....Tamiya extra thin and a new testors.
6) Instrument Panel...as noted above trim the ends slightly if you think it's too wide for the fuselage halves. Also, it only glues to the side of the fuselage and not the top as the top is curved so if you glue to the top then it will be at an angle and not allow the two fuselage halves to fit. I think that it's a terrible join for the panel's narrowest side to be glued just to the fuselage side which has not plastic guides. I reinforced the panel with a glob of epoxy on the backside of the panel - any other solution for reinforcement that works for you will be fine.
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