Se5a - Valom Kit

[Willi]

After some posting on Facebook "Official Wings of Glory,,," group, I was asked if I had posted on the Aerodrome. I said I would and here we go. There are several photos that document the order of construction as well as issues with the kit and how I dealt with them. The plastic molding is good with very little flash except for trimming from the sprue(s). The only issue I found was that applying the bottom wing to the fuselage required three - four dry fits and trimming in order for the wing to seat properly and perpendicular to the fuselage. The Photoetch parts are a different story. All struts are PE so it is your choice to use them or not. I did and it worked out for me even without making a wing jig, and I did curse even once!. The lewis gun was another story which I will point out when we get there.
. You can see (maybe) in the third pic that the lewis gun and foster mount are to be one piece. The foster mount is ridiculously delicate and unusable. You will see later that I made my own mount from 26 gauge wire.
used another of my Bandai crew for a pilot - they are slightly large but workable with much trimming. The exhaust pipes are thin resin pieces that were surprisingly simple to apply to the engine manifold. Here is another interesting instruction "Hand Made" is all you have to go on in making a wind screen from the provided clear sheet supplied. No dimensions given and not a template (way to large) so you are on your own! This is another example of painting and decal application as I go, followed always by a dullcoat spray. My own little detail - my wife gave me a piece of her floss and I tied around the pilots neck. I don't know if E. Mannock flew with a scarf, but a Knight of the Sky would proudly wear one! Ok, bring on the Hun!

I had to add some rigging.

[abovetheclouds]

Excellent job! Because I have absolutely no model building abilities, I am constantly amazed at the truly skillful model building talents of many of the Aerodrome members such as yourself.
And so now I'm scared. I just bought on eBay some Valom Sopwith Pups and Fokker E.III's. They will end up as unpainted ugly glue covered messes that a six year old would be ashamed of creating. But my imagination will just have to kick into overdrive when I put my functional, but hideous creations into flight. But then again, imagination is already an important part of enjoying this game for me. Please, post some more of your excellent work. I enjoyed, and was very fascinated by the improvisational additions too.

[Teaticket]

Great job Willi. I've only made a couple of Pups but I know the skill it takes to do a nice job on a Valom kit.

[Willi]

Thanks for the kind words Paul. Don't worry about modeling capabilities. It is just a matter of patience and planning construction in a logical manner to make things as easy as possible. Kit instructions are good for showing what goes where but not so good at dictating When to do things. I am an advocate of Super Glue. In particular Loctite Gel (available at any hardware store). It is thick and can be applied in tiny drops using the end of an xacto knife blade. I occasionally apply thin monofilament thread as rigging on some models. I have straight pieces that I cut down to fit the space between struts, then apply a drop of gel and place an end of the mono into the gel drop at both ends. Admittedly it takes a steady hand and mine don't shack very much. Here are a couple of photos as requested but I have posted several of my builds and repaints.
Here are some pics of my first Valom - Nieuport 17. You can see that I paint and apply decals as I go when it is the easiest to apply. the rigging was an afterthought.
This is a Caudron G4. It is a 3D print from Shapeways that I painted and modified by adding rigging and guns and crew.

[Von Scharf]

Impressive looking assemblies on those Valoms. I am somewhat in awe.

I ordered a handful of Valom Fokker DVII and SPADS with high hopes... opened the boxes, panicked at the sight of those minuscule, midget parts and put them back in the box. I'll need some thorough self motivational pep talks to get them out again!

[abovetheclouds]

I just spent a good part of my morning meandering through some of your albums. Wow! I loved your "Flying Turtle" Caudron build, your Be2c, and everything else I wandered through. Simply awesome work.

[milcoll73]

thats awesome! the only etched brass part that i used on the ones i made was the drum magazine. and almost not even those as i dropped both on the floor and didnt find them until searching for another part i dropped on the floor lol. i used bits of paperclip to replace the struts and such.

[camelbeagle]

Wow! William, that is a really nice job. I have the exact kit at home. I took one look at the tiny pieces and decided I needed more patience.

[ShadowDragon]

Impressive looking assemblies on those Valoms. I am somewhat in awe.

I ordered a handful of Valom Fokker DVII and SPADS with high hopes... opened the boxes, panicked at the sight of those minuscule, midget parts and put them back in the box. I'll need some thorough self motivational pep talks to get them out again!

Those kits aren’t going to build themselves, Jeff.

Agree with Willi that a lot of it is thinking it through and figuring out a ‘when to do something’ that makes sense for you. I too paint and apply some decals as I go as it’s easier at certain stages.

[Von Scharf]

Those kits aren’t going to build themselves, Jeff.

Agree with Willi that a lot of it is thinking it through and figuring out a ‘when to do something’ that makes sense for you. I too paint and apply some decals as I go as it’s easier at certain stages.

Haha, good one!. Glad to see I wasn't the only one to panic after opening a Valom kit, Dan!

Thanks for the encouragement Paul. I'm definitely going to attempt them, but I've been sidetracked by painting Zombicide minis and my company asking me to come back after retirement to work 4 days a week... my retirement hasn't started out like I thought. Frankly, I'm thankful for the paycheck in these times. Anyway... I will be undertaking these and my painting skills are coming along too. I had not modeled anything since I was 13 years old. Each batch of zombies looks a little bit better than the last. .

[ShadowDragon]

Haha, good one!. Glad to see I wasn't the only one to panic after opening a Valom kit, Dan!

Thanks for the encouragement Paul. I'm definitely going to attempt them, but I've been sidetracked by painting Zombicide minis and my company asking me to come back after retirement to work 4 days a week... my retirement hasn't started out like I thought. Frankly, I'm thankful for the paycheck in these times. Anyway... I will be undertaking these and my painting skills are coming along too. I had not modeled anything since I was 13 years old. Each batch of zombies looks a little bit better than the last. .

Remember that the worst possible outcome is that you throw the kit in the garbage.....scratch that, the worst possible outcome is that the kit sits on your shelf, occupies space until your family has to get rid of it after you die and even occasionally gives you twangs of guilt. Building an unsuccessful kit can become a learning experience that can be worth the value of the kit even if thrown in the garbage.

Only one curse while building the SE5a, Willi? I'm impressed. I'm at least a 3-cussing kit builder; although my dogs don't like to hear me cuss and leave the room if I do. They're great at behaviour modification.

[clipper1801]

So there is another option before the bin! I have a lot of unemployed elves who love to do custom work and have bailed out many from just such frustrations . . .

[Willi]

You guys are all awesome with kind words and comments I really appreciate it. I am taking a break before I start in with the other Se5. What I am doing now is building 1/144 1953, George Pal Martian War Machines (Pegasus models from Monsters in Motion). My plan is to incorporate them into Tripods and Triplanes as additional invaders. I have to build bases and use scout pegs, and figure out what rules to apply to them, but it sounds like fun. ) I have one in progress photo to share. I came up with a paint color mixing scheme whereby I quickly followed the first color with the second so they mixed and then wiped the parts down with a paper towel. Red and yellow for the heat ray and green and yellow for the lenses. A bonus were the two Sherman's (M4a1, 76mm) that I painted and weathered for use in WGS. The bodies of the War Machines are to be Copper - have to get that paint!

[Von Scharf]

oh, I LOVE the death ray!

[Flying Helmut]

oh, I LOVE the death ray!

It's grand, isn't it?

[camelbeagle]

Love the Martian model! Will love to see the final version.