Overall shot of the fuselage with a thinned down coat of 1500 White Mr. Surfacer. Now that I've mated the two halves - not glued yet, just friction fit with a couple of pieces of kabuki tape to hold it together - I see there is a bit of a step at the join, most noticeable at the base of the aircraft's keel and becoming more of an inverted V-shape. I'm not sure if I'm going to have to add a spreader on the inside or if simply locking the lower wing in place will squeeze the halves together enough. Anyway moving on to—
EXT FUSELAGE
I'm hand-drilling out the openings for the tail rigging. I also carved out the small pilot step on the other half of the fuselage. And finally—
INT COCKPIT
This is the modified Barracuda Resin Albatross seat that's been chopped to the same height as the Eduard part it is replacing. A full coat of 1500 Mr. White here reveals the lovely seatbelts. It's working! Now a purist might question the shoulder belts and they'd be right because as far as I know there is a lap belt only on this design. Should I quibble and scrape away the top belts yes or no? I've not glued anything in place yet so there's time to have a bit of a think about whether it matters or not. To quote Carlos it's my story and I'm sticking to it—I'd change it to it's my interpretation and I'm doing as much as I deem necessary to make this look right. I don't think the Eduard seat is good enough so I'm at this stage of modification with a resin alternative. What to do with it next is up in the air, so to speak.
I think I would leave the shoulder harnesses as they are, Bruce, Here, authenticity be damned, they just look great and leaving them makes for less work. Who would know they aren't correct if not told?
That seat is just screaming for painting and then a wash to make those details really stand out!
I like where this is headed.
"Surely I have made my meaning plain? I intend to avenge myself upon you, Admiral. I have deprived your ship of power, and when I swing 'round, I intend to deprive you of your life."
I’m going to go ahead with assembling the cockpit. Based on your advice, I’m going to keep what I’ve modified as a seat. I thought about trying to modify the existing Eduard part but as Gary pointed out quite truthfully it’s a bit of a time waster. I believe the resin seat looks better but I’ll take a photo of the cockpit with Eduard’s part too. I think this is a very refined and well thought out kit regardless of its age. I sort of wish I had found the Profil-Pack version just to have their PE parts but that’s an empty wish. What I have will certainly build up to a sweet model. Thanks again both of you for following along and sharing your thoughts!
John! Thank you for writing and following along, sincerely. The aircraft certainly is small; the actual a/c was nicknamed le “bebé” because of its diminutive size. I think this a/c is 1-1/2 wings, not a biplane but a something “sesquiplane?” Apologies for my leaky roof brain! I still have to measure and drill holes in the upper fuselage for rigging. I’ve been using an 0.24 for the fuselage sides but I can see that I’ll need to size downwards from my drill bit collection to make that happen!
keavdog wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 6:57 pm
"Leaky Roof" that's a nordic expression right? For crazy?
Hah! Maybe Swedish? I know Scots and Swedes have always had sort of a relationship, but Nordic I’m not sure. John, I wasn’t able to find that specific definition; this was a common informal saying in my family to describe any memory issues, starting with memory loss. I can see the word I want to use but I can’t sound it out or spell it.
The Nieuport 11 (or Nieuport XI C.1 in contemporary sources), nicknamed the Bébé, is a French World War I single seat sesquiplane fighter aircraft, designed by Gustave Delage.It was the primary aircraft that ended the Fokker Scourge in 1916.
I had a girlfriend that did an exchange student thing at some point and she told me Leaky Roof meant crazy. Can't recall where it was but thought it was up in those cold areas. BTW turned out she had a leaky roof
keavdog wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 8:30 pm
I had a girlfriend that did an exchange student thing at some point and she told me Leaky Roof meant crazy. Can't recall where it was but thought it was up in those cold areas. BTW turned out she had a leaky roof
That makes sense to me, John. I'm probably using the expression incorrectly! I'm sorry your girlfriend turned out to be a leaky roof, though. I believe this is relatable by many of us and I hope she wasn't too leaky! Adding a Week One Collage of the little bit I did so far—
WEEK ONE
In which some photos were taken and four parts were snipped off sprues; one resin detail part was sawed and trimmed and some primer was rather hastily applied—
Oh and I worked on this a teensy bit. Shaved the details off the cockpit floor which aren't correct for this design and added some temporary or who knows might become permanent foot rests made from sandpaper. In the original photos, these look like planks of wood nailed in between struts to prevent the pilot's feet from punching through the linen at the bottom. Let's see once the white glue dries if it was necessary because there isn't too much that's visible once the cockpit is closed up. Not much! I think it's the seat, the control/instrument panel and the interior wall next to the seat that are visible so I'm not going to go "leaky" i.e. crazy on this portion of the project. Cheers, all
