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Erik Torp
I guess this will be a small diorama, as most of my builds end up to be.

Bruce Huxtable
Hi Eric, does this have any interior? May I suggest that the external gear is stored above the water level? I'm looking forward to seeing how you incorporate this beast into a diorama scene.

Erik Torp
No, it comes without an interior. If it had all hatches would have been wide open😉 Regarding the stowage this was just a test fit. I´m not happy with it, but I have an idea about how to make it look better. However, that is for a future update.

Bruce Huxtable
Loving that camo net, Erik. Is it home made? May I ask the source of the Bergens?

Erik Torp
Yes, the net is home made. I start with a piece of brass wire of the desired length and basically wrap it in Cleenex tissue. One tissue is easily split into four sheets so I apply as many as needed. Each layer is soaked with diluted PVA glue. I then use tea leafs to sprinkle the net for texture. First layer is of a very fine Earl Grey tea. When dry I give it a coat of "spray can glue" and sprinkle some herbal tea leafs in a more modest pattern to not over do the texture. Then the net has to dry for several days due to the long drying time of the glue. Then I add a base coat of paint and super glue it to the vehicle. When dry the brass wire makes it easy to form the net to the vehicle. Add some straps and finished. It is a bit of a messy process but it is really easy to make.

The bergens are a mix of Real Model, Legend and Verlinden. They are all from my spare part box.

Bruce Huxtable
Many thanks, Erik - I'll give that method a try, and check out those suppliers.

gorby
Very nice work. The extra baggage looks particularly good.

Bruce Huxtable
Here, Here! I'm loving the salty rust streaks too - very subtle but effective 🙂

Erik Torp
Finished! This took a bit longer then planned, but it was fun. I don´t think any bits in this build is younger than 20 years, so they have been slumbering in the stash for a while. The figures from Dragon are a bit «blury» when it comes to casting, which makes them a bit hard to paint, but I´m happy about how they turned out. The AAV is showing its age compared to the newer ones from Hobbyboss, but IMHO it is still possible to make a nice model from an old kit.

Bruce Huxtable
Really liking this dramatic scene, Erik! Superb skills on show!

Erik Torp
Thanks, Bruce. I normally don't like making "combat scenes" but there was not much choise with these figures.

Spanjaard
excellent dio

Neuling
Same as Spanjaard.

Erik Torp
Thanks guys.

James C
Very nice work 👍

CaptGPF
Simply stunning Dio. Well done!

Desert Marlin
Looks great!

Oleg Bogolei
Followong!

Robert Podkoński
Interesting start. Watching for sure!

Cristian A
Me too! 😃

Sy Bar
Amazing idea and work can't wait for more 🍿

Nicolas
I grap a seat as well.

CaptGPF
🧐

Guy Rump
Following as well. 👍

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

bughunter
After a health problem, I stopped modelling for a short time. I didn't want to continue the projects I had started because I wasn't in the mood for scratch modelling. I wanted to make a quick project - almost oob. Of course with a wooden propeller, because building one is just fun.
Working on two Pfalz D.IIIa (one as a triplane conversion) a long time ago was great fun and there was still a special kit waiting in my stash: a Limited Edition Dual Combo Pfalz D.III. No, I haven't forgotten the "a", this really is the forerunner of the D.IIIa. Eduard has re-released the D.IIIa kit often, but this Edition is from 2005 and was never released again. I hear some voices: Limited Editions are for collecting, not building. Never mind, I'm building the kit now!

I'm building the machine from the cover picture - and because there's a heart on it, I'm dedicating the build to my wife, who always supports me!

John
Looks great!

Nathan Dempsey
Following. Welcome back!

Kyle DeHart
Excellent to see you Frank!! I can't wait to follow along with this. Which is sure to be another beautiful build. Any edition…Limited, or otherwise sounds like something to build to me!! But maybe I'm doing things wrong. Ha!!

Erik
Zum Glück bist Du wieder fit! 👍
Sieht mal wieder klasse aus, die kleinen Steuerseile sind geil. 🙂

gorby
Looks like an interesting project Frank. I must admit that I don't know much about WWI aircraft and your builds are often a lesson about the real machines as well as a lesson in modelling.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

bughunter
Thank you very much mates! Great to know that you are following 👍
Yeah Kyle, all kits can be build. But some collects rare kits as investment and hope to sell it later for higher prices. Once started the value goes near zero. But we have fun building them and that is invaluable!
@gorby You will see later that the Pfalz fighters are elegant planes!

Kyle DeHart
Indeed. I take a great pleasure in opening up and building valuable kits. I would be a really horrible collector. Lol.

Martin Oostrom
I have a few rare ones. But I'll gladly build them when the time comes. That's what kits are for!

KyMustang
Charming little airplane and great job on the build so far.

David Taylor
Watching.

Marcel Klemmer
I am in

Zbynek Honzik
Taking a seat!

Ben M
watching!

bughunter
A warm welcome to the show also for the new visitors!
I hope to have it ready for our next club meeting, so it will be a quick build (for my standards).

Michael Kohl
Good to see you back at the bench. I consider the Pfalz DIII one of the most elegant WWI planes and have two in my stash too. So I won't miss this build.
Keep it coming.

Kyle DeHart
The Pfalz really does have a lovely shape.

Ludvík Kružík
I'm also glad you're back on the bench. I really enjoy watching you build models.

... by the way... I really like to buy Eduard limited edition models. They include lots of extras and often a publication with photos and information about the type whose model is in the box. I still have some of the limited edition models in my closet. Not because I just collect them, but because I haven't managed to build them yet. 🙂

Bruce Huxtable
I'm sorry to hear that you had a health scare, and hope that all is okay again for you. Your projects are always inspiring and a joy to follow. Have fun bringing this special one to life 🙂

bughunter
Thank you very much mates! Your nice comments are highly appreciated!
I hope to show later new pictures showing the elegant lines even more.
@Ludvik Since this is an older kit in this case not a single word about the type! Only a ink jet printed manual, and one colorful, nicely printed sheet showing the six markings including decal placement. Anyway, the kit parts and PE are nice, a mask is also included.
@Bruce Ageing is not for cowards! But at least the fun is back with this project so I made also good progress.

bughunter
Now some colour comes into play! I drew some masks and had them cut by the plotter.

Christoph Kunz
Happy you're back, but what the heck???
This is a speedbuild, never seen one made by you.
And it's going to be an elegant one 👍

bughunter
Yes Christoph, that was exactly the reason why I selected this kit/project from my stash! Due to my two Eduard D.IIIa I was fully aware of the kit and I know what have to be done where. For the paint I used here Alclad and Mr.Paint so I could do all the masking and painting on one afternoon 🙂 MrPaint is the "modelling turbo"!
Even the rigging is not very complicated, no crosses inside the struts, and a single-bay biplane 👍

Christian Bruer
Another masterpiece in the making 👍

Ludvík Kružík
The speed with which you have progressed on this model is admirable. The paintwork turned out great and the different shades of silver depending on the material the paint was applied to look very good.

Kyle DeHart
Beautiful progress!! You're marching your way right through this one!!

John
That is a lovely machine with a lovely scheme as well. I really do need to do a few WWI subjects. Camo was in its infancy and making a reputation seemed more important at the time so what better way than to add a garish (some would say "striking") paint job? Though, I do NOT need to add more to the stash, I will be 100+ before I finish what I have. As you note, getting older is not fun, but it's preferable to the alternative! Good to see you back. 👍

Skyhiker
Gosh, that's beautiful bughunter.

J35J
Amazing work again bughunter! You're builds are great inspiration👍🏻

bughunter
Thanks to all for your wonderful feedback!

@Ludvik That is only one thin common layer of Semi Matt Alu. The underground shines through, like a preshading.

@John There are many very nice schemes available in my Pfalz references, especially in the "Pfalz D.IIIa at war" books (I have another D.IIIa Profipack in my shash). Regarding the second kit of this Dual Combo: The six Eduard markings are nice, but I will try to replicate a beautiful blue/red four-view profile painted by Ronny Bar in the Kagero book.
Regarding camo and colorful markings: The German printed fabric known as Lozenge had to task to avoid the detection of the aircraft type from far away (blur contours). The colorful markings were needed during dog fights with many fighters for quick detection of enemy, friends and leaders, as there were no radios yet (ok, some air-to-gound radios with morse code in two seaters; but no communication between fighters).

@J35J Then I hope the further steps will fulfill your expectations!

Mr D
Nice ... very nice choice 👍👍👍 been considering one soon... Has it been a good kit ??

bughunter
Oh yes, the Eduard Pfalz D.III series are great kits! There are small things which can be fixed and I mention them in my build reports. If you click on my Pfalz Collection you can see also my other builds of this kit.
The kit has also optional parts, e.g. for the D.IIIa two lower wings in different shapes. There was also a PE sheet for the IIIa with many more nice parts than on the little Profipack PE.

Alec K
Taking a late seat. The subtle variation in aluminum color is excellent. I also like the painted-on insignia and markings 👍

Mr D
Thanks 👍👍 the kit does look really precise, will check out build,
I have an RC version from E-file, as always loved the look of the look of them..l put photo in my main Album.
Thanks for Advice 😁

bughunter
That huge RC bird looks nice, but is an Albatros and not a Pfalz 😉

Mr D
Thanks, 😃👍 calm weather flyer....looks great in the air.
Ok....your better informed on the WW1 stuff , l tend to watch vids n research an aircraft on and around the building ....for ref n learning.
It's mainly been ww2 n cold war I've built so far.
Best of luck with rest of build it's brilliant job so far.

bughunter
New pictures are uploaded with the prepared undercarriage. At first I wanted to use the kit parts, but I checked my other Pfalz in the cabinet: the legs are very flexible. In this new case my legs had also a mould offset (that is something I hate on filigree plastic parts!) so for fix this it would made the legs more weak.
As many of my newer models has metal legs now I decided to do it here too. As other advantage they are finer and looks more scale.

Rando
Very cool, I'm getting the Mikro Mir kit, interested to hear how it goes together

Patrick Hagelstein
True! Joining in as well to see how this builds up. Enjoy the build! 👍🏼

J35J
Joining, have one in my stash waiting, watching with intrest👍🏻

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course 🙂

Łukasz Gliński
Following too

Martin von Schreckenstein
joining in. looking good so far

Robin (WhiteGlint)
A Draken 👀

Dave Flitton
Watching.

S M
Welcome, mates! I'm building also a Hasegawa kit alongside with this for comparison and for testing painting.

Oleg Bogolei
Following! Very interesting comparing!

S M
Welcome, Oleg! I just got Afterburner assembled, and the cockpit is ready.

Łukasz Gliński
Seems like Hasegawa is not that bad after all 😄

Finn
Following

Patrick Hagelstein
Łukasz, I was thinking the same. That 'old' Hasegawa kit isn't that bad after all. The MikroMir kit is only marginally more refined as it seems.

S M
Hasegawa has only 60 grey parts and 3 clear parts, but it is pretty smartly made and easy to build. MikroMir has 150 grey parts, 5 clear parts and 67 mandatory PE-parts. Being a short-run kit its parts need more work to fit. Still MikroMir contains more details (and Falcon missiles) than Hasegawa so it's comparatively cheaper.

Patrick Hagelstein
OK, so you do think the MikroMir kit is the more detailed one? Good to know when I get to my Austrian Draken project (sometimes this century.... )! Following your build with interest! 👍

S M
Well my background research is still going on, but atleast the cockpit is more detailed.

Patrick Hagelstein
That's good to know already! ☺️👍🏼

S M
I have to update that MikroMir's IRST is not as good as Hasegawa's. The seeker head is a clear part and there is one PE-part fin, but the two-part frame is bulky and doesn't have panel lines. Luckyly the Draken version I'm goingt to make doesn't have an IRST so I used the clear part and the PE-part to improve my Hasegawa-Draken's IRST.

S M
New photos starting from 36. The airframe is assembled.

J35J
Progressing nicely👍🏻

Mirko Römer
Interesting model kit, following

Urban Gardini
Intresting mate!

S M
Slow progress, but I'm very proud of this simple tool that I made in 15 min to make 0,8mm diameter styrene circles.

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

J35J
Great work with setup of tool and outcome of the chaff & flare dispensers👍🏻

S M
Thanks, J35J!

Rando
Amazing idea with that tool you made! Gonna remember that

Michael Kohl
Following

Rando
Man. Struggling away with the clear parts on my RF-8 right now. Toughest part of modeling probably. Nice work on your canopy!

J35J
Progressing great S M!

S M
Thanks! @Rando I agree it is one of the most tough and riskiest parts. They took me 3 days because I wanted to make them pretty shiny with Humbrol Clear, but it takes lots of time to dry and it has become too thick. Next day when I check the clear parts they have some ugly residues and unevenness +hair. On the other part I just sanded and polished some minor points, but the other part I cleaned the varnish away with isopropanol and tried to dip it in varnish again. Next day still unevenness so I just sanded and polished them avay and dipped it in my more reliable floor polish that also dries faster.

Rando
Yeah I've always had that with dipping parts in the floor polish, it doesn't dry evenly for me so I just polish with Tamiya and Novus compound. Good to get over the hump and onto painting and decals!

S M
Bad luck with painting. I have to redo the top surface by removing most of the paint. It was a bad idea to preshade yellow with pink.

Clement
I've had better luck using tamiya XF-3 or any other flat yellow and following with a gloss varnish.
Gunze gloss yellow, orange, white etc are virtually useless to cover anything.

S M
Yeah my choice of paints haven't been perfect, but I have settled for them and now the decals have been added. The big wisent needs some fixing.

J35J
Final strech, good job with fixing the paintwork and decals👍🏻

Clement
Looking good! Given how short lived that scheme was, no preshading is probably the right call anyway 🙂

S M
I hope this gets finished in one day, because only landing gears are missing. I almost ruined this model with bad painting and bad choise of gloss varnish.

Robert Podkoński
Looks fantastic already! Keep it up, S M!

Thomas Kolb
I love the detailed build log! The Draken looks amazing too!

S M
Thanks J35J, Clement, Podkon and Mimoid! The model is now ready, but I will take better photos tomorrow.

S M
Now the final photos are taken

Guy Rump
Great job and interesting livery. 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Great job on this unusual livery indeed 👍

CaptGPF
Interesting techniques on building up the afterburner can. Outside of metallics, yellow is a hard color to paint IMHO, and you pulled it off perfectly I. This build! ❤️

S M
Thanks, Captain! 😄