Sethhunter

Thanks for the support! I think the plastic model idea is great. It would help immensely to visualize some things. The wing fillets especially I spent a long time comparing photos to try and get right and would have benefited from a 3D plastic model.

Here are some notes/pictures on the fuselage construction. I learned the general method by building a “cold-molded� sailboat hull ull size), following the method described by the Gougeon Brothers (the West System Epoxy folks) in their book The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction, and reading about the Phalz construction method in the WWI Aero publication I mentioned in an earlier post.

Basically the fuse is built in two halves and joined. Each half is made by laminating several layers of thin wood strips (in this case, two layers of 1/64� plywood normally used for wing skins). The thin strips were glued together over a mold, the strips oriented diagonally, alternating the direction with each layer.

I took a “short cut,� which I will not do again: On the real airplane, each ½ of the fuselage was glued-up over a mold, then the resulting shell was lifted off the mold. The right side shell was then attached to the formers and stringers, which were rigidly held by one side for alignment. Then the fuselage would be rotated and the left side shell would be attached - fully enclosing the fuselage. The fuselage would then be covered with glue and fabric. Paper strips were applied under the seams, I think to aid separation of the shell from the mold.

Next time around, I would use the approach described above. What I did (but don’t recommend), is mold the strips directly over the air frame formers (1/2 formers) and stringers, gluing them to the stringers & formers. I made two complete sides and joined them together. I did it this way (over the airframe rather than over a mold) because I wasn’t sure the empty shell would hold its shape without the formers/stringers inside. I know now it would. I also thought I could save time not building a separate mold, but I didn’t save time because the mold would consist of more formers and stringers to support the lamination, holding the strips precisely with good “fairness� (smooth curvature). Molding the strips over a scant airframe structure (fewer formers and stringers) as I did means carefully checking and adjusting the fairness of each strip as it is laid down (e.g., with a batten laid against the fuse), which is not easy.

The other thing I did not do, but highly recommend (whenever making a round fuselage), is taking the extra time to fully loft the fuselage sections. The procedure consists of plotting several contour sections of your fuselage in the horizontal, vertical, and (one) diagonal plane, and checking the fairness of each contour. You’d be surprised at the hollows you find. Small tweaks to a former affect the contours in each plane. Iterate until you’re satisfied or exhausted. Boat builders spend a lot of time on this. Using CAD makes this easier. Lofting (applied to boat building) is described in Gudgeon’s. I ended up with a few shallow hollows on my fuselage that I filled with thin balsa sheet that I faired-in.

So here are the general steps and a few more pictures:

1. Build a “strong-back,� which is a frame or ply (e.g., ¾�) plate for anchoring the mold/formers. The strong-back is smaller than the profile of the fuselage, so the formers overhang each edge of the strong-back, and the strips can hang down with clearance (they get trimmed later). Put legs on the strong-back so the strip ends have room above your workbench.

2. Make your formers (halves). If using the “mold� method, formers can be heavy and solid. You don’t need the stringers to be flush – just offset the profile of each former to compensate for the thickness of the stringers, and glue as many as you can to the formers. Check with templates and plane/sand as required. If using the “airframe� method, make the stringers flush. You might want to cut out the centers of the formers, but leave a cross-piece attached to the former for mounting purposes, and cut it out before joining the halves. Extend the ½ formers passed centerline so the top and bottom stringers have complete notches (3 sided) to hold them, and trim the extension later. You might want to make the top and bottom stringer ½ the design thickness, so when the sides are joined the mating pair makes a full-thickness stringer.

3. Mark centerlines on the strong-back and formers and mount the formers to the strong-back. I used wooden cleats glued to the cross-piece of each former, and screwed to the strong-back from below, so I could release the formers from the strong back from underneath. If using the mold method, you can glue the formers permanently to the strong-back.

4. Attach your stringers to the formers. The top and bottom stringers are mounted to the overhanging edges of the formers. Make sure the top and bottom stringers are in the same plane, parallel to the strong-back (no twists in the fuselage).

5. Cut strips of 1/64 ply. Mine started-out about ¾� wide and long enough to wrap across the mold on a diagonal (obviously longer near the center of the fuselage). Make them narrower where your fuselage has tighter curvature.

6. Attach the first strip. If using the mold method, don’t glue the strip to the mold. Just tape the first strip down. If using the frame method, glue it down. I used epoxy. CA would probably work and be easier.

7. The following strips have to be spiled. This means trimmed so they fit the curvature of the mold, and but lay butt-up against the adjacent strip. The 1/64 ply cuts easily with a scissor. I found marking the overlap (with the adjacent strip) at the ends, and tangent point in the middle, and cutting nearly straight lines connecting those points resulted in a pretty good fit. Sometimes putting a drop light inside the fuse, and marking the shadow of the adjacent strip on the new strip worked well.

8. When the strip fits well, glue it to the adjacent strip (and/or the stringers etc.). Tape as required to hold it. Close-pins and weights are useful too. Work your way to each end of the fuse. Sand the bumps off when dry.

9. When you start the second layer, reverse the direction of the diagonals. Glue the strips to the first layer. Start again in the middle, work towards the ends, spiling and gluing. I used tape to hold the second layer down, and had a few limited lamination gaps. Tough spots I used CA to help hold. Soft SCUBA weights are great too – they are like very heavy, soft bean bags. You can string them together to make a conformal weight to drape on the structure to help hold down trouble spots.

10. When dry, remove from the mold (or remove the whole structure from the strong-back), trim the edges, clean up the inside if needed, install formers/stringers or other structure as required, and glue together.

I don’t have many detailed pictures of the process. But here are a few:

a. Formers/stringers on strongback
b. Lamination in progress with tape.
c. Two half-shells, trimmed and ready for joining.
d. Fixture for marking alignment of lower wing fillet
e. Foam dummy wing fixture for supporting build of lower wing fillet
f. Ribs for lower fillet
g. Lower fillet and wing center section complete

Sethhunter

Ops - almost forgot to mention; I then glassed the fuselage (.5 oz) to increase puncture strength. So far. I have about 400 hours in the model (not including CAD design). Much of it spent fabricating ball-socket joints for the struts, doing destructive load testing, building the LG, and other misc details needed before I paint the fuse. The plastic wheels will stay through flight testing. Then I'll replace them with something more authentic (assume the crate flies!!)

Mode One

Sethhunter, Thanks for the outline on how you built the fuse, great job. I'm sure the plane will fly great, as long as the weight doesn't end up too high. You should go to the Dawn Patrol site and hook up with Dan Schmidt, the other 1/4th scale Pfalz guy and compare notes. Dan is great guy and likes to talk about his projects. He has a DeHavilland project going now, which is extremely interesting.

If someone is thinking of pulling a mold for a Pfalz, I would would be most interested if anywhere from 1/6th to 1/4th sized. I like 1/5th!

We need more people keeping this thread going! GET BUSY! I would guess Abu is tired!

abufletcher

We maybe not tired exactly just distracted! I started this thread at a time when I had no facilities whatsoever to do any actual modeling (since I was living in rural Japan) so I figured I'd just concentrate on research for the future. Also at the time I was finishing up a Ph.D. dissertation and didn't have much "building time." I have now started working on a couple of sport-scale models, but trying to do a model like the Pfalz to the degree of scale being discussed in this thread would just be an exercise in frustration at the moment.

BTW, I was going to ask Sethhunter if he could give a brief layman's overview of "lofting." I've found a few websites concerned with this but they seemed awfully jargon-laden and difficult to follow. Maybe one reason I've found the idea of doing authentic wickelrumpf is that I did help my son build a planked model ship hull a couple of years ago.

Mode One

Sethhunter or somebody mentioned building a boat with a similar method. The process is called "cold molding", in boat building which I think would be the english translation of "wicklekrumpflinghiemer" or what ever you guys are saying!

abufletcher

The actual translation of "Wickel-rumpf" is "wicker (as in basket)-fuselage." This techique appears to have originated with the people at Roland and was taught to the Pfalz people when they were doing licenced production of the Roland DII. It was said to be very lightweight and strong but was subject to twisting warps in wet field conditions.

Cold molding is something entirely different than "lofting" which has something to do with calculating the shape of intermediate shape of a curve between formers. So on a curved hull (as on a curved fuselage) the line between to formers is not straight.

If I ever get around to starting on this project, I think I would plan on producing a slightly undersized male mold (of each half) made of glassed foam and then using the techniques that Seth describes (which are very close to the construction described in the Flugsport article).

Sethhunter

Hi - what is the dawn patrol site?

Since the veneer laminating process produces a curved plywood, but done at normal temperatures, rather than under heat and pressure as with flat commercial sheets, boat builders call it "cold molding."

Describing the lofting process is a bit hard, but here goes. I’ll use boat-building terms so if you read another reference, maybe it will help with the terminology.

Why loft? Boat designers layout their designs in some convenient scale, e.g., 1’=1�. Boat builders need full size patterns. So designers measure their layouts and include with the drawings, a table of “offsets.� The offsets are simply coordinates that define the cross-sections of the hull. Boat builders use the offsets to redraw the design full size. Lofting is the process of converting the coordinates (offsets) into smooth (fair) full size patterns. The process eliminates errors due to measurement, that get amplified by the scale difference.

Obviously modelers don’t have tables of offsets. We use 3-views that include cross-sections but in a smaller scale. When we enlarge the cross-sections, errors in our measurement, or errors made by the person who drew the 3-views, are magnified. This can result in stringers that aren’t straight, sheeting that doesn’t fit right, etc.

So here’s the basic idea, starting from the cross-sections (you can skip the boat-builder’s steps for creating cross-sections from the offset table). Boat builders call the “end-view� and “cross-sections� the “body view� and “stations.� Put a grid on your body (end) view. Create a top view (called a half-breadth) with a grid, the length of your fuselage and showing each perpendicular cross-section (station) as a line. Pick one horizontal line on the grid in your end view, and measure the distances from the vertical centerline to where the horizontal line cuts through each of your cross-sections. Use these measurements to plot a point on each station in the top view. Connect the dots by bending a flexible stick (batten) so it passes near or through each point. The line is a contour line in the top view (called a waterline in the half breath view – representing where a horizontal plane cuts through the fuselage), and it should be smooth. If the batten doesn’t pass smoothly through all the points, move one or more points in the top view until it does. Then mark the new point positions in the end view and redraw your cross-sections (stations). Pick another horizontal line in the end view (body view), and construct another (hopefully smooth) contour in the top view (called another waterline – note, all lines parallel to the “load waterline� to a boatbuilder are called waterlines, not just the one where the slime grows). Again adjust points as required and redraw your stations. Keep going until you’ve drawn all the “waterline� contours in the top view, probably a couple above and below your horizontal centerline (you can do the upper ones on one side of the top view, and the lower ones on the other side, drawing half views, not whole, so they don’t overlap).

Now the fun begins. Create a side view (boatbuilders call it a profile view). Go back to the grid in the end (body) view, and pick a vertical line. Measure the distances from the horizontal axis to where the vertical line cuts through each of your stations. Transfer those measurements to the profile view (one dot on each station), and fair them with the batten, creating a contour showing (representing a vertical plane that cuts through the fuselage). Boatbuilders call these contours “buttocks.� Move points if you need to to smooth the contour. Then redraw the stations. Since you’ve tweaked the stations, replot the waterline contours to make sure they haven’t been messed up. Plot more buttocks. Fair, adjust the stations, and check the waterlines again. Keep iterating until it all seems pretty well matched.

Want more fun? Now draw some diagonal lines on the end view. They don’t need to pass through the station centers. Try to get them as close to perpendicular to the cross-sections as possible. Pick one diagonal line. Measure the distances from the centerline to where the diagonal intersects each station. Create a new grid again the length of the fuselage showing each station, and plot each point from the diagonal line. Guess what? Fair that too, tweak the points, redraw the station, replot and check both the buttock curves and the waterlines. Do the same for the other diagonals (probably only one or two for the top and bottom half of the end view).

If done properly, stringers and sheeting should lay smooth and fair on the framework. Hopefully, the stations you end up with wont be too far from the original cross-sections, but they should be error free.

The Gougeon Brothers recommend a few sources on this: Howard Chapelle’s book Boatbuilding, Allan Vaitses book Lofting, and Robert Steward’s book Boatbuilding Manual, which they say has info on using CAD to do this. I haven’t read any of these, but I found the Gougeon’s book more than enough to build a boat and this airplane!!

Mode One

Seth, The Dawn patrol has a website at http://www.bealmear.com-dawn_patrol/ You can find out all you need about Dawn Patrol at this website.

Abu, correct, cold molding is not lofting. Cold Molding and "Wickel-rumpf" are exactly the same process.

A cold molded hull starts with a strong back or male mold to which alternating layers of thin veniers are bent to shape. (I'm unsure if the Pfalz fuselage was built in a female or male mold and I don't feel this is what defines the process). The first layer is laid on, on the diagonal to the waterlines (thrustline). As in caraval construction (the model ship you built) each strip is cut to fit (spiled) to the piece next to it The next layer is layed on at a 90 degree angle to the first. The process MAY repeat and a final layer MAY be laid on in a fore and aft direction. Modern day the layers would be bonded and encapsulated in epoxy or some other type of resin. Materials used might be plywoods or solid wood planking, mahogany, teak or other. I'll give you that the veniers used in "Wickel-rumpf" are much thinner then in cold molding. However, the processes are the same.

Sethhunter

Thanks Modeone for the website. Incidentally, according to Peter Grosz (author), the Phalz strips were 2.4mm thick, 8.5cm wide, 3 ply plywood. The monocoque shell had 2 layers formed over a male mold (total thickness about 3/16"), then covered with coarse linen fabric. You are correct about boats - more often coldmolded using 1/8 thick vertical grain veneer (I used western red cedar), 3 or more layers plus light fiberglass. Way to heavy for an aircraft (until clouds start hiding rocks!!)

Sethhunter

After a Spring of home renovations I've finally gotten back to the Phalz so I thought I would post a few update shots. The silver-gray paint is Rustoleum aluminum paint. Not gasoline proof, so I plan to top coat with Warbird Colors satin. The guns are Arizona Modelers. Started experimenting with weathering on the guns (hard to see under the low-slung top wing; rust around the firing chamber, some greenish tint to the brass perforated water jacket, exposed steel highligts where the black paint chipped off). I spliced eyes in the rigging wires (1/32" 3x7) rather than using swage fittings (i.e., on the landing gear wires) for a smoother look, and the splices are covered with black heatshrink tubing to simulate the wrapping that appears to cover the splices. I've started working on the Mercedes using a Proctor kit. Hope to start the wings soon. GTM lozenge fabric will cover the wings and tail feathers. Still thinking about the best way to build the wheels, cockpit, radiator, stenciled lettering, etc. Any suggestions are welcom!

The PIPE

Dear Seth Hunter:

The PIPE Here once more...and I saw a photo of your Pfalz D III's magnificent work in the pages of the latest WW I AERO magazine, courtesy of Tom Polapink's Models column!

You said you're looking for some help in making your own wire wheels and tires...the wire wheel task has already been covered nicely by Abufletcher here at RCU, specifically at http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_26...tm.htm#2693952 ...and for the TIRES, well, the late Harry Shoaf had an artlcle LONG ago in the AMA magazine, which, if you've got yourself registered for the "Members Only" section of the AMA website for the "Digital Archive" section there, you can view and print out for yourself. The article on "How to make your own Wheels & Tires" appeared in the February and March 1980 AMA magazine, and if you end up having any trouble getting access to those and printing them out (but TRY accessing them first, please!) get in contact with me, and I should be able to send you copies of that article by Email.

The Wickelrumpf style of fuselage construction is one I've seen used before...one VERN NULK up here in New England used it, appropriately enough some years ago, on a scratchbuilt 1/4th sized Roland C II Walfisch two-seater which he felt was "just too nice to risk flying it"...but he DID do the fuselage up in the "wrapped fuselage" Wickelrumpf style of construction.

Just wondering...what sort of ENGINE will you be using to fly the Pfalz with? I'm strictly a four stroke enthusiast myself, and thankfully enough these days, with four stroke GAS burner engines now out on the market...like the 25 and 34 cm3 Fuji-Imvac four strokers at http://www.fuji-imvac.com/engines/fjig0225.html , and the even more recent RC Showcase 45 cm3 four stroker at http://www.rcshowcase.com/html/engines/rcs45vt.html , would be PERFECT for your Pfalz...if your budget can afford one of those! The prices on those engines ARE quite high right now...I'm just hoping that their prices WILL come down a couple of hundred dollars before I consider one...!

Keep up the great work, Seth...looking forward to seeing more photos of it to show up in WW I AERO as the year progesses...!

Yours Sincerely,

The PIPE!

Sethhunter

Thanks PIPE for the great information and links. I'm psyched to build some wheels! Reading through the wheel thread and the comments about silver soldering, it occured to me I saw a vendor at the WRAM show brazing aluminum - he had a kit for sale with some kind of flux and bonding metal. I paused just to watch the demo, was impressed, but moved on (now I wish I bought it!) I don't know if it is strong enough for a wheel application (they're kind of mission critical!) but it could offer weight savings. Anyone out there know the product?

Engine is a good question. Most of my experience is 2C glow, so whatever I do will be a new experience. I was thinking of a Roto 35 (2C gas). I believe Jamie at Arizona Modelers used the Roto for a similar sized Albatros. Advantage is it fits great under the faux engine. I was hoping not to have to invert and stick the cylinder out the bottom (I just love the shape of this fuselage too much), although overheating might be a problem otherwise. I can use the scoops to direct air, but they're small. Fortunately the Phalz has a natural air outlet underneath. Those RC showcase engines look nice too. I'll wait til the wings are done and I've got a better guess on net weight and balance. Powerplant budget is always a factor but when you figure the shear hours projects like this take, the entertainment value in $/hour is still a bargain. Nice thing about the Phalz is it's got lots of room up front and a pretty decent nose moment. Let me know if you fly one of these engines. Anyone flying birds like this on electric??


Thanks again for the info & kind words.

Sethhunter

Been awhile since my last update. Making slow progress. Can't believe I mispelled Pfalz on previous post; apologies to all!!

I've been working on the faux engine and especially building the exhaust manifold. Before a comment on the details, I noticed on the Rhinebeck site, the comment Geman authorities always referred to the Mercedes engines by Daimler, reserving the venacular Mercedes for auto applications. Should we all be tweaking our terminology??

Anyway, I'm basing the engine on the Proctor kit, which of course, comes with the Albatros exhaust manifold, molded ABS. After toying around with some balsa blocks and having a few false starts, I settled on foam and glass construction. The method should be useful for all kinds of manifolds. I found building a plywood template into the structure was a good way to hold the scale outline during all the carving. It also strengthens the manifold considerably. Using foam and glass produced a very light structure.

The steps in brief are:
1. Transfer a top plan view to 1/64 ply. This will be sandwiched between foam.
2. Glue the ply to foam. I used urethane foam from Balsa Foam Inc. Use the ply as a pattern to trim the foam to rough outline.
3. Glue foam on the opposite side of the ply. Flip over and again trim the foam to the ply core outline.
4. Mark carving lines (circles on the ends of the pipes and centerlines on the top) on the foam and carve.
5. Glue on the plenum piece, which has to be separate because it is angled down from the plane of the manifold pipes. Gorilla glue worked well.
6. Sand, file, fill, etc.
7. Fiberglass with epoxy and 1/2 oz glass.
8. Repeat 6. I use wallboard taping compound to fill pinholes (not big ones!). Strong light, magnifiying glass and small files useful here.
9. Add the flanges from the Proctor kit.
10. Mount on a block (easy with nails into the foam ends) and spray with primer.
11. Add texture to make it look more like a casting; I masked the flanges and bolts and sprayed with Rustoleum fine textured paint (for texture only, not color).

Next steps will be final color spraying/weathering and assembling with the rest of the engine.

abufletcher

Seth, totally AWESOME work!!! I'm not sure if I should be inspired or depressed! It's like you're building the model that I had in my head when I started this thread forever ago -- only you're doing a much better job (with a much more sophisticated skill set) than I could ever have hoped for!

Keep it coming!!!

abufletcher

BTW, I'm surprised that you haven't chosen a powerplant yet! How do you engineer an eventual engine into that fantastic wickelrumpf shell?

Sethhunter

Hi Abufletcher - thanks for the support. Not so much skill - just time! This is my first project of this magnitude (although I've been building standoff scale for a long time), so I think I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to model the details. Here's a few more pictures of the Proctor Mercedes engine kit coming along. The major parts are not assembled yet; just put together to check fit. I decided to cut the rockers free and pin them, so when I make the valves and springs, I can set the rockers to the correct relative position. It just occurred to me it would be really cool to devise a way to have them move when the engine is running (e.g., with a small electric motor). Maybe on the next project! I added hose clamps on the water lines between the jackets, and have been spending a bit of time on all the access doors. Nelson hinges have come in useful here. This plane is my first experiment with an air brush. I could use more practice but the results so far are acceptable.

I'll need to start considering the engine seriously pretty soon - before I start the wings. Mainly, the fuselage is really tail heavy. I want to finish the tail planes and running rigging, then get a scale and figure out what it will take to balance, and seriously estimate where I'm going to end up on weight. Do you have any idea what weight the Proctor Albatros' are flying at? The whole front end is pretty accessible with the cowlings off, so installing supports in the shell shouldn't be to tough. I have room for the tank and probably the battery all up there under the fake engine. If necessary, I can open the bottom and invert the engine.

Do you think this thread would be of more interest to folks on a scale oriented site?

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

I don't know what the Proctor albi's are weighing but I do know that the original used an Enya v240 twin inverted. They are no longer available but the Laser 300 is and its a better choice. Its more powerful and more compact. I believe it's also mounted inverted.

Dai Phan

My Feedback: (2)

Hello all,

Excellent pictures and info on this bird! Does anyone know of a good 1/5 scale kit of the Pfalz? Arizona Models has one but I hear so much negative things about it. I am not into scratch building and I am a intermediate builder. Thanks for any input! DP

Sethhunter

Thanks DP. I'm not aware of any other Pfalz kits and don't know much about the AZM kit. Glenn Torrence did express an interest in kitting one some day. It might be worth dropping him a note. Sorry - wish I could help. They're nice looking airplanes. Unfortunately though, not a wealth of quality color documentation available compared with other more common designs. Good luck!

abufletcher

I suggest you read through the info at the beginning of this thread. I worked at collecting information quite extensively and at this point, this thread probably represents the most complete compendium of info on the Pfalz modeling available on the net.

I have the AZM Pfalz plans and I have to say I'm not very impressed. The best RC plans seem to be the one produced by Tom Polopik but he doesn't make a kit.

Sethhunter

Hi Abufletcher,
Yes I've read the thread and agree it is a great collection of resources and you've done a spectacular job contributing. I've bought most of the references and Leo at WWI Aero helped immensely. I'm curious where the Dearson illustration of the Pfalz with the black stripes and red wiggling line came from, which you posted on page 1? My observation may not be correct, but it seems among all the sources, there's not as much on specific Jasta/pilot markings, compared with other aircraft - especially the wings. What especially concerns me is the written descriptions that stock DIII.a's came from the factory with lozenge fabric. Yet, many of the color Pfalz illustrations are profile only (far fewer have wing planform illustrations in color), and the profiles suggest the wings (what little you can see projected from dihedral) are aluminum doped. So I'm left to decide, if I use for example the great Dearson illustration you posted, for my fuselage, should I follow the hint in that picture that the wings were doped aluminum, or the follow the more likely route the wings were stock clear doped lozenge? The question is more rhetorical but I welcome your thoughts.

abufletcher

Seth, I think the name is Pearson and I copied the photo from the following webpage which also shows the wing markings (at least on top). Also, as you can see, the "wiggly line" is actually two "ribbons" that wrap around the rear of the fuse:

http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter1/pfalz.htm

Note, however, that this is a D.III not DIIIa. Which are you modeling BTW?

Pfalz D.III 4011/17
Ltn Fritz Hohn
Jasta 21s

I note there is also a link for Bob Pearson's email so you might be able to get further info directly from him.

Sethhunter

Thanks for the additional info. My model is a D.IIIa. However I do have to give the markings some more thought. I had not seen the top of Holtzem's airplane - it's a definite possibility for mine - thanks!

abufletcher

Yeah, the Holzem paint scheme is THE scheme for a Pfalz DIIIa. How could anyone even think about doing any other!

Though I have to say the idea of doing the Hohn scheme so that I could mount a miniature scale teddy bear just behind the cockpit (as in photos of the original) is almost too strong to resist!

Personally, I think if the Pfalz had the color schemes available to Albatros modelers, it would be one of the most popular WWI models. The looks of the sleek Pfalz makes the Albatros DIII look downright flumpy by comparison! Though I guess the Albatros does have its charms (like the upper wing shape and scalloping). But what sells it for most modelers is fantastic color schemes.

With the Pfalz you've got dull aluminum/white or....um well dull aluminum/white.

MajorTomski

GReat thread guys

One other source of profiles/ markings are Eduard Plastic models

http://www.eduard.cz/

most kits come with 2-4 different sets of markings.


ABu, you could build a late model D-III and still have the guns on the outside!
T