Need a quick build! 1/48 Roden Junkers D1

[Brad Cancian]

I decided I needed a break from some longer term projects which are causing me some angst (most recently my Albatros W4!), so I decided I needed a quick and dirty build to get me back into the game for '08.... after watching Stephen Lawson's very fine build of the Roden 1/48 Junkers D.I, I decided that a simple and well engineered kit like this was just the ticket!

I decided to keep it pretty well out of box for this build. So far I have completed work on the interior. Roden provide a nice interior for this kit. Keeping with the OOB theme, I made minimal modifications to the cockpit, namely the addition of strip styrene to enhance the fuselage formers, the scratchbuilding of the fuel pump on the starboard sidewall, the addition of seatbelts from the spares box, rigging from elastic, and adding switches and gauges to the instrument panel. Like Stephen, I figured that this aircraft was fitted with armour plating in the cockpit and as such, the corrugations did not show through on the inside of the fuselage. Roden would have you paint the interior in aluminum, but I figured that like all German WW1 cockpit metal work, the metal components would be painted for protection (this is bourne out by accounts of junkers aircraft still being flyable after being left out in the weather for 3 months after the end of the war) - so I painted the cockpit my owm mixture of grey/green. Anyways, here is some pics:

[Brad Cancian]

This one looks like the rest of the construction will be very quick and hassle free (fingers crossed)... I will post more pics in the next couple of days as the build progresses.

Feedback welcomed as always!

BC

[StephenLawson]

Excellent Brad as usual! Seriously consider getting with Dan San about the camouflage. We had some good info come through from him. Its a great little kit. I was able to reinforce the landing gear with two additional sections of brass Aeroclub "STRUTZ" since the JFA first production had them. Others had cables for rigging stays. The kit plastic landing gear is something I will replace on my next build. At any rate Model On!

[Kalt]

I think I need a good OOB model also, I have been fighting with my 1/48 scratchbuilt Spad 12 for a long time....

[FOKKERJ]

Originally Posted by Kalt

I think I need a good OOB model also, I have been fighting with my 1/48 scratchbuilt Spad 12 for a long time....

Hi Kalt,

Post some images of your 1/48" "Scratch Built" SPAD 12, maybe it will help take some of the fight out of it!

Regards, FOKKERJ

[FOKKERJ]

Originally Posted by Brad Cancian

This one looks like the rest of the construction will be very quick and hassle free (fingers crossed)... I will post more pics in the next couple of days as the build progresses.

Feedback welcomed as always!

BC

Hi Brad,

I almost forgot why I came to this thread!

Great Job! I would consider leaving it as is, like a cut-away.

Look forward to more!

Regards, FOKKERJ

[SCMc]

Brad,

You wrote:

I figured that like all German WW1 cockpit metal work, the metal components would be painted for protection (this is bourne out by accounts of junkers aircraft still being flyable after being left out in the weather for 3 months after the end of the war)

I do not know whether or not the interior was painted, but your reasoning does not hold. Aluminum is not subject to corrosion the same way as iron. The outside layer rapidly oxidizes, but this thin oxide coat inhibits further corrosion. Bare aluminum would probably suffer little from three months of exposure.

The model does look good in your grey-green.

Steve

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

Steve (SCMc) - interesting point!

I am not a metalurgist (but somewhere in my deep dark past there was an engineering degree somewhere) - The skin was actually duraluminum, which can be susceptible to corrosion with a certain make up of alloys (too much copper I think), so it needs to be coated in an aluminum solution or bonded to aluminum to minimise corrosion. The remainder of the interior structure was likely of welded tube structure. Depending on the grade of steel used (likely to be a harder grade of the 7075 ilk, which is also suceptible to corrosion), there would be potential for the steel to corrode if not coated, as well as dis-simillar metal corrosion possible throughout the interior where the differet metals joined. This was not a problem for metal fittings in wooden aircraft but for an all metal aircraft in an era where dis-similar metal affects of new alloys were not well known, I figure a coating was likely present, which may or may not have had a clear (clad) or painted appearance.

Not sure if I am right here (in fact I am likely to be wrong, it has been a while)...

BC

[SCMc]

Brad,

Thank you for your informative reply. I will have to yield to the engineering degree (from your deep dark past). It appears from your response that you must have used a bit.

Steve

[jumpinjan]

Originally Posted by Brad Cancian

The remainder of the interior structure was likely of welded tube structure.

Brad,
If you are referring to the fuselage members (the "Omega" shaped channels), they are aluminum. There is no welded steel tube that can be seen inside the cockpit.
Jan