Roland C.II 'Walfisch' Beta

[dansls1]

Getter1 at cm.net started a design thread about this plane over a year ago here (http://forum.zealot.com/t142684/). He recently got 'inspired' to finish it to a beta stage, and I volunteered to help out.
He sent me the kit as 3 jpg's. I decided to print them at the largest scale that allowed me to get each sheet onto one 8.5 x 11 card sheet - which according to Getter1's calculations puts the scale I'm building at approximately 1/38th.
The construction is a wrapped former construction, with no joining strips or tabs included for attaching fuselage sections to each other. I will be adding joining strips of regular copy paper.
I'll post a pic of the cockpit area first:

[dansls1]

The first thing I noticed is that there isn't an easy way with the current design to color the inside of the cockpit. I decided to see what I could do to come up with a way. I first cut out the outside fuselage bit for the pilot area. I traced it onto another piece of cardstock and then set to trimming it to fit into the frame area.
As I got into it, I realized that I could also add an instrument panel, and I think this structure will let me get away with cutting the front former before assembly (I'm leary about cutting into model bits after assembly if I can avoid it). I traced the pieces onto a sheet of paper before gluing in case Getter1 wishes to try and incorporate the idea.
I'm also adding a picture of the outside fuselage piece for this section. For a final build this method allows you to sandwich a piece of clear plastic for the windows, which I won't do for this beta.

[Don Boose]

This is a very interesting and useful project, Dan. As usual, I expect to learn a lot from you as you work through the construction challenges. It's a really neat and rather unusual airplane.

Reading your thread brought back long-forgotten memories of the first time I ever heard of the Roland Wahlfish. It was in a Walter Musciano article in Air Trails and I can remember reading the article and pouring over the plans. I just did a Google search and darned if I wasn't able to identify the exact issue of Air Trails (September 1949): http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/cap/20527.shtml

I wonder if any Forum partipants happen to own that issue?

Thanks for the memory, Dan, and for your willingness to work the beta build and share your experience.

Don B.

[dansls1]

It is definitely an odd little plane. I hadn't heard of it until I read the thread looking for a beta builder. I did some searching online, and it appears that this is one of the first planes flown by the Red Baron (according to this site (http://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/december/galleria/Roland.htm)). There also seems to be a lot of potential for interesting color options.

[Royaloakmin]

Good to see a model of the Walfisch coming. I am suprised one of the big publishing houses has not done. As noted, many interesting schemes for this plane.