Marek Pfalz D.III

[Don Boose]

Good info, Greg.

What is the black box (other than a photography support for the cockpit assembly).

Don

[modelperry]

A box full of knife blades, Don.

Greg

[modelperry]

Only one picture today. The engine build is underway. The bay has been formed, The block, lower air intake piece, cylinders, and fuel pump assembly are assembled. On the cylinders, the top pieces have been pushed down a little to form a trough for the fuel line (made from plastic rod). the top vertical piece of the fuel pump has also been replaced with rod stock since it has to go through the smaller cylinder.

I will most likely replace the intake plumbing with rod stock as well. The exhaust will take a little bit of thought. Most likely I will have to laminate it to the correct thickness and then figure out how to bend it properly (or vice versa) then harden it with CA glue then file and sand the thing to death to get it to look right. Or something like that....

greg

[modelperry]

More engine progress:

I replaced the intake pieces with 1.5 mm plastic rod. Trying to roll all those small tubes did not appeal to me. Painted them with Tamiya copper.

Then on to the exhaust manifold, which I will install after skinning the fuselage.

First I laminated one side of the manifold to a piece of 1 mm card (although there are no indications to do so - no red part number).

Then I cut shallow relief cuts on the back side to facilitate bending the exhaust to the correct shape. Next I went and bent it.

I glued the other printed part on the top side.

Next I soaked all the edges in CA.

After hardening, I trimmed, filed and sanded the pipes to get rid of the squareness.

And there you have it

greg

[Don Boose]

Good-looking engine!

And thanks for the answer on the mysterious black box.

Don

[smithdr]

Nice work on that engine! They can be very fiddly and yours looks great. Neat exhaust treatment as well!

Dan

[Falco]

I use paper lollipop rods from JOANN craft store to do just what you with the exhaust, heck I also use it for propeller shafts, struts (wing and landing gears) since it's paper I maintain the "purity" of the build. I am not a paper purist but I prefer to use paper over any else given the option. Your build is looking great and keep up the good work.

[modelperry]

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I do appreciate them.

In regards to the use of paper for as much of the build as possible: I understand if you want to do this and have no problem, if that is your desire. I have never been a purist. I consider myself a model builder, regardless of media used. I have so many potential projects in the pipeline that certain materials provide much needed shortcuts and I'd rather do that than struggle with something I know I do not like (aka rolling small things from cardstock).

Anyway, back to the build:

The fuselage is done. My guess about 1 mm former thickness got me into a little bit of trouble. The formers on both ends of the cockpit and the one on the back side of the engine installation were too thick. I actually had to delaminate them to get the skin joints flush. This was a bit tricky. I also had to trim the bottom of the formers between the cockpit and engine to allow the skins to fit without any gaps to their seams on the bottom or top.

The formers that surround the engine bay have cutouts marked that are not deep enough. I cut them about 1 mm deeper (give or take) and the cowling pieces then fit nice and straight.

The engine exhaust got painted and installed too. I painted it Vallejo Gunmetal and then used my Tamiya Weathering powders to add Burnt exhaust red and then some rust to give it a used look.

greg

[MichaelS]

Splendid build! (he says while wondering how this would look in 1:100)

[Rata]

Looking good Greg. Your build is turning me into a bit of a Pfalz pfan! I reckon when you get the prop on if you give it a flick that engine would actually run.

Regards, Garry G.