Friedrichshafen FF33E, 1:33, GPM

[Claus]

Hello out there!

Since some time I am working on a Friedrichshafen FF33E, 1:33 from GPM. It's a WWI water-plane without weapons but with a radio-equipment.
This is the most complicated plane I ever built and I build it without laser cut parts.
It comes on 16 A4 sheets and a very detailed description.

[Claus]

In the first session, I glued the formers to 1mm cardboard and cut out the walls of the anterior fuselage.
Here I found the first error in the kit. One part of frame W7 is missing, but it can be easily made.

[Claus]

The cockpit and the seeds came next.
In the kit, there is only one control stick, the other you have to make yourself. Again, only a minor problem.

[Wyvern]

I'm going to be reading your thread with interest, CLaus. This on'e on my "to do" list!

Wyvern

[Claus]

The fuselage is a very stable construction. And everything fits perfectly. This kit realy has a high quality.

[Wyvern]

I like that cockpit, Claus! great work!

[cjwalas]

Claus, I love floatplanes and it looks like you are doing a beautiful job on this one. It should be a real beauty when finished!
Chris

[Claus]

@Wyvern
A very nice kit. You will like it. There are some minor errors, mainly in the description, but nothing bad. I hope you bought the laser cut parts. When I write about the wings, you will see why.

OK, in the next session I finished the anterior fuselage. Before I applied the bottom, I had to grind the frames a little to make it really round. Then everything fits perfect.

The upper hull I painted gray inside.

Finally, I grinded the backplane of this fuselage because at this plane it is glued to the second part.

[Claus]

I have not much pictures from building the hinder fuselage. My wive was on an excursion with the kids and took my camera with her.
But it is the same kind of construction as the anterior fuselage. In this session, I mounted the first part of the engine block, too.

[Claus]

The engine! The engine nearly caused an heart attack :mad:

In the first attempt, I did not manage to make it ok. The cylinders were crooked and nothing relay fitted. There was only one thing I could do: Tear it down again.
So I maid a second attempt. The cylinders have now a wooden core wrapped with paper. I hardened them with cyanoacrylate adhesive, grinded them to get the shape and painted them gray. The valve levers I made from "Tonpapier" (I don't know what it is in English. It's a paper with about 130g/m² and you get it in all colors). For the springs I glued gray and whit paper in about 10 layers and the used a 1,5 mm hole punch to get them out. The valve rods are 0,3mm steel. The result is not really great, but ok.

[B-Manic]

Great subject Claus, that is quite the engine, your build is looking good to me.

[kenlwest]

Claus,

Nice to see a quality build of a float plane. We don't get to see these often enough.

Ken

[f18fixer]

Nice clean build, I like it alot, great work so far

[jagolden01]

Claus, impressive engine and body. Build look very nice.

[Claus]

Thanks to all for the nice words. But - as always - I look at the pictures and see thousands of things that could have been better :rolleyes:

OK, lets go on with the empennage. Now you will see, why I recommend to use laser cut formers. Each wing gets a core of a 1mm cardboard skeleton and two layers of 80g/m² paper. As I work with water based glue there is always the danger that this small part will warp. So I pressed them all between two boards.
This core is then coated and at the end, the hull is impressed so that it looks like a tensed textile.

[Ron0909]

Claus, An amazing start on a beautiful model! I have this one too and have been afraid to tackle it. (I'm always afraid to cut the printed ones). I'm so happy when I see other WW1 aircraft being built and you picked a really special one. Can't wait to see the floats
on! More pics please!
Ron

[Claus]

And on we go. The whole punch of parts has to be mounted at - and this is no surprise - at the end of the plane.A peace of 1mm wire holds the elevator unit. The flaps are mounted to the wings with small peaces of 0,3mm wire.

[Claus]

@Ron0909
You don't have to wait very long. They were the next parts I assembled.

Again, the core is a stable cardboard skeleton and the sides are enforced by little cardboard strips.

[Claus]

Before I started with the wings, I made some small parts.
The propeller is made of nine layers. But maybe I throw it away and make a new one from wood - we'll see.
I cut out the printed grid of the radiator and replaced it by a plastic grid.

[Claus]

For the wings, there is a lot of cutting to do. Like the empennage, I have to build a skeleton first that is afterwards coated. Picture 1 shows all the formers I have to cut out ... 274, if I counted correctly. I decided to do this at a single blow. The parts are grouped and each group gets a little plastic bag.

[Wyvern]

This is most impressive.

Wyvern

[Ron0909]

Claus those ribs are pure insanity! It's another reason I haven't built this one yet.
My hat is off to you my friend :) I can't feel my finger tips today after my wing build last night. I can only imagine how yours are going to feel!
Ron

[Claus]

@Ron
Yes, cutting was torture, but now it is over.

On the last four evenings I made the four wings. I glued them together and then let them dry until the next evening to avoid warping. For drying, I clamped the wings down brutally, as you see on the second pic. And you can see, i used a lot of glue. Well, it won't be visible afterwards.

The third picture shows my next problem. The wings will be mounted with a 1 mm wire going through the wholes you see. A made the wholes as they were marked on the parts. But, as you see - especially at the middle wing - that does not fit. I will have to find a solution for that.

[Ron0909]

Hello Claus,

I had the same problem with my *first* set of lower wings for my Albatros. The only way I can see doing it now without too much trouble is with a very long drill bit or a long hard piece of wire. Using the original drill bit you can probably get through the first few ribs. Next maybe a long hard piece of thin wire cut vey sharply at the end. Using he first hole as a guide, carefully keep turning the long piece untill you get all the way.
Hope this helps
Ron

[Claus]

Hi Ron!,
that's exactly what I did.

I built this highly sophisticated tool you see in picture 1. A mini-drill and a 1mm brass wire. I sharpened the tip of the wire a little. Luckily, the thirst 3 holes were in a line. So they were a perfect guide to drill the other ones. It worked perfectly.
This evening, i cut out the wing covers, colored the edges and applied some parts to them (the red arrows), among them the compass. I put a thin transparent plastic between the two parts of the compass to imitate the glass (But I don't think I managed to take a good picture of that). I only made one wing this evening and let it dry until tomorrow. One evening - one part.

[Ron0909]

Hi Claus,
I'm really pleased to see that those wings are working out :) They look absolutely gorgeous in their components and will be great when they come together. It's amazing the length that modelers go to in order to include the slightest details. That lense is difficult to see in macro mode let alone by itself :)

Talk soon
Ron

[Golden Bear]

Good work here. I built this same model a while back and it remains one of my prizes. There's a thread over at Zealot if it is of any use.

It is nice to see another build of this very fine model.


Carl

[Claus]

Yesterday evening I finished the wings. The skeleton was covered with the hull.
The parts were glued together with a 1mm wire as support. Unfortunately, by inserting the wire into on of the wings, I pierced the hull (and my finger), but I retouched the hole and the blood with some glue and some color.
Between the upper wings there was a little gap I retouched with a gray strip and as I see now on the photos, I will have to retouch the gap between the lower wings and the fuselage.
The last thing for this evening were the Wing-supports. They are 0,3mm wire coved with paper and then painted with acrylic paint.

[jagolden01]

Fine, clean work, Claus.

[Claus]

I had not much time in the last days. So I only made the stanchions of the wings and the floats.

[PModel Rookie]

Don't get killed by your heart attack yet!We still wanna see your finishing touch of your amazingly built model!

Regards,
Daus

[flying rasta]

Claus... hats off to you... totally awesome. most impressed with the last set of fuselage pics...

[Claus]

The assembly of the floats was madness. I had all needed parts ready, but only putting them together took 3 hours. I constructed a simple template that helped to get everything together.

[Claus]

This evening I started with retouching the gaps after mounting the stanchions of the floats. I used modeling clay and acrylic paint.
Then I made the Pitot tube from a 1mm brass tube. I think I made an error here - it should stand out at the back side of the holder.

[Claus]

And now the upper wings. First I mounted the templates. I cut them apart and put them together again with adhesive tape after fitting them to the wings. Fortunately, my wive helped me - two hands were not enough for this job.
Mounting the stanchions then was quite simple.
The last point was gluing the Pitot tube.
Tomorrow I will cut away the templates and then - everything will collapse ;)

[jagolden01]

Claus, beautiful work on this.
I'm sure all will not fall apart when you remove the templates - just work slow.

[Claus]

OK, it's finished!
The radiator, the exhaust pipe and some miles of string were missing, but now everything is in it's place.

[Claus]

And some more pics.

[B-Manic]

That's a very nice looking build Claus.Thanks for sharing. Whats next?

[Claus]

Thanks for the friendly words.

well, I have some kits at home, mainly old-timer planes (app. WWI), some modern ones and some ships.
And for some time I am working on the "upgrade" of a quite simple model of a WWi biplane - maybe I start building this.
Or I do something completely different?
Let's see.

[Wyvern]

Gorgeous model, Claus! And an airplane one doesn't see every day. I like the jigs for aligning your wings and floats!

Wyvern