Choroszy 1/72 Mises-Aviatik Bomber By Joel Christy

Introduction

When I first saw the Choroszy resin kit of the Mises-Aviatik bomber I couldn't believe my eyes. This most rare of rare birds had next to no chance of being kitted. It is the kind of project that only a scratch builder would consider doing. But now any experienced modeller has a chance to have one in their collection. It arrived in a well illustrated box with a colour profile of the aeroplane.

History

The aircraft was actually completed at the end of 1916 but it was still being tested as late as early 1918. Aviatik started work on their first large experimental bomber in November 1915. The two designers were Richard von Mises and Karl Saliger. The first flight 30.07 occurred in July 1916 but it crashed. Learning from these tests the designers came up with 30.17 and 18. The engines were raised higher and a revised transmission system was installed.

In March 1917, 30.17 was damaged beyond repair due to a low altitude stall. Testing continued with 30.18 and it was still flying and in good condition by October 1918. Needless to say it never reached the production stage but it was still an amazing aircraft. Perhaps the most unusual feature was the engine layout. It had two double ended Austro-Daimler engines mounted sideways in the fuselage that drove four propellers tractor style between the wings via a gear box arrangement. Admittedly not a whole lot of information is available but it remains a fascinating subject.

The Kit

The kit is all resin and as such has some very delicate parts, perhaps too delicate for this medium. Choroszy have packaged all the parts in small zip bags and I must admit I found very few broken parts. The fuselage is in halves and the two wings are built up of three sections each. A well equipped cockpit is provided but little can be seen of it once the model is completed. The engines are exquisite, as are the fuselage metal panels. My issue of the kit had only one example of warping and that was in the tail of the fuselage.

I commenced construction by painting the inside of the fuselage and detailing the internal framework. Control wheels, instrument panel, rudder bars and a fuel tank are included along with fire extinguishers and seats. There are a set of floor boards that must be carefully fitted to the inside. These are not labelled so great care must be taken to make sure you have them in the right order. The exploded view drawing is a help here but dry fitting is a must at this stage. I was surprised how good the fit was once I had the floors and the engines in place but if one bit was wrong there is no way the halves would match up. Take great care here.

I painted the double ended engines with Humbrol number 67, tank grey, carefully dry brushing the plumbing and the exhaust systems attached to them. There were some bracing struts mounted under the engines that were not necessary to the structure and cannot be seen so I left them off. The engines simply slide between the floorboards and I left them unglued when I closed up the two halves.

Again great care was taken when it was time to glue the fuselage halves together. I used regular super glue for the entire project but one could also use two-part epoxy for certain stages. In my case, because the tail end was warped I only glued the cockpit area together first and waited for it to dry thoroughly before gluing the tail and clamping it with a large office clamp. This worked well and I only needed a little scraping with a curved knife blade to get rid of the seams once all was dry. I then sprayed the fuselage over-all with chestnut brown after stuffing the cockpits with cotton wool to mask the insides. A good match for this colour would be Humbrol number 186.

At this stage I set aside the fuselage and turned to the wings. I cleaned up the edges with a minimum of sanding and glued the three sections together on a flat surface with grease-proof paper under the joints. I left the top wing dead flat whilst I propped up the tips of the lower wing with two chop sticks to give it a slight dihedral as indicated on the three-view drawings. Once all was dry I drilled out all the indicated strut locations on both wings.

The tail surfaces are a bit complex so care must be taken when working on these parts. After cleaning them up I mounted them on a piece of cardboard with Blue Tac before airbrushing them and the two wings a couple light coats of Humbrol number 71, light oak to give an over-all appearance of linen. When dry I turned them over and painted the other side.

Turning back to the now dry fuselage, I proceeded to cover the metal panels that house the engines with metal KitKat foil. I used the dull side and attached the pieces with varnish that was left until it was tacky and then rubbed on the foil until the louvre details showed through.

Next I set aside all the parts for the propeller out-riggers that mount on either side of the fuselage and glued them together. Here I feel Choroszy could have come up with a better solution. Perhaps even scratch building them out of plastic rod or wire rather than resin would have been more satisfactory. I will let the modeller decide. I pressed on however and managed to get it all to look reasonably neat and aligned. Don't forget that all four propellers are tractor airscrews and face forward.

I decided early on to assemble the wing cellule separately. Before this could be done the 16 interplane struts had to be cleaned up, cut to length and a end peg for one end made. I did the latter operation using a needle file to form the peg. I used four struts made from the blue coloured Strutz material to add a bit of strength and rigidity to the wing cellule as seen in the photo.

I painted all the struts with Humbrol number 94 yellow brown and finished them with Tamiya clear orange to give them a varnished wood effect. Having already drilled out the wing holes I proceeded to attach the four outer struts and four inner struts. When these were all aligned and dry I glued the top wing on and set the assembly on the leading edge to get a square alignment whilst it dried. Then the other eight struts were fitted in.

With the wing cellule complete it came to the tricky part. The fuselage is attached to the lower wing by means of two "N" struts. This must be done with great care and much dry fitting. Once done and the fuselage mounted it is best to get the four cabane struts on as well as all the weight of the wings are on the fuselage. Now, time to lie down in a dark room....

After a rest, the tail surfaces were attached. This is a complex biplane/rudder arrangement and a lot of care needs to be taken as the assembly is attached to the fuselage. A keen study of the drawings and exploded views in the instructions is a must at this stage. But a little time taken here will save you from any future frustration. I let the elevators sag a bit for a more realistic effect and skewed the rudders. Once finished it is a unique assembly.

With most of the main assembly complete I turned to the details. The undercarriage is simple enough and mounted easily to the lower wing. From what little information I had it seemed reasonable to paint these dull silver along with those tricky N struts and the propeller outriggers. Chorozsy provide the modeller with plenty of resin strut material for the tail struts and various bits of plumbing for the fuel , water and exhaust systems. In some cases I found it better to use hot stretched sprue.

One detail certainly stands out on the Mise-Aviatik 30.18 and that is the pulpit that surrounds the two gunner cockpits. These are extremely delicate and almost impossible to detach from the resin carrier they are moulded to. I therefore used the lower piece with its struts and formed an upper ring out of soft brass wire and then glued four tiny posts to the lower ring. Once dry and trimmed to length the whole assembly was then glued to their respective positions. I painted and dry brushed the two radiators and mounted them to the engines. Lastly I attached the nicely moulded tail skid using two small V's of wire.

With the model complete it was time to apply the decals. These are very, very delicate so handle with care. I prepared the areas with Johnsons Klear for good adhesion. Put them in their exact position as they are difficult to move once on the surface of the model. When the decals were dry I gave the entire model a coat of Klear mixed with Tamiya White Base to get an over-all matt finish.

And that was it; one rare avis, the Mise-Aviatik 30.18. This unique aircraft should appeal to all modellers of World War One aircraft as it will make a very interesting addition to any collection. The completed model is not little with the wings measuring out at 31 cm. The actual aeroplane had a wingspan of 22.6 m which makes it comparable to a Gotha G IV. It looks bigger because of the wide cord wings. The Austro Hungarian stable of World War One aircraft has not been well represented in the modelling fraternity but Chorozsy seem to be righting this disparity. Let's hope they will come out with some more examples of this fascinating subject.