Planet Model 1/72nd Lloyd FJ 40.05 Vérsce
(Kestrel)
|
 |
Introduction
My love for the exotic - this little kit managed to work itself up the
way on my priority list, and there it goes, finished at last.
Since the kit was described in greater length in the kit
preview, I’d like to refer all readers to this article.
Research
 The
work started - as so often - with a web search session. Not much there,
yet actually a link to the Austrian
Aviation Archive (Österreichisches Luftfahrtarchiv). After contacting
this organization, I was kindly provided with a publication containing
a description, plans and a photograph. In this context I’d like
to express my thanks to Eng. Reinhard Keimel for provided support, which
inspired me to carry on.
The first step was comparing the resin chunks to what is seen on the
plans and pictures. On the first glance the biggest difference was a mismatch
of the large hunch (which contained the gunner’s post) to the plans.
The position and angle were quite far off. Another bit was that the part
of the fuselage above the engine, and between the wings was made solid
in the kit, but looked open on the picture and in the plan. A comparison
of the wings also showed a deviation.
Plastic Surgery
 Since
I had more trust in the plans than in the kit, I started re-shaping the
parts. What looked like a minor facelift at the beginning, ended as a
major plastic surgery in the end.
The hunch was not only wrong in the angle - it was also off in the position.
The geometry was partially re-built using several layers of Mr. Surfacer
1000 to create the additional volume. Even though this liquid putty had
to be applied in many layers, it’s stronger than usual putties when
dry, and the adhesion is better (on resin), too.
 The
resulting wall partially consisted of the base material, and partially
of Mr. Surfacer. On top of that, it was undercut and thinned to a reasonable
thickness, so a strong bond between old and new material was mandatory.
I corrected the angle, but did not re-set the hunch itself, accepting
a small difference to the plan - it looked good enough to me. The fuselage
was hollowed-out around the pilot’s and gunner’s cockpits
with a ball-tip milling cutter, and some structure details added with
bits of tape.
The engine compartment roof was removed and replaced with a small bridge,
which was reinforced with metal pins. The shape of the wings was also
somewhat off, but to my eye, still to an acceptable degree. A re-shaping
here would mean also adding material in tricky areas, with little visible
effect, so I’ve just let it be.
Starting the Assembly
 The
first step was to install the walls of the engine “cage” on
the fuselage, and then the top wing. For this purpose the wings and the
walls received small holes, and therein metal pins installed. Tricky part
was not to collide with other pins, which were holding the bridge between
the walls in place, and at the same time prevent the drill from drifting
off, and coming out on the outside of the thin wall. A deep hole was drilled
into the front end of the massive resin hull, to later contain the rotor
bearing. The bottom wing was attached also with metal pins to a box which
was supposed to position the lower wing closer to the ground, and further
away from the fuselage. The tail assembly was simple, with no complications.
At this time, it was time for first painting.
Painting
 The
Lloyd FJ 40.05 was built to a then-new process with a monocoque-like style.
The technique was patented by the inventor eng. Melczer, who was the technical
director of Budapest's technical university. In this concept, the skin
consisted of thin wooden veneer, rather than the so far common ribs and
canvass. The effect was an increased strength and actually a reduced weight
of the structure, since the shell was partially load-carrying, too. The
“FJ” actually stands for ”Fournier-Jaeger” (veneer
fighter). The disadvantage of this design was a strange and eerie noise
which came up when the structure was stressed, and the wooden elements
rubbed against each other. It awarded the aircraft the nickname “cock-a-doodle-doo”
fighter. (I personally prefer to call it the winged piano).
 In
order to prevent having to paint between the wings, when the tensioning
cables were applied, I had to paint the space between the wings first.
To get into this space without bigger problem, I attached only the top
wing in the initial step. At the outset, the area between to be painted
received a Mr. Surfacer priming, and then a coat of Tamiya buff XF-57.
Then the wood pattern had to be applied: the process was beforehand experimentally
tested on my old trusty F-15. After having the cabin-look perfect on the
jet's wing, on it went to the biplane. I used Schmincke Mussini artists
oils thinned only a little, put on with a rough bristle brush, wet in
wet. After a little drying, the wood grain was streaked with the help
of a tooth-brush. The main color was raw Sienna. To make it livelier I
added streaks of light raw umber, natural burnt Sienna and attish light
ochre.
In the first painting step, the projected bottom side of the assembly
so far was colored, and the upper side of the lower wings. The coating
took about two weeks to dry through, which slowed down the building progress
considerably, because all in all, I had to repeat this process four times
for different areas. The aluminum parts received a quick black priming,
then an Alclad coat, and after the attachment of the lower wing assembly
to the fuselage, the bird was ready for rigging!
Rigging
 The
rigging was a little complex, and only with the instruction really hard
to apply. Looking at the plans and picture at the same time allowed me
to get an impression as how the cables are supposed to run. I drilled
the wings through with a short 0,25mm drill, top and bottom, and fed thin
nylon mono-filament through the whole contraption. The fibers were attached
on the top with superglue. At this point the somewhat softish wing struts
were added. On the bottom of each thread I clipped on cloth pins, and
let them hang overnight. That way the threads adapted to the sharp deflection
angles. The pins were removed, the plane turned upside-down, and tensioning
each thread with one hand, I fixed it with superglue. The holes were then
filled up with Surfacer, and sanded flat. The rest of the wooden pattern
was then painted on. I decided that the rudders and ailerons should be
made of different wood, so I mixed the artists oils with some white, to
get a brighter shade.
Engine Cowling Assembly
 The
cowling was a big chunk of gray resin. For photographic reasons, the prop
has to rotate, so I attached a tube to the back of the cowling as a the
prop shaft bearing, and a pin to the prop, so it would run smoothly, when
assembled. In order to make the engine fit, I had to mill-out nearly all
of the material on the back, to form only a thin shell. Then the cowling
got a coat of Alclad. The cooler was painted with Revell copper (92) and
Alclad, equipped with a syringe needle, and glued on the cowling. A piece
of thick syringe was added as the first exhaust pipe, and the prop installed.
Engine Assembly
Initially I wanted to keep the original resin engine, but decided, that
it has too much visibility to have half-cylinders front and rear. So I
scratch-built a new one. Chunks of 2mm brass tubing made the Daimler's
six cylinders, pieces of wire sticking out on top of the valve shafts.
The crank case was made from pieces of a 72nd scale bomb from the scrap
box. The cam shaft was  made
out of a simple pin, and the rockers symbolized by bent pieces of brass
sheet. Exhaust tubes were cut from 0,8mm syringe, and the intake manifold
was done from soft wire, covered in Mr. Surfacer 500. Cooling lines from
hair-thin copper wire, and there goes my engine! Painting was fixed by
Tamiya black, Alclad and Humbrol metal (53).
Landing Gear Assembly
The tires got a paint of Tamiya black, the spokes of the wheels came
from the PE fret. The provided bits of the axle were quite gross, so I
decided to make my own. A piece of syringe served as the hollow axle,
two pins as spacers, and a several windings of nylon filament to bind
them in place. The loose ends were used as tensioning lines for the landing
gear assembly. The alignment of the subassembly was quite tricky, in particular
the V-struts. I used calipers and tape to get the positions of the parts
right, but after some superglue, it didn't look bad at all.
Bits and Pieces
 I
glued small bits of PE on the tensioning strings, which are supposed to
pass for pre-loading devices. A generator was made of bits of plastic,
and a piece of brass sheet.
The plastic for the generator body was coated with Surfacer to form
an 8-shape , the brass cut to roughly resemble a small prop, and then
its blades twisted. It was painted black, the tiny rotor glued on top,
the part then attached to the strut with two thin coils of wire. The levers
of the rudders made from folded bits of sheet were added, as well as control
cables for the rudders. I added hinges to the rudders and ailerons, and
the skid below the rear end.
Decals
 At
first I applied a coat of future, in the areas where decals were supposed
to go. The kit's decals by "Dead Design" were already hinting
at what was coming up: While rather thin, they were completely impervious
to any softener, and started cracking on the edges. On top, they were
somewhat transparent, and the wood grain showed through. I sanded the
fractures out, and prepared simple masks from post-it notes, to spray
white around the black crosses. The decals on the fuselage were put on
with a lot of care, and went OK. On the upside, the decals did not silver.
Cockpits
For the gunner's cockpit I had to scratch-build a new seat, which was
then equipped with simple hip safety belt from a small PE fret I've found
in the bits-and-pieces box.
The
instruments came in the kits. The seat for the pilot was in the kit (again
PE belts added), as well as the steering column. The steering wheel and
the instrument panel came also from the PE-set. The panel was underlain
with a clear foil, which was painted white on the rear side. I scratched
in the scales and needles of the instruments, and then painted also the
back side black. The borders of the cockpit sides were padded up with
Surfacer 500. The masking in this area was tricky, so I took pieces of
old decal, and applied them on the padding with a lot of softener - to
a nice effect.
Windshields
The gunner's wind shield was also part of the kit's PE offering. Glued
on a piece of clear foil, I cut it out, glued on the plane. The pilot's
canopy was provided in the kit, as a vacu-formed part. I cut it out with
small scissors, and superglued it in front of the pilot’s carrel.
The frame was fixed from a strip of thin aluminum foil.
Finishing
 The
engine was set into the fuselage, and the cowling glued on. After a number
or "operations" on the cowling, like additional layers of paint
or glue and re-sending, it did not fit smoothly on the fuselage. I filled
the gap with superglue, using a trick I came up with: a toothpick with
a small incision in the tip holds superglue like a fountain pen. If another
crevice is touched, the glue spreads into that gap (capillary effect),
not spilling on the surface. This way, also painted surfaces can be handled,
with little risk of damage. The bridged gap was the touched-up with the
wood-technique.
Weathering
 Pre-shading
was not an option with the used technique, so I tried something different:
thin coat of Tamiya smoke was applied to give the wing some plasticity.
On top I masked the ribs, and sprayed only on their outside. This generates
the impression of additional depth. Between the wings, where I could not
really mask, I applied this shading free hand, with acceptable effects.
The smoke traces from the exhausts were sprayed on behind the pipes and
behind the crank case venting. Some traces inside the cockpits, on the
landing gear and in joints were accentuated with thinned black and burnt
umber artist oils. The cowling had initially an accident: I tried to clean
some fluff from the surface with alcohol, during which the paint was stained.
I thought about re-painting it, but then decided that it's convincing
enough as old metal. The tires were brightened up with some pastels. Initially
I wanted to keep the plane glossy, but then decided to give it at least
partially a flat finish. In the end, I applied different gradients of
"flatness" in different areas, to achieve the optimal effect.
Conclusion
The little winged piano asked for a lot of work, but resulted in a real
eye-catcher. While I'm not to deep into WWI material, this little biplane
was fun to build, and is even more fun to behold.
Literature
FLUG-Informationen IV/1991 WIEN (publication of the Austrian Aviation
Archive).
|
|
