Many years ago, Eduard decided to make model kits instead of just supplying accessories for them. The first kit was a 1/48 scale Siemens-Schuckert SSW D.III, the quick-climbing, pugnacious World War I German fighter. A lot of kits later, Eduard returns to its roots with an all-new tooling of the SSW D.III in 1/48 scale. This new kit shares only subject matter and Eduard’s name with its predecessor.
The initial ProfiPack boxing consists of 78 injection-molded plastic parts, 78 photoetched-metal parts, two pieces of film, a set of masks for the wheels, and four decal sheets. Markings include five very colorful options, all using the supplied pre-cut lozenge decals.
Unlike the original kit, the interior is mostly injection-molded parts with a handful of photoetched metal, including pre-painted belts and an optional seat back. The detail on this is nice, but the wood grain is unconvincing to my eye; I repainted mine.
Much of the interior is assembled on top of the lower wing. This fits the fuselage exceptionally well despite the complex shapes, and the incorporated lower cowl panel features open cooling slots — very impressive!
Eduard provides two options for the guns — fully injection-molded guns, or plastic breeches and barrels detailed with photoetched-metal cooling jackets and replacements for plastic levers. I decided the 3-D plastic parts looked fine. I used the photoetched-metal jackets after annealing them. Be aware the gun barrels need to be thinned to accept the metal front and back plates (parts PE12 and PE19).
The engine, firewall, and engine bay details look wonderful, but none of the details behind the engine can be seen. The fit was so good, I left the firewall and engine off until after painting and finishing.
Large gaps around the horizontal stabilizer surprised me, but I eliminated them with Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty smoothed with a wet finger.
The control surfaces, landing gear, and struts fit fine.
I sprayed Tamiya gloss black (X-1) as a base for the lozenge decals to hedge against minor rips or tears showing. You might want to use a different color; the lozenge decals are too small to wrap around the parts, so the black shows at the edges. For example, the upper-wing lozenge has no overlap to cover the wingtips. Eduard provides extra lozenge decal sheet, but the pattern is not printed in the same direction as the pre-cut lozenge and the colors are very different. I cut small pieces to cover both upper and lower wingtips as well as the center cutout in the upper wing. I couldn’t bring myself to cut thin sections for the front and rear of the interplane struts; that would have been eight individual strips to match with the corresponding pattern.
The prominent wing ribs and their sharp stitching caused another decaling problem, piercing the decals during placement. I had a hard time draping the rib-tape decals to lay down over the stitching. On the bright side, the remaining decals behaved once in place and settled with some setting solution.
After struggling with the lozenge and rib tapes, it was almost a relief to start rigging the biplane. Eduard’s photoetched-metal turnbuckles worked well, but the instructions don’t show which type goes where. I used the simple “ring” type (No. PE24) on the upper ends only. The attachment points are actually on the struts and not the wing, so I was able to begin rigging without the upper wing in place.
I used medical suture for rigging, looped through the buckles and then back through small sections of stretched plastic cotton-swab shafts.
After attaching the upper wing to the struts — perfect fit — I tensioned the wires. I used elastic thread from Uschi for the tail control wires, and to rig the center section and landing gear.
I finished the little black barrel in 25 hours. Despite the great fit and wonderful details, this kit requires a bit more work than it should. The poor fit of the lozenge decals, exacerbated by the over-defined ribs, bears most of the blame. New decals would make this kit a winner.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the May 2015 FineScale Modeler.
Some tools of the trade for working with photoetched-metal gun jackets — a butane torch for annealing, insulated tweezers, a pin of the proper size to wrap the jacket around, a knife, and a file. And a big hunk of glass to work on — this one is a former bathroom scale I found at a resale shop!
After cutting the jackets from the photoetched-metal fret, I smoothed the tiny attachment points with a flat file.
This is what a jacket looks like before annealing — heating it — so it can be rolled easily without bending or kinking.
When annealing photoetched-metal parts, heat them until they glow red. Keep the flame moving or you may damage the delicate metal.
Once the part has been annealed it is easily formed, but you need to convince it to roll around something of the proper size. I used a straight razor blade to start the curve.
Voila! A rolled gun cooling jacket in a few easy steps.
After less than four hours, all the parts were cleaned up and ready for paint.
Let’s do some woodworking: First up, the prop.
Start with a coat of your favorite tan — I used Tamiya deck tan.
Next, I brushed on thinned artist's oils; I prefer Winsor & Newton burnt sienna.
I "scrub" grain into the oil paint with a stiff brush.
The slow-drying oil paint allows you time to work and play until you get the wood grain you want. Finish with an overall coat of semigloss clear to give it a varnished look.
Eduard includes small parts for the interior structure and detail. Applying wood grain works the same way, although I assembled as much of the interior as I could prior to the process.
After applying oil paint, I let it dry for a couple of hours. The less time you wait, the easier it is to remove. I apply the grain using various sizes of flat brushes, scrubbing each panel or segment separately.
Note how the grain runs in different directions on different panels. You can spin or stab the brush into the oil paint to produce different effects.
Here’s an overall view of the cockpit, showing some of the switches and the structural elements. Eduard provides decals for several instruments, including the compass.
Here’s a close up of the center section with the seat installed. I didn't like the look of the pre-painted photoetched-metal seat back, so I re-painted it. It was difficult to drape the belts realistically because they don't bend easily. But because they are pre-painted, I was reluctant to anneal them
Here’s a close-up of the cockpit's left side.
And here’s the right side, including the compass I mentioned — it’s the thing that looks vaguely like a plunger.
I prepped the flying surfaces for the lozenge decals with a Tamiya gloss black base coat. The decals won's stick to bare plastic very well, and the black hides minor holes or tears in the decals … unless it's in one of the more brightly colored patches, such as the white or tan. More on that later.
The wings prominent molded rib detail caused problems during decal application. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely sand this detail down before paint and decals.
I always apply lozenge decals on the lower surfaces first so any overlap ends up underneath. Turns out I need not have bothered, because all of the lozenge decals in the kit are a tad undersized. Note the strips of black at the wingtips
Sure enough, the upper wing decals were short, too.
That means there's no overlap to cover the wingtips.
The shortfall is apparent in the center section as well.
There's an additional sheet of loznege-pattern decal in the kit, but it's not called out in the instructions. It's handy for covering the shortfall, but the colors in my kit were different from the decals I had already applied; the tan is noticeably darker. I determined where to cut extra strips format the extra sheet wrap around the wingtips. The lozenge pattern on the extra sheet is printed longitudinally, but the kit’s decals are printed with the pattern at an angle. Make sure you cut the angle to match.
I cut enough to cover up to the first rib where it was easy to hide the color change.
Setting solution and patience were key fixing this problem.
While applying the lozenge and the rib tapes — soooo many rib tapes — I assembled the fuselage. I filled a gap at the stabilizer with Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty smoothed with a wet finger. I trimmed the tab above the tail skid for a better fit.
In my spare time, I built the detailed engine.
I painted the engine with several shades of Testors Metalizer.
I finished the rear of the engine with Metalizer burnt iron, then dry-brushed rust.
My SSW is ready for final assembly and rigging.
Eduard includes photoetched-metal rigging points. On the SSW, Eduard attaches the rigging to the struts rather than the wing. The parts are tiny, so have good tweezers on hand.
I installed the struts and rigging attachment points before adding the upper wing.
I strung nylon monofilament (medical suture) through the holes in the photoetched-metal rigging points, then looped it back through a short piece of the plastic shaft of a cotton swab. These shaft can be stretched over a flame just like sprue to produce a very small tube. I cut these into 1mm long pieces; a cutting mat is handy here.
In no time, I had all the tubes I needed to rig the SSW.
Rigging it isn’t hard, but it requires steady hands, good tweezers, and plenty of light. This picture shows suture passing through a short segment of cotton swab shaft and a rigging point awaiting the line.
The suture passes through the tube, goes through the eye of the anchor, and then loops back on itself passing once again through the tube. A drop of super glue locks it in once the loop is tightened up to the rigging attachment point.
A few sessions later and the wires are all roughly in place. I tightened and glued only the upper attachments until after the upper wing was installed. This allows the struts to move a little so the fit can be adjusted.