I started with the Nieuport model which can be used for everything from the 11, 12, 16 and 17.
Now, I'm not trying to be critical here. I do think these are well done in the sense that the proportions are good except for the landing gear being too wide. Also, the skins and and cockpits are excellent.
That said, the R/S problems and outright wonky elements are pretty extensive. And I'm pretty sure the model makers knew this because not one of their screenshots shows the problem. They just panned around the plane until none of the problems showed(
):
I had to fixed all of these which is why it's going to take so long to get this done. You see, the 3dz system isn't really conducive to parts that interfere with each other. On a WWII plane such as the P-51, the only parts that could be in conflict are the down landing gear with the top of the wing. Other than that it's a straight forward model. Well, occasionally we come across a horizontal stabilizer that shows through the rudder but that's an easy fix.
On any of the biplanes, and to some extent the floatplanes, various parts interfere all over the place. Fixed landing gear and the interplane struts are a nightmare to get a good rendering sequence on. Then throw in the over wing machine gun as on the Nieuport and it becomes a real hair pulling exercise.
Also, when the cockpits are built with full elements inside of other elements it's almost impossible to get a good R/S. And even when you do, usually the elements show through the bottom of the plane. It's much better to just "paint on" the inside of the cockpit. I had to do this on the Nieuport 12 because the gunner was having this problem. I was able to fudge it with piggybacks on the single seat fighters but the gunner in the Nieuport 12 sits too far back for that to work.
Because deconstructing the models back to a working R/S is very time consuming there are two approaches to fixing the issue.
One is to use what I referred to as piggyback elements that can cover up the misbehaving elements.
The other method is to remove the offending elements and then add them back with some of the extra hardpoints the newer execs allow for. The perfect example of this is the fixed landing gear. These should NEVER be built on the "F"(main model) because they stick out under the wings. They should be built on the wing 3dz's, or as I prefer, to stick them on with one of the newer hard points.
The other part of the upgrade project is to smooth out all the rough edges. Those being the wing tips and rudder.
The first picture shows the rudder as originally built, the second shows how it looks after the application of a few more nodes:
Again, I don't want to sound too negative but Jeeze Louise, if you're going to go to the trouble of making as nice a model as possible, especially these beautiful WW1 skins, it's take no time at all to add a few more nodes to make the product that much nicer.
Finally, I made the instruments a lot more readable by bringing them closer to the player:
And so, on to the next model. I hope my hair holds out.
