Etrich Taube, five-country flight, 1913 - Airframe 1/72nd vacuformed

 (Photos from the Flight magazine archives, 1913)

(From Les aéroplanes de 1914-15, Gallica archives, a similar model):

This build will represent the Etrich Taube 1913 civil machine that piloted by Alfred Friedrich performed a five-country flight that encompassed Germany, Belgium, France, Holland and England.

Airframe vacuum-formed kits were made by the late John Tarvin from Canada, and are what might be considered a vintage kit.

The objective is to make of this vintage kit something a bit better, but within the boundaries of what can reasonably be done from such starting point.

 I have built and posted here a Supermarine S-4:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/07/supermarine-s-4-schneideer-cup-1925.html

Many of the Airframe kits belong to a category I like to characterize as "Wishful Thinking Kits". The plastic is usually quite thin, no accessories of any type like (usable) wheels, engine, prop, struts, etc., and no decals (at least on my samples).

They do have detailed plans, a somewhat simplified construction guide, and they do provide interesting subjects.

Engineering-wise they have in common the use of a construction device that could be called a keel, a centerpiece that has a cutout for the cockpit (and/or cabin) and is sandwiched between the fuselage halves, thus helping with rigidity and providing a "lip" as additional gluing surface.

It's not fabulously convenient, and can be a hindrance, thus it's better substituted for normal bulkheads and floor if preferred.

Wheels, props, and other small details are provided as too generic shapes, completely useless, to be frank.

At this point it's necessary to clarify that it may seem not very fair to evaluate a vintage kit against today's standards, but on the other hand I am building the kit today, and not 40 years ago, and so will those who have, or may acquire these kits to build them.

Summarizing: not the easiest kits, and somewhat below other contemporary manufacturers of vacuformed kits.

They are buildable, none the less, and as can be seen this is my third, but they are not easy, and require some skills, a bit of ingenuity, and the addition of many missing things.

Just to give you an idea of the task ahead, the instructions lightly and mother-of-factly tell you to deal by yourself with the extremely complex undercarriage and wing-supporting structure using wire and stretched sprue. Now I call that optimism. But I could call it many other things.

The parts separated from their molded backing sheet:

 Wheels and prop to go to the trash can:

 Very good plan:

 Instructions:

 Some preliminary work on the parts:

 The wings are treated like what we would call today a Jedelsky airfoil, some other contemporary planes like the Caudron biplane used that arrangement too,  with upper and lower surfaces in the first 2/3rds and one surface after. Problem is that there is no great match between the two parts:

 And here is why: the manufacturer used the same top part, resized, for the lower part, so when located with the furrows up if fits, bummer it has to go relief up to be effective:

 And what do you know, a clever manufacturer that presents a plan to scale, not in a different scale to fit the print like many contemporary manufacturers:

 Very detailed front view, a must.
And the vintage: 1973!

 Here is how that keel I was talking about fits:

 The lip:

 and the lip below:

 The scallops are made better with the very judicious use of a rotary tool:

 Pitiful engine blob is removed. Cockpits hollowed:

 Replacement prop and wheels, Aeroclub items:

The Taube wings have a particular curvature, with a bit of wash-out at the tips, a carried-on feature that echoes Etrich's original "zanonia" wing glider, based on the seed of the zanonia tree.

The kit's parts are flat, therefore they have to be imprinted with the appropriate curvature by the modeler:

 The kit's radiators are substituted for more defined home-made items:

Seats for pilot and passenger and control wheel are prepared from other sources:

A little furrow was engraved inside the vertical tail halves to trap a piano wire:

 Another furrow is made for the horizontal tail wire:

 The back seat was also round on D2, so this has to be corrected on the kit:

 The tank shaped like a fish this plane had between the cabane struts is fashioned from styrene rod:

The wing surplus is cut off. In this plane there was a noticeable gap between the wing root and fuselage, and both spars and leading edge, partially exposed, connected both.

Spar locations are marked:

 Again the spar locations is engraved to be able to lock in place the brass tubes:

 The shape of the aft cockpit (pilot's) was corrected by adding styrene, blend, and the re-shape:

 The cutouts are performed on the tail:

The spars are glued in place:

 The bottom skin of the wings is glued and secured.
The bulkheads are fabricated:

 I found among the spares an engine candidate:

To show how crowded the sky eventually was with Taubes (Doves), here are a couple of pages from L'Aerophile, courtesy of Gallica:

A view of the components so far:

Not bad...not bad at all:

 I feel like a Young Frankenstein, cutting and splicing...

Exhausts stacks added:

The wheels are ready, and the wings too, but the locations of masts and struts for the structure -under and on it- still need drilling. All the "metal" parts were painted gloss black in preparation for the Alclad hues that correspond them:

Testing that the opening will be enough to insert the engine after painting:

Some detail drawings from the Gallica archives, long live the French and their respect for knowledge: :

The placement of the internal structure begins:

Short sections of the longerons are added, and tabs are glued along some of the seams to provide better contact surface and rigidity:

 Fuel tank (that will be located below the passenger seat) and instrument panel are readied for the upcoming painting session:

As I can't use the airbrush at the moment, some internal details are dealt with:

The shock absorbers that can be seen on the leading edge on plans and photos are fabricated.

At first I got them too big, and had to re-do:

A closer observation of photos revealed that the radiators had some detail texture. 

Long ago, when I still had a good printer, I used to print these things, linear patterns, dot patterns, etc., to enhance models. I pulled some that seemed to work:

 The Taube also had prominent stitching, so my stitch decals were called too:

 Here is the pattern and the radiatiors I made to substitute the bland kit representations:

 And here is how they look after decal application, better, I think:

 More details are added to the engine:

Base colors applied...:

 ...and well done, genius, forgot to add the base for the engine. So here it is:

Some details are added to the interior:

The control column went trough the floor quite a bit, and had control cables attached to it at the low end, bear that in mind during assembly. I will be adding it later in the build:

 Almost ready to glue the fuselage halves together:

I have seen this plane modeled showing some traces of the lettering below the wing on the top, but I think that may not be accurate. These are the only images I found so far that show D2 from an angle that allows a view of the top of the wing, if in a shallow angle. No inscriptions are visible in this image on the top the wing, nor translucency of the lettering below the wing; that's what logic dictates as this was a double surface wing for the first 2/3rds of the chord, regarding the legend "Etrich", and the designation D2 is not visible by translucency or soaked pigment either from the top:

I love when these Jungian "meaningful coincidences", or "synchronicities" happen. A friend sent this card:

 Well, as prop, engine and wheels are ready somewhere else, it's time to deal with the dreaded wing-supporting structure, complicated landing gear, and I am not even yet thinking of rigging!:

The location for the main supporting beam for the wing structure is measured and drilled, then the tube is inserted through the fuselage. Locations of the vertical supporting members are drilled in the lower surface of the wing, where the spar is. The vertical mast positions closer to the tips were drilled through. A vertical brass tube is inserted as a dry run, it's standing snugly by itself:

 I thought that I would use the Albion Connecto P.E. set for this build, but then decided not to in this case, as it would make life unnecessarily difficult. But it has its uses, needless to say:

Time to work a bit on the surface details of the fuselage before it gets complicated. Some holes seen in photos are drilled:

 The carb air intake too:

 The nose is drilled, and a piece of shaped sprue is prepared to represent the engine front, where the prop will be attached:

 The belly has a vent hole at the front, the hole for the lower part of the control column, and will have some rigging and control cable locations drilled later on too:

 The tail continues to be detailed:

 The rudder control cable exit:

 "Elevator" (flexed horizontal tail, actually) control cable exit:

Small pulleys are made with tree punched discs. Make more than you need, to chose the best ones.
Six are needed:
-two on top and bottom of the kingpost, to guide the elevator deflection cables.
-two on top of the stab's edges to guide the rudder control control cables.
-two on the wingtip masts to guide the "aileron" cables.

Drilling for the control and rigging cables starts.
The idea is do as much as it can be done at this stage, when is still comfortable:

This little bird has now its tail on:

Insertion points for the wings are measured and drilled:

 Dry run:

Another Post Office miracle! The decals arrived in about a week!

Airbrushing session with first color applied. The grey of the metal panels will follow after masking:

A metallic grey enamel is applied to the nose, where the original had metal panels. Later on a light mist of a shinier grey metal hue will be applied:

The airbrushing went flawlessly, but I now see an issue. If from certain angles the reflectivity of the metal hue compares to photos, from different angles the metal looks too dark.
I will re-paint on a much lighter metal hue, white aluminium, possibly mixed with some gloss white.
Pity, because the application was flawless, and we know what happens when we start to mess up. Fingers crossed:

I think the mix of Alclad pale grey gloss base and white aluminum I just re-spayed on looks better. Difficult to tell from photos, though:

Starting to work on the landing gear:

More itsy bitsies are prepared:

The mainframe of the landing gear made of brass Strutz is now in place:

The control wheel and column that go through the cockpit floor and the seat are now in place:

 Radiators in place:

 A rig on the belly that holds the "brake" (a swingarm that has a claw to "dig-in") is added:

 The cabane is added:

The landing gear is being readied, the tank in the cabane added, reinforcement rods to the nose glued on, vertical rigging masts on the wing in position, and decals to represent stitching on the fuselage side applied:

Landing gear added.
At this point (yes, the model has become pointy, like an urchin) every little step makes you a bit nervous due to the inherent model's fragility.

Due to the wildfires, red sunsets:

Look at this cute envelope
Now that's a touch of quality:

Decals now in the process of setting.
May be tomorrow I can start with the rigging:

With the decals in place the structure under the wing can be added:

Remember those tiny pulleys? Now's the time to use them:

 The tail holes are cleaned with a small bit, and sections of elastic thread are passed through them.
These need only to eventually reach the pulleys up and down the kingpost (just one wire goes on from there), so they don't need to be too lengthy:

Now each filament is stretched and glued to the pulley's channel:

 I suggest doing a pair on one side, flip over, and do another pair on the other side, to keep tension somehow balanced:

 You will have so much fun you won't believe it!:

Brake cable, control column cable, pulley cables, tail cables are added. There are many more cables that need to be added on this side, in fact, too many to enumerate.:

Mathematics are supposed to be objective, but how is it then that after applying fifteen lengths of rigging, it feels like you have applied thirty, and a person looking at the model may think that you have only applied five?:

As stated somewhere else, with complex builds it seems to be a good strategy to take it in reasonable steps. In this case, as anyone would appreciate, rigging defines the model.
You already saw the two stages in which the tail rigging was done. Today the task was the area of the frame underneath the wing.
Setting up doable tasks that can be completed in a relatively comfortable way helps developing a sense of accomplishment, avoids mounting stress, and above all, leaves a nice sensation that invites you to come back to the model later on to continue the build with a positive feeling.
This sort of building strategy is particularly useful now, as Mrs. Moa can't go to the gym, and instead blasts the house full volume with abominable gym music as she does her classes online now. Oh, the humanity!
My Pablo Casals' Bach's 6 cello suites CDs just shattered in horror.
Fortunately, the rigging, miraculously, went on without major incidents:

It's becoming more and more fun with each added rigging length:

From where can I grab this thing now...

More rigging:

 May be tomorrow it will be the landing gear and nose rigging.

More rigging added. It seems endless! The engine is glued in place, as well as the engine front, and the decals that simulate the air vents in the nose:

 Some more rigging, the prop, and we may be done:

To be continued...