SSW D.III Nr. 606 Swiss AF

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #2

23 March 2010

LANDING GEAR: The kit's landing gear struts and aerofoil section were discarded. Each "V" strut was made from one piece of brass tubing bent into shape using the 1:48 scale drawings in Windsock Datafile 29 (WDF029). Each open end had a short piece of brass rod glued into place to serve as pins for gluing the landing gear unit to the fuselage underside. The tube struts were then flattened carefully. The aerofoil section was made from lead sheet folded over a brass rod for the axle and super glued to the bottom of the "V" struts and allowed to dry. The wheels were drilled out to take the axle ends and the PE pieces representing the fabric access covers were glued in place as shown above. The landing gear was attached to the underside of the fuselage and super glued from inside.

FUSELAGE DETAILS: Note the engine access cover in PE and the small hand grips near the cockpit and the tail. These were cast into the plastic as recesses to which small PE bars were attached.

TAILSKID: The plastic tailskid is a single unit but I cut away the skid which is not structurally sound and replaced it with a flattened brass tube with sheet lead reinforcements glued on.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #3

8 April 2010

MORE DETAILS COMPLETED: Installed the engine, its support frame, and the cowling. Completed the two Spandau machine guns and the pilot's seat with attached harnessing. The propeller sub-assembly took some time. Each blade is separate and had to be painted and then treated with colored pencils. Then the blades had to be glued to the propeller spinner all the time to be sure each one was properly lined up.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #4

2 May 2010

FUSELAGE DETAILS COMPLETED: Installed the following items: Spandau machine guns, windscreen, rigging turnbuckles at the wing root and wings, painted wheels, cockpit side panels, two more cockpit gauges (rev counter/tachometer and altimeter). Added the following scratch-built items: fuel gauge (in front of windscreen), Spandau ammunition chutes, headrest pad (epoxy), front panel crash pad (epoxy).

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #5

2 May 2010

PAINTING: This photo was taken at the same time as photo #4 above. The fuselage has one coat of Misterkit MKFC02 French Roundel Blue which is close to the blue-gray used by the Swiss Air Force on this aircraft. All of the other parts are painted Misterkit MCFC01 French Aluminum which duplicates the aluminum pigmented cellulose-acetate dope or enduit métallisé as the French called it.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS #6 & #11 *22 June 2010*

FINISHED MODEL: Two views of the front showing the massive four-bladed propeller which was so large, the landing gear struts had to be extended for safe ground clearance. This aircraft was simply identified as black "606" in small numbers on the fin. It was one of several SSW D.III aircraft flown into Switzerland by the German pilots to avoid Allied confiscation at the time of the Armistice.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #8

22 June 2010

FINISHED MODEL: This photo shows the Swiss national markings to good advantage. The red panels were painted with two coats of Vallejo VC0817 Scarlet. I scanned in the set of decals that comes with the Flashback SSW D.III kit, sized them to scale, and printed them on white/white decal paper from my inkjet printer. The decals are for another Swiss-interred SSW D.III that had the German Balkenkreuz over-painted but keeping the German cross dimensions. After over-coating the decals twice with Krylon "Crystal Clear", I cut out the white portion of the decals and trimmed each arm to the Swiss dimension. Note the pilot's seat belts draped over the fuselage back and sides.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #9

22 June 2010

FINISHED MODEL: This aspect shows the rudder markings including the small black "606" on the fin. Fuselage panel lines, engine access panels, exhaust louvres (underside), and air scoops were highlighted using Winsor-Newton Van Dyke Brown thinned with mineral spirits.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #10

22 June 2010

FINISHED MODEL: This left side view shows the profile of the aircraft, the high stance of the landing gear, and a contrast of the blue-gray fuselage to the enduit métallisé of the rest of the aircraft including struts.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #7

22 June 2010

FINISHED MODEL: In this photo can be seen the delicate rigging done with dark gray .005 monofilament thread. Note the hand-colored propeller blades using my technique of colored pencils on acrylic base paint of one coat ochre and one coat of dark brown stripes. The landing gear and tail skid were made from sturdy brass "Strutz" material.

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This 1:48 scale model is based on a photograph and profile sent in by a collector for whom this model is being built. Substantial research information, detailed photo closeups, and technical data was provided in Windsock Datafile 29 SSW D.III/D.IV by Peter M. Grosz. Construction data comes from Gray & Thetford German Aircraft of the First World War.

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Gray, Peter and Owen Thetford, German Aircraft of the First World War, scale drawings by George Haddow, published by Putnam & Company Limited, London, 1962.

Grosz, P. M. Siemens-Schuckert D.III-D.IV Windsock Datafile 29, Colours and Markings section by Ray Rimmel, scale drawings by Dick Bennett, color profiles by Ray Rimmel, Albatros Publications Ltd, Berkhamsted, UK, 1991.