Gotha G.V WW-I Bomber, 1/72 scale, Roden

 

I built this model some 10+ years ago as part of a WWI Aircraft Group Build and a history forum. I'd never built a bi-plane before, and of course I had to pick not only one of the more difficult to build, but come to find out later, a kit deeply flawed in production and requiring massive fixes and alterations; and put on top of that, the entire plane needing to be covered in lozenge (those odd shaped patterns) decals across the whole kit! And on top of all that, required intricate rigging of wires, aaaaaand, fiddly little bits like struts. What this kit did do for me however, was offer me a great challenge, which I readily accepted.

 

 

 

 

Here's a good look at the rigging...

 

The underside...

 

And a good view of the massive wingspan..

 

And the best for last -- one of my best results with woodgrain, on the props...

 

For those that don't understand the significant pain-in-the-ass that rigging entails, let me indulge you! The process I used was to drill holes in the wings with a pinvice...

 

 

 

 

Then I had to decal the wings, and punch through the predrilled holes by fidning them through the decals with an awl and pop the hole. 

Then, I used fishing line, coated black with a Sharpie marker, in which I strung into the holes and individually anchored each end, and strung them in the patterns needed. Sounds pretty straight forward, doesn't it? Not really. I used plant name paddle sticks to help hold the wire and I anchored and glued them in place, held bu a model building aligatore clip prop...

 

 

You think anchoring fishing wire to the wholes was difficult work?

 

...yeah, a maze of wires! But even worse, this...

 

...yeah, a maze of wires! But even worse, this...

 

...and plotting out directions of wires...

 

...all to get this...

 

And that's why I never built another bi-plane! 

Wow, looks good but what a lot of work to get there!

AlisterC wrote:

Wow, looks good but what a lot of work to get there!

Thanks, Alister! Yeah, it’s definitely a lot of work, but very rewarding if it comes out right. It was the first and only time I attempted it, and I honestly, I want to do it again, but not necessarily with another Gotha for a long while! That Uschi elastic thread looks like brilliant stuff and I plan to try and get my hands on some here in the US…seems a couple si=ourses sell it. But again, the effort is worth it…I imagine like Friul track links on armor, which I’ve also never tried.

The end result looks brilliant, well done. I like a lot of older biplanes but have always been put off by the thought of rigging- I do have an Airfix Gladiator in the stash for later. This looks like an interesting technique to try.