"I'll fly with Stachel..." A 1/72 Blue Max Movie Pfalz.

It's 196x, and my father and brother are trying to decide if they can take me to see The Blue Max, the (studio) adaptation of Jack Hunter's novel of the same name. It was not the bloody dead flight crews that concerned them, but the sight of Ursula Andress in a strategically placed towel that gave them pause...

At that age, that didn't interest me nearly as much as Airplanes! and Combat! and the still rare perspective, being written from The Other Side. All these years later I'm still a fan, have my own copy of the film, and enjoy the sight and sound of those early aircraft.

As a modeller, it was only a matter of time before I built some Blue Max aircraft models.

In this case, the model is an Encore Models 1/72 Pfalz D.IIIa, specifically replicating the built-for-the-film Pfalz, which differs from the historic aircraft in several significant ways.  Arriving in x of 1917, the "out of date Pfalz" disparaged by protagonist Bruno Stachel was in fact more up to date than the iconic Fokker triplanes that the movie heroes eventually flew. 

The kit, molded in light grey plastic,  was originally a Roden kit, to which the movie plane decals were added, and contains parts to make either a historically accurate version or a screen accurate one.

In order to replicate the nearly total coverage of the model in the imaginary 7 color lozenge camo scheme, the kit relies on multiple large decals. In order to avoid masking over decals,  the black nose and white rudder would be painted first, and the wings decaled before installation.  

The kit has a very simple set of interior details, a basic inline engine a cockpit consisting of seat, panel, stick, and rudder pedals.  

Note, this appeared to be an older mold. Detail was "soft" and there were some flash and fit issues. It would require quite a bit of additional work to make this a show plane, which was not my goal ;-).

The two main challenges were 1. Smoothing out the decals and 2. Rigging.

1. Decals

The decals were large, the colors bright and opaque, the registration good. The challenge lay in the thickness of the film. Quite sturdy and tolerant of being pushed and pulled around, even multiple applications of Solva Set couldn't get them to lie down to my satisfaction, and were nearly impossible to get to wrap around the wing edges, which would be necessary to get complete coverage. No special techniques here, just oatience, persistence,  and repeated applications of the strongest softener you can find. I use a combination of Q Tips and a 1/4 in. wide paint brush to remove water, air bubbles, and force the decal down and into position.

2. Rigging. 

The instructions left something to be desired in showing the full rigging, so I visited the Wingnut Wings site and used the diagrams and photos found there. The struts were too thin to permit drilling for attaching rigging; additionally, with the wings totally covered by decal, drilling through them would not be easily hidden.

For a start point, a hole was drilled to create an attach point, but not all the way through. A self-closing tweezers was propped up allowing the EZ Line to just touch the attach point, and glue added by the point of a pin.

Caution: with no tension on the line, ACC can cause the loose end to curl. I started to pre-glue the tip and let dry before attaching to the wing.

We then move from point to point, using the tweezer and tension method one at a time. In cases where the last point was on a flat surface (no strut or fixture), similar to the above, pre glue, dry then using a weight, stretch the line a small amount, but leaving the free end at the attach point. When dry, and the tweezer removed, there should be enough tension to straighten and remain taught.

(Notice the bare leading edges)

After assembly but before rigging, the entire aircraft was sealed with a coat of Vallejo Matte Varnish, to get rid of the shine and add durability to the finish.

The end result delivers a decent replica of the screen Pfalz, and is a good project for an experienced modeler and movie fan. Now to find a tiny Stachel, and a companion D.VII for Hauptmann Heidemann and a triplanes for Willi...