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#4493745 - 10/20/19 11:47 AM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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L'Etoile du Nord
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Outstanding work as always, Mike. Looking at that gun arrangement, I wonder if they had issues with that starboard side Schwarzlose, seeing as how the extended barrel is laying directly above the hottest part of the exhaust pipes. You'd think that would cause the barrel to warp, or at the very least frequent jamming. And speaking of jams, this one must be a later model as it appears the pilot could actually clear a stuck shell on those guns if he had to. As I recall the earlier models had the guns much farther forward and above the engine and once they jammed there was nothing the pilot could do about it.

.


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#4493757 - 10/20/19 12:49 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi Lou,
In fact for this 138 series Aviatik 'Berg', the blast barrels were installed under the exhausts, not above as I have it.
I had no option as the guns in the kit were never designed to have blast barrels, so with the engine and guns installed (both had to be heavily modified to fit) there was no way to fit the tubes in their correct locations (i.e. lower down the engine sides).

Earlier 'Bergs' had a single gun mounted in the top of the cockpit forward decking.
Another variation was to have a single gun installed at the left side of the engine. However this was soon dropped as the pilot had no way to clear stoppages in flight!!

Mike


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#4493764 - 10/20/19 01:08 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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L'Etoile du Nord
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It must be that second one I was remembering as I read in several sources over the years that the pilot had no way of reaching the gun on the early Berg D.Is. So on the version you are building the entire engine must have been mounted higher in the RL models to allow for the barrel on the starboard side to pass under the exhaust rather than above it - interesting. I also recall reading that there were some serious interrupter issues with the Schwarzlose guns in the Berg D.I to the point where the pilot was only supposed to fire the guns within a certain RPM range, which was why they mounted a massive tachometer right in the pilot's forward line of sight. Further, the designers also played around with a strike indicator that would warn the pilot that he had just shot his own propeller. If memory serves, (and it serves less reliably as the years go on), they wrapped a wire around each prop blade directly at the point were a bullet would hit it when leaving the barrels. These wires made contact through a disc at the hub of the prop and went on to illuminate a red light on the dash in the cockpit. If a bullet hit a prop blade it would break the wire and the light would go out, alerting the pilot to the fact, at which point I assume he would break off his attack and go looking for a place to land PDQ. Talk about a Rube Goldberg way of fixing a problem.

.

#4493774 - 10/20/19 01:29 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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So the line of fire of the guns would really be even lower than what it is here. They must have been nightmarish to aim since the tracers and target would be largely hidden from the pilot I imagine. Doesn't look like there's much room to angle the weapons up either.

#4493775 - 10/20/19 01:47 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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L'Etoile du Nord
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mvp7, from the old photos it appears the line of fire would still be the same but the entire engine would be sitting higher and therefore blocking the pilot's forward view even more. I agree, they must have been a bear to aim, plus having to worry about your RPM range before pulling the trigger would make it even more troublesome.

.

#4493792 - 10/20/19 05:03 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Mike,
Not to “exhaust” the subject but I think the reason you have received so many kudo’s on them as I have rarely seen them look “right” and yours do. Almost right is what I usually see. Your’s, like every other detail on the model, is right on. I’ll shut my exhaust valve now. cheers


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#4493793 - 10/20/19 05:18 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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MFair, you’re not blowing any smoke, that’s for sure.


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#4493794 - 10/20/19 05:19 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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I believe the engine was sat normally and as you can see from these extracts from 'Centenary Data File 171 by Paulo Varriale, the blast tubes were located below the intake manifolds and exhaust pipes.
They finished inside the openings in the engines radiator.
If I had known the positioning of the blast tubes before hand, I could have probably modified the kit parts further to allow correct alignment. Sadly I didn't find this out until the fuselage was closed up!!
NOTE: The cockpit forward decking has been removed in the photograph.

Mike

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#4493805 - 10/20/19 06:31 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Thanks, that picture makes it a lot clearer. I wouldn't be surprised if those weapons suffered from cooling issues on top of the usual reliability problems.

#4493951 - 10/21/19 08:34 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
Well, starting on the tail unit there are a few areas that needed to be addressed:
The 'Berg' had pronounced 'wash-out' (upward flare) at the outer trailing edge of the ailerons. Although it looks as though this was attempted in the kit parts, the 'wash-out' was nowhere pronounced enough. This required careful bending after heat soaking in hot water (boiled).
The combined fin and rudder had a few areas that I felt needed to be re-profiled after comparing the kit part to drawings in several notable publications.
The tail planes and elevators, when laid together with the rib tapes aligned were found to be off-set to each other. I also felt these parts needed re-profiling.

Mike

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#4494116 - 10/22/19 06:29 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
Before starting on the undercarriage changes, the lower wing need to be prepared.
The front spars of the lower wings were connected by a steel bar, which was located on the bottom surface of the fuselage.
As such the leading edges of the lower wings sat slightly below the fuselage.
This is different from most aircraft of the time where the lower wing front spars were integral to the fuselage construction.
To locate the lower wings to the fuselage, 1.0 mm diameter holes needed to be drilled into the wing roots and one hole each side of the fuselage.
Metal rods were inserted into holes in the wing roots.
When test fitted, the wing root rear rods insert into the fuselage holes and the longer front rod against the underside of the fuselage.

Mike

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#4494147 - 10/22/19 09:19 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
The supplied undercarriage struts have solid axle ends solid with bungee suspension cords include.
However the axle fairing has a solid steel rod moulded into the fairing, which can't be fitted into the struts without drilling out the moulded axle ends.
Even if possible, it would leave the weight of the model on the flimsy resin suspension cords, which I don't think would take the weight.
Instead I've removed the moulded axle ends and bungee cords to allow the rod in the axle fairing to locate onto the struts.
I've yet to create the bungee suspension cords from wire. I also replaced the kit supplied bracing bar with 0.9 mm diameter tube, as the kit part was too short,

Mike

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#4494160 - 10/22/19 10:15 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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And the madness continues! Superb work Mike.


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#4494257 - 10/23/19 03:28 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
The undercarriage assembly is completed.
Struts modified by removing the pre-moulded axle ends and bungee suspension cords.
Cross bracing anchors points added to the bottom front of the forward undercarriage struts.
Axle secured to the undercarriage struts and 0.4 mm diameter lead wire used to replicate the bungee cord suspension.
Bracing bar in kit replaced (too short) with 0.9 mm diameter brass tube,

Mike

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Last edited by Sandbagger; 10/30/19 01:46 PM.

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#4494289 - 10/23/19 08:06 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Outstanding work

#4494292 - 10/23/19 08:40 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
I've been working on preparing the wings, fin/rudder, ailerons, tail planes, elevators and their associated support struts.
The struts should, I think, have steel reinforcing pins moulded through them, but I found the 'Z' shaped cabane struts had ends without pins.
Also the fuselage indents for locating these struts had no locating hole.
The single piece fin and rudder had no locations for attaching it to the fuselage and neither did the tail planes.
The separate ailerons and elevators also has no locating pins/holes.

Therefore I added support pins of 0.6 mm diameter for the wing struts and ailerons and 0.4 mm diameter pins to locate the fin/rudder, elevators and tail planes.

Mike

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#4494419 - 10/24/19 08:40 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Hi all,
On the top of the fuselage and to the rear of the radiator is a condensation matrix for cooling radiator steam back to liquid and returning it back into the cooling system through a pipe connected to the rear of the assembly.
Apparently this avoided a build up of steam pressure being lost through the filler cap and losing coolant.
Anyway I wasn't happy with the resin one piece part in the kit.
I felt it was too large at the base and anyway the top was slightly off centre with the bottom.
Also the kit doesn't appear to have the 90 degree pipe at the back of the assembly.
So I cut the part in two, re-shaped the base, connected them with brass tube and added the rear pipe using annealed 0.8 mm brass rod.
Strangely the photo-etch in the kit supplies only one 'matrix' disc for the condensation matrix, which presumably like a radiator, would have the matrix from front to rear?
I used the photo-etch from the front of the matrix (as that will be more visible) and drilled 0.3 mm diameter holes in the rear face to replicate the matrix,

Mike

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Last edited by Sandbagger; 10/27/19 09:41 PM.

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#4494422 - 10/24/19 08:51 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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That's an odd hood ornament. I wonder why they left it in such obstructive place rather than make room for it inside the fuselage or move it to somewhere else.

#4494427 - 10/24/19 09:43 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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L'Etoile du Nord
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That odd looking thing on top of the radiator is an expansion/condensation device that helped to keep the radiator cap from popping open and spewing coolant everywhere. As steam rose to the top of the radiator it would enter that device where the cooler air rushing through the tubes would cause the steam to condensate and drain back into the cooling system via the pipe coming out the rear of the device. My guess is it was an after-the-fact fix to the overheating issues this type was plagued with throughout its service history.

.

#4494428 - 10/24/19 09:47 PM Re: Aviatik 'Berg' D.I [Re: Sandbagger]  
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Thanks Louvert. That definitely sounds like a good explanation for the odd position.

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