Gotha Build
Friday, March 7, 2001, a Friday like most other Fridays. I arrive at Hobbytown USA to teach my plastic model building class. I causally glance at the WW1 section and my eyes land on a beautiful box with my name on it. Actually, in truth it didn't have my name on it but I immediately changed it to Gotha. There it was, the last of 10 kits that had come in just a few days prior. And now, the last one was mine, all mine! One original Roden Gotha G.II,III bomber. A swipe of the plastic and with racing heart the protective covering vanished in a blur and my eyes fell upon the beautiful molded plastic inside the box. I studied all of the separate sections, recalling some of the in box reviews that I had read. And they were all true. This is a beautiful kit.
My plan was to turn it out in a very short period of time but reality set it. There is no way this kit can be built in less that four hours, I may have to take as many as 10. So I devised a plan to share my build with anyone that may be interested. The following pages describe in picture form the build.
Here is the beauty of the digital camera. From build to computer can be as little as five minutes. If the picture doesn't show what you thought it should, shoot another one before you close up a section. I am keeping the photos in the 30k range for ease of downloading and each section has its own page so the entire build section does not have to load to look at one photo.
My reference material is a little thin in the Gotha department. I will be using "Profile Publications" # 115, The Gotha GI-GV by Peter Grosz and "Color Profiles of World War I Combat Planes" by Apostolo and Begnozzi, pages 161-168. The kit will be built "Out of the Box" with only minor changes. I see that there soon may be a PE sheet for the kit. I may save that for my G.III or G.V. This kit will be for the builder who just wants to put it together as it comes out of the box.
Enough said. Let's get started.
I started with the engines as some of the reviews indicate problems in this area. The reviews are correct. The engines do not fit without some modifications. First of all, I am building a G.II which had 8 cyclinder engines. The kit comes with 6 cyclinder engines for the G.III. If you are so inclined, 2 cyclinders can be added but I chose not to. They cannot be seen when the nacelles are closed up.
The engines were completely assemblied to get a true idea of what needed to be trimmed to get them to fit. When the nacelles are closed, the opening is too small for the engine to fit. So I trimmed and thinned the opening until I got the engine to fit. The four ledges that the engine sits on were timmed ever so slightly to allow the nacelle to close.
The next step was to install the radiators. They are a little thin on detail so they were rescribed with a knife to give a little detail. The openings were trimmed to allow the radiator to slide in. Very little trimming is needed so be careful. All but three of the louvers were sanded off on both sides as my photos show only three on the G.II.
After putty and sanding, the nacelles were sprayed with SnJ Metal Spray and left unbuffed. Since the G.II I am building had four blade props, I discarded the kit props and replaced them. The kit prop attachement system was modified slightly and the props will turn on the kit. The fit is so good, that I did not glue the props to the engine. This assembly in now complete, a total of less than two hours of actual building.
Now that we have the engines complete, let's move on to the fuselage. A word to the wise. Look at every picture and study every drawing. At first glance, it appears the drawings leave something to be desired. In some instances, this is true. In reality, the pictures are very revealing.
There are six very large heat sinks in the fuselage halves that have to be removed. The Dremel Mini Mite worked well here. All bulkheads were painted with Testor's/em> Wood. The interior color is Floquil Depot Buff, hand painted, with the frame painted Wood. All bulkheads were glued in. Dry fit several times as the directions are weak in the location here.
As stated earlier, I'm building the G.II so one of the few modifications to the kit is made here. The G.II did not have the tunnel or hole to shoot through the fuselage. So a thin sheet of plastic was glued inside to be the support for the plug I will use to cover over the hole. Part # 34G is the bulkhead with a hole that aligns with the hole in the fuselage. This part could be left out but I put it in. Step 9 indicates cutting 1mm notches in part # 34G. I recommend notching 35, 36 and 37. The interior detail is raised just enough that a notch helps the fit. The seat was installed and the pedals were added to part 17G and installed. Caution. Part 17G must be shortened 3.5mm or it will not work. I am installing the interior bomb racks so they must go in now. One last step before closing up the fuselage is the holes to be drilled in Step One. These holes are for the steering column assembly. Part 11G goes through these holes and parts 29F (control horns) will connect to them. With this all said and done, the fuselage was glued with Weld-On Three liquid glue and part 3D and the plug to cover the bottom hole was added.
Let's go to sub-assembly 4. This does not work. This part (4a) fits into the model beautifully. However, the instrument panel (22g) is too wide for this part. It is also notched on the wrong side. There is enough room on one side of 22g so that it can be trimmed and the fuselage side can be notched to that it will fit. The instrument panel goes in behind the hole cut out to allow light in. Logical enough. However, as the kit is made, the instrument panel fits perfectly in front of this hole. Wrong. Once this is corrected, assembly 4 fits right into the fuselage.
It is now time for putty and sanding until I get a nice smooth finish. Since the tail planes are the same color as the fuselage, these are attached prior to painting. The fuselage is then painted unbleached linen (CDL) and is complete.The decals are applied
at this time as I personally find it easier to decal as I go instead of trying to decal a delicate completed model. The last thing I did to the completed fuselage is to add the windows. I pull a blob of white glue over the holes and it dries clear.A much easier method of adding windows as each window takes about 15 seconds to complete.
To back up a little, the CDL is again Floquil Depot Buff lighten about 50% with Floquil Reefer White. I use the TLR method of mixing paint (That Looks Right) and mixed the color until I was satisfied. 
After this was dry I used a method of decal application I've never used before. Floquil paints are as flat as any paint on the market. So several coats of a clear gloss have to be applied before decal application. Model Master ACRYL Clear Gloss was handpainted on, two coats, and the surface was ready of decals. I was very surprised that it was as easy as it was. No muss, no fuss, no streaks. I used a setting solution and no damage was done to the surface. I am very pleased with the results.
Let's now move on to the wings and engine installation.
Let's start with the top wing. Very easy. There are six separte parts. The wing is in three parts, the fuel tank is separate as are the two control horns. The center of the wing was taped down, a 3 degree diahearl was added at the wing tips and it was glued with tube glue for strength. A little putty was required after it dried. After sanding, the fuel tank was added and the entire wing was sparyed CDL. When dry, the clear coat was added and the decals were applied. Then add the control horns. The decals fit right over the control horns so I added them last. After enlarging the strut locating holes just a little, the top wing is complete. The painting and decaling is the same for the outer portions of the lower wing.
Now comes the most difficult part of the kit, the mounting of the engines. Roden has a nice idea here but it doesn't work. The engine nacelles have four pegs that are designed to fit into notches on the wings. Either the pegs are too small or the notches are too large because there are large holes when the wings are attached. I did not discover this until after the wings were on. It then required that I putty the holes, sand them and touch up the CDL, all without damaging the finish on my SnJ nacelles. What I will do on the next one will be to remove the pegs from the nacelles and fill, putty and sand the notches on the wings. There is a very nice locating groove on the nacelles, so alignment will not be a problem. I think it will make it much easier to build. I added the engines to the center section and allowed them to dry for a day. Then the outer wings were added to match the upper wing. This was allowed to dry throughly. This is now a very weak section, so caution is advised in handling this assembly.
Attaching the top wing is the next step. It's big but do not be intimidated by its size. After painting and drilling the 12 main bay struts, I mount them on the bottom wing. I like super glue for strut attachement. Since all of the struts are vertical with no forward slant, the alignment is easier. After the struts are dry, I turn the upper wing and 
model upside down, placing the struts near to their upper wing attachment point. Then, one strut at a time, the struts are moved to their location after a drop of glue has been dropped in the hole. Of the 12 struts, only two did not drop into position. The two rebels were coaxed with a little pressure and the super glue was kicked to give them no time to change their mind.
Before continuing with the wing, while the model is upside down, let's attach the undercarriage. I enlarged the holes on the nacelles a little and trimmed the undercarriage struts a little to improve the fit. Before adding the wheels, I added the rigging so as not to have to work around the wheels.
On the subject of the wheels, be careful. There are two sizes of wheels. This was not discovered by this observant builder until after he had painted them. I used the four larger wheels. My guess is the smaller wheel will be for the G.Va that is on the horizon.
While we are still upside down, let's attach the landing skid. There are two holes for the landing skid but only one is used. The rearmost hole is for the G.II; the forwardmost hole is for the G.III. Close up the one you don't need.
With the undercarriage and skid complete, let's return to the wings and struts. I had to make new struts for the fuselage to upper wing struts but I think it was because of a mistake in construction on my part. I found that the struts fit well. The eight struts from engine nacelles to upper wing fit perfectly. With this step, the wing assembly is complete. This also completes the main assembly of the kit. The only steps left will be rigging and the final attachment of props and guns. I always leave these steps to last so there is one less thing for the rigging to hang up on. At this point I think there is less than 20 hours in the kit.
The final part of this build will be a few photos of the rigging. That will coming to a web site near you soon.
The rigging is very simple for this kit. It's just the size of the model that is intimidating. No matter what method of rigging you use, the model is awkward to handle. I use a lazy susan turntable so I can turn the model without handling it.
Also, I bring the model up to eye level so I'm not looking down and trying to see between the wings. Without going into an explanation of my DURAS method of rigging, let's say the model took about 3 hours to rig. The guns and props were attached, paint touched up and the model was complete.
Allow me to make some final observations here on what I learned from the mistakes I made.
I estimate the total time in building to be about 25 hours. Some have commented on how fast it was built and that is true. But I built it as an OOB project for the person who wants to build the kit as it comes out of the box. There are so many areas where the kit can be enhanced; ie, extra work in the interior, addition of the PE parts that are now available, cutting control surfaces and the list goes on. All of these steps will add time to the model but will enhance the beauty of this kit.
When I was attaching the control lines from the tail surfaces to the control horn, I realized that a long time back I should have made a modification. The kit has the control line guides molded into the fuselage. However, they are for all of the versions. Decide which version you want and then remove the other guides prior to painting. My kit has all of the guides for all versions in place. Along this same line, the G.II version has two large paddle like pieces that protect the rear gunner from rocks and the props themselves. These are parts #8G and 9G. They have what appears to be two locating pegs on them but there are no corresponding holes in the fuselage. I removed the pegs but that seems to be a mistake. They may be to raise the pieces off the fuselage surface so the control lines can go under them instead of over as I did it. This applies only to the G.II version. Later versions have a metal frame with a screen that attaches to upper portion of the fuselage.
When it's all said and done, I have what I consider to be a very nice kit to add to the collection. The kit is very well thought out and with the exception of the wings to nacelle connection, very few problems will be encountered in the build. As brought out in Steve Hustad's very detailed review, almost half of the parts will not be used. Your spare parts box will be greatly enhanced by this kit as later versions will use these parts. I highly recommend this kit and I send my deep appreciation to RODEN for their endeavors in bringing this kit to life. And I hope that this "build page" helps others as they build this very nice model.
Last Revised 6/2/2005