With a growing sense of dread for the Wood Effect panels, I am going to have a go at my first WWI kit, and Albatross DIII.
This is based on the principal that if I am mad enough to build a biplane I may as well go for the whole madness and build one with woodgrain on the outside.

I will be building oob, with the exception of some of Bob's buckles and fishing line.

The box contents:


So far all i have done is airbrush a base buff coat on the panelled areas, will be posting some more pictures when the battery on my digital has charged up.

Peter

That's what we like to see! People diving in at the deep end.

Good luck Peter

cheers

Grant

Seems to be attracting a few WWI first timers to this GB...

Wow, woodgrain on the OUTSIDE, Brave! I dreaded doing it on the inside but it wasn't as hard as I thought.

I've just used some of Bobs Buckles on my Pfalz D.IIIa, They are well worth it in the end... Good Luck!

Karl.

If I am going to do woodgrain I want to see it ( plus it is easier to sand back and try again on the outside ! )

I have had a small test run on a piece of scrap which seemed to work ok, I will admit it though I didn't realise that this aircraft was woodgrain on the outside
until after I bought it.

Never mind - waiting for paint to dry and batteries to charge - should get some more done tomorrow.....

Peter,
If it's not to late try varying the the buff coat for different panels. Different hues will give benifits when it comes to putting the oils on.
Buy some of this stuff. It cuts the drying time down by a 3rd and it makes the oils soooo silky smooth. Any good arts and craft shop will carry this product.
Good luck!
Bob

That's fine - I will need to respray the outside panels anyway so I can try that on the outside. Thanks for the tip.

Ok - I have got some work done on the Albatross



Seems to be going together nicely so far (touch woodgrain effect). I am using Vallejo woodgrain acrylic rather than oils, and it seems to be working really well and dries a huge amount faster.

more to follow.

Peter

Looking good there Peter, and welcome on board.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

All the best,

Nick

More progress done on the Albatross today ( now waiting for paint to dry). I have finished the cockpit, painted the fuselage / wings / tail . I had forgotten how much I can get to hate photo-etch until I started adding the details on the outside of the fuselage.

All that is missing is the wavy red stripe between the front red section and the first vertical stripe, but I can only do that once the pain has dried.

Anyway I like how this is turning out so far.

Very nice woodeffect.

Thanks - I am pleased with the way it is turning out - I am using Vallejo Woodgrain paint, rather than oils and it seems to work really well as long as you work on a gloss surface.

How's that work???? How do you have 2 colours at a time.

It reasonably straight forward

1. First put a basecoat of Buff, leave to dry,
2. Spray with future to give a gloss surface
3. Brush on some of the woodgrain paint
4. With a stiff bristled brish run the woodgrain paint in the direction of the grain, drying the brush in between. The drying is very important, as you are taking paint off where the bristles go, rather than adding paint, and that is what gives the effect.

it only took me 2 goes to get an effect that I liked, ( what I did was practice on a flat piece of plasticard before starting the model ).

HTH.

Peter

Looks good and sounds fairly easy to do, will keep it in mind.
Cheers

Peter,
She is coming on really well!
Looking forward to seeing her with the top wing on.
All the best.
Bob

Bloody Hell! That woodgrain looks good. It's looking a treat at the moment Peter.

Keep up the good work there.

Karl.

Ok, having not done anything last weekend, I finally got around to doing some more on the Albatross.

I have attached the wings, and done the rigging for the wings. This is the first bit of the kit that I had any problem with, the lower wings did not fit very well, and the amount of dihedral was somewhat 'indeterminate', which led to complications when attaching the top wing. I did find an interesting technique for adding the wings. I taped the bottom wings
to the corner of my bench, then added the struts and top wings. I then taped over the top, in a similar way to the rigging on the real aircraft, which gave the whole thing stability while the glue was curing.

Anyway - the obligatory pictures - Enjoy

More or less finished the construction today, with the exception of a slightly wonky wheel, which refuses to remain vertical ( it appears to be the shaft that is bending - any suggestions of how to fix it ? ).

Anyway I have added a wire for the Radiator pipe, and used some Mig pigments on the exhaust after drilling out the end. Finished the rigging, including the elevator cables, and added the prop and spinner.

Anyway - some more pictures

That looks great Peter. Love the wood effects and rigging. A very colourful addition to the display case.

cheers

Grant

Looks fantastic, very impressive Peter.

If the shaft for the undercarriage is actually bending it might be worth replacing with a brass shaft the correct diameter.

Cheers

Doc

Cracking work Peter, the wood grain and rigging look fantastic!

Finished yesterday - the pictures are in the ready for inspection thread.

Thanks for the comments.

Peter