WNW Albatros DVa

[Epeeman]

Thanks, Pete -

Yes, the asbestos lagging was not necessary but I thought I would experiment and have a go to see how it would come out. Not sure I would do it again if I'm honest - very fiddly getting the strips to wind round!

I've also followed your advice regarding glossing over the oil painted fuselage in preparation to decaling. Also used Tamiya clear yellow (before using clear gloss after dried) painted over the dried (I'm learning as I go with this method - I now know you need to put aside for a good week before moving on) oil paint which seems to work quite well actually.

Any more progress on your current Albie build, mate?

Dave

[T-Tango]

Hi Dave;

Hoping to start on the fusilage tomorrow.

Cheers

Pete

[Viking]

That engine is looking very good Dave, I think wiring up the plugs makes a real difference and is almost mandatory on these kits.

Cheers

John

[Epeeman]

Thank you all for your kind words -

Now the engine has been completed, made a start on adding some decals to the fuselage followed by some coats of (semi gloss) clear. When that all dried, fitted in the engine. Committed to doing the 'Stropp' version now - so hoping all else goes right! Intend to do a bit more work on this later this evening. Dry fitting the lower wings (tight fit here) has revealed a slight downward angle. Is this right? Will this level out once the top wing (which I note on sprue has a bit of upward bow) is installed later on?

some more pics below

Dave

[Viking]

Looking very, very nice Dave. Your plywood fuselage looks absolutely spot on.

Stropp is one of my favourite Albatros's/Albatri, I will get this kit at some point!

Cheers

John

[Epeeman]

Thanks, John - appreciate your kind comments.

Did some more work this evening but did not make much progress due to a very, very stupid error on my part which I only realised when it was too late - have spent most of this (frustrating!) evening trying to correct my botch up.

Basically, managed to fit prop spinner plate (part F11) the wrong way round - it only dawned on me when I looked at the props in the kit where my blunder hit me like a hammer! Long story short, have had to remove, re-profile the centre hole (which is now slightly off centre) and have stupidly filed down the part where the prop should fit one - don't ask!! Luckily, there is still enough left of this 'peg' left for the prop to fit onto - thank god.

To cap it all, whilst handling, then managed to knock off the water pipe which fits on the back of the engine to the radiator in the upper wing - not a good modelling night - you can imagine the cursing. Have tried to fit this pipe back in but you can barely see where this pipe fits now that the engine is in situ. I reckon I can get away with this by attaching this part to top wing prior to fitting top wing on - we'll see.

I just wish I could make one model well without the usual blunders and hiccups. Oh well, I will hope for a better effort tomorrow evening which will be my last chance for model making until the weekend as I am away in Cardiff (for work) for a couple of days this week.

Regards all

Dave

[T-Tango]

Know what you mean Dave, these little gremlins come up and grab you when you least expect them, I've had a few of them myself in the past.

Cheers

Pete.

[Epeeman]

Thanks, Pete -

I suppose (on reflection) this all part and parcel of the hobby - the rough with the smooth so to speak. In the end, you seem to develop a method for dealing with these annoying hiccups.

Dave

[T-Tango]

Thanks, Pete -

I suppose (on reflection) this all part and parcel of the hobby - the rough with the smooth so to speak. In the end, you seem to develop a method for dealing with these annoying hiccups.

Dave

In the end with some of the hiccups all you can do is bodge it and bluff your way out.

Pete.

[Epeeman]

All,

Some more progress to report -

Have now completed painting and decaling the tail. Added the rudder and elevator and have rigged the the elevator control cables. Have also made a start on making up the machine guns using the photo etch set - first time I have ever done this so not perfect (cooling jackets not as round as I would have liked) but have managed to get them together. Will make a start on painting them tomorrow.

I must say the decals in these kits are excellent and settled down really well. The decals for the tail section went on easily enough but were tricky to line up with the others though.

Dave

[T-Tango]

Those decals look the 'dogs danglies' Dave, stunning job.

Pete.

[Epeeman]

Another quick update everybody -

I have now completed the fuselage - both machine guns added (found this a bit of a tricky fit here) as well as windscreen, gunsight and flare cartridge rack. I can now start work on the lower wings.

Dave

[T-Tango]

Hi Dave;

Looking very good now, when you do your upper and lower wings, it's best to get every thing ready for rigging before you assemble them, I usually get the rigging lines fixed to the top wing before I add it to the model, then work from the middle outwards. It seems to help prevent lines getting tangled. Also put the exhaust on before you start rigging, otherwise you can get some rigging lines broken or sagging. HTH.

Cheers

Pete.

Edited March 13, 2012 by T-Tango

[Viking]

Looking very nice Dave. Overcoming troubles are what is all about and ther is no hint of any on your build, she looking fabulous.

Cheers,

John

[Epeeman]

Thank you Pete/John -

John - yes, have started to make preps for the rigging already by pre-drilling locations holes (I like the fact WNW mold in rigging locations - makes lining things up easier) in fuselage and lower wing.

As a side note, I'm so impressed by the quality of this kit that I took (for me) the bold decision to order another kit but from WNW themselves direct last night - the Pfalz DXII. I'm just a bit nervous about the implication of the import duty and VAT. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the actual cost of the kit when I used the currency converter - the basic kit price seems a bargain to me. I'm starting to understand why all you good folks highly regard these kits. I can also see now that the Roden 1:32 scale kits do not really offer good value for money at 50 quid a pop. I have three (bought in ModelZone during their sales - I think 30 quid a fair price for them) Roden kits which I do intend to build at some point - may even run one parallel as I did with the Camel. I have in my stash the Roden SE5a (Hispano Suiza), Nieuport 28 and Fokker DVI.

After these, I think I will be sticking to WNW kits - have my eye on the Fokker DVII which is still in development and will get another Albie but the earlier DV version.

Will report further progress ion this kit in due course.

Regards

Dave

[Epeeman]

Another quick update -

Some more (small) progress on my Albie. I now finished the fuselage adding exhaust and cowling retaining strap. In addition, have finished painting the lower wings and attached these last night. Made sure (following advice) that before I painted these wings that I put liquid mask into all the location holes for the struts. This technique works really well - removing this mask after painting has left perfectly clean holes ready for the inter plane struts to go into.

Will now move on to preparing the upper wing (ready for installation) and start adding my rigging to lower wing. Will be using stretched cotton bud handles to replicate turnbuckles.

A couple of pics below.

All the best

Dave

[T-Tango]

Looking very good now Dave, lovely paintwork.

Pete.

[gcn]

looking good,the tail is all decals is it, they've gone on well

[Jennings Heilig]

That's looking fantastic Dave! I may have to get another D.Va so I can do "Stropp" as well. Need to get "Lulu" done first, and get my woodgrain technique down pat. Such a beautiful airplane. I'm not even into WWI stuff that much, but I can see needing at least a couple more D.V/Va kits eventually! Too bad she didn't live up to her looks in terms of performance.

[Epeeman]

Thanks, gents -

Your right about the Albatros, Jennings - a real shame the plane did not have the performance to match - although perhaps that was fortunate from the allies point of view!

My favourite WW1 birds are the Albatros (all versions), Sopwith Camel and Spad VII/XIII.

Some more pictures of more progress from last night and this evening. Managed to get the top wing on after a little bit of struggling (although I have had biplane models where getting the top wing on was nothing sort of stress - so nothing in that category) and had to strap the ends of the wing because there was quite a gap between underside of wing and interplane struts once wing fitted onto cabane struts. To ensure I got correct wing alignment with lower wing, used the WNW method of using the kit box as shown below. This method worked a treat and wings are now perfectly aligned. After a couple of hours for glue to set, proceeded to rig the wing using 2lb fishing line (painted steel mixed with some brown and dark gray so that it does not look to shinny and bright) and used stretched cotton bud handles (cut to 3mm in length - a guess on my part here) painted in plain steel to add contrast between line and 'turnbuckle'.

Prior to fitting top wing, I straightened (slightly) it out. However, I am a bit disappointed to note that the top wing still has a slight upward (dihedral) bend to it where I am sure it should really be pretty straight. This has put a bit upward tilt on lower wings as well although I think this is OK. Next time, I think I will straighten out the top wing more using hot water from boiled kettle before installing - unless I am totally wrong here of course.

As I drill straight through the top wing for the rigging holes, have (this evening) trimmed up excess line using model knive and then put a small amount of model filer on these holes. This will be left until tomorrow evening where I can then (carefully) file and sand out to smooth finish before I can start painting the upper wing. Ailerons (can never spell this word so hope this correct!) will be added once upper surface of wing fully painted. I have also added the last bit of engine plumbing.

A few pictures below - please excuse the mess on model bench (kitchen table) which does not look great!

Dave

[Epeeman]

Making good progress now -

All being well, I am likely to have this completed over the weekend. This will therefore likely be the last progress update. I found getting the ailerons on fiddly as these are a very tight fit and therefore required some slight trimming to fit. Landing gear went a a dream this evening and lined up perfectly straight away - this is usually an area that requires a bit of careful setup on other kits I have built. This was therefore a pleasant surprise. Rigged with fishing line here so the landing gear is a nice strong join now. Mostly rigged using fishing line but used EZ line on ailerons to see how this material works (seems to work alright although this line very fine and loose making fitting fiddly) and then painted to match the colour of the other rigging lines.

I've tried to weather up as best I can but this is not so easy when brush painting. Only prop, spinner and flare pistol to go on - couple of pictures below.

Best regards

Dave

[Will Vale]

That's beautiful! I didn't think I liked the Albatross but I reckon you've changed my mind.

[Epeeman]

All,

Completed after eight week's work -

This was a first in several areas - first WNW kit, painting wood grain using oils and putting together photo etched machine gun jackets. As you have already seen from another thread elsewhere, this will definately not be my last WNW kit. In fact, I am a convert!

Apart from a couple of blunders on my part, this was a totally and utterly enjoyable build. The standard of fit is superb on these kits and it surprised me how precise these are molded - any paint on joining surfaces made fitting difficult unless paint completely removed. Special thanks for advice on building these particular kits must go to Pete ('T-Tango') - much appreciated. Also, thanks to everybody who gave me support during the build.

Overall, I am very pleased with the result although a bit disappointed that I did not straighten out the top wing a bit more as I have a slight 'bow' to upper wing which also means the lower wing have angled up a bit too much. Something I intend to correct in the future as I intend (at some point) to build the earlier DV.

I have tried to weather things up a bit (as best I can given that all my builds are hand/brush painted) but actual application may not be up to the standards of you good folks.

-

Anyway, some pictures of the completed build below - so you can judge the results for yourselves. Please let me know what you all think.

Regards

Dave

[T-Tango]

Ok Dave, if thats your first WnW kit, I would give up.

It's toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, your gonna make the rest of us look like beginners.

Seriously mate that is one superb looking Albie and things are only going to get better, I'm really looking foreward to the next one.

Cheers

Pete.

Edited March 26, 2012 by T-Tango