WNW DH2

[gcn]

After finally completing the Bristol I’ve decided to stay on the RFC theme and have some fun rigging the DH2.

 

 

I thought long and hard about which scheme I wanted to do and finally plumped for Option B

 

 

Throwing the manual out of the window the first area I concentrated on was the wings and tail. Previous experience with WNW kits is that the ailerons need something a little bit more substantial than the standard kit lugs so I drilled some 0.8mm holes and inserted some 0.8mm fuse wire, this creates a much stronger joint, is relatively quick to do, and you can move them around to your hearts content without the fear of the flipping things snapping off.

 

 

 

The painting process for the lower sides was then undertaken once the wings were cleaned up, this involves:

 

·         Priming with Alclad primer

·         Base coat of 40|60 mix of Tamiya deck tan and White

·         Mask ribs and joints

·         Thin pre-shade of Tamiya Dark grey and smoke to create shadows

·         Tone down shadows with Citadel Bleached Bone thinned with Tamiya thinner

·         Remove mask

·         Further toning down with bleached bone to get desired effect

·         Blend with brown filter using W&N Oils

 

The wings are now ready for the gloss coat and decals.

 

 

Back to the manual. First thing is to be careful when removing some of the more delicate parts from the sprue.

 

 

The great thing about WNWs kits is that a lot of the parts are engineered such that you don’t need to fully remove the sprue prior to painting. I followed the kit painting instructions using Tamiya paints.

 

The seat after priming had a base coat of XF-60 mixed with their clear to gloss it up a bit and then a wash of burnt umber was added. The cushion was a mix of light brown, dark brown and red with a thin mix of black and brown adding shadows. I then with the aid of a toothpick added a desert yellow colour to buttons. To blend it all together a wash of Mig rust was added.

 

 

The belts were painted on the sprue flat. Again a convoluted process but I like the effect.

 

·         Priming with Alclad primer

·         Base coat of 40|60 mix of Tamiya deck tan and White

·         Citadel Bleached bone to create a slightly warmer tone

·         Mask and apply Vallejo rust thinned with their own thinner

·         Liberal wash applied to accentuate shadows and grime

·         Couple of coats of future

·         Apply thinned Brown & smoke mix to the edges of the belt

·         Couple of coats of future.

 

The future is used because it enables me to form the belts to shape after painting without the paint flaking off. I just need to flatten the gloss to finish.

The Nacelle was painted using Deck Tan and bleached bone as before and I added the shadows of the frame using the frame as a mask.

The cockpit frame has lugs in most places that can accept a 0.3mm drill bit for the internal rigging. Some lugs were deformed and some not present at all. Where they weren’t present I drilled a 0.3mm hole and inserted dome 0.2mm fuse wire as shown. I would have like to have seen the lugs a touch bigger to make the job a little easier.

I can then thread a 0.5mm brass sleeve containing a length of thin EZ line over this wire and trim to suit. The bits and pieces were picked out and lowlights added via an oil pin wash.

The IP was painted and then future added to the faces in preparation of the decals. This had the added advantage of darkening the bezels that remained grey to create a contrast. Previously the IP decals on my WNW kits needed trimming otherwise they wouldn’t fit, this time they fitted perfectly on a base of wet future and patted down gently with a cotton bud. That clock that I’ve put upside down I couldn’t even read the detail on it with a mk1 eyeball.

The only bit of bare wood in the cockpit got the normal treatment of base, oils, gloss, smoke and the floor was built up using 3 shades of grey. I’ve only rigged the foot pedals as the rest of the internal rigging cannot be seen. I tried colour modulation on some parts just to waste a bit more time, I’m not sure how worthwhile its been but it looks ok to the naked eye.

Its now on to closing up the fuselage and the engine.

Edited January 9, 2013 by gcn

[mekon]

Lovely aeroplane and a great start.  Really must pick one of these up.  Will be following your build with interest.

[Graham T]

Superb work so far!

[Rince]

Looks fantastic.  Really like the shadow effect on the framework, very effective.

[McYellowbelly]

So far it looks great, really impressed with the leather effect

[gcn]

Just to prove its still in progress I present a crappy phone photo.

Nacelle and wings are fully painted in fact everything bar the machine gun has now been completed. I've installed all the wing buckles for the rigging and I might regret it but Ive decided to use knit in elastic rather than EZ line as I think it will look better, but it is thicker and trickier to loop through a brass sleeve twice although not impossible ( Ive done two so far).

The nacelle went through several paint stages:

Prime

Base colour (Tamiya) from which I created a light and dark shade

Highlights on areas where the light would catch

Lowlights where it wouldn't

A thin oil wash (black with a hint of brown) to accentuate the lowlights

The upper wings call out for a PC8. WNW lists a FS number of which Tamiya XF-60 is the same all but the first digit which IIRC represents the level of sheen.

I used XF-60 as the base

Then masked the ribs

shaded the ribs with a thin brown black

over sprayed with the PC8 mix according to WNW

Removed the tape

more coverage of PC8 to blend

Oil wash of raw sienna to further blend

To further accentuate shadows the outer edges of the wing were sprayed with a thin black brown mix and the insides were given a light spray of Buff to lighten. In the flesh I think I went just a touch OTT on the buff.

Decals were sealed and weathered to blend in. Careful masking and lowlighting the shadows on the ribs followed by an overspray of buff to dull.

There was no lifting of the decals but it is always touch and go.

The seam where the cockpit combing ends was a nuisance to remove although the outside is covered by the ammo boxes the internal seam is visible, photo evidence that I could muster was inconclusive whether there should be one or not, my opinion is it looks better without. I think this part should have been a single piece rather than part of the nacelle halves and a further piece.

The build has been very enjoyable to date with no real gotchas in the construction. I have my rigging plan so I'm hoping I can get this finished before February ends.

Like I said proper photos to follow in due course

Edited February 2, 2013 by gcn

[gcn]

The decal on the underside went down really well, I did spend quite some time sorting the seam out beforehand though

The mud is too red brown, what was i thinking. Some light earth will sort that out as will some more splashes

Topside and my box of bits up next for the paint shop

top wing rigged, not sure i'll ever untangle this mess. I used knit in elastic and looped it through the sleeve. I didnt find one method that worked perfectly but the best advice is to split the thread in two for the loopy bits.

Alclad, Mithral silver and a wash did most of the damage here. I may add some brown. fishing line was used for the engine wires.

need to tidy up the leather painting on the straps and combing. Most of the subtle light effects have been toned down by the camera

Edited February 2, 2013 by gcn

[geedubelyer]

Cracking job.

I like that you shaded the decals too. Nice attention to detail.

[gcn]

[PC2012]

That is amazing!

[Viking]

Beautiful work, that cockpit looks real.

Cheers

John

[gcn]

98% complete, all the rigging is done anyway. Not sure whether i'll colour the EZ line silver or leave as is.

I need to fix the bits that fell off the gun

Pigments for the wheels

Add some mud splatters to the tail

Complete the painting on the tail, flipping oils won't dry

and thats about it.

For those that don't want to do one of these because of the rigging i'd say dive in it looks far worse than it actually is, the hardest thing is understanding where it all goes but the rigging guide on Bobs site is invaluable

[Viking]

Very nice looking DH.2, I like the fabric effect, its so much better shaded than in plain CDL.

It looks like it built up with the usual Wingnuts precision !

Cheers

John

[Graham T]

Outstanding! All that rigging

[Paul Alan Bardell]

Stunning work!

No other word for it.

[Matcham11]

Amazing rigging work!!!!

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, fantastic build, looks amazing.

Thanks for sharing

All the best

Chris

[Marcus.Q1000859]

First class! Your painting processes really make the build stand out.