1:32 Hannover CL.II + Pheon Decals. Finished!

[Viking]

I've finally reduced the number of builds on my workbench to a sensible level, so feel justified in making a start on this, the Hannover CL.II from Wingnut Wings.

Review is here of The Kit
And here of the Pheon Decals

Getting it all together, this is where we start;

I'm looking forward to this!. A start was made by removing the fuselage halves and then all the interior components in the order they are needed. Everything is prepared by removing moulding lugs and and scraping any slight seams, and then storing all the components in zip lock bags according to the numbered stage of the assembly instructions.

These are then primed with Halfords grey primer from a rattle can, and the wooden parts sprayed with Tamiya XF-57 Buff. When the buff is dry a coat ofJohnsons Kleer is brushed on top of it ready for the oil paints that will create the grain effect.

Stage 1 Cockpit;

Stage 2 & 3 Cockpit (continued)

Stage 4 Fuselage;

And getting ahead of myself I prepared some of the 'halved' engine parts so that they are ready to have the seams sanded down later. There is a choice of 3 props, given that I can usually mess one up I chose the Niendorf and Germania ones, and can use the one that comes out best.

Stage 6 Argus As.III Engine.

Thats all for now, thanks for looking,

John

[crobinsonh]

Lovely start and very nice photography

[Viking]

Short update.

The wooden parts have all now been 'grained' with oil piants. I use Griffin Alkyd quick drying oils as they only take about 6 hours to dry as opposed to the weeks that other tube oil paints can take.

Putting a blob of Indian red, Raw Sienna, and Burnt Sienna on an ex-pringles lid I vary the mix as I go along, to get different tonal values to each component.

The grain is applied with a 1/4" wide brush, then a small piece of sponge dragged across, and some delicate rework with the brush.

The Real Hannover's interior was coloured with a dark stained varnish. After applying my version I went over the framework with some Citadel 'Ushabi Bone' to lighten it in preparation for some lighter grain colour to go on. This is just to provide some contrast and highlight the detail.

Other interior components with either the wood treatment, or Citadel 'Catachel Green'.

The engine parts have been prepared with a coat of Humbrol gloss black, ready for various shades of Alclad aluminium.

Here was my first error. When doing the initial photos above, I noticed I had used the cylinder halves with pushrods moulded on. Fortunately it had not long been glued and I was able to separate the cylinders and use the optional part without pushrods on it. I will use wire to make my own as it looks so much more realistic. They are bit out of sequence for painting now, as i have had to let the glue set on them.

There are various pipes, the pilots seat back, ammo tank, oil tank, crankcase, rudder pedal boxes, the corrected cylinders, and inlet manifold.

Thanks for looking,

John

[Viking]

Interior is now done, I went over the framework with raw sienna, the contrast looks good but may nor be strictly accurate if on the real thing the whole area was dark varnished all over. However, I like the detail showing up like this. The few ancilary parts have been added to the fuselage sides also.

All the interior major sub assemblies are done. Bulkheads, radio set, Recce Camera etc.

Dry fitted together;

And dry fitted into the fusegae halves to check the fit and get a sense of how it is all going to look.

On with the engine next!

John

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

OH yes!!! just ordered the same model - to build with Pheon decals for their stand at telford- so you have my FULL attention, lol

Which option are you doing from the sheet?

Jonners - hoping I can do the kit full justice- which you are.

[Viking]

Hi Jonners,

I'm not sure which one I am going to choose from the Pheon sheet yet, there are at least 5 I want! I'll firm up my decision soon.

One thing I forgot to mention for when you build yours. The instructions have an error (shock horror!). The etched lap belts are misnumbered, swap them around. P11 & P12 are shown as going in the front for the pilot. They have little circles on the top end. If you look at part A41, the rear bulkhead for the observer, there are little spigots for the circles to fit over. So put P1 & P4 in the front on bulkhead A40, and P11 & P12 on A41. I'm sure that is correct.

I'd already locked the front ones on with a dot of cyano, wondering why they had little cirles on the end. It's not serious so I left them alone, but check yours out and see if I am correct!

Cheers

John

[gishuk]

Great work so far on what looks to be an awesome kit. Ive got one to build myself at some point once I finish my LVG.

What scheme are you going to do? Im planning on the full fuselage lozenge myself, looks great but will be alot of work.

[Viking]

What scheme are you going to do? Im planning on the full fuselage lozenge myself, looks great but will be alot of work.

I've finally decided on this one, Schlasta 16, Linselles, May 1918.

I like the full all over lozenge and the contrast with the yellow markings.

It's a close run thing though, I am also very, very tempted by these two. There is a small chance I may change my mind!

Anyway good progress made as I had this week off work . After making a blunder by using the wrong set of cylinder halves with the pushrods moulded on, I managed to separate it and glue on the 'plain' cylinder half so that I could make my own pushrods. With this done I aslo wired up the magnetos and spark plugs before adding various ancillary items to the engine.

Other side.

Completed;

The props were masked with laminations in 2 different styles.

And sprayed with red-brown.

Then overpainted with a dark blend of griffin alkyd tube oil paints to make the laminations much more subtle, and decalled. A coat of Johnsons klear finishes it off. Niendorf (top) Germania (bottom). I'll use the Germania and put the Niendorf in the spares box.

All set into 1 fuselage half;

The other fuselage half is now applied and the whole lot is zipped up.

I'm going to let the seam settle for a few days before doing any more, as I find that if you clean it up and start painting, a 'ghost' of the seam will start to show.

Thanks for looking,

John

PS here's an Eduard 1/48 Hannover I made some years ago. One of their earlist kits with handpainted fuselage lozenge.

[ForestFan]

Looking great, must treat myself to a wingnut wings kit one day....!

FF

[JOAN]

Woow. !!!! speechless ! masterwork here. the complete "big show" of material rendering.

Many thanks for sharing this amazing build.

olivier

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi John - wow this is looking splendid. Mine arrived on Wednesday - so have been drooling over it since ( and trying to avoid drooling of the Fokker DVIIF that came with it...)

I think I know which scheme I'll do from Rowan's sheet now too....

Whats your plan for the lozenge colours paint wise? from what I understand these were mixed to roughly match the printed lozenge.

Cheers

Jonners

[Viking]

Sensible man Jonners, getting hold of one of these and a D.VIIF! Drool inducing kits indeed.

Progress slowed a bit as I had to go back to work, but is at least steady. I've concentrated on the flying surfaces while leaving the fuselage join to settle. Speaking of which, this fuselage was one of the easiest of Wingnuts that I have done. It was still tight with all that detail in, but was fairly easy to persuade it to close up.
I have a query that I wonder if anyoone can help with. The hand holds in the upper wing centre section do not go all the way through.

Can this be right? I've never seen any like this on real aircraft before, but am loathe to say Wingnuts got it wrong. I've looked a plans & photos but can't say one way or the other if the should be 'open'. I've left them 'as is' for the moment but they can easily be opened up if that is how they should be.

I drille & pinned the ailerons with brass wire to strengthen them. It's not strictly necessary but is a good idea if you are going to handle the model. Note that for the photo I have paired the wrong aileron with the wing, the aileron bracket should be on the underside. Just testing to see who is paying attention!

Wings were painted ready to receive the lozenge decals. You must do this in order to give the decals something to bite into and settle on. Don't be tempted to think that you can just apply the lozenge to the bare plastic, it won't work.
I use a pale blue on the underside and a dark green on top, as close to one of the lozenge colours as is reasonable. Should there be any tears or problems when the lozenge is on, the colour of the base coat will hide any blemishes.

The lozenge is very easy to do, there are only 2 pieces per surface, and include the rib tapes.

I do them 1 piece at a time and let it dry before doing the next;

You need to work out if your Hannover has tail struts or not, and drill your own sockets for them according to the Wingnuts instructions. Pheon provide a usefull table of serial ranges & production batches, which helped me work out thet my option 132??/17 was from the second production batch and thus I should use all the 'early' options in the kit, including tail struts and ailerons.

And then lozenged;

Lots of other bits have been cut out, cleaned & prepped. (Note - there is a typo on the wingnuts instructions, the inside wheel covers are shown as D8 when they should be D6, 'coz thats what they are on the sprue. D8 are the inspection covers under the engine.).

I keep struts labelled up in ziplock bags untill needed. Mixing them up can lead to disatser.

Now Jonners was asking how I am going to tackle the handpainted lozenge areas on the fuselage and upper wing centre section. I've decided to do it with masks and airbrush, as I did with my 1/48 Hannover a few years back. In real life the Hannovers fuselage & upper wing centre section was handpainted (or possibly masked & sprayed) to approximate the lozenge fabric areas. A dark glaze was the applied over it, giving a finsh that could vary from aircraft to aircraft.

However I am infomed that Aviattic are working on a set of decals for this purpose, which will be worth keeping an eye on.

I am going to use Tamiya acrylics mixed as closely as I can to match the 'swatches' helpfully provided on the Wingnuts decal sheet;

But I'm not going to be too pedantic about it, as when done the whole lot will be blended together with a 'glaze' coat of Prussian blue as noted by Richard Alexander on the Wingnuts instructions. This gave a fuselage described at the time as 'Blue', 'Black' , and 'Dark green'. Take your pick!

As it happens Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow is a good match the first colour 'm' that I need for the upper surface, so a session with the airbrush brings me to the start point of what is going to be an intense job!

The U/C legs are not glued in yet, just push fitted. I assembled & glued it up for painting, with the exception of gluing it to the fuselage. This way I can paint it whilst still removing it to paint the lozenge under the fuselage.

Thnaks for looking,

John

[avro683]

Well done John, I've bookmarked this for when I get round to starting mine. I think the toy bear they've included is a lovely touch.

[Viking]

Started doing the handpainted lozenge. Looking at photos and Wingnuts instructions, whilst being freehand it does have a certain amount of regularity to it. So I made a set of interlocking plasticard templates to use as to cut out masking tape, and made some masks.

I'll just make more as I need them.

All parts masked up. I worked along the fuselage placing masks side by side and above and below, removing the ones I didn't want to hopefully replace them as I do more colours, and they should meet up,

The green mixed up to as close to the decals as I can, and sprayed.

Next up is to apply more masks on the green, and spray the next colour, and so on.

Its tedious rather than difficult!

Cheers

John

[woody37]

You're raving mad John, but looking forwards to more

Stunning stuff so far

[general melchett]

Lovely work John, these early machines really were works of art. Wonderful detailing and paintwork as usual. Really must have a go at one at some point...........looks fun.

[Sean1968]

Great stuff

[youngtiger1]

Viking, totally awesome. I have the same kit so I'll be following with the rest of the build.

[Viking]

Thank you chaps, I hope that some of the pointers I may be able to give will be of use to anyone following down this particular path.

One thing while I remember it, the lozenge decals for the ailerons are shaped for the wider 'later' versions, having a little extra out at the tips. Of course I found this out when sliding the decal off the paper, on to the 'early' ailerons. You may want to trim them before wetting.

On the same subject, the main lozenge decals have all the rib tapes and edging strips printed on them. The ribs line up beautifully, but I found that the decals are just that bit too wide in chord and I lost some of the edging tapes on the leading & trailing edges.

Anyway, back on to current work. This feels a bit like a swan, in that progress might appear to be slow and stately, but beneath I am paddling away furiously.

It's that 'handpainted' lozenge. Mask, spray, mask, spray, etc.and cut out more and more masks along the way.

I mixed all my colours, matching as close as I could to the colours on the 'swatches' as mentioned above.

I've used Tamiya acrylics thinned with isopropanol, mixed and stored in empty but cleaned out jars with the tops sprayed to show what is in them. The XF-60 is used neat, no need to mix this one as it matches nicely anyway.

What I am trying to reproduce here is the freehand application of semi regular shapes with some completely irregular ones, as this is how it appears to have been done in the Hannover factory. (It was not a neat and regular pattern as seen of the printed fabric areas, phew!.

So having done the buff and light greeen, apply more masks and do the dark blue;

then apply more masks and do the mauve;

Then apply more masks and do the dark green;

By now I was losing sight of what was going on underneath all that tape!

So now, the fun part - the big reveal!

And, yes, it's not just the fusleage and centre section that need doing, all the struts do as well.

And a key moment, how does it look against the decalled wings and tail?

I'm happy with that. There has been one or two fuzzy edges where the tape lifted, but I can correct those. It won't look as stark as this when finished, as it will need a coat of 'dark varnish' as was done on the full size. This should tone it all down and blend it together to give that 'darkblue/dark green/black/take your pick' fuselage colour.

What next?

I've got turn the fuselage and centre section over and start again with paler lozenge colours. There goes another 5 days!

Thanks for looking,

John

[gishuk]

Looks fantastic. Ill have to use your method for painting the fuselage when I come to build mine, doesnt look as tricky as I thought it might be.

[stringbag]

Having seen this one up close and personal, all I an say is that the pictures don't do the kit or the workmanship justice.

Great work John.

Chris

[Viking]

Thanks guys. Lozenging marches on, the undersides are done.

Mr Blobby?

The reveal;

Its all a bit bright, as expected, but now I can tone the whole lot down with an overcoat of 'darkened varnish'. I'm thinking of using Tamiya 'Smoke' or possibly making my own mix of a dark blue green.

Thanks for looking.

[avro683]

That's wonderful work John, I'm getting one of these for my birthday next week. Your thread has been bookmarked for reference and ideas.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Cor-rikey thats great!! Effort expended = quality result.

You can see why they toned it down with a coat of a dark prussian blue cant you!!

This is going to look stunning.

Jonners, with admiration

[Viking]

Thank you Jonners!

I've added the 'Prussian blue' coat by misting on several light coats of blue/black Tamiya acrylic to get the effect I am after. The fin has the kit supplied decal on it, which hasn't been toned yet, as in reality it doesn't seem to have been varnished much at all. I will lightly blend it in later.

Now you might notice something untoward behind the gunners cockpit. That white line!

Sod's law came into play when I had got this far. In a bizzare accident I held the fuselage under my magnifying glass, one of those desk clamp spring arm things. At that very moment the lens decided to depart comapny with the arm, which it has never done before. It just fell out and the edge of the lens walloped into the fuselage, and split it behind the gunners cockpit. I said something like 'Oh deary me, thats rather unfortunate'.

I wicked in a bit of cyano with a length of stertched sprue, and sanded it down. It still showed, so a bit of white milliput went on, and that is what you can see.

I have sanded it down now, and lightly reprayed that bit, and is is just about invisible, but is never going to be as good as it was before.

I'm going to let my nerves settle for a day or two and get over my general p offedness. Dashed unfotunate, what?