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Airfix 1/72 Albatros DVa - FINISHED


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Hello All,

I am currently watching the new Airfix 1/72 Hurricane fall together on my bench but I thought I'd try something a bit more interesting (=painful) for another build here. The selected victim:

IMG_4346_zps26b81de7.jpg

£1.25 from the late lamented Modelzone in High Holborn, so well inside the limit!

I've compared it to the plans in the Harborough book "Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War", and it's 2-3 mm undersized in every direction but basically a very similar shape. Good enough for me. The pilot is great and a bit undersized too, so I could call it 1/78 and we are all good!

The fuselage has some nice detail, the wings have massive ejector pin marks and the struts are all a bit spindly. Lower wing and tail fit is a bit hit and miss (mainly the latter). Targets for scratch building are:

* Propeller (weedy blades, not even the same length as each other)

* Engine (tragic even before the massive ejector pin sink holes)

* Exhaust (a bit weedy, time for some stretched sprue)

* Cockpit (needs a seat, instrument panel and possibly a bulkhead if I think anyone could see it)

* Struts (only if I have to)

I will be doing the scheme in the kit, with my first attempt at wood grain effect, and I will rig it using invisible mending thread.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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Hello All,

I spent some time this evening scratching up a cockpit, using the Wingnut Wings website as a reference. Here's where I got to:

IMG_4353_zpsb61e531c.jpg

IMG_4354_zps58722bcd.jpg

But I'm not sure anyone will see much after it's closed up!

IMG_4358_zps9de7f8c7.jpg

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hi Adrian, i see the box art shows the albatros with the "nature" wood. Today i was browsing over internet, searching for some "how to" step by steps and found this http://www.largescaleplanes.com/tips/davejohnson/woodgrain/woodgrain.php, showing one of ways how to paint wood grain surface. I imidietely got the D.V on my mind, so thought it could be handy to you or someone else reading your thread. Now i m thinking about it, you probably have already some way how to do it, but i hope you wont mind anyway :)

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That's quite a piece of work :coolio: if I recall correctly how small the original engine part was... and the cockpit too :boom:

This is looking really nice Adrian, I'm already looking forward to seeing how it turns out :)

Cheers,

Stew

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I scratched a new engine tonight, original kit part for comparison:

Now that's impressive! That looks far better than kit version!

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Hello All,

Having a day off work today, and I thought I would try out an experiment to make a more accurate Spandau than the pair of blobs provided in the kit. Anyone who has looked at my previous builds will know I am too cheap to spring for expensive aftermarket, so here's a first attempt to replicate the mainly-empty-space of the Spandau cooling jacket:

imagejpg1_zps2d3b16be.jpg

imagejpg1_zpsd0bb3906.jpg

The jacket is simply drawn on some clear sprue with a marking pen. I will stretch some round clear sprue and do it for real, then dip it in future to seal in the pen.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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Hello All,

I think I've got an acceptable wood effect, seen here on my trusty Ju88 paint tester:

imagejpg1_zps4ccd3377.jpg

Done with acrylic wash and retarder. It looks better in real life, I promise. The wooden prop is easily sorted by using wood to make it!

imagejpg2_zpsa0d2fa02.jpg

DIY calls...

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hello All,

I have been doing some more wood effect practice with acrylic retarder over a light base:

imagejpg1_zps46232b4f.jpg

I think the most important thing I have learned is to keep the effects light, much lighter than here, as the real thing was made out of the highest quality plywood they could source. Less is more!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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wow thats amazing! could you explain how exactly you do it? at least in few important steps? :) would be great, thanks! :) I have plans to paint the mossie in its natural colours, paint camo over it and then chip it to the base. So it would be awesome with such a wood like you can do !

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wow thats amazing! could you explain how exactly you do it? at least in few important steps? :) would be great, thanks! :) I have plans to paint the mossie in its natural colours, paint camo over it and then chip it to the base. So it would be awesome with such a wood like you can do !

I agree - I'd be interested too. It looks very effective!

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Hello All,

I managed to get a crack at the fuselage wood effect today. Starting point:

imagejpg1_zpse72e1a51.jpg

I don't know if you can see it but I had painted slightly different shades of my white/yellow/dark earth/red mix on to each of the different panels. I have a selection of artist's acrylics: yellow ochre, raw umber and a light red; and a tube of slow-drying acrylic gel.

So I squeezed out a bit of each and masked off the first panel:

imagejpg2_zpsb75dbedf.jpg

You will note that I have mixed up some yellow ochre and a touch of red (NOT TOO MUCH RED!!) with the gel. Then I painted on a glaze of this, and added shading and some patterns using the raw umber:

imagejpg3_zps2359fc20.jpg

Then I blended it all in. Note the tape to stop me running into the next panel:

imagejpg4_zps658831b6.jpg

Then I continued on. You can see the raw colours followed by the blending in:

imagejpg5_zpseec26aee.jpg
imagejpg6_zpsfb4eb61a.jpg

About two hours later, we have this:

imagejpg8_zps288cd918.jpg
imagejpg7_zps7bd968b3.jpg

You will recall that in the previous post I said "I suspect less is more". Well it would have been! Despite my best intentions, the panel demarcations (meant to be the subtlest hint) got more and more pronounced, and I ended up doing some frenzied undoing of some of the panels before reverting to a light touch for the rearmost panels. But I'm prepared to let it go for a first attempt (and I'm not going to strip it). Strangely enough, the underside is the best because I didn't over-think it. Next time it will be perfect, honest!

Thanks for looking,
Adrian

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Coming along nicely,built this kit many moons ago for some reason I think it was in a purple scheme,wood effect looks first class.

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Yes, I think you might be being a little harsh on your wood scheme, I think it looks really good :coolio:

Perhaps your impression of it was the result of spending two hours looking at it? :hypnotised: Hopefully it will look better to you today.

Cheers,

Stew

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