Albatros DVa +++ FINISHED +++

[Ray S]

Hello all. This will be my second contribution to the 'Less than a Tenner' Group Build. It is the recent red-box issue of the somewhat ancient Albatros DVa (it is as old as me - we were both born the same year!).

 

 

Quite a few years, my wife and I had a day out in Oxford, and, as you do, I found a 'model shop' in Boswells, and snapped this up for £5 as a memento of our fabulous day out. Jane then promptly snapped it out of my hands and put it away and I got given it back that Christmas. There is not a lot of parts to the kit, which are in a grey plastic (unlike my bagged version which is in pale blue plastic). Surprisingly at first glance there is not much flash, but plenty of stuff that need doing (see the ejection pin marks on the upper wing surface? - why did they do that?)

 

 

The transfer sheet looks very well printed, and there are not many stencils on this - yippee!

 

 

This model has two marking options:

 

 

The one which really took my fancy was the one with the wooden varnished ply finish and the red nose, but that is Manfred Von Richthofen's machine, and he gets too many of his planes built, so I will go for this one instead:

 

 

This one looks nicely different, with a black fuselage, duck egg blue undersides, and a camouflaged pair of wing and tailplane upper surfaces. And that flag looks fun too. I will have to do some research to find out if I can learn anything about the pilot.

 

I say that this will be OOB, but the question is, will I succumb to adding an extra detail or two or not? - Please bear in mind that the guns are, how shall I put it? - interesting.

 

Find out in the next thrilling episode!

 

All the best, Ray

Edited August 15, 2021 by Ray S
Edited Title

[AdrianMF]

For such an old clunker (the kit, not you!!) it’s not too bad at all. The guns are pretty well hidden under the wings, so for me the prop blades are the most pressing issue…

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[stevehed]

Don't forget the cabane holes don't match. I think I filled the port side and re-drilled. Similar problem with the elevator halves.

 

Then I remembered that you built this a couple of years ago. DOH!

[Ray S]

On 7/6/2021 at 8:51 PM, AdrianMF said:

For such an old clunker (the kit, not you!!) it’s not too bad at all. The guns are pretty well hidden under the wings, so for me the prop blades are the most pressing issue…

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

 

I am quite happy to be an old clunker too! I have a plan for the prop and possibly guns too Adrian.

 

On 7/8/2021 at 8:55 PM, stevehed said:

Don't forget the cabane holes don't match. I think I filled the port side and re-drilled. Similar problem with the elevator halves.

 

Then I remembered that you built this a couple of years ago. DOH!

 

Thanks for that reminder.

 

I am using the SAM Publications 'Build and Convert' bookazine 'Beyond the Box' by Mike Grant for this and my Sopwith Pup builds (among other references), and am leaning heavily on what Mike Grant did in that mag.

 

I took a step into 'magician's territory' by attempting to rescribe the panel lines on this Albatros. On the first side I used the raised lines as my scribe-guide and was only partially successful, on the second half I used Dymo tape and was slightly better. I used three or four passes of the scribing tool, but could not get the swarf fully out of the line. Sorry about the picture quality:

 

 

The top fuselage half was not dealt with at this point. As @stevehed had mentioned, the cabane strut locations are not symmetric, with the port ones being too low:

 

 

I drilled them out (they were blind holes) and slotted in some 0.9mm rod to plug the hole (filling to be done another day). The cockpit interior was first class:

 

 

The detailing was so good it was replicated the other side too! The peg came out and the interior was cleaned up. Did I say it would be OOB? It looks like that has gone out of the window. Another thing that needed doing was concerning the cutout at the centre of the trailing edge of the upper wing. Compare with the plan underneath the wing:

 

 

Apart from having the number '23' stamped on the underside of the wing, the cutout was too big, so I cut out a section of the wing, ready to add a replacement section and cut out a more accurate cutout. I now thinned down the ribs on the top of this wing, the ribs were not so pronounced as with the Pup, but still needed some rubbing down:

 

 

The upper wing radiator has been sanded away, it will be replaced later along with a corresponding section underneath which was not there at all.

 

Having done that, there were a couple of ejection pin marks to deal with. They were quite big, so I used some filler for them, rather than my usual scraping away the marks. I used Perfect Plastic Putty for this, but encountered a strange effect. I let it dry, then started to sand it down, and the whole lot came off from one pin mark, just like scratching wax off of glass - all in one piece! I replaced that one with my new tube of Revell Plasto filler, and it is still more like liquid! I tipped loads of it out before I got to anything usable, but then 'stirred' it in the tube with a cocktail stick, hopefully it will be usable in the future.

 

 

That is it for now, more soon.

 

Ray

[PlaStix]

Hi again Ray! Great to see you have another build underway. Judging by your other build, this is going to be another fascinating project!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Ray S]

Cheers @PlaStix!

 

Hello all. It has been a good day today. I cut out some card and filled the now wide-open cutout on the top wing:

 

 

Hmmm, it needs some filler, methinks! It also needed some more card underneath as this card (40 thou) was not quite enough. This is now awaiting some more filling/sanding/scraping down so it fits properly.

 

I also decided to add a couple of bulkheads for the cockpit area. Mike Grant mentioned about using modelling clay and pressing it into the fuselage sides, removing it and slicing down to get the interior fuselage profile. I decided on another way, and it involved 5 amp fuse wire. I cut some off the 'reel', hooked one end over the fuselage at the bulkhead position, and then pressed the wire down around the interior of the fuselage. I transferred that to some card:

 

 

I drew around the outside of the wire, turned it over and did the same, and then had my bulkhead blank marked out. Having drawn around the outside, I was expecting a little bit of sanding to be required, and so it was. A short while later I had:

 

 

This bulkhead was quite complex, but I decided to cut out a rather basic hole in it for the pilot's legs. I drew the shape (very roughly), chain-drilled some small holes and then cut the excess out. A bit of work with a needle file or three later and I had:

 

 

That is not too far out from what my Eduard 1/48th Albatros had for it's interior, so I was quite pleased with that. I made another one the same way for behind the pilot's seat, but left that one complete, especially as the seat fits to it and hangs over a 'bottomless' cockpit interior. I looked briefly at my pair of Libramodels photo-etch seat sets and decided to yet again forego using one, so in keeping with the 'under-a-tenner' mantra of this Group Build, I made one of my own. I used the Libramodels ones as a template, and soon had this:

 

 

Having glued in the pair of bulkheads, I dry-fitted the seat to it's attachment point, and dropped in an RFC flyer to see if the dimensions were reasonably close:

 

 

Not far out. I have given the interior a coat of 'wood' paint and it is drying now.

 

Despite all my dry-fits confirming that everything fitted, I need to sand the bulkheads a bit to allow the fuselage to close up.

 

That is it for now, more soon.

 

Ray

[Ray S]

I have not done anything to this today, but I did get a photo of the interior paintwork that has been done so far:

 

 

I have brush-painted it with Revell Wood Brown acrylic, and am quite happy with the streaky effect that it has produced. I also remembered that Wingnut Wings also did one of these (but not so highly detailed as this Airfix kit of course!) but they did show one or two things that Airfix missed, so I downloaded one of their instruction guides and I now know the rough size of the instrument panel I need to make up. I did a blank one yesterday, but it was over-sized but I should be able to cut/sand it down to a more realistic size.

 

I have also been having second thoughts about the markings for this. The kit cost £5, and I have a Blue Rider set which I bought in the 1990's so I will have enough leeway to use one of those sets and still keep this in at under a tenner. I am increasingly thinking of using a wooden finish version, rather than a painted one. I may even still go with Von Richthofen's plane yet, but would prefer not to. I will see what other colours are involved on the Blue Rider sheet which has three or four with the wooden finish.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking.

 

Ray

[Torbjorn]

Better not ruin it with potentially bad decals, there’s so many nice alternatives around. I’m sure it’s well within the spirit of the GB.

 

I like the method with the fuse wire, I shall probably copy that on occasion. Maybe clay can give a slightly more accurate fit, but in this case nobody will be able to see the difference and seems not worth the effort. 

[Ray S]

4 hours ago, Torbjorn said:

Maybe clay can give a slightly more accurate fit, but in this case nobody will be able to see the difference and seems not worth the effort. 

 

That was just what I was thinking, along with the fact that I did not have any clay in but did have fuse wire!.

 

The transfers supplied with this kit are top notch (Cartograph) but I really did not want to do the famous flier's aircraft, even though it is a lesser-known one. Airfix did supply a couple of styles of crosses, so I may be able to just use personal markings from the Blue Rider sheet, as I have just found that their sheets are rather translucent. 

 

Ray

[Paul J]

I think I will follow along if I may. I just picked up a double kit at the Norwich Air Museum that includes the Albatross D.III and SE 5A. Both kits are pretty basic and I recall were ESCI toolings. But the decals are nice modern ones.  The Albatross will be built first and hopefully won't take long as I don't intend on 'gilding the lily' with it .   Might not even bother with rigging but we'll see.

[PlaStix]

Hi Ray. Good to see more progress and thank you for demonstrating how you did the bulkheads. Looking impressive!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Ray S]

On 7/17/2021 at 3:20 PM, Paul J said:

I think I will follow along if I may. I just picked up a double kit at the Norwich Air Museum that includes the Albatross D.III and SE 5A. Both kits are pretty basic and I recall were ESCI toolings. But the decals are nice modern ones.  The Albatross will be built first and hopefully won't take long as I don't intend on 'gilding the lily' with it .   Might not even bother with rigging but we'll see.

 

No worries Paul, join in! I may be able to give some ideas as to what NOT to do! However, I was going to do this OOB, but look where that idea got me...

 

On 7/21/2021 at 11:35 AM, PlaStix said:

Hi Ray. Good to see more progress and thank you for demonstrating how you did the bulkheads. Looking impressive!

Kind regards,

Stix

 

That is fine Stix. I have learnt so much from Britmodeller, it is nice if I can give something back.

 

Righty-ho, it is about time I got back on with this, so I have given the psychedelic Sopwith Pup a day off today. It was time to really knuckle down and sort that top wing out. I needed to fill/sand/fill/sand (etc) the fillet I added to the cut out quite a bit, but eventually I was in a position where I could trace out the new cutout from the 'Aircraft Archive: Aircraft of WWI, Volume 1' book of plans I have. A little bit of chain-drilling and filing/sanding and it was done. I also needed to knock up a replacement over-wing radiator too, so I made one of those as well:

 

 

I used some very thin plastic card for the rad, I then scored lines to give the radiator effect to the surface, then added a thickener sheet at the front, and some .3mm rod to the edges and interior for a little bit of detailing:

 

 

The glue spot at the front is where I added some rod for a spigot which is shown in the plan (and also in the Airfix instruction's painting guide although no part is supplied) which I added, but then removed as I knew I would knock it off later. Airfix did not supply any hint of an under-wing radiator, so I did one of those too:

 

 

I made it look slightly different, I do not know if it would have been a mirror image of the upper one. I still need to fill around the infill, don't I!

 

I also have added the 'instrument dials' to part of the cockpit interior (the fuel and air selector switch board):

 

 

I got the positions from the Wingnut Wings instructions - a superb source for modelling, I wonder how long it will be kept available? I have started to download the guides for all the WWI models I have just to give me some extra help in the future.

 

Well, that is it for today, not much but a big step forward.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Ray

Edited July 31, 2021 by Ray S
Tidy the post

[Ray S]

Hello all. The interior to this progressed quite a bit today. I added a few more bits to the cockpit area, including a 'grease pump', a 'hand air pump for the fuel tank pressurising', a control column (which did have an etch handle added from a very old Libramodels etch set I have had since the 1980's), and the cross-cockpit bar and tachometer. It is not Eduard or Wingnuts' quality, but I am quite pleased with it all, even though I will not be able to see much of it when the fuselage gets closed up.

 

The control column with etch handle:

 

 

The bar and tacho:

 

 

I drew the line at trying to scratch out markings for the dial! The interior still fits when the two fuselage halves are brought together.

 

 

The seatbelts are Tamiya tape, it was fun adding one of the shoulder straps on the fuselage side behind the seat! A lack of forward planning caused that...

 

 

 

Oh yes, I also added a 'compass' down near the control column.

 

It has been fun today! More soon with luck,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

The fuselage is now closed up. I thought I would use heavy duty glue for this, and used Revell's Contacta. The good news is that some of the interior can still be seen!

 

 

 

The other good news is that I will be able to use up some of the filler I have lying around, especially on the underside join. There may be somewhere else that need filler but I cannot think where:-

 

 

The ejection pin mark is even worse on the port side. That will keep me occupied for a while.

 

That really is it for today now, thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all. I had to add a bit of packing to the cutout area where the lower wing fits the fuselage:

 

 

That was just the start of it! I added quite a lot of .8mm rod and that brought the lower part of the wing level with the fuselage. It then needed a spot of filler. The gap along the lower fuselage joint had been filled yesterday and sanded this morning, but I needed to add a little more.

 

The lower wing has been added now too. I still need to adjust the ejection pin repairs on the upper surface and reduce the scalloping at the back end of the wing.

 

 

There was a huge gap between the fuselage and the upper surface of the wing. My 'packing' helped provide a key for the filler, and by using Perfect Plastic Putty, the job was soon done.

 

More soon,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Having now completed the Sopwith Pup, I can now concentrate on this Albatros. I have changed my mind about the colour scheme and have decided to do it in von Richthofen's colours as I like the varnished wood effect coupled with the red tail area, nose and wheel hubs.

 

To that end, I have given the fuselage the first coat of the main colour, Humbrol 63 Sand. I usually thin it with Humbrol's own Thinner, but I tried it this time with ColourCoats Naphtha Thinner instead, and it seems to have worked very well indeed and it seemed to dry quicker than with the Humbrol stuff.

 

 

My intention is to give it another coat or two of the thinned Sand, then give it some varnish of clear Orange  in different numbers of layers for different panels to give a bit of a 'patchwork' effect.

 

I have some Revell Acrylic Clear Orange and Red, but they seem to be quite light in their coverage. I also have Tamiya clear Orange, Red and Yellow and their colour looks quite a bit more pronounced. The trouble is, I brush paint, and Tamiya does not like that. I will have a look on the Forum because I am sure there has been a post which gives advice.

 

I just had a thought (it is true, I sometimes do!) and just found that I have some Humbrol 1322 Clear Orange - I will try that on a bit of spare runner.

 

That is it, just a short update but I will have to knuckle down, there is only a month left for this GB now.

 

Ray

[PlaStix]

Hi Ray. Great to see all the work you have been doing on this project. Once again your attention to the details is taking this to the next level.

Kind regards, 

Stix

[Ray S]

Thanks Stix!

 

I have now given the fuselage 3 coats of Sand, and I am quite happy with the coverage. I have painted some runners Sand too, and will experiment with various clear orange paints over the weekend. Today, I decided it was time I remembered to add some more bits to it, starting with the tailplanes. They had the control surfaces moulded on each tailplane, which produces a gap between the elevators, which should be a one-piece job. It was time to get out the scriber and etched saw, and remove them:

 

 

I had previously traced and cut out a full width elevator using plans, but it would not fit, so I have to go back to the drawing board. There is also a bit of a gap between the tailplane and fuselage which I need to address. Airfix had supplied location holes for these, but I don't think their alignment was much better than mine:

 

 

The starboard tailplane was definitely in a nose-down position. It was quickly corrected but cutting off the forward location pin. The tail skit was fitted, and then that lot got the Sand treatment which it needed, and I really should have fitted them before starting the paintwork. Here is Albie as of now:

 

 

The whole tail end (and nose area) needs to be painted Humbrol 60 Scarlet, but Airfix say to paint it on thinly so the underlying colour shows through, so, if it looks like I have not painted it properly when I get to that, it is deliberate, honest!

 

I have given the top wings a good spraying with Halfords White Primer to unify the surface and that is ready for paint now too.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking, Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all. Today was crunch time for the colour scheme - how would the varnishing go? I had the option of three routes - Tamiya, Revell or Humbrol Clear Orange. Which to choose? Well, in the end I went for Humbrol 1322 Clear Orange. I had painted some onto a sand-painted runner and all seemed okay, so I ladled a few drops out into my palette and added some Naphtha thinners to it (as I have started to do with Humbrol enamels), stirred it, and started to paint it on over the Sand on the fuselage. Then, odd things started to happen! The paint started to pull back like the surface tension had gone but a couple of brush strokes soon solved that. I got the fuselage varnished and was quite happy with the result.

 

For some strange reason, I touched the fuselage within ten minutes of finishing the painting, and the surface was totally dry! I was flummoxed, I can tell you. However, that let me get on with some more bits and pieces, so I modified the elevator so it fitted, added that to the tailplanes, and also got the underside of both wings painted (again with Humbrol enamels thinned with Naphtha) and also the top of the lower wing done too. This is how the model is at the moment:

 

 

 

 

The varnish had pooled a little around the raised details, but I think it will pass muster for me.

 

As I was waiting for something or other to dry, I absent-mindedly picked up the Humbrol Clear Orange tinlet and tried to read what it said on the label. My reading glasses were not strong enough, so I put my magnifier on, and there, in tiny letters, was the brush-cleaning instructions - use cellulose thinners! No wonder the paint did not behave when I used Naphtha thinners!

 

I will let that set and cure now, before I gloss the finish ready for transfers, and also for the masking off of the panels that need to be other colours.

 

More soon, Ray

[Ray S]

Today I had a spare twenty minutes or so, and was able to mask and paint the red onto this Albatros. Airfix suggested to paint the red thinly to allow the underlying wood colour to show through, so I thinned some Humbrol 60 enamel and did as they said:

 

 

I think there is just a hint of what was required. I was not sure where to have the red at the tail start, as the box illustration showed this:

 

 

while the instructions showed the red only just at the leading edge of the rudder/tailplanes:

 

 

I went with the instructions.

 

Hopefully I can get the red varnished tomorrow, and then get some transfers on later. The wings have now had a couple of coats of green on their top surfaces, so it is the Humbrol 160 German Camouflage Red (more like a brown to me) tomorrow.

 

I need to ask some advice so I will put that in the 'Chat' section.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all.

 

I needed some advice on this kit, and Stix has given permission to me to use a few (three) replacement parts for this build. It had already been mentioned earlier, but the prop and guns were not particularly well moulded (typical British understatement) as you can see:

 

 

I have a Roden Albatros DI in my stash, and it has some extra details, like two pairs of guns and two props (and also some duplicate struts but I will refrain from using those), so the guns and prop will find their way into this. I will cut off the prop blades that Airfix supplied and used this spinner, and cut out holes for the prop to go into.

 

Today I have given the red a gloss varnish, painted the Red/Brown section on the wing uppers with a first coat, and then masked off for the Humbrol 240 Grau Matt panel. The first three transfers are on too, so it is beginning to come together.

 

 

That is it for now, I am now just waiting for the evening to get here so I can get out to my first IPMS Club meeting since restrictions have been eased, I am really looking forward to that!

 

@PlaStix, thank you so much for allowing me to use the spare parts for this.

 

Rau

[stevehed]

It's looking good and the Roden bits will be a great improvement. Are you sure about the wing colours though? I thought by mid 1917 mauve was taking over from brown. Had a look on The Aerodrome.   http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50830

 

Steve

[AdrianMF]

Looks fab Ray! All the more so for starting with something so basic.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

 

On 07/08/2021 at 14:06, Ray S said:

The varnish had pooled a little around the raised details,

Think of it as free shading

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Ray S]

17 hours ago, stevehed said:

It's looking good and the Roden bits will be a great improvement. Are you sure about the wing colours though? I thought by mid 1917 mauve was taking over from brown. Had a look on The Aerodrome.   http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50830

 

Steve

 

I have to admit I was surprised at the colour guide Airfix gave. I have just looked at my downloaded copies of various Wingnut Wings instructions and the red/brown colour is not mentioned, so I will go for purple which is (as Mauve or Lilac). The only colour I have that is close is Humbrol Gloss 68. WNW suggest two mixes for Mauve, depending on which set of instructions I use, so I will just use straight purple I think especially as one mix was for Humbrol 68 (x5) + Humbrol 29 (x1).

 

Thanks for bringing the issue up for me @stevehed , it will add an extra little bit of colour.

 

Ray