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Airfix Albatros DVa, 1/72 scale


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A friend found this for me in an Op Shop for $5.

 

The red box had me hoping it was a new tooling, but it seems not.  It is still rough as bags.

 

I'm building it in the same livery as the one in the Australian War Museum in Canberra - a plane that was forced down by Australian pilots in an RE8 in 1917.  Sadly, shortly after forcing it down, both pilots were killed by the same armor piercing bullet fired by another German fighter from behind.  Their plane circled for hours before it ran out of fuel and came in for a gentle crash landing.

 

As per usual, I started with scratching in the cockpit, making stuff you will never see 🙄.  I got some machine guns from a 1/72 B17 kit and am modifying them as the kit guns are total rubbish.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Engine painted.

Alclad Burnt Iron, Alclad Dark Alum. with a thin overspray of Tamiya dark sand, Nato Black, Tamiya Alum.

 

Geez the digital camera is brutal esp. in Macro Mode.  Looks much better with the naked eye, or even with an Optivisor on.

 

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Edited by thommo
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Thanks gents.

 

More upgrades today - the start of changing the shape of the top wing cutout (idea borrowed from Ray), added bits for elevator wires & re-did elevator hinges, and as per Ray's build, re-did the props using some spare blades from God-knows-what and making the ends a bit blunter.  Also filled the massive ejector pin marks.

 

I'm also going to upgrade the radiator.

 

ONL2doql.jpg

Edited by thommo
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I've been experimenting with simulating woodgrain.

 

None of these are yellow enough compared to the aircraft in the AWM.  The base coat for all is Tamiya Wooddeck Tan & Flat Yellow, some with more yellow, but not enough. Probably the closest is the bottom 2 panels on the left.  The bottom one has Humbrol Matt Brown streaked on, the one above is with brown watercolour pencil drawn on.  Then both have a dilute mix of Tamiya Clear Orange & Flat Yellow brushed over.  Then Future over everything.

 

Another round of experiments will ensue, this time with more flat yellow in the Tamiya Wooddeck Tan - Flat Yellow base colour mix.

 

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Interior done.  I can finally button it up.

 

You can hardly see a thing.  There is an IP in there with 4 dials using cut-down decals from a 1/48 dial decal sheet but you'd never know.  And the wood grain effect is all but invisible.

 

Seat shoulder harness from Tamiya tape, buckles from fine wire.  Did not bother with a lap belt.

 

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Edited by thommo
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As Ray's thread on this kit proved, the fit of the lower wing to the fuselage is terrible.  I had to lower it by putting some styrene rod in the cutout, then fill the edges with sanded styrene strip, then add a lot of putty.

 

I also filled all the cabane strut holes and re-drilled them smaller, and on the port side made them higher to match the SB side.

 

You can also see some slots cut for the machine gun cartridge feeds and the radiator hose.

 

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Edited by thommo
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I've been fortunate to be allowed to clamber up on one of TVAL's D.Va reproductions and it's a surprisingly dark hole! You're doing lovely work on this old kit thommo, I'm excited to see your next update.

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After all my experimenting with the wood grain technique, I was not much the wiser but decided the watercolour pencil was the best way to go as it was the most forgiving.....though having said that, not as forgiving as my old technique of oil streaks over a base coat, which is what I did on the prop.

 

So I attacked the fueslage with a base coat of wooddeck tan and yellow, then drew pencil lines with a burnt umber and a few dabs with a more reddish brown pencil.

 

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Then over that I brushed a fairly thin mix of clear orange with some flat yellow in it, to give this:

 

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The pics of the real thing show a little more tan in the mix, so next I'll dab a bit of that on.

 

Then maybe another thin wash of clear-orange - flat yellow.  Then maybe Future, though TBH the real thing is not glossy at all, esp. on the sides so maybe a light hit with flat clear?

Edited by thommo
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Great TLC for such an ancestor!

You are doing it beautifully. More challenges coming with the landing gear if I recall properly.

 

Have fun!

JR

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9 hours ago, jean said:

Great TLC for such an ancestor!

You are doing it beautifully. More challenges coming with the landing gear if I recall properly.

 

Have fun!

JR

 

Oh dear.  I've not really looked at that.  Any clues?

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Main paint on and wood panel nails accentuated with a burnt umber oil wash.  These were made with numerous tiny pin pricks prior to the oil wash.

 

Getting the main paint colours right was tricky as all my ref pics had different lighting levels.  I still don't think it is quite right. 

 

Tried to mix the purple/mauve from red/blue/white but failed miserably so ended up buying Tamiya purple and fading it with a little white.

 

The dark green colour is a mix of Tamiya Deep Green, Grass Green & Light Blue.

 

The green camo on the wings is a mix of Olive Drab, Deep Green, Grass Green & White.

 

Pale green on the nose a pix of Tamiya Cockpit Green, Deep Green and White.

 

Underside of top wing is the good ole 5 colour lozenge camo.  I'm going to try to print that as decals on a laser printer.

 

The Maltese cross on the fuselage and the tail numbers were painted over in green at the museum.  I applied the fuselage crosses from the Airfix kit and painted over them show they would show through ever so slightly, but the decals are not as thin as I'd thought and are a little raised.  May remove them and spray them on, or may let sleeping dogs lie.  Have not done the tail codes yet, which will also be barely visible under the green.  May try to cut masks on my Cricut for those.

 

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10 hours ago, thommo said:

 

Oh dear.  I've not really looked at that.  Any clues?

Hi thommo,

if you look at photos of the real plane, you will notice that the undercarriage leg goes between the lower wing and the fuselage and rests on the fuselage side.

Airfix has stopped the leg under the wing.

Most people do not notice that, so you may decide not to change anything.

Your model.

 

Great progress so far!

JR

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4 hours ago, jean said:

Hi thommo,

if you look at photos of the real plane, you will notice that the undercarriage leg goes between the lower wing and the fuselage and rests on the fuselage side.

Airfix has stopped the leg under the wing.

Most people do not notice that, so you may decide not to change anything.

Your model.

 

Great progress so far!

JR

 

Yes, I did actually notice that....but forgot about it as the build progressed.  I think I may still be able to build it that way however.

cheers

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8 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I didn’t realise it was such a distinctive colour scheme (despite your pictures above, shame on me). A bit sad that the wood is mainly on the bottom, it is lovely!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

I was thinking exactly the same re the wood!

 

Yes, the colour scheme is insane.  It seems the AWM repainted it.  And for some reason they left on aerilon with a lozenge camo on the SB side, but not on the port side????  I also think I'll tone it down a bit with a flat clear.

 

The Airfix Maltese Cross decals are not quite right either. Perhaps the AWM repainted those too with a thicker white outline going all the way around (the kit decals have a thinner white outline & it does not extend to the 4 ends of the crosses).  I may have to cut some masks on my Cricut & spray those on the tail & wings.

 

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The Maltese Crosses were (mostly) sprayed on after cutting masks on the Cricut Machine based upon a scan of the decals.  I use Artists Frisket for the masking material.  Expensive, but good for fine work.

 

Who knew that simply reducing the size of the external white mask by 1.5mm in Design Space to create a mask for the internal black section would not work as the outer dimensions would be too short compared to the inner dimensions?  Thus commenced much manual manipulation of the shapes using the clunky Design Space software, test spraying, test fitting, repeating ad nauseum until it was more or less right.

 

The largest crosses on the upper wing are a bit too much inboard as I used the Airfix instructions to position the masks and spray, then later looked at pics of the AWM plane again & realised the AWM had repainted them in a more outward position.  But by then, it was going to stay that way!

 

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The inner black of the underwing crosses are actually trimmed decals from the kit, because at that stage I had not worked out how to solve the fit problem in Design Space.  But then I solved it for the other crosses & hence sprayed the inner black.

 

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