Greetings fellas. Bench time has been somewhat sporatic at this end, but I have been able to make a bit of headway on my Wingnut Wings Albatros D.V, enough to finally share some pics. These are great kits, and I’m doing this one for the “No Aftermarket” GB - and believe me, it doesn’t need any (but I couldn’t resist adding a few scratchbuilt bits here and there). The engine is a mini kiit in itself, and the removable panels will show off plenty of it once the kit is finished. All it needs is some wiring. I took the liberty of removing the molded-on rocker springs and substituted real ones salvaged from defective electrical contacts. The 'pit is out of the box, but I did add a fare share of control cables (using EZ Line), and scratchbuilt the control levers for the starboard console while adding fine solder behind it for the plumbing. Upon examining my pics, I noticed the broken seat support - it has been repaired. I used the kit buckles, but replaced the PE harnesses with ones made from lead foil that was textured by rolling a needle file across it.
Anyway, here’s some pics - good or bad, let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!
Beautiful stuff as usual. Like the additions you are making. Having this kit in the pile… very near the top… I iwll be watching. Can’t wait to see how you do the rigging turnbuckles.
I just use "z"s… That way can call myself a tight-azz…
Yeah, I wish they’d come down too… Or Revell would re-release AND expand their line of 1/28th WW1 birds… 40.00 bucks is what I paid for the D VII in a hobby shop ten-twelve years ago… Still sitting onthat kit, lol… But I managed to pick up two S.P.A.D.s, 2 Dr Is, and a Camel on Ebay a coupe years ago, all in one lot for about 50.00 bucks… Built one of the Dr Is as (who else?) Hans von Hammer’s “Enemy Ace” Triplane… They’re fine kits, especially considering that the original three (Camel, SPAD, and Tripe) are over 50 years old…
But I’m seeing a damn-fine Alby there… Got a few details on how you painted the engine?
Wow! Beautiful work! I saw one of these for $60 at a model show near Toronto last week- was going to buy it- but picked up 3 other kits for less. Maybe next time.
Many many thanks for the kind words, fellas! They sure are appreciated! [Y]
Marc, I have a generous supply of fine brass tubing purchased from Lion Roar, rigged up a cutting jig from one I saw online, and will use that to cut all the brass parts to a uniform size. Thin strands of electrical wire and EZ Line should seal the deal - sounds good in my head at least - we’ll see what happens when I put the plan into action.
Hans, the parts breakdown of the engine made it a snap to paint. The block was done in Alclad II aluminum, while the heads (seperate parts) were painted MM flat black. Brass colors were done by mixing Pollyscale brass with Vallejo bronze to tone it down a little. The wash is an oil / turpenoid mix (which I’ll never use again - took forever to dry!). For drybrushing, a mix of MM silver and burnt umber was used, and all other weathering was done with either ground-up pastels or MM neutral grey.
Wow…very nice…I’d love to pick one of these up, but the price has kept me away, as well. Maybe sometime down the road. I look forward to following this WIP.
Well, whether it took a while to dry or not, the engine is just flat stunning… The real D V Alby may have been a bit of pig, but yours is a real beauty…
Marc, I’ll be using 0.5mm tubing, cut to lengths of about 4mm using a jig (I’ll post some pics of the jig later). Fine electrical wire will then be twisted around a small drill bit (#76 maybe - not sure of the size yet) creating an eye. The tail of this piece will be cut to about 6mm and slipped into the tube, which may have to be drilled out a bit to fit it. The 2mm extending from the tube will be glued to the model, with EZ Line then fed thru and glued to the eye of the buckle.
Good evening gents, and thanks again for all your kind words. Means a lot!
Been able to make more headway on the Albatros over the past few days, to the point where she’s starting to actually look like an aircraft (and less like a beached whale according to my wife). The fuselage is all buttoned up, lower wings, landing gear, & all struts and flaps have been attached. All fit like an absolute dream - I’m really amazed at how well these kits are engineered…very little tweeking involved to get the proper alignment.
A dry fit of the upper wing, and no fit issues at all in what is one of the more fiddly issues with bipes…
PE on the guns, ready for paint. Annealling is a crucial step in getting these to behave properly…
Thanks again for looking fellas, and as always, critiques good or bad are always OK.
Been burning the midnight oil trying out a few methods for replicating the turnbuckles, and after a few tries, hit on one. It involved the following tools (pictured below) - a pin vise with the shank of a #72 bit in it, a 4-jaw exacto chuck, 0.5mm brass tubing, and individual strands of wire stripped from a computer ribbon cable…
Started by cutting a 1" length of the wire, doubled it over and clamped the ends into the 4-jaw chuck. Then, looped it over the bit shank and twisted it until it was tight. I had previously cut 5mm lengths of brass tubing by rolling it back & forth under a #11 blade. I opened up the cut ends with the tip of the blade and passed the twisted end through tube. A small drop of thin CA at one end sealed the deal. I just need to trim the pigtails down to about 2mm and they’ll be done - then I need to make about 50 more ( and I wonder why we don’t see many biplanes on this forum [;)] ).
Wow Mike, I’m not normally a fan of these birds but your build is fantastic!! The PE work on the machine guns looks amazing! The plan on the turnbuckles is ingenious as they look the part!
