Here are just a couple of pics of a Roden 1/72 Albatros D.II I am trying to get finished for a model show here in town. It will be my first submission to a contest!
I still have to do the struts and rigging which scares the buh-jeebus out of me!
Thanks for looking!
Mike
OK, now THIS is more like it! I love those stringbags, and we don’t see a whole lot of 'em on these forums. Very nice work, Mike. I like how you did the wood grain on the fuselage - and the other camo colors look very good too. What paints did you use?
Yeah, I have really taken a shine to the stringbags myself. I have an Airfix Albatros D.V I am working on and then I think I am either going to do another Albatros(Encore models which looks suspiciously like a Roden mold) or work on a pair of Fokker triplanes(one Eduard and one Encore). I have this idea of working on pairs of the same aircraft(either different manufacturers or doing the same kit but one OOB and one with add ins)I am hoping to abide by in the future.
As for paints, it was quite an eclectic mix. The camo was done with Citadel acrylics, the underside is MM RLM 76, the engine and other details are Delta Ceramcoat, and the fuselage is Delta Ceramcoat with Citadel brown ink stripes and a coat of Future with yellow food coloring in it. Now the food coloring looks great but unfortunately didn’t seem to ‘bind’ with the Future as is has leeched out anywhere water or other paint has hit it. Very odd.
I got the idea for how to do the fuselage from this page:
http://gregers.7.forumer.com/a/airfix-172-albatros-dvafinished_post12772.html
Thanks for the kind words!
Mike
Looks good! Lets see it finished.
Gooks great so far. Can’t wait to see it finished.
Nice job so far, I’ve gotten hooked on WW1 and interwar aircraft recently myself. I’m building Revell’s Albatros DIII right now.
What are you going to do for rigging?
Nice thing about the Fokkers is almost no rigging, I just finished the Revell DR.1 and I think there was a total of 4 wires [:D] the Sopwith Camel and DH2 on the other hand, well there is a reason they have been sitiing wireless. [:XX]
Thanks for the kind words!
As for rigging, I haven’t quite decided but I am leaning towards brass/stainless steel wire. Unfortunately it is going to have to wait as I totally EFFED up the decals on the tail. I was masking some parts to keep some dullcoat off and was not paying attention to what I was doing and masked that and ta da the decals tore off. Grrrr! I am planning on just ordering a second kit and using the decals but I am going to need to do some repair work first. Dang it all to Hades!!
Right now I have switched over to an Airfix Albatros D.V. This one is a fun build as it has some scratch work I did for the cockpit and it is the first kit I attempted rescribing on. I will try and post some pics in a couple of days.
Mike
I’ve been using epoxy and guitar string (0.008" steel wire) for my rigging which seems to be working pretty well. It’s not what I’d call fun but it’s tolerable and rigging the planes does make a big difference in the appearance.
Bummer about the decals, I hate when things like that happen, so close and then you have to wait until you can get new decals to finish.
Great stuff Mike, love those stringbags too! You’re a brave man doing one in 1/72.
Hmmm, I hadn’t even thought about guitar string and I play the darn thing! I may have to look into that. I have some very thin brass wire on hand but it is very delicate and pliable so I am worried about damaging it. It seems like if I even look at it funny it bends! 
Yep the decals thing is a drag but in a strange way it has been a bit of a relief. I was planning on entering the kit in a local show here in AZ and was really rushing to get it done but now I can just relax and go just to nose around the vendor’s tables. I am actually hoping I will run across one of these kits there. On top of that, my wife just had a baby on Wednesday night and now I have a beautiful baby girl to show for it so I think I can live with the problems I have had with this kit! [<:o)]
The guitar string is nice because it is steel, so already silver, and it wants to be straight, so it is hard to kink it unlike most of the softer wires. I use a cheap outside caliper to get the wire into the ballpark, then trim it back as neccessary until it fits right.
Congratulations on the new addition to the family, the ultimate in scratchbuilding. [:D]
Guitar string, even the smallest one, in that scale would be about the size of a half-inch cable… I’d use stretched sprue myself (which is what I use on about every scale of biplane) since that can be pulled out to a size that’s fine as a human hair… You can glue it into place and then tighten it with an incense stick (I’d practice first, it takes a bit of an artist’s touch in that tight a space), and you have an unending supply as well…
I f you look at a 1/72 scale one at the scale distance that you would normally view a real Albatross from, say 20-40 feet, the wires are about invisible… From 4 inches away (the closest that the eye can focus, unaided, on an object, the airplane would be 24 feet away…
For what it’s worth, I used stretched sprue to rig my 1/72 Sopwith Camel, because it’s free and the Revell Germany sprue stretches into very thin diameters. I colored it with either a black permanent Sharpie marker (for the structural cables) or a silver paint pen (for the control cables). Making the doubled-up cables was kinda’ interesting [whstl]