1:48 Eduard - Albatros D.III

[shortCummins]

This will be my next effort...


Looks like a nice simple little kit...




The kit provides 5 different schemes, I’ll have to make my mind up between these two


Although this looks like a simple kit its not without its challenges not least of which will be the rigging and painted wood effect.

To help with the wood effect I’ve got hold of a couple of PE stencils from RB Productions, I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out.



until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Avgas]

Good luck. I did this one a couple of years ago. Nothing untoward other than the usual lining up the top and bottom wing biplane nightmare.

[shortCummins]

Good luck. I did this one a couple of years ago. Nothing untoward other than the usual lining up the top and bottom wing biplane nightmare.

thanks Dave

I've spent the morning working on the kit and so far I'm quite impressed (mainly with the machine guns)

[shortCummins]

As I mentioned to Dave(Avgas) I’ve spent some time on the build this morning and I must say the PE for the two machine guns really makes a difference...




after a coat of burnt iron

I’ll probably give this a light mist of flat black as its a bit too metallic for my licking

I’ve also started on the engine



I’ve found some photos of the 160k Mercedes D.IIIa engine, on the Wingnut Wings website , so I’ll probably add a little extra detail to the engine, not that it needs much.

Also made a start on the cockpit, well the “wood” for the interior.
Rather than show the similar steps on multiple bits of plastic, here’s the process on one piece.
First I used white Ultimate primer and then gave it a coat of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow. After that dried I used one of the RB stencils and sprayed a light coat of Vallejo Model Color 70.828 woodgrain

I then spayed several light coats of Vallejo Game Air 72.763 Desert Yellow to tone down the woodgrain effect

I then sprayed two or three light coats of Mr Hobby H92 Clear Orange


I still need to weather and varnish these “stencilled” bits but I’ll wait until my “hand painted” sidewalls et al have been done before I do that.



until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Avgas]

Great job on the wood. I really like the Vallejo Woodgrain. Have you noticed it says 'Wookgrain' on the side?

[gustavlekstal]

Looks very interesting! Keep up the good work!

[shortCummins]

Great job on the wood. I really like the Vallejo Woodgrain. Have you noticed it says 'Wookgrain' on the side?

ha ha, I think that must have been mentioned to them as it now been corrected and says woodgrain

Looks very interesting! Keep up the good work!

thanks Gustav, its a nice kit (so far)

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Time to try my hand at faking wood
after a coat of Tamiya desert yellow I first made a “wood pattern” with different watercolour pencils, brown, dark brown and green...



then a light misting of highly thinned desert yellow and then a couple of coats of transparent yellow.

here’s what it looks like after a pin wash and some PE fitted


The other side has the front bulkhead and ammo store, some PE switches and a couple of pump/primers with added copper pipes




I’ve been working on the engine




I’ve taken liberties with the copper pipe, I saw this on a museum exhibit, I think that “normally” it would be wrapped in asbestos(?) tape and painted black, but I like the look of the copper!
Also I added spark leads, I’ve left these red as Eduard’s illustrations show red on the engine, although I’ll probably paint them black as that would be more “natural”, I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Still a few bits’n’pieces to finish on the cockpit before I can button up the fuselage

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Twokidsnosleep]

Some great detail work
Love this era of aircraft

[shortCummins]

Some great detail work
Love this era of aircraft

thanks Scott, if this turns out half decent I think I'll try a Wingnut Wings, I believe that their releasing a Sopwith Camel later this year so that could be my Christmas present sorted

[shortCummins]

Finishing up the cockpit
The seat sub-assembly


there should be shoulder straps but I forgot to add them

the engine bolted in


next the seat sub-assembly is added


finally for today the fuselage has been closed



I’ve left off the two machine guns as it should make masking easier, I’ll have to add them after I finished the painting of the fuselage.

So once I’ve cleaner up the seem, tiny, tiny bit of filler needed, I’ll set about the wood panels

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt Oskar Seitz’s aircraft scheme


This means that the tail has a large decal (or several if I decide to use them) so I’ve given it a coat of Ultimate white primer and then tried to give a shaded effect by blowing paint across the tail at 90°


I think it worked quite well, I’m not sure how transparent the decal is so I may have to repeat the process once the decal has been applied?

So next was pre-shading, I used Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown over Ultimate White Primer. I'll be painting each panel separately and hopefully this pre-shading will help demarcate each panel




Once the pre-shading had dried I gave a light(ish) coat of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow




I'm undecided if I should add highlights to the panels, I may end up adding them to some just to create different looks between the panels

Also I’ve started the propellor, a base coat of XF-59 over Ultimate White Primer.


The next step is going to involve a lot of masking and re-masking so I’m going to let this coat fully cure for 2 or 3 days, then I’ll start painting the wood.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Now the wooden fuselage panels, 8 either side, 4 on top and 9 on the bottom, all 29 panels need to be done individually, here’s the method I used...

first the panel(s) were masked...



I used PE stencils from RB Productions to represent wood grain


I’ve used different sections of the stencil(s) to alter the effect

Then I used part of the PE stencil to simulate the wood grain with vallejo model color 70.828 woodgrain



Once the “wood effect” had dried I masked the panels so I could paint the next set


the fuselage side panels un-masked



I’ve still got the top and bottom panels to do

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Top and bottom panels completed.

first the panel(s) were masked...



Once again I used vallejo model color 70.828 woodgrain and the PE stencils



Once the paint had dried I masked the other panels and paint the next set

All of the panels un-masked…





Next I’ll blend all of the panels and overspray with transparent orange.

I’ve also painted the propellor
base coat…


I masked for the darker colour


…and then sprayed the woodgrain


once unmasked I need to do some touch-ups



until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Avgas]

Nice finish on the prop and fuselage looks spectacular.

[Thomas2542]

That is going to look amazing.

[shortCummins]

Nice finish on the prop and fuselage looks spectacular.

That is going to look amazing.

thanks guys

[shortCummins]

I misted over the “wood panels” with a couple of very light diluted coats of Tamiya XF-57 Buff to tone down the wood grain effect and to blend the panels





When all of the panels had been completed they were all given a couple of light coats of Mr Hobby H92 Clear Orange





So thats the basic wood effect, there still needs some weathering and the “metal” parts need some paint.

I’ve also done the propellor using the same methods



until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I realised that I’d missed a wooden panel so I had to put that right, I masked for the “wood effect”…


… and after the dark wood paint had dried I gave the panel a couple of light coats of clear orange


Making a start on the tri-camo’ I first painted the two shades of green and then used some white-tac worms for the “soft-edge”



To continue with the weathering I wanted to mark the ailerons so I masked them.


…and then sprayed a light coat of Tamiya X-19 smoke


these will be toned down with the further weathering

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Today seems to have been taken up with mainly masking, I want to highlight the ribs on the wings so first I needed to cut some masking tape into thin strips


then I sprayed Tamiya XF-57 Buff


Then I resprayed the camo’ colours


with the masking tape removed


I used “cheap” masking tape and its left some residual glue, I’m hoping I can clean it off with some water, I’ll wait 24-48hrs to let the paint fully cure before I try.

I’ve also got to do the same on the underside, I’ll used Tamiya masking tape this time!

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I’ve been working on the underside, I used Tamiya masking tape this time, soooo much better.
First I sprayed some thinned Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown


Then Akan RLM:65 Hellblau, lovely paint track some down a give then a go, you won't be disappointed


and then I removed stripes of masking tape


this has worked so much better on a single colour, I think its far subtler, than the tri-camo.

Now I need to paint the “metal” parts on the fuselage, the mask that comes with the kit doesn’t appear to be much use so I’ll either mask it myself or hand paint the small bits, not sure which I’ll do, probably a bit of both

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Masking the wing radiator?

first I sprayed vallejo model colour 70.801 brass

and then Tamiya XF-16 flat aluminium

also I “hand painted” the metal parts on the fuselage



then I sprayed gloss coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss and applied the decals






I wanted a sneak-peak at how the aircraft will look when the wings go on


One of my cats decided to chew the propellor, I’ll try repairing it, if not I’ll strip the paint and start again.



Next I’ll spray another gloss coat and start the weathering

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Twokidsnosleep]

Feline weathering...interesting technique

[shortCummins]

Feline weathering...interesting technique

I think he learnt it from my puppy who ate my spitfire

[shortCummins]

Working on the weathering.
I started by masking the fuselage and spraying a very diluted Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black




I only sprayed the rear and top of each panel, these photos show them far darker than they appear in real life, however I think I might have over done it, next time I’ll thin the paint even more.

I’ve added a pin wash to the wing radiator(?)



One of the crosses broke apart and I had to hand paint the missing section


I’ve tried to exaggerate the canvas tail ribbing by masking and gently misting more of the thinned black


The wheels were given a pin wash


When I closed the fuselage I lost some detail on the underside, 3 disks, so to replace them I used a leather hole punch and some foil from a wine bottle




Now I need to repaint the propellor and start assembling the aircraft

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Twokidsnosleep]

Hey, I am liking the resourcefulness of the hole pouch trick. Well done
Your weathering is great...much better than the cat's

[shortCummins]

Hey, I am liking the resourcefulness of the hole pouch trick. Well done
Your weathering is great...much better than the cat's

thanks Twokids, the cat's had his name changed to "Cooking Fat"

[strawnobi]

Great work here. I love seeing another WWI build. When I built the WNW Rumpler last year, it was so much fun. I want to build an albatross as well soon. I didn't use stencils for wood grain. But, I like the effect here. So, I might give it a whirl on the next build. I just used the brush streaking technique with enamel. But, on the albatross you have to get specific patterns. So, I like your method better. These birds are such a lesson in history. It looks like your build will be magnificent.

[shortCummins]

Great work here. I love seeing another WWI build. When I built the WNW Rumpler last year, it was so much fun. I want to build an albatross as well soon. I didn't use stencils for wood grain. But, I like the effect here. So, I might give it a whirl on the next build. I just used the brush streaking technique with enamel. But, on the albatross you have to get specific patterns. So, I like your method better. These birds are such a lesson in history. It looks like your build will be magnificent.

thanks strawnobi
this is the first time I've ventured into the WWI era and, so far, I'm really enjoying it, the whole painting process is far slower than WWII aircraft but I'm learning new skills very day, I'll be building more WWI aircraft for sure

unless I hate the rigging

[shortCummins]

Engine masking removed and machine guns added



Someone mentioned that there is a issue with signing up the machine guns, the right hand side one hits the engine block!

The lower wings, tail and rear wings have been added


also the “skid”


The wing joins are a little weak, I’ll have to think of some way to strengthen them

A close up of the tail section



I’ve removed the paint and resprayed Ultimate primer on the propellor, drilled out the exhaust so I need to finish these.
I’ll also spray the aircraft with matt varnish so I can continue the weathering

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[NorthernModeller]

LOVELY

[shortCummins]

LOVELY

thanks, much appreciated

[shortCummins]

I thought I’d give dot-filtering a go as I’ve not tried it before
Brown, dark drown, yellow, white, dark green and lighter green “dots” were added to the tri-camo

…these were then diluted using odourless turpentine and brushed in the direction of the airflow to give a really subtile effect


PE vanes added to the underside of the top wing radiator


I’ve also added the other bits ’n’ pieces to the machine guns


After being used as a cat’s tooth-pick I stripped the paint from the propellor and started again.
After painting a base coat of Mr Hobby Color H27 Tan I marked the outline of each blade on some masking tape

Then I drew my striations on the tape and cut them out

These were then placed on the propellor…

…and then sprayed vallejo 70.828 woodgrain

Removing the masking tape gives us the wood laminations on the propellor

These are then tonnes down by spring a thin coat of H27

And to complete the look, one or two coats of thinned Mr Hobby H92 clear orange


My next task will be to attach the top wing, I need to let the dot wash fully cure for a couple of days before I handle it too much

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking really good mate. I used to be into these WW1 aircraft when I was a lad, inspired by the TV series of the time called Wings. I still like them

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looking great, nearing the finish line

[shortCummins]

Looking really good mate. I used to be into these WW1 aircraft when I was a lad, inspired by the TV series of the time called Wings. I still like them

ha ha, I'd forgotten about Wings, I used to really like it I seem to remember

Looking great, nearing the finish line

I still got to tackle the rigging

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So it was time to attache the top wing
location of the struts was a little tedious, lots of huffing and chuffing!, the way I eventually “solved” the problem was to attach the outer struts and only glue the upper inner struts (with some contacta professional) and roughly position the inner struts and let them dry while balancing the aircraft on some pots of paint, allowing gravity to hold the top wing in the correct place!?


When the contacta glue had set I glued the inner struts to the fuselage with some CA glue
The top wing in position



A close up of some of the chipping I’ve applied to the metal parts of the fuselage, I’ve used my preferred “sponge” method


I need to add a pin wash to the wing radiator

The undercarriage was next, first the supports

…and then the wheels


Next will be the rigging….

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[rodrant]

Very nice work John ! I bought this kit recently and intendo to use Ushi wood decals , your build is stunning in my opinion , great work on the wood effects , great work on all the weathering method , for me it is very nicely done !

Following and good luck with the rigging !

[shortCummins]

Very nice work John ! I bought this kit recently and intendo to use Ushi wood decals , your build is stunning in my opinion , great work on the wood effects , great work on all the weathering method , for me it is very nicely done !

Following and good luck with the rigging !

thanks Antonio, the rigging was OK however I used cheap CA glue, I should have waited until my zap-a-gap arrived

[shortCummins]

I’m calling this one finished.
I used fine EZ Line for the rigging, really easy to use and I’d use that again in a heart-beat.

The kit itself is not a beginners kit, some of the fit is a little vague, no location points, especially in the cockpit and aligning the machine guns is not the easiest. None the less its a nice kit and I’ll certainly be buying some more Eduard 1:48 WWI kits, its just a shame there’s not too many to choose from.
To get the wood effect I used RB Productions PE wood stencils, I mainly used RB-T029 as it has more defined wood patterns. I’m impressed with these stencils, the only problem is being able to see what you’ve just sprayed however after a couple of panels I got the hang of it.
For the rigging I used EZ Line, really easy product to use as its stretchable, I used CA glue to attach one end, cut the line slightly short of the length I needed, then added a spot of CA glue to where I want it and stretched the EZ Line to it and once its set you get a perfect “taut” rigging line.

Talking of rigging, my “go-to” CA would normally be zap-a-gap medium however I must have not replaced the cap correctly because when I came to use it it was solid! So I had to use some £shop CA glue, this was quite thin and dried too quickly meaning that the rigging joins to the wings have become too proud. I’ve ordered some more zap-a-gap and I’ll use that in future, and make sure that the cap is replaced EVERY TIME.
Although I’m really pleased with the wood effects I think I overdid the post-shading, once again lesson learned and it’ll be better next time.

enough waffle, here’s a teaser pic…


you can see the reveal pics here…
http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=19206


until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Twokidsnosleep]

You should be pleased with the wood effects...the wood is absolutely GLOWING and looks spectacular
I can only offer moral support on rigging interested to se what you do

[gazmat]

Looking forward to the rigging.....