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Big Metal Birdy - Wingnut's new Steel Dove (Stahltaube)


seiran01

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I put my barely-started FE-2 on hold to start WNW's new Taube as soon as she landed on my doorstep last Monday. Here's how she's looking at the moment with the cockpits (minus harnesses) completed.

 

The engineering in this one is a little strange to me, as some flanges for rigging the internal structure are molded with the frame pieces, and others are molded with the inside of the fuselage. One flange on the right side is missing completely; it's not too visible so I just glued the wires where they would go and painted over the end to resemble the flange shape.

 

Paint scheme will be option C in the kit - overall field grey with comically oversized crosses on the wings

 

Rigging : EZ Line

 

Wood grain: AK Rust Streaks (enamel wash) over satin white, thinned clear yellow-orange gloss coat on top.

 

Seats: At some point every Tamiya clear paint was used in preshading, along with black and brown washes. Thin coat of Mr Paint red wood sprayed over that, another wash, clear flat coat, and finally some white dry brushing.

 

Aluminum panel squiggles - There are some nicer ways I've seen done, but this was simply WNW's recommended base of X11 enamel chrome silver, with XF16 enamel flat aluminum thinned and brushed on for the squiggles.

 

Note how the squiggles are lighter and darker than the base metal coat, depending on the angle of the lighting. This mimics the appearance on the real aircraft.

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The fuselage is quite wide, meaning that a lot of the rigging and other details can be seen around the seats and behind the pilot.  It's wide enough that you could put a sofa on the gas tank and fit two passengers side by side

 

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Ooof... man that hand painted leather padding around the cockpit openings looks awful!  That's just there to make sure I have the whole thing covered, that leather will have much closer attention paid to it once the fuselage is glued together and any seams taken care of.

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Inspirational work!

 

Funny, I was just about to start another Fe-2b (Early).   I'm a bit stalled on the AEG--big project, big airplane.  Plus I needed to wait for some resin bits.

 

Then this showed up.

 

Good tips on the rigging--some WNW kits will have limited visibility, but not these older than old school ones!

 

Keep it up,

 

Tim W.

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Thanks Tim,

 

It seems like the "hole" for the engine cylinders is also large enough that internal rigging and "squiggles" will be visible on the interior of the engine bay. So much for taking shortcuts in the nose :P

 

Strangely WNW do not mention the "high detail" cylinder option for the Argus engine despite these parts being included on the sprue - strange because other kits with similar engines do mention it. It's these cylinder halves I've used and will add the pushrods with wire. 

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Alrighty, the Argus engine is done on this one! Lost the two little cyinders that attach to the carburetor but luckily these cannot be seen once this is all sealed up in the fuselage. Onto the seatbelts now and then I can finally close this one up.

 

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Mike,

Superb update(s)... engine looks very nice, and as you mentioned there is the high detail one (they also don't mention this in most of their kits, but a bit of digging most of the time ends up with the parts on the sprue). There is alot that can be done on the kit from what you have showed us, the rigging and all!

I keep going back taking a peek in the box of the Taube and reckon i will wait till you finish yours before i start on mine!

looking forward to your next update!

Karim

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