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WnW AEG G.IV sharkmouth / Finito!


karimb

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Well boys and girls,

this build got a bit sidetracked between the PB debacle, my never ending flights and life in general... i haven't really had a chance to update everyone on where the build has gotten to this point so here it is albeit a bit late, AND out of the hotel room in Madrid... 

Work on the AEG has continued but at a slower pace. With the fuselage, wingstubs and engines done, the major component of the build are basically done, although alot more work remains. Those things can be done at a slower pace... This is the longest build i have undertaken timewise, and i am glad my interest and desire to see it through hasn't yet waned, i got an eye on the F2b after this one though...

One of the problems of far apart updates is you tend to somewhat forget the little things so lets see if i can remember everything...

As a general note, the engine have now been permanently glued to the bottom wing stubs, the bottom wing stubs completely decaled and satin coated, the interplane struts between the engines and the fuselage painted detailed and rigged, the top struts with the prop guards modified and painted, the top middle section of the wing painted, the N struts painted and satin coated, the generator that sits on a strut from the propguard to the top wing starboard side (as is a field mod for white VII) scratchbuilt and the props painted...alot of stuff indeed done...

Let's see how we're going to break this down...

 

The inner struts with the gravity fuel tank and prop guards - The kit struts come with the prop guards molded on. Both struts get joined and then you slip on the gravity fuel tank. Nothing wrong with the propguards, but i find the actually propguard wires were molded much too thick. If you look at reference photos, you will notice the wire guards are quite thin and most of the time get bent and dented... out come the RB photoetch mini saws. I very carefully cut the horizontal bars off the kit part and was left with the outermost frame. Now the problem is if you want to drill holes to replace the rods with wires it will be extremely difficult and you would have to be superhuman to be able to do that so i did the next best thing. I had marked where the rods attached to the frames with a marker pen, and on the inside i just ran a saw a couple of runs to leave a deep enough indentation. i did the same on both sides of the frame. I then CAed 0.15 fishing mono and left a couple of runs a bit slack to make them look like bent guard rods. On the top of the struts i drilled a hole on each in order to later on insert the fuel lines that run up to the gravity fuel tank and which are quite visible in the reference photos. I told you guys the aft strut on the starboard side was bent with no stress marks or difference in color of the styrene so i take it was a dud. I did not check the other AEG i have in the stash, and found the fix was easier than i expected, i just ended up slowly dunking the part in hot water, not as hot as i would for fixing resin, but hot enough to straighten out the strut permanently. for the gravity tank, i chipped the paintcoat by brush after preshading and mottling the topcoat. Glued the fuel pipes in the two small holes i had drilled where the fuel valves go, and weathered the tank with oils... The two fuel gages got their decal dials which were then topped with micro crystal clear for simulating glass faces

 

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The interplane struts between the engines and the fuselage - Not for the faint hearted. This part of the build was quite tricky, specially when it came to the rigging. First of all i added the front piping that is also very much present on the reference photos. I used lead soldering wire of 0.5mm over which i rolled a crosshatch sanding file to indent the crosshatch texture, then fixed it on the front of the strut and used very soft lead sheeting for the clamps. I also managed to break two of the struts while manhandling them during weathering and painting and ended up inserting a very thin copper wire to be able to add some rigidity to the joints where those broke. The rigging is a real beast on this area, a nice challenge which was very enjoyable, but definitely not recommended for a first time biplane builder (sounds a bit like Ernie's advice on the Felixstowe!). The space is very tight, the parts are quite fragile until the whole rigging has been linked and pulled and there is alot of possibilities to make it all go wrong. I pre rigged the inboard part of the struts. All of the rigging points have an 'end' except for the aft outboard one that has only one indent for an eyelet so i had to run a line from inboard to that point, then from that point up to the top inner wing, and that same eyelet has to be shared with the crossbracing right below the engine. All other rigging point have an indent for two separate eyelets. i tried to did deeper to find if this was the case on the real aircraft but my search came out empty handed. Doesn't matter if you used one eyelet for the termination of two lines or two separate eyelets for the termination of two lines as long as all the rigging is there and is in the correct direction and connected to the correct points. I have no specific photos to show that area itself but will post photos at the end of this update which show them in place. The mating of the engines to the struts is good and once all has been glued and after you tighten the rigging, the areas is solid as a rock, even with me using EZline for the rigging. Very happy and impressed about how solid the assembly turned out to be...

The struts were preshaded and painted and the chipping was done freehand with a brush. Weathering was done with oils and all locked in with a satin coat.

 

The wing stubs to fuselage assembly - To be honest there is nothing really to be told about this area except everything fits extremely well and very solidly. I satin coated the whole fuselage and lower wing assembly before installing the struts and engines. I also added the two lower fuel pipes that run from the fuselage to the wing on the starboard side. Weathering in that area was done with pigments to make it look dirty and dusty. Also removed the masking from the bottom gunner window. The horizontal and vertical stabilisers where decaled and satin coated and the rudder was weathered with oils and pigments and all locked in with a satin coat and then a very random coat of flat over the areas that received the pigments to show a difference. The vertical and horizontal stabilisers still haven't been glued to the fuselage and won't be until i feel it's late enough in the build for me not to break or damage anything. I also used random patches of lozenge decal to simulate patchups on some areas of the leading edges and sides, randomly.

 

The props - The AEG white VII is a strange one, it has two different props, with different rotation directions. One is a Wolff prop which turns counter clockwise on the starboard side, and the other one is a Behrend which rotates clockwise... I decided to use two different techniques for the props first to give them different finishes, and second in order to show you guys what the less used pencil technique looks like. Now just as a general headsup, i use four different ways usually to do my props, four techniques, some mainstream some much less. The least mainstream one is the coloring pencil technique which alot of people find difficult or just plain dont like. One of the pictures will show you a compendium of three, the photo with the RB prop lamination photo. Top of the photo is the lamination paint jig, the first prop on top has the lamination done with plotted masks on the silhouette, the one in the middle is the RB template airbrushed one, and the bottom one is the AEG one with two different beige sand color coats on. This also illustrates how much bigger the prop is from standard German single seat fighter prop.

Let's start with the Wolff prop. The prop got coated with desert yellow in the middle and wooden deck tan on the tips. I used the oil technique for the woodgraining, using different oil types and used blitzdry as a chemical drier. on this prop i did not want to do any lamination so it would look different from the work i was about to start on the Behrend prop. The Behrend prop got the same treatment but with buff for the coat, and the outer airbrushed coat was also wooden deck tan... now things are different. Once the paint coats are dry throughout i pull out my coloring pencil box. This technique is a bit harder than the oil graining because it is a bit harder to master correctly. I always keep the spare props from old kits to practice on. The goal is to be able to colour in the laminations and by varying the colours of the pencils you can actually draw the woodgrain on. Also this gives you the opportunity to basically draw the laminations the way you want them to look and to draw the black line that runs between laminations resulting from some of the gluing process on the actual wooden props of that era. I always very lightly draw the shape of the laminations, DO NOT push very hard down as a sharp pencil tip will just eat into the paint and you will be left with bare plastic. Slowly build up the browns from lightest to darkest colours you will want to be using for the coverage and for the graining. it will all look very harsh at that point, but keep going by also varying the surface area of the pencil tip to vary the coverage and graining of the pencils... Repeat the same process for the yellow, tan or whichever other color you decide to use for the different lamination colouring. I know some people who just gloss coat on top of that, but i add a layer of thinned oils, like a wash to just bring everything together.

The Wolff prop got a coating of clear yellow, the Behrend prop got a coat of yellow and orange clear coat mix.

Once all the processes were dry and solidly anchored in, i added a coat of future by brush to the areas the prop logos went on and once dry i added the decals. The props were also a testbed for the MRP 2K ultra gloss coat and i must say those things shine like mirrors now lol. I left the gloss coat to dry on both proper for two days (during which i was flying) and when back the hubs were painted and detailed with metallic gray and the retaining nuts with brass. Pinwashed the hubs, and job done!

 

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The extra generator - First time i find wingnut wings have omitted something from their kits, I do not know if it's an omission, or if the extra generator hasn't been confirmed so they left it out, but it does show in some of the reference material i have and is also illustrated in the painting and decaling sketches at the end of the instruction booklet. It might have been an infield mod which is most probably the case, so the infield mod require and onbench mod too. I used styrene rod from the Evergreen stash which i cut to size. To give the back of the generator the curved look i chucked the rod in the dremmel and used a low rotation setting while using my sanding pad to form the part. To that part i added stretched sprue to look like tie down clamps and then added the base bar that will attach the generator to the strut and a generator guard made from brass rod which i rounded on a dowel. The generator propeller was a hard one to do but turned out well at the end. I cut the prop shape from a thin sheet of styrene, and then slowly bent the blades to make it look like the camber and curve of a prop. All very tiny stuff to work on. Once the bends were done, i just slathered tamiya extra thin on the prop blades and left them to cure and lock in the shape into the part. I added a resin Verlinden nut to the tip to make it look like the tightening bolt that holds the prop on the generator assembly. I painted the whole assembly in interior gray green, and drilled a whole in the back of the generator main body so i can insert a wire into it at a later stage to make it look like the electrical connection. The prop was painted tan and then clear orange was dragged across to leave a bit of graining effect. More work is to be done on the generator like adding some stencil decals from the spares box and a wash, and painting the protecting guard in black. More work will be done on the generator, and i will have to find a way to scratch build something that loosely resembles an aerodynamic strut so i can get the generator glued on to...

 

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Well, thats pretty much the things that have been worked on and completed up to now. The don't look like alot but they indeed took quite a while to get completed, specially between flights and other things i had to attend to. 

As we speak the top center wing has been painted and shaded and has had the coat of gloss put on. it is drying while i am on layover tonight and i will attend to it and hopefully get it decaled on the 8th during the day by first polishing it with micromesh. Again i am at a junction where some stuff needs to be completed for me to be able to move onto something else, so hopefully once the top wing has been decaled and satin coated we can move on with linking the rigging from the engine boxes to the top and then i can start work on the bomb load and bomb release assemblies which will also need modification, or lets say embellishment work done. Once those are done, i will install the gear which has already been assembled and painted (minus the wheels and minus weathering), install the stabilisers and then on with the main outer wings and all that is related to that... yes still need to remember the gun rings and guns themselves, and i am planning on scratchbuilding the bomb aiming sight based on the wingnut wings part since it's a bit too thick and not as detailed as i would want it to be...

 

 

Below some photos of the AEG with the props just placed. You can see them with the 2K gloss coats which wasn't on the previous photos and the top wing just placed for the photos along with the top struts which are not glued in yet until i finish the top wing decaling and glue those to the top wing assembly...

I hope you guys enjoy the update and i am glad we are back in business through SM...

Thanks guys for checking in.... looking forward to your opinions and ideas!

Stay safe and happy modeling everyone!

Karim

 

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Karim,

      There are so many excellent points of detail here...

The leather combing, the propeller guards, the propellers themselves....and may others....

I cannot fathom how you can lead such a busy and mobile lifestyle and still be placid enough to create something so utter lifelike.

 

I'm just amazed!  Thank you for sharing.

 

Gaz

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fortunately you sorted out your pics posting, Karim !

 

It would have been a shame to miss these ! :bow: :bow: :bow:

 

Hubert

 

Hubert, thanks for leaving a word. i am relieved too that i managed to get that sorted out lol... i am glad you guys are enjoying the build too

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Gorgeous!

 

How did you shade the leather areas?  Airbrush?

 

Kurok yes, the shading of the leather was done with airbrush and the whole thing received an oil filter on top to blend everything in...very thinned airbrushed colours to lightly build up the opacity

Thanks for leaving a word!

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Karim,

      There are so many excellent points of detail here...

The leather combing, the propeller guards, the propellers themselves....and may others....

I cannot fathom how you can lead such a busy and mobile lifestyle and still be placid enough to create something so utter lifelike.

 

I'm just amazed!  Thank you for sharing.

 

Gaz

 

Gaz my friend, 

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a word on the build thread... i think i have been too placid lately in posting any updates so you guys will have to excuse me for such a late posting...i blame all the flying and the stuff i have to attend to in everyday life, and of course second and to a much lesser degree my laziness  :whistle:

I hope tonight's update will be interesting!

thanks again

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Well guys good evening!

Sorry i haven't really updated you for a while now, i think almost a month, as i have been extremely busy with the flying and some other things i have to attend to. Flying is a very fickle mistress as it sometimes takes alot of your time, and sometimes you stand there idle for a whole week. Staying idle for the past 5 days is what has happened to me, so more work on the AEG and time for an update. In all actuality work has never stopped, but just nothing substantial enough to deserve an update, now it is different. Strange how ww1 aircraft seem to jump leaps, one instant you're there with a myriad subassemblies waiting to be completed, and one instant once you get them all placed together the thing looks like it's leaping for the finish line. I am at a point in the build where it sure does look like it now, although there is always more to be attended to, or remaining to be complete.

I think we have got to a stage where the aircraft per se is 'complete', minus the 4 outer wings and all the rigging, otherwise this thing looks like the real deal!

 

Since our last update, i have completely scratchbuilt a new bombsight, finished all the bomb-load, attached the upper middle wing section and rigged it, attached the undercarriage and wheels, and rigged those assemblies, completely scratchbuilt the auxiliary generator and strut, modified the auxiliary artificial horizon and finished the parabellum LMG 14/17s, so let's start with a brief description of each item, with the photos posted in the following threads.

Again i apologize if i forgot any pertinent items , as i mentioned in a previous post it is sometimes difficult for me to remember everything, and i blame no one other than myself for that...

 

The middle upper wing section - No surprises there, wingnut wings fabulous. I was a bit worried the struts would remain fragile after installation and that i would have to somehow stress the structure to get everything to fit, but no. The top fuel 'hump' was initially coated with titanium silver, then worn effects fluid airbrushed and then the green blue topcoat. That section was chipped as it is a metallic assembly and i would have thought probably handled by the mechanics. The cookie cut Aviattic decals worked a treat, a real drop fit after having copied the template and plotted the aviattic decals on the silhouette. Now one thing did indeed happen. First time around i gloss coated with MRP gloss, left it a couple of days to dry, then polished with the usual micromesh treatment. After applying the decals and letting them dry overnight, i noticed the dreaded hazing showing up below them in some areas, like staining. Cussed and cussed... I sometimes don't feel comfortable changing my routine, and this was one of those times, i should have either better polished the MRP gloss or laid down a thicker coat, either way the result was this. I decided to remove the decals and regloss. This time i used my tried and trusted AK Gauzy shine enhancer which i laid down in my usual manner, let it dry for 24 hours and then polished. The silhouette plotter went to work again on a new sheet of Aviattic lozenges and the decals laid down beautifully as they always do, no hazing, nothing. I haven't worked out where the process went wrong, wether i misused the MRP glosscoat or if i didnt polish enough. The main struts with the gravity fuel tank slotted in place in the middle of the wing with no fuss at all and i used the thicker tamiya glue as it does seem to have a stronger bond on larger surfaces. Rigging eyelets were then CAed into the predrilled eyelet holes. i initially glued the center struts and the upper wing to the fuselage and then glued the outer struts into the outer locating pegs. Once the whole assembly was set and  bonded, i proceeded with the rigging. The rigging is quite straightforward when it comes to rigging the top wing to the bottom wing. I added Bob's buckles to the middle point of the center struts without actual eyelets to make it look like tensioners that are visible in the reference pictures i have at hand. I used EZline for the rigging that i pulled taught. Once the whole assembly was properly rigged and bonded, you can lift and handle the whole fuselage by just grabbing the top wing. Who would have thought, just goes to show the rigging plays the same role as in the actual aircraft in making all the structure solid and coherent even to the point of lifting the whole structure from the top wing.

 

The bomb-load - Wnw recommends from the archive photos they have to load White VII with two 100kg PuW on the middle racks and four 50Kg PuW bombs two on either underwing attachment points. The way the bombs are split in two parts, with the molded on rivet detail makes it hard to sand the joint clean without completely destroying the molded on details, so i decided again to completely sand them clean and then rebuild the riveting using Micromark resin rivets. A touch of MS500 helped the joint line completely disappear under sanding and polishing. Once the sanding and polishing was complete i airbrushed a basecoat of sand to have a layer of paint onto which the rivet decals would bite. I used two different patterns of rivets from the micromark HO scale sheet that best resembled the previously molded on details. Solvaset made them conform and melt into the basecoat superbly. After that i used the salt chipping technique and airbrushed the light blue on top, which left me with well defined chipping, too well defined to my taste. I remedied by airbrushing thin coats of light blue on top until the harshness of the chipping was subdued. The priming heads were painted Mr metal brass and everything coated with MRP satin. For weathering, i built up a layer of earth tones with the airbrush, then used oils for general grime and dirt from handling of the bombs. Lastly, different washes of brown were used to highlight the details, and lead and coloured pencils were used for general scuff marks and dings and dents.

The bomb racks were also a straightforward step, i painted the chipping by brush using flat aluminium over a coat of green blue. If you look well enough through the reference photos you will notice one side of center racks have a small extension to which each of the forward 3 pulley assemblies has a line running. I suspect the lines run to the forward kanzel straight to the bomb releases toggles. I added the two extensions from styrene rod to which i added the wire runs from EZline going through the pulley systems forward of the center bomb rack. I also added for the center bomb racks bomb retaining wires but found them to be too fiddly on the wing bomb racks so i omitted those there. The bombs have no positioning 'step' or anything so make sure you place the bombs at the same position on either sides and in the middle. I also took the opportunity to install two drain pipes from the bottom of the fuselage fuel tanks which i fashioned out of cut lengths of albion brass tubing and they are clearly visible and add a nice touch of authenticity to that section.

 

The landing gear and tires - Since i am modeling White VII with a full bomb-load i have opted for the weighted tires. Thank you wnw for the nice touch of including those in the kit. I have used my 'magic formula' for the color of the tires, which i find is extremely close to natural rubber with no pigmentation. The mix for those who are interested is two parts of XF19 to one part of buff, and you come out with this grayish color that has a tinge of beige just like the real thing. The center wheel covers were painted beige and glossed. I used the silhouette plotted wheel decals i had prepared and they conformed beautifully to the somewhat conical shape of the covers. For the weathering i used oils for a general wash and then used pigments and sealed everything in pigment fixer. The gear assemblies themselves are also very straightforward. Make sure you are VERY careful during their assembly as i broke one strut off and had to reglue it and blend it in using a brass rod as reinforcement. I also added part of the retaining wires that were installed in order to keep the axle from falling or breaking free during landings on on takeoffs. The retaining wires were left unpainted and are made of soldering wire of 0.5. In afterthought they look a bit thick but i can live with that. Once the assemblies are carefully slotted into the lower wings, and rigged the whole structure becomes very sturdy and i was again amazed at how solid it all felt (nothing remotely close to the landing gear of say an albatros or a DVII!!). The landing gear assembly and lower wing area above those assemblies have yet to be weathered with pigments and oils to depict staining and dust that would have been thrown up by the aircraft rolling on the ground.

 

The Auxiliary generator and strut - The generator itself was previously built and prepared. I painted the generator in gray green and a decal added from the spare box. The strut was fashioned from evergreen strips which i layered and sanded into an aerofoil shape. quite the headache to get the section to look like an aerofoil... I then measured the length from the front guard to the top wing with my digital calipers, cut the strut to length, glued the generator to the strut, added the wiring from the back of the generator and ran it down the strut, added a strip of aluminium sheet as a bracket and installed the assembly... looks exactly like the reference photos. I am just surprised wnw didnt include those parts in the kit as they are very prominent in the reference photos of White VII itself. It's no problem at all though as it takes basic scratchbuilding skills to get the assembly made!

 

The Auxiliary artificial horizon - Wingnut wings provides you with the part and it is very well made, one thing of note, after trying to look really well through my references, i couldn't find wether the back of the artificial horizon had the molded on gaping hole or not. In the interest of hiding it, i ended up adding some mesh from the spares box to cover it and at the same time show a shadow of a cavity being there. I didnt have to add any wiring as the part itself has a molded on wire that runs from the instrument down the strut to the side struts. The decal behaved very well and was coated with micro crystal clear to simulate glass.

 

The bombsight - As you will see in the photos below, the wingnut wings bomb sight is not bad at all. It would take very well to enhancements on the other hand. I decided to completely scratchbuild this part. I started off with doing a template of the shape of the part and cutting it out of styrene thin sheeting. I then added layers of styrene sheets to build up the top part of the bombsight and added a 'button' that shows in the very rare photos i was able to get of it (this bombsight has very very very little information floating around, even looking through the windsock publications!!). Behind the part, i then added two square rods of styrene to depict the bars that would attach the apparatus to the attachment legs that extend to the fuselage (which wingnut wings didn't mold into their part). I added a strip of aluminium into which i punched 0.6mm holes using my RB punch and die set to simulate the aiming 'rod' the commander used. A retaining wire was made using EZline to hold the aiming rod down, and another retaining wire was added that goes from the 'button' to the back of the bomb sight as per the photos. The attachment legs were made out of lead sheeting which i bent and CAed to the rods on the back of the bombsight. The main body of the bombsight was painted and woodgrained and overcoated with clear orange to give it a contrasting color to the fuselage behind it. Details were picked out in black, aluminium and metallic gray and the bombsight installed on the right side of the fuselage. It adds A LOT to the general feel of the kit and only took me a couple of hours to build. If anyone is considering scratchbuilding anything on the AEG exterior, this would come as a first, and the auxiliary generator as second. You guys tell me what you think when you see the photos... i am very very happy with the outcome of that bit!

 

The paras LMG 14/17 and their mounting rings - The kit parts have no issues at all, but i have decided early in the build to go for the beautiful Master brass barrels. The photoetch parts that you have to install on the barrels are MINUTE and i had to pull out the optivisor to get the PE bending and gluing done. The barrels took two nice long baths in UVDR brass burnishing liquid which turned them into beautiful gun metal color. The kit LMGs were modified to take the barrels and painted in tamiya gun metal. Once complete, i painted the stocks in sand and used oils for the woodgraining, Blitzdry helped get those dry in a couple of hours and i overcoated the stocks with a mix of clear orange and clear yellow at a ratio of 50/50. The barrels were then glued to the gun bodies, and the gun bodies received a heavy wash of AK shaft and bearings wash which cut the sheen and made it look very much closer to the barrels. Once dry i sealed everything in with a coat of satin on the main body and added a pin wash on selected areas. The magazines were painted black and drybrushed with iron. The rod that connects the front of the LMGs to the magazines was added using EZLine (very useful!).

The mounting rings were initially painted titanium silver and then i airbrushed worn effects over them. I then airbrushed a coat of olive green and chipped it. I also added two wires that run from the two 'brake handles' on the front left of each elevation assembly on the rings ( i am still trying to figure out what those 'break handles' are used for)and ran the wires down the elevation rod assembly that slips into the bottom of the rotating ring. The two leather pads on each of the gun rings were painted using the AK rust set. Weathering was done using oil washes and scratches and dents were simulated using a lead pencil and coloured pencils to accentuate areas of green gray and metal.

 

Well ladies and gents, that's pretty much it for the update. the more i wrote the more i am sure i have forgotten to mention some details so i do apologize again. Next up is painting the outer wings, gloss coating them, decaling them and then we start with the final rigging, and the final weathering that will bring everything together. I have forgotten to mention the elevator and rudder, specially the weather i did on the bottom of the rudder using crackle medium to get the nice dry mud effect!

 

 

Till our next update i hope you all stay safe, have a good time and happy modeling!

Karim

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