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WnW AEG G.IV sharkmouth / Finito!


karimb

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Loving it.......interested to see what the Aviattic stuff looks like when they are on.

 

Regards. Andy

 

Andy, still haven't had a chance to get to town on the decals, i just received today half the 'book-sized' load of decals from Aviattic and the package included the top night lozenge sheets, the lower lozenge sheets are on the way so ill have to wait anyways before starting the decaling. I haven't gloss coated the fuselage yet and am still waiting to do some experimentation to see wether i will do some modifications to the base color for the wings or continue with the base colors i have used on the fuselage... for this i will use strips of loz applied to a palette for comparison. Once i get to that i will post it for you guys so you can get an idea how the underlying colors impact the result with the Aviattic night lozs...

 

Karim 

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Good evening gents!

Long overdue update... well, not overdue as i have been working feverishly on the engines, my favorite part of WWI builds usually, and i was really sick for the past couple of days and was grounded...

Last time i posted i used my phone and i am happy to say today i got the lightbox out and took proper photos for this post. I think i am going to split the post in two regarding the photos as i have taken proper ones of the work done last time and all the in progress and completed photos of the two Mercedes D.IVa engines. I feel kind of sad now that the engines are complete as it is one of the highlights i enjoy most during the builds along with the rigging and the woodworking... A good engine always elevates a build to the next level, and on this one we've got two!

 

The wonderful engines - says it all. I had taken the decision back when i was home in Beirut on days off to add the Taurus Models stuff to the build, which i promptly ordered from Hannants, along with more Taurus stuff for the stash (!!!)

Two days later the stuff arrives at my forwarder and two days later to Doha, right in time for a pickup on the first day i was grounded due to a throat infection... Anyway, next day as you all know i finished repainting the fuselage and the lower inner wings, did the sharkmouth and all and was now completely free to start working on the engines...woohoo!

First thing is did after nipping the crankcase halves off the sprue was to open up the breather holes in the front bottom of the engine case. I initially used a drillbit, then the micro V head on the dremmel and smoothed the inside surface with tamiya extra thin cement. The reference photos i have show a lip around the breather holes, which i didnt try to replicate. I actually thought of doing it with stretched sprue then giving it a bit more body with mr surfacer 500 then blending it in, but at the end i thought the effort vs the result was not really worth waiting for the ms500 to dry etc... Both halves glued together. Make sure guys you dont fill/sand/blend the horizontal seam on the front of the engine as it is visible in real life. I painted the crankcases gloss black and let it dry. Crankcases dry, i generously buffed them up with Uschi's Chrome metallic pigments, which i cant recommend enough (the whole range of them). It has a nice blueish grayish tint to it, and buff up to a superb shine, which of course i will have to kill in the next step. The color tint s really what i was after. I coated the crankcases with future which keeps some of the shine but tones it down. To render old used engines that have seen better days, i used the salt chipping technique. Overcoated the engines with a mist of water, table salt particles and let the concoction dry, over which i airbrushed multiple pre-thinned grays left from previous sessions... toned the shine down and started giving the engines that tired look. Another thing i attended to meanwhile was the induction manifolds. The kit comes with two different types. One has a thicker body than the other (which is the part wnw calls out for in the instruction manual). Since i wanted to wrap my manifolds with asbestos covering, and worried about the total thickness and the fit of the parts afterwards, i decided to use the thinner ones, modified with the induction valve of the part that is called out for in the manual. Nothing major, chop the part at the joint, insert a brass pin for rigidity, link it up with the valve body and done. I wrapped the manifolds with tightly wound tamiya tape cut to size, and overcoated the tape with mister surfacer 1500 black, once half dry dabbing it to give the wrapping texture. The cylinder heads and assembly was what took the longest, specially because of the addition of all the Taurus Models resin bits. i have used the following Taurus parts on the engines, D3206 valves lifters and timing gear, D3201 spark plugs (which might not be the accurate ones but they sure don't look out of place on the engine!) and Aviattic's Mercedes primer cup set. First of all you have to nip off all the moulded on valve springs so you are left with a bank of cylinders. You then have to fill in the two slots that wnw moulded in for the kit camshaft, i used for that evergreen square sprue that was exactly to size. Make sure you drill where the remains of the moulded valves were so you have an idea of where to put the Taurus valves afterwards. Glue the camshaft on the top of the cylinders making sure it is centered and is positioned correctly so you can then join the back engine with the timing gear. Follow the instructions by placing the compressed and extended valve springs in correct position, then the headache starts, the rocker arms are super super fragile. I used a brand new blade to separate them from the pour stub, and i cleaned them best i could by running them on a flat hard sanding stick with my finger... Placing them was also not that easy and i can say i really made good use of the optivisor for two days... its a long repetitive process but it is very rewarding at the end. With the assembly done, flat black was airbrushed overall. The spark plugs were painted white, then their locating holes on the cylinders enlarged and then positioned. I blended them in with a little overspray of flat black to simulate dirt and grime that would be on the engine, while still leaving most of their tips white. The primer cups were also hard to clean up, but what can you say when you are working on micro sized items, it is indeed very hard for the manufacturers to mold them and for us to clean them up well...i did best i could and i think they look quite nice in situ. The cups's body was painted brass from mr metal color and the handles nato brown with not clear color coat. The cups were places between the spark plugs after they locating holes drilled. 

Wiring harness tubes were the kit ones, except i drilled 0.4mm holes at the end of both tubes so i could later insert the wire harnesses from the magnetos. They were painted AK Shadow flesh along with the face of the magnetos. The wiring from the rods to the spark plugs were Modelkasten 2mm rubber thread which i find is superb to simulate the insulated lead wires that used to run to the sparkplugs, and the magneto wiring was initially 0.12mm fishing line which i later changed to EZline thin because its easier to spot glue on the magneto points without having to use CA accelerator in the case of fishing line (and obviously they have some 'give' which is easier to maneuver when gluing the ends to the magnetos). I also added a wire that goes from the water pump on the front of the engine down to the crankcase (i used two different water pump types late and early for some visual interest). Also a point of note, i added the two wires/pipes that run from the induction manifold to the bottom of the engine. One thing that is clearly shown on the reference material i have and not mentioned in the wingnut wings manual, is a metallic pipe that goes from the bottom of the engine down at the lowest point of the crankcase and has some sort of waterdrain type of handle. I have added the pipe and will add later the drain **** once i figure out how i want to display the engines (i am thinking of modifying one engine to have it displayed with the bottom gondola and no side panels, and the other completely naked. This will entail modifying one engine frame to fit  and be glued to the top of the bottom gondola...we'll see)

For weathering i have used various pigments for the cylinders,  Raw sienna and burnt sienna on top of desert yellow for the intake manifolds, brown, red and black pinwashes for the engines, various oils from Abteilung including gray for fading, engine grease, AK products track wash and fresh engine oil amongst others... The engines have received no flat satin or whatever clear coat on top they were left as is...

 

That's another chapter in the build complete, a most enjoyable one might i add. In a couple of hours i will be off to singapore then back then off again to Frankfurt then when back i have 5 days off during which i plan to start working on the engine nacelles and see what i will have to modify and how i will do so. Alot of reference photos i have show a substantial amount of wiring running around the generator on the starboard side, down the V struts below the engines, and running across the front brace that goes from the power egg to the fuselage... i have a full day in singapore to take a look around the references and take notes to see what to make out of it all... i can't find where the wires from the generator run to though, just a bundle of them running out of the gen (3 of them is my last count....)

 

Anyway, i hope you gents enjoy tonight's update, building the engines was a real blast...

The following posts will be a bit picture heavy!

 

Until im back at the bench next week, stay safe as always and happy modeling!

Karim

 

PS: i might have forgotten to write about some details, so if you have any questions please do tell!

Edited by karimb
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