karimb Posted February 18, 2019 Author Share Posted February 18, 2019 Hey gang, an update today. I was supposed to fly home today to see my daughter but i have been sick with fever these last few days, and it got worse after my flight call from standby yesterday. Either way the day before the standby call i received, i had already started by filling in the light ejection pinmarks on the fuselage halves. Back from the flight yesterday afternoon i managed to sand those flush, and prep the fuselage halves for the coming woodgraining. We start the build by tackling the interior of the fuselage woodgraining using Uschi woodgrain decals Ronny Bar edition, pale, laid on top of a coat of MRP pale wood. The interior green areas received a preshade of RLM02 from MRP and then the wingnut wings tamiya paint callout which was postshaded with Alclad hot metal sepia. Station 8 bulkhead behind the pilot seat got the crossmember shading as per the original structure plans (Smithsonian restoration of the Albatros DV) as wnw moulded the part as a single piece of styrene and then i covered this with Aviattic lower 5 color lozenge decal to add some color to an otherwise all wooden cockpit. The callout for the seat is leather but i decided to go for a wooden frame and add the resin HGW cushion. The cushion was hand painted with successive layers of acrylic browns highly diluted with lacquer thinners. Its a delicate process as the lacquer will eat through the previous layer if you do not wait until your previous work is dry, which is quite quick. I then added a glaze of burnt umber oils which i wiped staining the base paint layer. Chips and scratches were painted with buff and the cushion buttons were painted hull red. A very dark rust wash was then added, the cushion sealed with MRP flat and when dry buffed up with a finger. I have been finding the finger buffing technique to be the best at representing the sheen of used leather. The woodgraining of the bulkheads and the seat have been done with the RB etch woodgraining stencils, and then blended in. I forgot to add a picture of the reference materials i am using for this build, of which i will add a photo below! For those of you who will notice the printing dots on the decals in strong closeup photos (of which me!), if you decide to use Alex's woodgrain decals i can reassure you they are invisible to the naked eye even at close distance... I am planning on heading home after tomorrow if i feel better, to spend the remainder of my monthly string of days off home, so tomorrow the plan is to get the HGW harnesses assembled, weathered and installed along with laying down a quick glaze of oils to give some life to the woodwork... bear in mind nothing has been done to the fuselage insides yet, no washes no weathering nothing, this is just the raw state product... looking forward to your opinions and ideas gang! Karim Ryan, Fanes, D.B. Andrus and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Thanks for the detailed explanations, it all looks great but I really like the seat. Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Fantastic work as always, Karim! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Go figure I see this thread *after* sending you a PM... Karim, this looks great as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorbenD Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 As ever, wonderful work Karim - love the touch of colour behind the seat. Torben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 1:04 AM, Ryan said: Thanks for the detailed explanations, it all looks great but I really like the seat. Ryan Ryan thanks for checking in and leaving a word... I am enjoying your progress on your albatros! Glad you like how things are progressing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 1:52 AM, LSP_Kevin said: Fantastic work as always, Karim! Kev Kev, thanks for dropping by it's good to have you checking in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 1:53 AM, seiran01 said: Go figure I see this thread *after* sending you a PM... Karim, this looks great as always! Hey Mike! Good to have you stop by. PM coming your way right after i write the update... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 3:07 AM, TorbenD said: As ever, wonderful work Karim - love the touch of colour behind the seat. Torben Torben thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 Hey gang, Third part of the build... The updates are a bit far apart but it's because i am cramming the building during the day and at night i am keeping busy with rest and recreation. I had the past couple of days off which i spent in doha instead of traveling back home as i had a medical appointment to attend to. Anyways back to the build at hand. In this update, the HGW harness has been built and installed on the seat. I have skipped using the middle sliding part as i have found a photo online where the middle belt connecting the two shoulder harnesses together was omitted. I also noticed in quite a bit of photos in my references that some of the aircraft had the shoulder belts hanging off the side of the cockpit, and this wouldn't be physically possible with the connecting portion as supplied by HGW. The harness was weathered with oils. The ammo cans have been painted dark aluminium from MRP and installed. The woodwork got a glazing of burnt umber. The shell ejector chute location got drilled out in the left fuselage half so i can insert an extension to the kit chute parts after the external woodgraining. The big part of this update is concerning the manifold and multiple valves that are behind the right side panel. Since i had a clear photo in the reference book of the restoration of the albatros by the NASM, i decided to scratchbuild this part. I knew not much of it would be seen afterwards, but turns out with everything installed you do not see any of it. For building that part, i used everygreen styrene rod, albion brass, lead sheeting, MENG styrene hex nuts and a Taurus resin priming cup which i modified. All connection ports have been drilled and are suitable for linking with their respective components throughout the aircraft. To be honest, i considered making a mold of the part in order to cast copies in resin and reuse them in the future, but when i realized nothing would be seen after installation i just gave up on the idea. For the panel the 'valve' is attached to, i used the Yahu colored pe which i attached using krystal clear, cleaned up with a brush and water to leave a neat contour. The control column received the tightening rod adjuster at the neck just below the handgrips, using stretched sprue, the gun trigger comes as a single part and i scribed a line down the middle to make it look like the actual part which is two separate parts. I also scratchbuilt the throttle that is attached to the left handgrip using stretched sprue whose end was flattened and cut to shape using pe flat pliers. All controls received their connections with modelkasten rigging thread as it has a completely round profile and it is made of a sort of rubber which gives it a different sheen than EZline. for the rigging though i have used EZline throughout. I have decided not to install the pulleys at the front for the aileron controls, but instead drilled the holes where the wires are supposed to run, as this area once the cockpit is brought together can barely been seen except by shining a flashlight in. I will tighten the rigging lines once the fuselage halves are closed and then snip the lines as those are where the wingstubs go and the holes will not be seen. Bo Monroe's 3D printed fuel tank is beautiful once you get it cleaned up from the ridges left by the printing process, albeit the cap ends are very delicate. More on those in next progress report. To eliminate the slight printing remnants, i used alclad gray microfiller then sanded the tank faces down with micromesh sponge pieces cut down to size and it worked a treat. The side fuselages also got freeline silver wet transfer nailheads from HGW in the reinforcement plank areas next to the seat. I also added the alternate throttle which is on the left side above the ammo cans and that the pilot uses in case he has a main throttle jam. A few more little things have been done here and there but in real time i am much further down in terms of progress on the kit that i have kind of forgotten about those... At the time of writing this, i am one update behind in terms of progress and i am just ready to close up the fuselage. I will try to post the next update tomorrow so i can bring everyone up to speed with where we currently are, except if i get called out of standby in the morning! I hope you enjoy the update! thanks for checking in Karim TorbenD, Fvdm, BiggTim and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff T Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Beautiful work Karim! Cheer's, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 58 minutes ago, JT68 said: Beautiful work Karim! Cheer's, Jeff. Thanks Jeff for checking in on the progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircare84 Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Great progress Karim. Will be another masterpiece when you're finished. Same scheme as my first Albatros. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Awesome work Karim! Definitely another build to watch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 Wow !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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