TomR Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Well I decided at least for the time being to put the Ta.152 on the shelf. Got a bit bored of cleaning up all the flashing for now so I'll have to revisit that one at a later date. Anyway I pulled one out of the archives and its probably one of my top three projects that I've been looking forward to building. The scheme that Otto painted his airplanes, all black with a prominent edelweiss is just so striking to me. I've been working on the kit for a good while now and figured I'd post the progress. Having built a few kits now with lozenge wings I know the pace of construction will slow when we get to that point. I'm going to be weathering this bird as I do most of my WWI subjects, very little weathering save for a bit of dirt in the cockpit, mud on the wheels etc. I still need to pull the cockpit back out to put the final weather on the seat so that's still a work in progress. Anyway take a look and any comments are more then welcome. The engine is about 50% complete and the initial coat of engine grease oil paint has gone on. Subsequent steps will help reduce the glossiness of the effect. Here you can see a nice example of some of the aftermarket resin Lukasz produces at Taurus models. I have a few of his full engines plus many of his parts for D.iii engines. His work is second to none. Aftermarket includes overhead rockers, springs, spark plugs and priming cups. Those priming cups are by no means easy to put together (so tiny) but well worth the effort. This is probably the best picture I got of my wood grain effect. So tough to get on camera. Gazzas, Kagemusha, BlackCanopy and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Good stuff man, keeping building and taking pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted October 29, 2019 Author Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) Man a bit more progress on the engine. I wasn't happy with how bright and new the aluminum looked to I made up a dark wash to take care of that. Looks a lot more appropriate now. Wiring of the engine is now finished with the connection of the spark plug wires to the magnetos. Hopefully I'll get the engine fully assembled in the next couple of days. Edited November 15, 2019 by TomR MikeMaben, Landrotten Highlander, Out2gtcha and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertD Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Looks great. I'm a little behind you on the WnW MVR Albatros and your build is a great guide and inspiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Really nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 That engine is superlative! Cheers, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted October 30, 2019 Author Share Posted October 30, 2019 (edited) Thanks for the nice comments guys. NOW WITH BETTER PICTURES So far my building of models has focused on just that, the build process. But since I have enjoyed documenting them here I can't deny that the cell phone pictures, good as they are don't really do justice to the process. So I grudgingly drug out the real camera and was shocked at how I forgot just how good and versatile old Nikon gear can be. I've taken many landscape shots over the years with the 60mm 2.8D lens and I totally forgot just how close that lens can focus. And it's without a doubt one of the sharpest they ever made. Who says a 30 year old lens is outdated! Pair that with a D750 and a decent flash pointed at the ceiling and the picture quality is much much better. And since its been a few years since I've messed with the camera I looked for an alternative to Adobe Lightroom. I found an open source program called Darktable and while it might not be as polished as lightroom it certainly works and its FREE. In any event the pictures should be much better going forward. At this point the engine is done and due to the design of the albatross I should be able to bag it up and not have to touch it until the end of the build. Once again the parts from Taurus Models really were worth the effort. Adding the oil return line wasn't easy but certainly worth it since it is so prominent at the front of the plane. Just need to paint the spark advance lever's handle and this panel can go into the cockpit. Test fit of the cockpit and engine mount looks pretty good. Time to close it up and start painting I think. I finally got a nice image of the wood grain effect. By no means is it as good as some of the work I see on the forums but I'm pretty happy with it. Always learning as they say Edited October 30, 2019 by TomR LSP_Kevin, Uncarina, Trak-Tor and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Impressive work, Tom! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringleheim Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 The engine looks great. The wood graining looks great. The leather seat cushion and belts look great. This is going to be a beautiful Albatros! Keep her going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertD Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Quote More great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Nice nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensar Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Nice goings on here in this thread, Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Nice work Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belugawhaleman Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Great build so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 5, 2019 Author Share Posted November 5, 2019 Progress is being made albeit on the most tedious part of the build. Having done lozenge decals in the past I guess I knew what I was getting into. All of the undersides are covered and I've started on the upper coverings. I decided to try a new technique for applying the decals by using Walthers Solvaset. It worked reasonably well but I found my previous technique of using Micro-sol and a hair dryer worked much better. Solvaset is still my go to for small decals but it just doesn't seem to work well with large decals. A night or two more of work and I should be ready to put on the rib tapes (another tedious process!). A few minor touch-ups on the wing root of this piece. Shouldn't be too much of an issue. At this point the fuselage is more or less prepped for paint. I installed the horizontal tail and had to do quite a bit of work to keep it level. All in all I'm happy with it. One thing that has me a bit worried is getting the appearance of the all black fuselage correct. As I've never painted anything solid black I'm just hoping I don't get the shade of black to overpowering. I'm going to try some preshading with blacks and greys to try to get a nice final product. As always thanks for looking Out2gtcha, MikeMaben, LSP_Kevin and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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