Out2gtcha Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Great work! The large decals like that can get tedious for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 That’s some great work, and I will keep your advice in mind with the lozenge decals. Cheers, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 10 hours ago, Uncarina said: That’s some great work, and I will keep your advice in mind with the lozenge decals. Cheers, Tom 23 hours ago, Out2gtcha said: Great work! The large decals like that can get tedious for sure Thanks guys. No pictures today but all the main wing decals are on without any issues. Now on to the rib tapes. The one concern I have at this point is having to mask of the wing root to paint the uncovered area to match the fuselage. In the past I've lifted decals with Tamiya tape so its something this needs to done carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 Quick update Wing are complete except for the cross decals and detail painting. The rib tapes went on without much trouble which was definitely a surprise. I still have a couple of air bubbles in the decals to deal with but that can wait for now. Overall I'm pleased with the result. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with the Micro-sol and hairdryer method going forward. It seems to be the only way to reliably stick down the large panels without creating too many bubbles. In fact the bubbles mostly happen when you go back over dry decals to place the rib tapes. Time to start masking for paint. My current plan for masking the wing root area is to use the white flexible tamiya tape as it seems to stick only lightly so it should (fingers crossed) not lift the decal underneath. One nice thing about this scheme is that its all solid black so no masking for camo patterns this time! Kagemusha, scvrobeson, MikeMaben and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
europapete Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 Hi Tom, give the decals a coat of varnish before masking, it protects them quite well. Regards, Pete in RI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 Quick update on the progress of the build. At this point there's alligator clips all over the bench with painted parts so it should be a matter of assembly and touch up from here on out. I've got to say I'm overall very happy with how the build is progressing and knock on wood I haven't made any major mistakes. I'll stick to pictures of the fuselage primarily but the same process was applied to the landing gear struts etc. as well. I started with a light base coat of sea gray to provide a lighter base and check for any surface imperfections before proceeding. Steaks of much lighter Pale Blue Grey were applied the the panel lines were shaded. I'll admit that "pre-shading" was probably a bit overkill with an all black scheme but nonetheless it was worth a try. In hindsight probably completely unnecessary but oh well. As I painted the fuselage and tail feathers I wanted to slightly vary the color to give the appearance of a field re-painting. Its very hard to see the effect on camera an honestly its almost imperceivable due to the color being black but I do think it was worth it. Streaks of very light coats of black mixed with about 10% sea gray were slowly built up to the final color. This is about halfway through the process: Final result looked pretty good though like I said the streaks really can't be seen due to the reflected light from the camera. I think when the model is finished a better background will help show it. One piece of good news it the addition of see gray knocked down the black just enough that it doesn't look "too black" with is great. Black is definitely difficult to get good pictures of. On to the guns........ My last WWI build I had no problem assembling the PE shroud for the machine guns but this time I made a complete mess of it. I figured it was better to just paint up the simplified machine guns the try to fix bent PE and to tell you the truth the simplified guns look just fine in my opinion. Some of the other parts in progress. As always thanks for taking a look and any comments or criticisms are welcome. The build should go pretty quick now so stay tuned! Lothar, 109, tucohoward and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 On 11/10/2019 at 7:24 AM, europapete said: Hi Tom, give the decals a coat of varnish before masking, it protects them quite well. Regards, Pete in RI Thanks for the advice! I actually cheated a bit and just hand held a piece of paper as a mask and painted the wing roots. Turned out perfect and much quicker then masking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 18, 2019 Author Share Posted November 18, 2019 Working my way through the decals and it's really coming together now. Hoping to get the engine and guns mounted tomorrow. First time building an Albatross for me and I'd definitely recommend leaving the wings off until the undercarriage and decals are done. Makes life a lot easier. AlbertD, Fvdm, Uncarina and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 Looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Nice work. You used cookie cutter decals? Trailing edges look very clean, always a tough area to get right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertD Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Wow, that looks fantastic. Did you use any solutions on the WnW decals? They look like they set down great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 20, 2019 Author Share Posted November 20, 2019 14 hours ago, AlbertD said: Wow, that looks fantastic. Did you use any solutions on the WnW decals? They look like they set down great. Thanks Albert! I did use a solution for setting. Best method I've found for the wings is multiple applications of Micro-Sol, then no more then 5 seconds with the hair dryer, one more application of Micro-sol then hairdryer as needed. The heat really helps melt the decals down. The downside is the heat can make bubbles but its not too hard to pop them with a knife. 14 hours ago, LSP_Mike said: Nice work. You used cookie cutter decals? Trailing edges look very clean, always a tough area to get right. Thanks Mike! Nope I used the decals from Wingnut Wings not the Aviattic set. Your right the rib tapes on the edge are a bear to get right, I find just putting them on and letting them dry a bit before putting on the solution seems to help. On 11/17/2019 at 8:32 PM, Kagemusha said: Looking great. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 20, 2019 Author Share Posted November 20, 2019 Making some progress on the model. Most of the decals are done except for the props, etc. Time to start assembling and weathering! Another update should be coming soon. Thanks for all the comments! Uncarina, Landrotten Highlander, TorbenD and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomR Posted November 30, 2019 Author Share Posted November 30, 2019 Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving. Been a bit between updates but some progress is being made for sure, I got quite a bit during the holiday. I did find a minor issue with the kit where the cowling covers don't fit 100% because the struts are hitting in the rear. Could be a case where I didn't install the struts correctly but it should be easy to deal with. Here's a few pictures of the current state. Thanks for looking. Another update soon Uncarina, Lothar, LSP_Kevin and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted December 1, 2019 Share Posted December 1, 2019 Tom, Great work so far. I love working with those Vallejo Metal Colors as well! Cheers, Tom monthebiff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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