Well, not a complete update, but at least something to show I'm still working on those models. After putting in many extra hours for a project at work that is now finished (at least my part of it!) I was given a day off, so some great bench time while being alone at home. That's been a while... ;-) (and yes, I do love my wife and kids tremendously!)
Some time ago I got measurements from a Wingnut Wings Albatros that I converted to 1/72 to determine the strut lengths for the Albatros. The cabane struts were shortened by about 1mm, and everything cleaned up for primer. Lots of mould seams on very delicate parts, but I managed to keep them all in one piece.
The wing V-struts were apparently the correct length compared to the Wingnut kit.
Afer painting the whole models + loose parts flat white for coverage and then some gloss white, I found out I had somehow missed a few spots that needed some more sanding. So that was done:
The fuselage on the Roden D.VII somehow had a big fat sinkmark I'd missed in the side, and the bit behind the cockpit opening wasn't quite right, too.
They were then touched up with Revell Aqua acrylic gloss white, which was then polished (the only acrylic I manage to do that on!) to get rid of some imperfections and orange peel -only to reveal some more on the underside of the Fokker nose and near the tail skid of the Albatros! Unfortulately it appears the CA filling method does not really go together with the soft Roden plastic, so for the next I'll resort back to normal filler. Live and learn, I guess.
Then it was time for a fun job, masking the wing/fuselage ribs:
My intention is now to shade the white, then mask all of the white off, and then the red parts, then maks the "red" ribs and shade those. The green decals can hopefully be shaded with some dark pastels, as I'm afraid of masking over decals...
The entire Albatros top wing was also painted gloss white, both as an undercoat for the red, and to mask off the white cross panels. Those were masked temporarely to help with the rib masking. (still to be applied here)
I also scratch built an anemometer from a Toko Sopwith Strutter bomb, but even though it is massively overscale, my camera is unable to focus on it! Except for the mirror for the Albatros and the Oigee sight for the Fokker, that's pretty much it as far as scratch-building is concerned.
Hopefully I'll be able to finish masking this weekend and can start getting cramped fingers from all that shading getting airbrushed!
Jeroen
