Author Topic: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)  (Read 21687 times)

Offline steveb

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1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« on: November 28, 2016, 04:58:13 AM »
I'm sure many of you have seen or built this kit, but here is the box art.


Here are the major parts after cleanup & a few modifications.


This kit is a somewhat recent issue as evidenced by the glossy decals & molding from possibly worn molds. Lots of flash on the tail & other parts, in addition to a bit of mold misalignment on some of the thinner parts like undercarriage struts.
After trying to remove the ledge on the undercarriage struts, I found that they looked too thin. I added pieces of stretched sprue along the edges.


I added many layers of CA glue between the sprue & strut to rebuild the shape of the strut. After quite a bit of filing & sanding they are starting to take shape.


I chose to make new exhaust pipes from styrene rod instead of trying to deal with the kit pieces. I added rectangular pieces of styrene to the cylinder heads to represent the flanges on the 200 HP Austro-Daimler engine.


Here, the exhaust stacks are being test fit. The fit is loose at this point & will be fine tuned later on. This makes some appear shorter than others.


I also chose to make a new tail skid faring out of styrene instead of modifying the one provided in the kit. I shortened & slightly modified the kit tail skid. The overall shape of the faring still needs to be fine tuned.


That is all for now, as I am awaiting photoetched parts to arrive to commence work on the interior. At this point I am not really certain which  pilot's plane that I will choose to represent. I was leaning towards Otto Forster 153.199, but time will tell.


Steve

Offline Wolf

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2016, 06:15:46 AM »
Great start
A model thrives on its overall impression and not on that every little disagreement over the original is hyped up as a disaster

Offline IanB

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2016, 09:44:44 AM »
Nice, I'll be following this one!

Ian

Offline Manni

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2016, 07:02:07 PM »
Very interesting start. I will follow this thread.
Bye,
Manni
"Ich hab' da mal was vorbereitet.": Jean Pütz
"Warum noch mehr Bausätze?!?": meine Frau

Offline Juan

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2016, 11:20:52 PM »
Very nice start, looking forward to your progress.

Offline RAGIII

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2016, 01:13:17 AM »
You have made a terrific start and your corrections/additions look awesome!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Borsos

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2016, 02:16:40 AM »
Sharp eye fir the details, it is looking very nice!
Borsos
"Deux armées aux prises, c'est une grande armée qui se suicide."
Barbusse.
"Ein Berg in Deutschland kann doch einen Berg in Frankreich nicht beleidigen. Oder ein Fluß oder ein Wald oder ein Weizenfeld."
Remarque.

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2016, 03:06:46 AM »
As others have written you have a good eye for detail so the improvements that you are making will turn this into another little gem.

Stephen.

Offline steveb

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2016, 04:25:56 AM »
Thanks! I appreciate the kind words! Hopefully, there will be more progress soon.

Steve

Offline Gisbod

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2016, 04:32:31 AM »
Nice one Steve,

Looking forward to seeing how this one comes  along.

Guy
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth -
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

P.O. John Gillespie Magee 1941

Offline Monty

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2016, 06:03:41 AM »
You are busy with some great detailing and refinement of the kit parts, Steve! I am very impressed, and I'm sure this will go well! I'm pretty sure your modifications to the undercarriage legs have strengthened them up considerably as well... Nicely Done! Regards, Marc

Offline jeroen_R90S

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #11 on: November 30, 2016, 06:34:54 AM »
Nice work! I built the S.253 in an Encore box, which save me (some) hassles with regards to details and came with Cartograf printed decals. But only for one version... I see you have the datafile already, the wing struts needed some shortening on mine.
That tailskid especially really looks nice!

Offline GAJouette

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2016, 07:03:17 AM »
 Steve,
Excellent progress to date my friend. Looking forward to following along.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
" What Me Worry"

Offline UFAG

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2016, 05:22:17 AM »
Will follow..!!

Offline steveb

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Re: 1/72 Albatros D.III (OEF)
« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2016, 04:33:34 AM »
Thanks for the kind words!
Slow going, but making tiny steps in progress.
After scratch building a new tail skid faring, I ran across a build log online, & the builder mentioned the OEF Datafile drawings showed an incorrect faring shape. DOH! I knew that it was different than the German version, but assumed the drawing was correct. So, I found a nice side photo of Koloman's D.III, brought the image into CAD, & scaled it to somewhat match the Datafile drawings.
Here, you can see my first version compared to the drawing.


Here it is after adding styrene & CA glue to rebuild the contours.


I received the Part PE set for this plane a few weeks ago, & have been working on getting things to fit. After losing one of the pieces for the control stick , I chose to scratch build the control column using only the PE grip. I also scratch built the seat & added the floor beneath it. Today, it was a matter of seeing how things fit together so far. The PE frame is all glued together with CA glue, but the steering pieces are temporarily glued with Testor's clear part cement. The seat needs to be moved forward a bit, as well.





The fuselage halves are temporarily held together with spots of CA glue so I can continuously remove the framework & make adjustments.


As with many kits, the engine cover on the exhaust side was incorrect. Finding photos of the real thing has been difficult & I am not sure if the 153 series that I am building had a different engine cover than the 253 series. Some non-253 planes show a small lip beneath the exhaust on the 1st cylinder while the 253 machines have no lip & a larger opening, possibly because of the larger engine.
The kit piece had an indentation & lip below the exhaust ports. I added styrene & CA glue to this area to build it up, & re-positioned the lip on the front, tapering into nothing as it got to the 4th cylinder. I still need to work on it to straighten that line a bit more. The engine seems to be sitting too high as well, but that can be adjusted easily.




Merry Christmas to all of you!
Steve