Dear all -
I was admiring Steve (Lone Modeller) detailed airfix Albatros and I made the mistake of commenting that I should try doing this one day - this came to haunt me (in a good way!) later on.......
Well guess what, Steve paid me a visit a couple of weeks and presented me with this ancient airfix together with some scale drawings of the real aircraft and various bits of plastic sheet/rod enclosed with the comment 'here you go Dave, a belated birthday present - now build and detail up as a challange'.
A challange it will be for me! I had already made a start and I am about 10 days into the project when Steve said that I must do a build log with no excuses for not doing one!
So, what goes before is where I current am. This is the recent airfix re-issue (Steve informs me this kit dates back to 1957) about 10 years ago:
This is a very crude (by today's standards) and basic kit with no real detail, or details that are incorrect. I don't have the sprues to show you but have a picture of the kit instructions that give you the idea:
I will go for the Max Nather markings:
and here are the scale drawings to aid me:
I started by building up a cockpit - I am also using a WNW kit I built of the Dv as further reference. This is what I have knocked up so far. Seat was adapted from old Revell Sopwith Triplane kit seat, harness made from strips of Tamiya masking tape. Air pressure pump, compass, support bar for MG's RPM instrument and control column made from stretched sprue. Everything else from various thickness of sheet plastic card cut to shape.
You will also notice I had cut away what would be the molded in engine cowlings ready for an exposed engine display.
Lower wing needed tidying up removing the large exjection pins marks on upper surface. Also sanded back the scallops on trailing edge of wing and sanded down ribs.
The upper wing also needed some attention. Kit part features a half moon shaped cut out which is an incorrect profile. I therefore added some thick sheet plastic glued into place. Once set, I filled and tidied then cut and filed to more correct profile as shown in the scale drawing. The paint on this area is what I use to ensure the fill and joint does not show - it took a couple attempts to get the fill right. Ailerons were cut from wing and glued in place a bit more dynamically to add interest. The underside of the upper wing also needed three large ejection marks removed and this wings ribs were also sanded back a bit. Final piece work was to fabricate the underside of the wing mounted radiator using plastic sheet as shown.
Apologies for starting this a bit late, but I was a bit shy about doing a build log where I knew I had to undertake a bit of stratch building!
More to follow in due course.
Regards
Dave