1:48 Eduard Albatros D.III

[smperry]

The model below is an example of my ply decal method.



sp

[RAGIII]

SP: Your decal application on the sample is Fantastic! I am looking forward to the Albatros seeing the same treatment!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Neat tick with the decal paper , lovely job on Bluemax's kit !


Terri

[smperry]

Thank you Rick.
This is today's progress. I need to re-adjust that bar across the front of the cockpit that has the instrument on it. It is crooked when the shells are joined.
sp

[RAGIII]

Even on the WNW kit which should be foolproof!
RAGIII

[kensar]

Your ply decals look very realistic.
I'll be following along here.

[smperry]

Rick
Sorry to bust your bubble, but WnW never came anywhere close to a fool proof kit. To fool proof a kit it must have terrible box art, flashy sprues, lousy decals and be so overpriced nobody will buy it. Then it will be proof against most fools. :-)

Ken
As I do with your builds. Some of your techniques and all of your positive attitude approach are directly translatable from scratch building to kit building.

Thanks for your kind words and support.
sp

[RAGIII]

Funny thing SP. I seem to have posted less about half of what I said. My original thought was that I always have issues with that bar, Even with the WNW kit 
RAGIII

[smperry]

Me too Rick. I have had issues with that bar on every Albatross I have ever built, I was just being smartass. No matter how well engineered the kit, that bar has to be at exactly the right angle to fit right when the halves are closed, and that is only going to happen by accident. They all need adjustment.
sp

[smperry]

I am in a quandary as to what to do with the louvers, round hatches and band between the U/C struts on my 1:48 Albatross. They are molded on the plastic fuselage pieces and are better than average as to scale size and crispness of mold. The kit supplies some well done PE that includes the above mentioned parts and indicates the molded details should be cut off.

I will do the wood portions of the fuselage in plywood decals which, in the past, I have covered over with decal and relied on Micro Sol to get them to conform to the raised details. When dry I used a new @11 blade to cut around the hatch or louver and removed the decal covering the detail.

If I remove the raised hatches and louvers first, it will make applying the ply decal panels much easier, however that will leave me attaching flat PE parts to a curved surface of either paint and decal material or paint and decal material covered in Future/Pledge. I can roll a drill bit shank over the PE parts to match the curved fuse sides, but I wonder how good an idea it is to glue the metal parts on the painted decal. Might work, might not, might make major glue spooges.

The 3 hatches and the band between the U/C struts on the bottom of the fuselage cross the center seam and are going to be destroyed in any case, so I will have to use the PE parts there. It is the much more visible hatches and louvers on the sides that are causing me heartburn. Am I better off using the molded details and cutting away the decal or using the PE parts after applying decals. I could also attach the PE then cover with deal and cut away the decal from over the PE part, but that looks to be the most error prone method, so I 'm not seriously considering it.

So a couple of questions. Cut and sand away the plastic details, cover with decal and then add PE parts or cover the plastic details with decal and then cut it away.
And if the answer is apply the PE parts over the decal, how would you attach them? CA, white glue, canopy glue, Future?

I would very much like to hear some opinion on how y'all would handle it, I have my own ideas, but have learned it is a good idea to ask since others often, (usually), have better ideas.

TIA
sp

[lone modeller]

You have a really tricky problem there. I would hesitate to add PE over paint or transfers for fear of the PE not sticking properly, but if I were to go down that route I would use Pledge as I think(!) it would be less likely to leave splodge marks. I would also remove the plastic moulding before adding transfers - for the reasons you give. I am not sure how steady your hands are - mine would not be steady enough to remove the parts after transfers had been applied.

Just my thoughts.

Stephen.

[RAGIII]

It sounds to Me that you are More comfortable applying the decals then trimming away the pieces of decal over the parts. If that is the case then go with what you feel you will be the Most successful at and will result in the best finish! That being said I am sure you can handle any method you choose  In the end it is of course, your decision!
RAGIII

[Bughunter]

I had the same problem last autumn building the Albatros W.4
No decals on fuselage, but old painting and so the same problem.
- So I removed the plastic maintenance lids
- If you see the form of the lids on the plastic those are not flat, but light spherical shape. So I peened the PE lids to that form (with a small metal ball). The PE can then also better formed to take the form of the fuselage.
- painting of the fuselage (in your case decals)
- I removed the paint in a small area below the lid for better grip of the glue, would do that also with your decal
- glue the lids in place using a CA gel (good experience with a product called "100% Sekundenkleber", means 100% CA)
If the lid confirms not completely to the fuselage this adds reality with shadows, it looks like a lid and not with preformed plastic. I guess in reality would also be small gaps.
For more see here (and the following pages):
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=10502.90

That are my ideas to try to tackle this things down, may be you have better ones.

Cheers,
Frank

[smperry]

Stephen and Rick
Thanks. As I mentioned in my description of making the ply decal, I expect to ruin about 10% of any given sheet. I believe I will try applying a scrap of that over some of the details and see how easily this kind of decal paper suckers down and cuts away around the louver or hatch. If it cuts away easily, fine, if not, then it should likely be strong enough to stick the PE parts over. At least then I will have a solid idea of the material's performance.

Previously, more than 15 years ago, I ordered a stock of clear and white decal material which worked very well with this method. I recently bought some smaller sheets under the Testors brand, but I haven't used them for this purpose and do not know how they will work around raised details, hence the dithering.

It seems I have to write out my problem before my mind gets to work on it. Thanks again for your responses. I will go out to my shop and see what happens. I will report what I find as well as try some photos of the results.
sp

[smperry]

Frank
Doh! I forgot about scraping a little decal away under the PE part so a tiny drop of CA would hold it. For me, that makes both methods just about six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Stay tuned for test results.
sp