Halberstadt CL.II, Mirage 1/48; 20.3.2021 Parabellum - THE END

[the great waldo]

Hi Frank.
Great build. May I ask what thickness veneers did you use for the prop?
Cheers.
Andrew
Thanks and welcome to this project Marc!
I think oob means for me still the usual improvements like metal struts as replacement for the broken kit one and a ...

 Wooden air screw

The kit includes 3 plastic ones, shows the options during the build - but do NOT tell, which option has to be used for which marking. The WNW manual says Garuda. Ok, that is not the identical machine, but I will go with that.
I selected the kit one, which looks like the WNW Garuda as template for sanding.

Here the raw result, front:



Rear:



Matches nearly the template.



Decided to use the kit engine, which matches the size of the plans. I have a nice resin engine in stock, but it is bigger and I fear to much problems with that, e.g. panels and exhaust. So I put my low-friction bearing directly into the modified engine.



After closing I added also the single cylinders. Here the air screw is plugged on.



And the finally sanded (I found a pictures on my air screw books and used that for the layout of the layers), primed and painted the airscrew.
Will be toned down a bit with airbrush later.



I tried a side view picture, to show the thin shape.



Cheers,
Frank

[Early Bird Fan]

i'm glad you're going ahead with this build, it's looking great so far and your build log will be a valuable resource for newcomers to the hobby like me

[RAGIII]

Amazing as always Frank!
RAGIII

[Bughunter]

Wow, so many comments - you seems to be really impressed by my air screw! It looks like I can start a business But I think I'm to slow. I mean the time needed for one piece is to high
Thank you Gary, Guy, Ferry, Andrew, Early Bird Fan and Rick!

Sorry Rick, I have not made something new, Andrew has only repeated my post.

Andrew, the thickness depends on the real airscrew. Here I counted 7 layers (4 dark and 3 brighter in between) and the plan shows a thickness of 2.9~3mm. So a single layer should have 0.43mm. I sanded the veneer down to that size. If it is a bit more it is ok, since the lowest and highest layer can be sanded more to get the right size.

i'm glad you're going ahead with this build, it's looking great so far and your build log will be a valuable resource for newcomers to the hobby like me

The kit is somehow very nice and on the other hand not easy. With my actual experience I would not recommend it to a newcomer! It requires a bit more care, a lot of dry fitting and some very filigree parts need special attention. A newcomer should start with a Eduard kit (if 1/48 is prefered)

Cheers,
Frank

[Monty]

Really nice work on the prop, Frank! The engine is coming along too... Regards, Marc.

[Bughunter]

Thanks Marc!

Undercarriage


Due to snow and ice on my roof window I can't airbrush, so I continued with metal work.

Some brass plates soldered on a piano wire and turned on lathe to washers.



The kit axle is according to the latest Datafile plans to thick, so I replaced it with 1.2mm piano wire and soldered the turned washers in place.



The kit undercarriage struts are very thin so together with the brittle plastic I don't trust them.



So I soldered a new metal undercarriage! The wire on the picture simulates the suspension.



After undercarriage after cleanup. The kits struts are to wide (2.1mm). I squeezed 1.3mm brass tube.



There again with axle on top. The legs were also to long. I started with the kit size and shortened the legs on top, until the undercarriage sits according to the drawing. The pins to the fuselage are added after that.



The connection are 0.7mm nickel silver (kit part was broken already on the sprue. I let the pipe open, as on the museums aircraft.



After tinning the new undercarriage looks nice and is totally strong!



Apropos pins - the upper wings should be glued to the middle part. That is make the painting easier, but I added already brass pins.



I made also new wing struts from 1.2mm brass tube. The mounting tool from the kit is a nice provision. I marked the strut positions and could use the tool for strut length preparation.



The tail plane is very thin and had 0.5mm plastic pins?! Here I drilled and added 0.33mm nickel silver pins.



So the tailplane can be mounted safely after painting and decals.



For me it seems, building a kit "out-of-the-box" means "by using some kit parts".

Cheers,
Frank

[Early Bird Fan]

to be fair 'out of the box' never states which box those parts are coming from 

great work BTW, you've done a cracking job on that undercarriage

[Alexis]

Beautiful work on the undercarriage legs Frank , Wunder bar !


Alexis

[RAGIII]

Your usual Brilliant work. Not just on the gear but all of the rest in the update as well!
RAGIII

[Fvdm]

Great work on the undercarriage Frank, it looks spot on.

[Borsos]

That undercarriage alone is a gem, Frank! High-end modelling at its best!
Andreas

[kensar]

The landing gear and the tailplane mounting are just examples of the shortcomings of injection molded kits - the maker uses only what is available to them and what is feasible to do with the injection molding process.  For some applications, it is not the best way.

Your use of different materials that are more suitable for the application is what makes you a model builder, not just an assembler.

 Nice detail work. 

[gbrivio]

Excellent work on your undercarriage.
Ciao
Giuseppe

[Bughunter]

Thank you Early Bird Fan, Alexis, Rick, Ferry, Andreas, Ken and Giuseppe! I'm glad, that you like it!

to be fair 'out of the box' never states which box those parts are coming from 

I must remember that!

Your use of different materials that are more suitable for the application is what makes you a model builder, not just an assembler.

Thank you for the accolade by a scratch builder! 

Undercarriage, part II


I thought I was done, but I noticed thick stripes on the lower end of the kit u/c. With checking the pictures from the museum it was clear: I had to add an suspension travel limiter! A steel rope, here 0.1mm nickel silver wire.
Soldered it on small pieces of squeezed brass tube on one side, put it on and soldered the other side.



On left side I noticed also a missing step, soldered on two drills.



I fixed the positions of the new parts with CA.



I was curious how it would look mounted, so I painted it gray green and attached the axle with the "spring rubbers".



Accidentally I destroyed partly the paint layer during handling the springs, but this created a great used metal look. Luckily there is no yellow brass visible.



Now I can call it finished, looks really nice plugged on.



I don't have the WNW kit at hand, but that undercarriage could not look better
 
Cheers,
Frank

[FAf]

Almost annoyingly good! Fantastic work as always and very nicely presented too!
/Fredrik