Model Airways 1/16th Scale Albatros D.Va (Slow Build)

[Grant]

I have been looking at the 1/16^th highly detailed Albatros D.Va kit from Model Airways for along time and finally bit the bullet. The Model Airways kit will challenge my modelling skills with over 184 basswood, birch and plywood parts, most laser cut. Over 100 Britannia metal parts for building the 180 HP six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz motor. Over 200 copper, aluminum, steel, rubber and Britannia metal parts used as turnbuckles for guy wires, suppression bars, pulleys, wire support brackets, ailerons, stabilizers, struts, flight instruments, wheels, tires and more.
My first challenge to tackle for this project is gathering accurate reference material in the form of books, photographs, drawings etc. to help aid in construction of the most accurate model of this beautiful aircraft I can produce. The jewel of my research has produced a book written by the Smithsonian Institution in 1980 after they performed a full restoration on an original Albatros D.Va, the well known "STROOPP". This book is absolutely amazing with tons of pictures and documentation on everything you could imagine, it will be an invaluable asset during the build.

I will post updates here but a more detailed build log will be located on my website for those who are interested in following along: https://aeroplanemodeller.blogspot.com/

Thanks,
Grant

[RAGIII]

I am Really looking forward to this build. A challenging kit for sure!
RAGIII

[jamieg]

no images

[RAGIII]

no images

I am using Chrome and they show up perfectly 
RAGIII

[Bughunter]

For me also no images! Not in Chrome and not in Firefox.

Those are Google Photo links. As I explained in his other post, Google do not allow external linking with Google Photos. The links are constantly changing.
I have also done that in the history and I have now a lot of postings without pictures Please do not make the same mistake.

Rick, I guess if you do a deep reload with Shift-F5 the images are away for you too.

Cheers,
Frank

[Grant]

Bughunter,

Yes those were google photos and I saw your post on the issue, I will have to look into the other method.
You can go to my website to see the progress there as well until I get this issue figured out.


Thanks!

[Grant]

I just tried posting the pictures with Imugr, can you see them?

[RAGIII]

I just tried posting the pictures with Imugr, can you see them?

The only change for Me is I now see one more photo  Total of 4!
RAGIII

[Grant]

Well that is good, hopefully I have it moving in the right direction!


Thanks for everyone's patience's and  help on this.

[gedmundson]

Looks good Grant. You're off to a great start. I remember picking up the Smithsonian book on "Stropp" when there many years ago. Like you say, an invaluable resource with all things considered. Although the wings are different from the original aircraft when it was in service.
Cheers,
Gary

[KiwiZac]

Grant, as you know from your Introduction post I'm very excited to follow this build. I am, understandably, extra excited to see it in your possession and to learn of your plans.

The book on the Smithsonian example sounds fantastic!

[hrcoleman66]

Looking at the photos, I can't help but wonder how many of those 184 Timber parts are just jigging for assembly of the actual frame work!

Looking forward to seeing your Progress!

Cheers,

Hugh

[Grant]

Thanks everyone, glad you all can see the pictures! Back to inventory task for now and then on to the fun stuff.

[Grant]

I finally finished up the part inventory so onto the construction of the upper wing.
I removed all of the upper wing ribs and organized them per the plans and the instruction booklet. The kit is really well done but you just have to make sure and read everything several times to grasp the order of construction, it's a lot of fun to work on.





Engine Block, pretty nice casting but clean will be required for sure as mentioned in the manual. 




The first order of business is to glue the rib vertical supports onto the ribs. After spending sometime reviewing the vertical wing rib supports supplied by the kit, visually, they appear too thick in width and are made of balsa, the originals were 3ply Birch wood. I reviewed the rib information and drawings in the Smithsonian book on the Albatros and they are indeed not to scale. The balsa sticks supplied are 5/32" wide, they need to be 1/32" to be in 1/16th scale and of course made out of 3ply Birch wood, so off to my handy wood scrap bin to see what I could find and sure enough, I have a sheet of 3ply Birch plywood that is 1/32" thick, now I just have to cut it into 1/32" support strips to replace the kit supplied ones. After several attempts the results were much more convincing and look way more in scale, so this it what I will do for all the ribs. This will take a lot of extra time but well worth the effort and I'm in no hurry. The kit balsa is of good quality and looks great so I'm not knocking the kit supports, just want my Albatros to be as accurate as possible. I scanned the original drawing from the Smithsonian Albatros Book and then took that into photoshop to size it to match the 1/16th scale ribs, this will give me a good build reference to work off of.

Balsa support is on the left and the 3ply support is on the right.



















 

[Edo]

hey!
this sure will be a show!
you efforts will pay off for sure as have already done for the ribs!
ciao
edo