WNW Albatros D.V/Albatros D.Va Triple - and one more Jasta14 Albatros D.II

[Umlaufmotor]

The Iron Crosses, with their unusually wide white borders, are now painted on both sides.
The white border is Tamiya Matte White, and the black Iron Cross was painted using a mixture of Tamiya Matte Black, a few drops of Silk Matte Black, and one drop of Light Gray.







The vents in the nose section have also already been painted black on the "inside".
I used oil paint there, since any paint that goes outside the lines can be quickly and easily wiped away with a cotton swab.



On the underside of the fuselage, you can still see the drilled openings for oil or condensation drainage.
These are drilled on the model using a 0.5 mm drill bit.



The entry consists of two parts.
First, the original entry molded onto the fuselage was sanded away, and then the opening for the access panel was carefully carved out.
The access panel itself is made of thin Evergreen plastic.
The embossing (hatching) on the flap was created using the jaws of a water pump pliers.
Insert the plastic into the jaws in a staggered pattern and then press firmly.
It usually takes several "passes" until the result is satisfactory.
Afterward, the flap is cut out from the piece where the hatching most closely matches the original.
The surrounding frame of the entrance is an etched part from Eduard - this was annealed and then bent or rolled around a slightly thicker brush to achieve the proper curvature to match the fuselage contour.

The flap and frame are painted with Tamiya RLM02.
The wear on the access flap (caused by the tips and soles of the mechanics - and pilot's boots) was painted on with beige acrylic paint using a fine brush, applying strokes from top to bottom.
The ribbing and bolt heads were then highlighted with dark oil paint.
The shading around the curved frame was sprayed on in advance, even before the actual wood grain was applied.

Both parts were glued together with a dab of white glue around the access panel and the frame so they could be aligned neatly with each other and properly positioned on the fuselage.

I wanted the flap on the model to not close perfectly; it was supposed to have a tiny gap at the top, as if the spring that causes the flap to snap back when the pressure is released had already lost some of its strength.
In the end, everything was secured with superglue.



Servus
Bertl

[Umlaufmotor]

The ?emergency switch? - the mechanical linkage for emergency operation of the throttle - has now also been installed in the cockpit.
This is the small gray-green linkage with the coiled handle at the top left.
It?s bent from simple 0.3 mm thick copper wire. Color: RLM02 gray-green.
The leather cockpit trim has also already been painted.



To round things out, here?s a look at the right side of the cockpit.
The seatbelts won?t be secured in their final positions until the very end.



The tail skid is already attached.



This time, I also attached the actual guide pin to the base of the spur.
It was pretty easy,  I roughly cut a piece of scrap plastic to size with a pair of side cutters, glued it to the bottom of the spur, and then shaped it to the correct contour with a file and sandpaper.
The metal showing through the sanded-down gray-green primer was painted with Mr. Metalcolor "Iron" and lightly polished.





Servus
Bertl

[Umlaufmotor]

On the outside of the fuselage, the holes for the screw heads of the controls mounted inside the cockpit are drilled out to 0.3 mm.
The holes were also lightly pre-shaded with a little Tamiya ?Smog? applied via airbrush.



Appropriate resin rivets are then inserted into the 0.3mm holes.
These rivets are already quite small, but they still need to be trimmed.
They must not be longer than 1mm; otherwise, you?ll be able to see them from inside the cockpit.





They are essentially inserted into the hole and then pushed in just until they stop.
If you press these resin rivets a little more firmly with the tweezers while inserting them into the shaft, they will deform slightly and thus hold more securely in the hole.
So nothing is glued in place.



Here, the last rivet is placed in the hole at the bottom left before being carefully pushed all the way in with a toothpick.





Servus
Bertl

[Umlaufmotor]

It's always satisfying for me when the first markings/decals and metal parts have been put in place on an Albatros model like this:



The "16" in the military number on the rudder fin will be partially painted over in white.
That was actually the case on the original; since the Iron Crosses on this aircraft have significantly wider white borders than usual, the year was partially obscured by the white border.
This will be done on the model once the decals are dry and sealed with clear coat.



It's always a challenge - applying the weighting line to the model as straight as possible and without any ripples or other imperfections.
It's significantly thinner than the picture makes it look - the line is just 0.15 mm wide.



Servus
Bertl

[NigelR]

Wow and wow again Bertl! This is stunning work, and so helpful. I will now be obsessed with superdetailing flaps on the footstep......

The level of finish you are achieving is really a joy to behold, definitely some of the best modelling I've ever seen.

[Umlaufmotor]

As with all "Albatrosses", the fuel drain valve on the D.II - which leads to the outside on the underside below the fuel tank - was recreated and positioned accordingly on the model.





To ensure that the drain valve protrudes from the maintenance hatch just as it does on the prototype, the hatch naturally had to be cut out accordingly.
The opening in the etched-part maintenance hatch was cut out using a small drill bit and a fine round file (key file).



At the same time, the water drain valve was also "tinkered together" on the underside of the wing cooler.

Materials and assembly procedure for both:
One 0.5 plastic round rod for each, into which a short piece of 0.3mm brass tubing is inserted.
On the side, a 0.3mm copper wire - bent into a small lever for opening and closing and flattened - is inserted through a 0.3mm hole drilled in the 0.5 plastic rod.
It all sounds worse than it actually is......





Servus
Bertl

[Umlaufmotor]

Things got tricky with the Baldachin rigging, though the upper attachment point isn't the problem.
Unlike the D.I, the D.II (among other things) was equipped with two struts angled outward to give the pilot a better forward view.
Their rigging runs downward from the upper strut attachment point, starting with a turnbuckle, and is then anchored to the fuselage using sheet metal fittings.
Here are two photos of Koloman Mayrhofer?s Albatros D.II replica, which has been making its mark in the skies over New Zealand for several years.
(Photo credit: @james Fahey, a fellow model builder from New Zealand)



In the picture above, the lower metal fittings of the bracing are quite clearly visible - now I just had to replicate that on the model.
Drilling just a single simple hole in each part to glue the tension cable through wasn't an option.
Unfortunately, the model also lacks the gap between the fuselage and the wing root that's present on the original.

At some point, it occurred to me to make these fittings from scrap etched parts - I had to cut out correspondingly narrow slits right at the edge where the wing meets the fuselage. A 0.2 mm drill bit and a "snapped-off" piece of an etched part blade turned out to be the right tools for the job.
Extreme caution was required for the front fittings, there is only a few hundredths of a millimeter of residual material left between the slit and the wing edge.
Going any further into the wing would have been visually too far off from the original.

Here are the corresponding slits on the model, with a "sample fitting for reference" 

[Umlaufmotor]

Wow and wow again Bertl! This is stunning work, and so helpful. I will now be obsessed with superdetailing flaps on the footstep......

The level of finish you are achieving is really a joy to behold, definitely some of the best modelling I've ever seen.

Thank you so much, Nigel.
For me, a lot of the detailed work often comes together as I'm building the model, so I don't plan it out in advance.
But when I'm working on it, this or that catches my eye, or I think it could be done differently (but not always better  ).
Then it usually just takes five times longer for a model to be finished.
And - let's be honest - you can't even see it once the model is finished and sitting in the display case.
But anyway, the fun of building is what matters most at this point, and when you've managed to build something clever that fits the original reasonably well, that's just great, isn't it?

Servus
Bertl

[gsxf65]

The meticulousness and precision are incredible to me, as I'm returning to modeling after many years...
That's why I just purchased a Roden 1/32 Albatros DIII oaw to recreate an aircraft that once flew over Italian skies.
Forgive me... but I'm definitely going to try your techniques!
Virgilio

[Umlaufmotor]

The meticulousness and precision are incredible to me, as I'm returning to modeling after many years...
That's why I just purchased a Roden 1/32 Albatros DIII oaw to recreate an aircraft that once flew over Italian skies.
Forgive me... but I'm definitely going to try your techniques!
Virgilio

Thank you very much, Virgilio,

The Roden D.III Albatros isn't a bad choice - you can build an excellent replica from it.
However, there are a few pitfalls to watch out for, such as the missing engravings on the wooden panels in the lower nose area and the rudder, which is much too large. If you have a Wingnut Wings D.V/D.Va kit, you can transfer the outline of the rudder from that kit to the Roden rudder.
Have fun building your Albatros!

Servus
Bertl

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Umlaufmotor]

In the meantime, I've attached the maintenance hatches, sheet metal fittings, cartridge ejection tubes, and the fuel drain valve to the fuselage bottom.
Nothing has been weathered or aged yet - that will come later in the build.



Originally, I removed almost all of the molded-on maintenance hatches and sheet metal fittings from the model.
These will be represented either with etched parts or using 3D decals, as needed.
I have to admit that I'm now quite enthusiastic about the Quinta 3D decals, though I find their color scheme to be much too light for my taste.
I need them a little darker, a little greener.
Lightly misting the decals with Gunze RLM02 helped me out here.
When peeling them off under warm water, it?s enough to lightly brush over the decal with a stiff brush, and the paint dust sprayed outside the actual decal is gone.
If you don't do that, the RLM02 paint splatter sprayed outside the decal actually sticks to the decal and gets stuck to the model as well.
Then it's almost impossible to get it off.





The quick-release fasteners on the access panels are made from simple 0.3mm Evergreen plastic rods.
To do this, drill a 0.35mm hole, insert the rod, and carefully glue it in place, then cut it off just above the access panel using cutting tweezers and flatten it with a good pair of flat-nose tweezers. Then deburr slightly with sandpaper - that?s the current status as shown in the picture.
Later, the quick-release fasteners will also be painted gray-green..... .
The cartridge ejection tubes are two short, black-burnished 1mm brass tubes, which are inserted so they protrude slightly from the bottom and glued in place on the inside with wood glue.





Thanks to meticulous preparation before painting, the wing-to-fuselage joint now fits perfectly into the fuselage cutout.
I then glued the wing to the fuselage using only very thin superglue, which I applied into the gap between the fuselage and the wing with the help of a scalpel blade.



The metal trim pieces to the left and right of the fuel valve access panel are Quinta 3D decals that have been over-sprayed with a gray-green hue.
These were applied like conventional decals, though I first applied a wafer-thin layer of wood glue to the area where they would be placed using a toothpick.
The glue can then be easily wiped away with the damp cotton swab used to press the 3D decals onto the model's surface.



Servus
Bertl

[Umlaufmotor]

Following up on Post #501, here are the lower attachment points for the canopy struts (yellow arrows).
The corresponding mounting plates were made from scrap etched parts.
These were then annealed and drilled with a 0.3mm hole.
Afterward, they were bent to approximately the correct angle, painted, and glued into the prepared slot in the wing.
A 0.12 mm thin fishing line was threaded through this hole to serve as the tension cable.
The tension cables leading to the upper mounting point of the V-struts are also already installed in the fuselage (orange arrows).
In this picture, the lower wing has not yet been glued to the fuselage, the gap between the wing and the fuselage, which is still visible here, will eventually become much narrower and smaller.



Here is the original; the replica from Austria/Vienna is now in New Zealand:
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank @James Fahey once again for his outstanding photos. If only he knew how many times they've helped me....)



Here is the model:
(The adhesive marks left by the Tamiya tape on the wing root will disappear once you apply a coat of clear coat over them)





Just a few more turns to go, but you can already see that the Albatros D.II is slowly heading into the home stretch.
(Well, nobody's saying it's going to be a short home stretch  )





Servus
Bertl

[Radarman]

Ausgezeichnet!