1/32 scale Wingnut Wings Halberstadt Cl.II (early)

[AngryJazz]

The stipple looks very convincing! I very much look forward to the fuselage 

[gedmundson]

The stipple looks very convincing! I very much look forward to the fuselage 

Thanks Ben - hope my described process was helpful.

After closing up the fuselage I tried my best to mask in and around the engine. The cockpit was easy with some chunks of soft sponge for that. I knew there would be some touch-ups to do near the engine & MG with overspray almost inevitable there. The pattern of stipple was applied with the thicker paint mixture of cloudy yellow airbrushed at about 9psi in short, sharp bursts with the nozzle at a wide enough setting to get the desired effect.
Cheers,
Gary


Randomly applied coloured patches mixed as per the instructions sheet using the XF-71 as the base.


The finished stipple pattern applied (which is less prominent after a gloss coat added later).


Over-spray on the engine, MG and struts would be touched up later.

[uncletony]

I assume it's not possible to install the engine / MG after the fuselage is closed up? (This kit is near the top of my pile)...

Great work as always...

[gedmundson]

I assume it's not possible to install the engine / MG after the fuselage is closed up? (This kit is near the top of my pile)...

Great work as always...

Thanks Bo, I tried many combinations of test-fitting to avoid having to mask and/or repaint that area including adding the engine later, but the engine had to be fitted to the mounting frame (it will not fit after the frame has been added to the fuselage) & cowlings added (along with the gun) before any of the camo could be painted in place, I decided after long debate with myself. I did pre-paint the cowlings with base colours around the gun and engine and masked where I could. As it turned out I was able to spray on the stipple pattern without a lot of extra touch ups. What absolutely got me was the position of the forward cabane struts - and I'm still trying to write up a bit of a story about that one.
Cheers,
Gary

[NigelR]

It's looking good. Masking engines is one of the issues with many WWI builds, I'll definitely be using the Aviattic decals on this one!

[AngryJazz]

Thanks - the explanation is great! It looks very much like the how to on the Wingnut page. Very well executed!

The overspray is annoying, but it's not easy to avoid. Im taking notes for my own Halberstadt 

[gedmundson]

Sorry to post an out-of-sequence update, but the stipple camo question had me getting ahead of things. If this thread is going to be of any help, I'm hoping to add a few points to even help myself later when I attempt the late version. Another note of mention would be the small flash guard provided in the kit that has to be glued to the inside edge of the cowling and bent around the top of the intake manifold. This was a bit tricky, since the instruction sheet has fooled at least one modeller I had noticed installing it upside down.

I also have to show a view of the fuselage before it got buttoned up, and what I think are the proper location points for the forward cabane struts (since I missed this and caused no end of grief which I'm still muddling through).
Cheers,
Gary


This was a tricky bend to make (around a drill bit) since it had to line up perfectly with the intake manifold.


I had to add styrene to fill a 0.8mm gap where the cowlings meet at the top.


The arrow marks what I think is the location for the base of the forward cabane struts (but didn't discover this until all was buttoned up and I'd glued mine to the inside of the cowls). The WnW instruction illustrates this poorly. But I should have figured that out.

[NigelR]

Thanks for the tips, these are very helpful.

[gedmundson]

Thanks for the tips, these are very helpful.

Thanks Nigel - and safe travels & best of luck with that show in France!

I did replace the clunky-looking turnbuckles on the kit's outer wing struts with 1/48 scale Gaspatch metal ones. And speaking of struts, I snapped one of the front cabane struts in my attempts to solve the problem with their misplacement and ended up having to make a replacement with styrene rod. The repair just wasn't going to work...

[NigelR]

More good work. The replacement turnbuckles look a lot better.

Thanks Nigel - and safe travels & best of luck with that show in France!

Really looking forward to it, although the heat may be a challenge..... I hope the models don't melt! I will be interested to see what the WWI representation is like, there's definitely been fewer WWI models at shows in the UK in the last year or so. I will take lots of photos I promise.

[gedmundson]

I sprayed a few light coats of Future floor acrylic onto the fuselage to protect the finish and allow a smooth surface for the decals. These went on with no problems using warm/hot water. I did airbrush the black & white band using off-white and NATO black Tamiya acrylic. Some preliminary weathering with oil paints and a few paint chips were added to the metal cowling. I had initially airbrushed the cowlings in aluminum, then added some chipping fluid before adding the camo paint over top. But using the chipping-fluid method can be disastrous if the finish comes off in sheets...so I thought better of trying to risk that and just painted on my paint chips with toned down silver printers ink.
Cheers,
Gary


At this point the forward cabane struts have been removed and a guiding wire added to the engine's water pipe...since that is now the forward support for the mid upper wing.


After dipping the windscreen in Future acrylic, it was added to the fuselage along with the two bracing wires on either side. These were very tricky to complete once the upper wing had been installed.


After adding Gaspatch turnbuckles to the lower wings, the wings were installed into the fuselage. The turnbuckles were attached using small copper loops, allowing them to swing into alignment when the EZ-Line rigging is pulled taught.