WNW Albatros DVa Jasta 76b Karl Hopf

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thanks Ernie

I prepped and primed and oiled the wooden components for the cockpit and engine bay tonight, put away for the oils to cure whilst I'm away for a week.  Will do more next weekend.

[RAGIII]

Your prop is awesome!
RAGIII

[Adam]

The propeller is stunning.
Adam.

[mgunns]

Hello Ian:

Welcome back to the fold.  I like your idea of putting the formers and painting to keep the paint out of the slots.  The prop looks the business to me.  Practice makes prefect.  I like the Doug Craner Props and will be ordering a few, as I don't do the laminate very well.
Looking forward to more.

Best

Mark

[Nigel Jackson]

Super work on the prop, Ian and what  a great idea with the liquid mask! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Best wishes,
Nigel

[IanB]

Looking very nice so far Ian!
 I did this one in 1:72 so I'm looking forward to seeing it done in 32nd!

Ian

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thanks folks..

A bit more progress in recent days.  The fuselage insides are painted as are the engine compartment formers.  Cockpit almost complete, need to finish the control stick, aileron cable pulleys, rudder bar and interior rigging.  One of the support struts under the rudder bar assembly snapped off, but I rescued the part from the carpet monster and will re-fit later.  The former holding the ammo boxes etc is loosely fitted for now.

I did consider removing the ejector pin marks on the interior, however they will be barely seen, if at all, once everything is closed up.

This is going together nicely, albeit I have already had to do some touch up painting where I have been heavy handed at first    In the second pic, you will see the interior green paint for the engine bay, with the fitting slots for the formers kept clean - these were internally masked with Bob's strippers during the colour application.

[lcarroll]

   That cockpit interior detail and woodwork is superb, Ian. This Build has really got my attention and you have a magnificent Build going here, looking forward to seeing more.
Cheers,
Lance

[Ernie]

Beautiful interior work, Ian.  It is a real pleasure following your build.

Cheers,
Ernie

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thank you   I am not going OTT with extra detailing on this one as it will be all closed up, cowling panels on etc.

A couple of questions to those who have built this model:

Internal cockpit rigging - especially aileron control lines.  The little pulleys are fitted to each fuselage half, yet link to the central control stick.  Now I am no keyhole surgeon, so I would struggle to attach the lines once both fuselage halves are buttoned up!  I plan to assemble everything as far as I can to the starboard half, then loosely attach the port half using tape as a hinge along the bottom edge.  then I should hopefully have enough room to rig up the aileron control lines (using elastic for stretch) prior to closing up properly.  I plan to drill through where the wing root sits so I can pull through this rigging which is then hidden when the wings go on.  What did everyone else do with those lines?

There are some semi-circular depressions on the edges of the fuselage halves - are these ejector pin marks?  they are just visible on the bottom fuselage edge if you look closely at the first pic zoomed in.  When joined up, this gives the impression of thin slots along the join.  I guess the holes I see are for drainage, but these "slots" look wrong to me?  Shouldn't be an issue to fill these depressions if that is correct?

[uncletony]

I can't answer your D.Va rigging Q with authority as the D.V differs in this regard. I am interested to see what you do here. When I build my D.Va I will probably do something akin to what you are proposing, seems relatively straightforward, just leave plenty of line on the port side.

Be aware that the wing root fit is very tight so anything you do here be careful as there is no room for slop. Pay attention to how the lower wing tabs fit into the lower former under the fuel tank. That's what is supposed to locate the and it is a bit iffy...

As for the "extra" holes in the spine, yes, these are ejector marks and should be filled, leaving the drain holes (which have little grommets on the real thing) See excellent Jamo pics of D.Va belly for refs.

[Ssasho0]

Thank you   I am not going OTT with extra detailing on this one as it will be all closed up, cowling panels on etc.

A couple of questions to those who have built this model:

Internal cockpit rigging - especially aileron control lines.  The little pulleys are fitted to each fuselage half, yet link to the central control stick.  Now I am no keyhole surgeon, so I would struggle to attach the lines once both fuselage halves are buttoned up!  I plan to assemble everything as far as I can to the starboard half, then loosely attach the port half using tape as a hinge along the bottom edge.  then I should hopefully have enough room to rig up the aileron control lines (using elastic for stretch) prior to closing up properly.  I plan to drill through where the wing root sits so I can pull through this rigging which is then hidden when the wings go on.  What did everyone else do with those lines?

There are some semi-circular depressions on the edges of the fuselage halves - are these ejector pin marks?  they are just visible on the bottom fuselage edge if you look closely at the first pic zoomed in.  When joined up, this gives the impression of thin slots along the join.  I guess the holes I see are for drainage, but these "slots" look wrong to me?  Shouldn't be an issue to fill these depressions if that is correct?

While I'm definately not the most knowledgable person around I will try to give my answers to your questions Please don't take them as absolute truth
1) Alieron control cables - the only way to have them tightened is to drill holes thru the fuselage or...to just ignore them, they will be hardly visible and actually the only one knowing that they are missing will be you! Ofcourse we all do very complicate things for parts that only we know that are there I suppose this is part of the hobby
2) If you mean the small holes (approx 0,6 mm diameter) along the joint, than yes, they are drainage holes. I think Bertl in his build put some 0,5mm tube into those to make them even more visible. There was one of the Jamo's pics of the Vintage Aviator's Albie, where it was clearly visible that something leaks out thru them and you have to take it in regard when aging the model.
I hope this helps, if not, well, there is so much knowledge on this site that I'm sure, someone will answer them better than me.

best regards,
Sahso

[Ian from Doncaster]

A little more progress on the cockpit, almost done.  The remaining components are assembled to the port fuselage, and the control rigging added, apart from some of the aileron control cables which will be finished just before the halves are joined.  I used elastic (the sort WNW sells) stretched and brushed with Mr Metal Stainless.  The rudder bar loops are the same material, painted black.

The instructions call for the engine to be constructed before joining the fuselage halves, so that's next.  The other half fits OK, even with my precautions there is likely to be a thin gap, nothing too much to worry about though.

[Des]

You are doing a fantastic job with the interior Ian, everything is so neat and tidy and the wood looks excellent.

Des.

[uncletony]

Ian, FWiw, the engine (and the formers forward of the "firewall" can be safely left off until after the fuselage is closed.