1/32 Albatros W.4

[xmald]

It all looks great. Good job - a very inspiring build!

[Des]

Your attention to detail is exceptional, what you have done so far is superb and displays a very high level of modeling skill, looking forward to seeing more updates.

Des.

[Alexis]

Effective , yet very simple ! Most excellent job on the details , looking forward on the next up date 




Terri

[Ernie]

I have missed your build log until now, Dagmar.  I am fascinated by your
brilliant detailing to make a good model a great one.  I also think your
pictorial is first-rate, and look forward to more updates.  Thanks for
sharing your talents.

Cheers,
Ernie

[Vickers]

Excellent work, Dagmar. Thank you for the very nice photos of your detailing work, it seems you're just getting started and your W.4 is already instructive and inspirational!

[mgunns]

Hello Dagmar:

Outstanding work on the bits and pieces.  Very clean and tidy.  Looking forward to the "W" details.

Best

Mark

[lcarroll]

   I've toyed with the idea of doing this for years; never quite got serious enough to try but this may nudge me over the edge! Really looking forward to the wing and float work upcoming, and your bits and pieces are beautifully done.
Cheers,
Lance

[Dagmar Henderickx]

Dear colleagues,

Too much honour! Just a matter of being patient I think...

Now, a first step towards the W.4. To start getting the feeling of it, I choose to begin with the more easy part: cutting up the tailplane, elevator and ailerons of the D.I and enlarging it with plastic bits and pieces. I used the plans of the Windsock Mini Datafile 1, enlarged to 1/32 scale. Thank you Ray Rimell!



After many sanding, filling, sanding and once again filling hours, I came up with something resembling to this. Not really there yet as the surface is still to rough but heading into the right direction I think.



Now the wings. I was first tempted to build the wings from scratch but finally choose for the same approach as for the tailplane. Seemed to be easier. The end result will prove if it was the right decision. Still a lot of filling, sanding and detailing ahead...



Till next time,

Dagmar

[rhallinger]

Nice work Dagmar!  You've also taught me something.  I knew the span of the W.4 was greater than the D, but I didn't realize that the chord was greater also, or at least that's what I see in your work.  I'll have to check the mini datafile when I get home.  I am planning to do this coversion myself within the next two years ( if I ever get the Tabloid finished!), so I am learning from your build.

I will be interested in seeing what you do with the floats.  Member Chuckt5 began this project about 18 months ago, and built a beautiful and detailed master of the W.4 floats to do resin castings, but he got busy with life and has not moved forward with it.  I have kept in occasional contact with him, as I would like to purchase from him a set of float castings if he ever makes them.  I suspect your floats will be first rate, however you decide to render them, and I will be watching with great interest.  You may want to review Chuckt5's thread for informational purposes, if nothing else.  I cannot figure out how to paste the link here on my PED, but you can easily find it by going clicking on the Members button, finding Chuckt5 on the alphabetical list, clicking on "show posts" and scrolling down until you find the W.4 float topic.

Again, wonderful work here.  Thanks for sharing!  Great photos, too.

Cheers,

Bob

[RAGIII]

Excellent problem solving on the Tail Feathers and wing! I actually went as far as enlarging the drawings but chickened out  Your build could pave the way for a future try on my DII kit from Encore.
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Simple but yet so effective ! 




Terri

[ALBATROS1234]

looking great, yes both methods of obtaining a wing and tail are alot of work. i have done both. in the end i truly think scratch is less work. cut out the blank. use boiling water to form the camber shape the profile, then glue strip stock to form ribs. after this stage i used auto filler primer and tilted the wing to one side and spray allowing the primer to puddle againt the ribs. tilt the other way and do the same then its just a little light sanding to shape the slight belly between the ribs. i get frustrated trying to make the filled in area match the rest of the wing, and the filling sanding,filling sanding seemed endless. but in the end your build is comming along beautiful.

[jknaus]

Very cool. Always enjoy watching how people solve problems. Very enlightening.
James

[Dagmar Henderickx]

Dear colleagues,

Thanks for the feedback and the advice!
ALBATROS 1234, I'm starting to think you are wright. It is indeed becoming and endless game of filling, sanding, filling, sanding,... Have to continue though as too much time already went in it. But if I should need to scratch new wings once again, Im sure I'll try 'the boiling water' method!

And now for something completely different: naval lozenge. I read in the Mini Datafile that in an early stage the naval lozenge was painted on instead of using printed fabric. As I'm building an early batch version, painted lozenge it will be. I suppose the paints will have suffered a lot from the salt water resulting in an uneven coverage of the paints after a while. Trying to achieve that effect, I did a little experiment on the canvas (I assume) installed behind the pilot seat.

Building the canvas with the tin foil...



Airbrushing with Tamiy Acrylic browns...



Adding the naval lozenge colors, with the aid of masks cut from Tamiya tape, using pastels. The Wingnut Wings Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 decals served as a template...



Conclusion:
1. Brown is not the good primer color as it changes the color of the pastel used. I'll try white primer the next time.
2. Definitely need to find the correct pastel colors overall...

However, going into the right direction and having some potential I think.

Till next time,

Dagmar

[uncletony]

Lovely work Dagmar