Pair of Albatros D-Va's. Roden 1/72

[RAGIII]

Your DVa's continue to look terrific! Excellent work to date!!
RAGIII

[vincentm]

Thanks. I've just painted the outline of the wings in light blue on the Jasta 18 bird which has blue rib tapes. I still have to do the same with pink on Udet's aircraft, and i'll post a few more pics when I'm done.

[Des]

You are creating a pair of beautifull looking models Vincent, the wing work is excellent.

Des.

[vincentm]

Thanks Des.
I almost regret to glue Udet's machine upside down on its diorama, since it's a beautiful machine. But I've already bent the right wing, rudder, and crushed the spinner so I can't go back.
I found that Humbrol #60 is a quite good match to the Jasta 18 upperwing color and started the touch-ups.

[Ernie]

Excellent job, Vincent!  This is shaping up to be a brilliant
project.  Your work in the little scale is amazing, my friend!

Cheers,
Ernie

[Adam]

Excellent job, I like Albatroses, 

Adam.

[vincentm]

Thanks. I too definitely like Albatroses, I also plan a D-II, one or two D-III's and a pair of austro-hungarian Oeffag's. I think I'll want a D-III or D-V with a natural wood fuselage when I'm more comfortable with wood effect, and a D-V with green and purple wings.

[vincentm]

I've re-printed the lozenges on the right half of Udet's upperwing. The rest will not be visible when the aircraft is glued upside-down on its diorama. I think the white stripes were most probably two chevrons, following the discussion about Udet's machines. But once again, since nothing will be visible in the end, I've only put two angled white stripes.


I've finished three props. The Wolff one on top-left will be used on Udet's machine. It is a copy made from Milliput, so when I'll break off a blade, it should look more like broken wood than a plastic part would. The Garuda on the right will be used on the Jasta 18 machine, and the Axial in the middle will be kept for a further plane.


Udet's upperwing has received semi-buried hooks for the wires:


I've added the expansion tank and scratchbuilt the pipe that goes to the radiator on the Jasta 18 bird:


Small parts waiting for the end of the build. The strange black thing with flaked paint is Udet's crushed spinner. The metal folds were made with a modelling knife and smoothed by sanding. I've chosen greyish-pink rubber for Udet's tyres since the true color is not possible to guess on period pics:


Both fuselages with their decals. For the Jasta 18 bird, I first planned to build Monnington's machine but the only available pic is blurry and small, so I finally chose this one on which most important details can positively be identified on photos in the "Jasta 18" book: D-Va additionnal V-mast braces, white square below the upperwing crosses, and lozenges on the lower wings. The only guess regards the rib tape color, but since I read that those machines were OAW-built, I made blue ones.


I have scratchbuilt a camera on a tripod for the Jasta 18 diorama since one is visible on one of the period pics. The other small thing is the flare gun visible on the Jasta 18 bird upperwing just beside the rearview mirror:

[dtomko]

Beautiful work!

Drew

[radio]

Very wounderful update.
Martin

[vincentm]

Thanks, and though the fuselages have a toy-like look with this glossy varnish. The next steps are installing the weapons and trying to give a little age to the birds, but it will have to be discrete since both machines looked rather clean on the period pics, especially the red & white Jasta 18 machines.

[vincentm]

Rearview mirror added on the Jasta 18 a/c upperwing:


Last updates prior to weathering the fuselages: telescopic gunsight on Udet's machine (not much visible), control cables, windshields, machine-guns and exhaust stacks:


and tail skids

[radio]

Perfect detailing.
Martin

[RAGIII]

Unbelievable work in 1/72nd! Just Beautifully rendered!!
RAGIII

[vincentm]

Thank you. Some modellers here put even more details inside those very small kits, I think I will also have a try at building one with removed cowls one of these days...As for me, I like building them as close as possible to the period documents I can find, including all 'addons' that each pilot used to have installed, like a telescopic gunsight or the flare-gun on the Jasta 18 machine. I take inspiration from what some of us achieve on bigger models like wood grain, propellers or exhaust colors.