1/72 Albatros D.II Boelcke (repro)

[KiwiZac]

Hi all,
As part of my recent WW1 kick

I've been looking at the Albatros family. To be honest, I've never really been a fan of the D.V/Va - even when I had the change to get up on one of the new-builds at Masterton a few years back - and I prefer the earlier D.II. As luck would have it a fellow internet modeller sent me the Roden 1/72 kit some years ago as part of a care package.



So I got to work on it, albeit 7-8yr after receipt! I apologised for the delay but this, I hope, will be worth the wait.

I'm keen to get into the big Wingnut Wings kits but before spending that kind of money I need to sharpen my wood and fabric skills. A big part of that is perfecting the "varnished wood" look which is such a major part of the aircraft of The Great War. Having recently joined and saved photos, tutorials, tips etc from this forum I have a TON of inspirational builds to reference before making that leap. The Albatros is ideal for the wood as you all know about their fuselages:

Jamo photo as I haven't seen it in person yet
Pre-covering airframe pics here: http://www.craftlab.at/index.php?id=42&L=1
Up-close detail shots and flying the beast with Kermit Weeks here: https://youtu.be/whxYU1nrE-Q

I decided to build the kit as the above aircraft, a new-build/reproduction flying in in the colours of Oswald Boelcke. The airframe was, I believe, built in Austria by Koloman Mayrhofer and his team and finished to airworthy by TVAL. It's based about four hours' drive from me.

The kit is an older Roden mould which means lots of flash and minimal locating pins/tabs, but exquisite detail. The inside and outside of the fuselage, and the prop, were painted with two-three coats of a sand yellow (exact Tamiya number to be inserted...XF-59 I think?) as a base for the oil paint to come. The interior had a drybrush of Tamiya Flat Brown as the cockpit opening will be too small to see much.



The engine is a little beauty. I downloaded the WNW book for the Pfalz D.IIIa as reference for painting the engine:


The upper wing is a three-piece construction, allowing for different radiator setups, and there are no locating pins so it was down to cement and hoping it'll stick! Fortunately the wing has no dihedral so I sat it on the desk to dry. It, the bottom wings and the horizontal tail, all had a couple of coats of Tamiya Light Blue painted on the underside. Ditto the engine cowling. On Saturday I used some filler on the belly seam and behind the cockpit opening, this will be sanded this weekend.

The next step is the scariest one for me: using oil paints and a sponge to simulate wood grain. I still haven't found the paints but will look at a couple of online options tonight: unfortunately the local crafts/book shops only have acrylics.

**
The above post was on 8 June at another site, so it makes me very happy to share it - and yesterday's work - here as this forum is a real treasure trove of information and techniques.


This is Burnt Umber put on with a sponge tool. Fun and easy! (Interestingly the Wingnut Wings guide to this uses the exact same paint brand and colour.) I had to retreat inside as it was just too cold out there, but I'm very pleased with this result. I did some extra rubbing on the nose panel and the little wing fillet bits to break up the tone. Looking at the real deal this may be a bit dark but - hey - this kit is for me to practice, not win competitions  .

(FYI the props are for a Vickers Vimy, being built as the replica in 1994.)

[Des]

You have made an excellent start on this build Zac, your attempts at replicating the wood appear to be working out well, and the engine looks excellent, well done so far.

Des.

[Pgtaylorart]

Great start on your D.II, Zac! Also, thanks for sharing the YouTube video. You gotta love Kermit Weeks!

George

[radio]

Beautiful start to this build.
Martin

[Squiffy]

Definitely one to watch.

[RAGIII]

Awesome work on your wood pattern/grain! Perfect for the scale!
RAGIII

[KiwiZac]

Thanks all for the kind words! It means a lot coming from you, whose builds are a constant inspiration to me. Thank you very much. I'm very pleased with it too! The annoying thing was I ran out of models to do it with!

George - I love Kermie Cam! I met him briefly at Omaka (flying a D.Va) and he was wonderful, very approachable. That video made me decide to start the kit after so long. I hope to see it in action soon.

[KiwiZac]

This weekend's work was mainly focused on the Pfalz but I did do some more on the Albatros. For the camouflage I've found Tamiya Red Brown to be a close enough approximation for me, I just need to study photos of the real deal and find matches for the other two colours.


Also in the photo are the aforementioned Pfalz and the Revell D.VII being done as a The Blue Max replica with Aviattic lozenge.

I also put on the nose cowling - it's a bit smaller than it should be, but it works for me - and painted the louvres and hatches etc to match. I'll get a photo of that up later this week - it breaks up the wood quite nicely. I also had to repaint the fin as I hadn't masked the rudder, resulting in brown splotches under the "wood grain" which looked pretty bad. That meant I was also able to "varnish" the prop. It doesn't have the distinct demarcations present on the German props you guys do, but for me it's a bit much to attempt in 1/72.

[radio]

Nice update.
Martin