Wingnut Wings 1:32 Albatros B.II Early

[FarEast]

Right - no hangover, good I got stuff to do!

So the fuselage is bonded closed - now this is a tight fit make sure everything is super clean, excessive paint removed and make sure there is no burring on the pieces as this thing is incredibly tight but makes a beautiful join it's really impressive!



But when the 4 sides are joined the overall model is incredibly solid, and the seam lines are invisible! Now here is the clincher, the kit comes with absolutely no wooden decals for the engine bay. So if you suffer from OCD like me then you are screwed!



Luckily this is only dry fitted and after some serious oil staining I will apply some Uschi decals to match the rest of the aircraft.

[Ernie]

Fantastic work, James! 

Cheers,
Ernie

[Des]

This is looking superb James, pity about the absence of wood decals for the engine bay.

Des.

[FarEast]

This is looking superb James, pity about the absence of wood decals for the engine bay.

Des.

Des, not an issue if you are using oils or 3rd party decals. After playing with the kit decals I can honestly say they are to my tastes - others may prefer them.

[LukasTheLight]

This is looking superb James, pity about the absence of wood decals for the engine bay.

Des.

Des, not an issue if you are using oils or 3rd party decals. After playing with the kit decals I can honestly say they are to my tastes - others may prefer them.

Great work James!!!

Well, Im sure if someone wish to have all covered with kit decals there will be members who won't use them and therefore you can always try and ask here

Also well done on a motorbike... I dont have a license myself but your choice of bike seems rather nice

Cheerio
Lukas

[RAGIII]

Awesome update James! Too bad about the decals but I am sure you will handle the issue with Finesse!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Your making fantastic progress so far on this one James , beautiful cockpits !




Terri

[gedmundson]

Excellent progress James.

Your idea of making those little handles from 0.3mm brass rod just solved a problem for me as I was pondering my next move on a WnW Fokker E III build. Great idea!

Cheers,
Gary

[FarEast]

So today I got some bench time and went all out.

First off was to build the layers of colour for preshading the wooden ply panels on the fuselage.

This was achieved by giving the whole thing a coat of Tamiya deck tan. Next highlighting all the panel lines and nail lines with flat black.
The next step was to give the center of the panels a very white coating of deck tan and then finally several very thin coats of Deck tan to blend all the colours together - now I'm of the train of thought that any natural material should have no uniformity to it, so any over spray, wavy lines splatters were kept and I was only interested in the final blending coat to go down perfectly.

Once that was dried I give it random shots of Tamiya Translucent yellow, again no uniformity to the application and the point wasn't to cover evenly or entirely the surface of the fuselage.

I left this to cure for about an hour and then came back and gave the entire fuselage a Tamiya X22 clear coat.



Three hours later it was time for some fun - I've already made all the templates for the decal sheets so it really was a case of laying them on the Uschi van der Rosten sheets and cutting them out.



If anyone wants my kit wood decals let me know because I'm never ever going to use them!

[uncletony]

Looks great and man, you work fast. Shouldn't the wood grain follow the line of flight though? It's that way with other Albatros aircraft, my assumption is it is the same with the B.II (reason being the ply was three ply and bends easier/is stronger in one direction...)

[Alexis]

You do work fast !


Terri

[radio]

Top work and painting James.
Cheers
Martin

[Pgtaylorart]

You are a speed demon, James! If you ride your motorcycle like you build your models, you are going to get a lot of tickets!

Your B.II is looking great! My is in progress too, but I'm just cleaning parts and priming them. Nothing too exciting to see yet.

George

[FarEast]

Looks great and man, you work fast. Shouldn't the wood grain follow the line of flight though? It's that way with other Albatros aircraft, my assumption is it is the same with the B.II (reason being the ply was three ply and bends easier/is stronger in one direction...)

Hey Bo, The photos I'm going with have all the panels on the side of the fuselage running in this way, however some of the panels on the top were not as it looks like they were replacement panels applied in the field B.II 167/14 has a beautiful shot of the top panels showing off different colours and grains. B.II 173/15 has a few on the side of the fuselage running against the line of flight (just behind the radiator) as does 436/16 that has a close up of the cockpit area and the panel I replicated.

I have a feeling that when these left the factory all the wood followed the flight line but as soon as they started to see action the fitters used what they could to keep them flying, so damaged panels may have been cut and reused or from locally available sources.

It's an incredibly interesting aircraft, however I can't help but feel they have dumb this kit down a little, compared to other kits such as the control horns, rudder and elevators are all one piece as well as a few other pieces, don't get me wrong its a fantastic model but after the Roland and DH.2 I just feel its a bit of an easier build......or maybe I leveled up?

[uncletony]

Looks great and man, you work fast. Shouldn't the wood grain follow the line of flight though? It's that way with other Albatros aircraft, my assumption is it is the same with the B.II (reason being the ply was three ply and bends easier/is stronger in one direction...)

Hey Bo, The photos I'm going with have all the panels on the side of the fuselage running in this way, however some of the panels on the top were not as it looks like they were replacement panels applied in the field B.II 167/14 has a beautiful shot of the top panels showing off different colours and grains. B.II 173/15 has a few on the side of the fuselage running against the line of flight as does 436/16 that has a close up of the cockpit area and the panel I replicated.

I have a feeling that when these left the factory all the wood followed the flight line but as soon as they started to see action the fitters used what they could to keep them flying. It's an incredibly interesting aircraft.

That's good enough for me! I admit I haven't studied the B.II that closely, just the scouts really.

Carry on then!