Albatros D-III Oeffag early series 153 / Roden 1/72

[vincentm]

The lower wings were glued in place. To get the right dihedral angle (which is rather important for the outer wing struts to fit when the upperwing is fitted), I put small wedges below each of them while the glue was curing.

Then, the lower side was painted light blue (I used Humbrol 65). I then made a mix of 30 and 89 to get the upper blue-green. I poured a bit of it in a paint jar and added one or two drops of white, then sprayed the wings and stabilizer. After that, the ribs were masked with thin masking tape stripes, and the final darker blue-green was sprayed over.

When the stripes were removed, the ribs were too visible, so I made a light overspray with blue-green to blur the ribs a bit.
The red arrow shows the lip around the winter cowling, which was made from strectched sprue and glued with CA in 3 or 4 steps.
This is one of the typical details which give those birds their "steampunk" look I love.

[RAGIII]

Beautiful paintwork! Your little Albie is really looking terrific!
RAGIII

[Ernie]

Excellent work, as usual, Vincent!

Cheers,
Ernie

[coyotemagic]

Magnificent!
Cheers,
Bud

[vincentm]

Thanks all.
I've added a good coat of Future before applying the decals. The rib shading got faded but remains visible. To the right, a pack of parts including the painted prop.


The radiator was painted brass and gunmetal. Then, I called the guys at Roden with bird names while trying to apply those f... decals. They tear off, destroy into pieces when you try to move them on the kit, or stick to the cloth rather than to the kit...Moreover, the paint was not smooth enough because it was too flat before the coat of Future, which tends to produce a silvering effect. So, when it all has dried up, I had to make some touch-ups with black and white paint, then I used more Future so it infiltrates below the decals and fills up the bubbles causing the silvering effect. The Future also helped the decals sticking a little better. In the end, it worked rather well except around the '2-7' digits on the fuselage. I'll make a small cut right here to put some more drops of Future below.


After that, I'll use oils to give a little more volume to the small kit, but not much more weathering as it looked rather clean on the archive pic I have.

[ALBATROS1234]

looks very nice so far,i like the colors.

[vincentm]

Thanks. I also like the contrast between the green and brass and leather. Once again, this one was not planned but it caught my eye when I found a color profile. Those birds are definitely too eye-candy to simply build only historically interesting machines, you'd want to have them all in your showcase...

[IanB]

Very nice, Vincent! At some stage I want to do one of these with the sworl camo....

Ian

[RAGIII]

Looking terrific with the markings in place. Like you said a nice contrast in colors.
RAGIII

[WarrenD]

Vincent,
            You are a brave, brave man for dealing with those Roden decals! My hat is off to you sir. You've done a beautiful job, I love the color.

Warren

[Ernie]

Vincent,
            You are a brave, brave man for dealing with those Roden decals! My hat is off to you sir. You've done a beautiful job, I love the color.

Warren

Just what I was thinking Warren.  Well done Vincent!

Cheers,
Ernie

[GAJouette]

 Vincent,
Well Done my friend. Lovely shade of green too.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[WarrenD]

BTW, I've saved your thread for future build reference. 

Warren

[vincentm]

Thanks guys.
To say the truth, this is the most simple camo type for an austro-hungarian fighter...The swirl pattern being probably the most difficult to achieve. I guess I would use decals at least for the flying surfaces.

I was not expecting anything good from the Roden decals, so I had sprayed a coat of gloss varnish before ditching them. But it went even worse, because the varnish turned into an additionnal clear film around the items. I had to carefully trim it away with a modelling knife when all was dry.

[vincentm]

I've added the windscreen and gun blast tubes.
Since the aircraft looks rather clean and new on the sole time pic I have (and since it was written off after that, it probably never looked any older), I was light on weathering.


There is still some silvering around the fuselage s/n, so i'll have to further scratch and trim the film and inject Future.

I've just put mud traces on the underside, above the landing gear, along with some panel lines marked with a black oil wash around the engine area.


After that, the whole bird received a coat of satin varnish: