1/32 Albatros W.4 (late) Floaty Conversion

[Allen Dewire]

Afternoon All,

Ah, the 4 days at the Stausee were just what I needed. The first 2 days were a bit cool, but then the temps went up and we had no rain. The beer was so excellent too...

Just had a catch-up of this exceptional build. Took two cups of tea and half a packet of biccies to take it all in. You are truly going the extra mile with this. Most impressed. Glad it's cooled down for you.

Thank you Jim! I am having so much fun, one can't believe it. With the cooler weather, it makes scratchy easier too. Now, about those biccies, Sir.......You know they are not good for the girlish figure...

Outstanding Mr. Dewire.

Thank you very much Mr. Scott! Uhhhh, are you running for office again Paul??? Just wondering why you are being so proper here. LOL!!!...

Right, '60's ......Tripp'n Ribbin' on the wings Allen, keep it coming Sir!:thumb2:

Thanks Bro! And I'm still ribbin' on...See below...

Already printed off a few diagrams and images. I have the luxury of colours for the leads as many of the after market leads were multi coloured. However, to keep in in the 1960's vein I'll stick to black BUT!!! My biggest problem is finding something suitable to use in scale!!! Only started looking though so I'm sure something will pop up!!

Hey Doug, I had a look in the parts box and found some Tamiya cable from their detail-up parts series. The biggest size was 1 mm and probably too small for your bug. Just a thought Sir....

Just had a good catch up with this one Allen,a great read/look it was too:thumb2:,
The engine,as has been said,is excellent,and,the ribbing work is top notch imho, going to be another WW1 cracker mefinks .

Much appreciated Mr. Smiff! My only worry is the wing extensions joins might crack. I guess then, it would be a cracker Andy...

Just caught up a bit and that ribbing on the wings looks nice and straight :thumb2:

Hey Buddy, good to see your smiling face here! Just trying to do what I gotta do to get this puppy done. Yea, for the most part they are straight and the decals will hide it well too...

I took a few days to rest my liver after I got back, but the work did have to continue. I moved on to the lower wing and drilled the second set of holes for the brass tubing to add strength to the join points. I used some Deluxe Rocket Rapid CA, slobbered it all over the joins and stuck the wing parts together. While they were drying, I cut the 0.13 mm fillers for the top and bottom as fillers. Some sanding and scraping on the joins, I glued the top pieces on the front curve with some TET,


I made them longer and they will be trimmed after the bottom sheets are added,



The bottoms will be added with some scrap plastic used to fill the empty space inside the sheets. For the most part, the wing is very, kinda, pretty straight across,


The pic doesn't show it the best. Once the sheets were in place, I made another portion of Spaghetti for the ribbing. With TET in hand, I did the ribs,


The underside,


Now, I'll trim the loose ends, sand the edges, fill a few cracks and cut the sheets to blend in with the curves in the wing. I did a quick test fit with the fusi and the fit was good. I only hope the wing doesn't droop when attached to it, or when the top wing is added with the struts putting a little weight on it...

One thing I love the most about WWI planes is the fact they are not perfectly constructed. It gives you a little play room in the scratchy building. Now, it's on to finish assembling the top wing...

Thank you for looking in on my madness and have a great weekend. All C, C, and Abuse is cheerfully accepted...

Prost
Allen

[Jim R]

Super stuff Mr D

One thing I love the most about WWI planes is the fact they are not perfectly constructed. It gives you a little play room in the scratchy building.

No need for excuses Allen - everything is looking tickety boo :thumb2:

[scottie3158]

Dude,
Great work mate. And I hope I can rely on your vote.

[Allen Dewire]

A good afternoon from the Mole,

Work goes on and I'm still trying to play ketchup with all the great stuff happening here on the forum,

Super stuff Mr D

No need for excuses Allen - everything is looking tickety boo :thumb2:

Thank you kindly Mr. R! I only hope the CA does it's job and my Albatros doesn't end up looking like this after it's finished,


There is always that possibility you know.........

Dude,
Great work mate. And I hope I can rely on your vote.

Hey Bro, You can always count on my vote. I just need to know where to send it. Thanks for the kind words too Paul!

Yesterday, I went to work on the top wing and finally got it 'stuck' together with Deluxe Rocket Rapid CA. I let that dry for a while and also drilled out the exhaust header for the D.III Motor. I broke out the TET and laid the rest of the ribbing over the scratchy part,


I finally glue the 2 radiator halves together and did a test fit into it's place in the wing. I needed to lightly sand the opening sides a little to get a better fit,


It will be one of the last things added to the wing, after the decals are applied. I rolled some thick plastic strip, shaved it into shape and glued it into the rear curved opening in the wing. It will need some putty work to fill it out and then a good sanding too. It then hit me that I had never checked to see if the the struts would line up (vertically) between the upper and lower wings...DOH!!! If they didn't, then there would be more work to move the upper wing mounting points to another position so they did. I laid out the wings and flipped upper one over to see,


Talk about getting lucky!!!...They line up almost perfectly!!! The pic is not the best and there may be a 1 mm difference between them. I definitely can live with that. Now it's on to touch-up trimming of the curvature on the upper wing rear and some sanding down on the ribbing. Then it's drilling and adding the rigging eyelets, the mounts for the upper to lower flappy control bar, and a base coat of paint over the whole thang...Once that's done, I can concentrate on the fusillier thingy halves and try to get it put together!!!...

Short and sweet for today good people. I thank you all for looking in and have a good week. School started here today and I've got 'Monsters' running and screaming all over the playground behind the house!!! I thought we had leash laws............................

Prost
Allen

[Guest]

Great work Dude 1.
Just had a good catch up. Most impressive modelling all round .

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[Mini Me]

Looks good from over here Allen! :thumb2:

[Andy T]

Some brilliant work going in to this Allen, very impressive!

[JayCee]

Excellent scratchy work going on here, Allen. Looking forward to the rest of the build.
John.

[Allen Dewire]

Evening from a very dark Mole,

Still driving on with the Albatros, but it seems that every time I look at a reference pic, I see something new to correct or have to play around with. But first,

Great work Dude 1.
Just had a good catch up. Most impressive modelling all round .

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Thanks Dude 2! You know I am only shooting from the hip here and really haven't a clue what I'm doing. PM later...

Looks good from over here Allen! :thumb2:

Thanks buddy! I'm still trying to catch up with your 'Lorry' thang. Glad to see you got the Asparagus out of the cab Rick...

Some brilliant work going in to this Allen, very impressive!

Thank you Andy! To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm doing it...Does that make sense my friend???...

Excellent scratchy work going on here, Allen. Looking forward to the rest of the build.
John.

Thanks so much John! If all goes well, I might be able to shoot some color on the wings this weekend. Good to see you Sir...

So over the past few days, I have been making some progress. After looking at my references for the rigging, I came upon another thing I had totally missed earlier. The fusillier on the W.4 is a bit different that the normal D.1 wingy. The W.4 didn't have the 3 vents on the sides of the fusi for the motor,



I shaved them off and re-scribed the panel lines (R). I also have to delete the square piece with the hole in it, above the 2 holes for the rigging on the flat fusi side. It's always something!!! Then I went back to studying the rigging and where it all went between the wings and elsewhere. This wing thingy has more rigging than my Halberstadt, but not too much more...After a few hours, I had a reactor meltdown and needed a serious beer break. I moved on to something else.............

You may remember I had bought a set of 3D printed wire spoked wheels for my doggie butt draggin' Caldron wing thingy from Copper State Models. I wanted to use them for this and thought I would have to scratchy the trolley for them. While looking at the destructions from my Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 for camo/decal things, I noticed the 2 sprues with the beaching trolley parts on them. They had axles, leaf springs and a cart, marked in blue,


Huh!!! Ok, so I researched through the WNW archives and they only made 2 German float planes (H-B W.12 & W.29) in there series of kitsets and no new kits were planned. Nowhere are these parts listed or used. I nipped them off and again, looking through my pics, I saw this trolley was also used for moving the planes around,


Here's what we have,


After cleaning up the parts, I had to file, sand, abuse and scrape the axles down to 1 mm in diameter, so they fit the wheels. It took some time and in the end we had this,


Man!!! Am I a happy camper with these??? You can bet your kahoonas I am!!!...Ya gotta love those valve stems. After this wonderful break, I went back and started drilling out the points for the rigging eyes on the wings. I could only drill the holes on the upper sides, as the naval lozenge decals have to be applied first and the eyelets would be in the way of them. The wing bottoms are in the plain linen color, with no decals. After drilling for oil with the 0.05 mm bit,


The white piece with the 2 holes is for the upper flappy control bar wire and the other is for a support wire to the upper wing. Now I could flip them about and CA the eyelets on the wing bottoms,


I love the Gaspatch resin anchor point eyelets and they are nice and tiny. Back to the ref pics and saw I could also do the outer under wing to float rigging work too,


The downside is they are a beatch to thread the rigging through and the optivisor has to work overtime! The bottom wing is done and awaiting paint. The upper wing still needed love, so it was out with the Mr. White And Mr. Dissolved putty's to do some filling work,


I will let this dry for a day or two and then sand it to shape. The big heartburn is marking out the Cabane strut points from the fusi to the upper wing bottom. I have to extend one side of the kit parts, or make a new set myself. once done. then the upper wing will be ready for some paint too...

So now that you are all asleep, I will end this update with a few final words (sorry for the long waffle)...Have a great weekend, thanks for looking in, and remember,

Kids, please don't try this build at home!!!....................

Prost
Allen

[scottie3158]

Simply outstanding my friend.

[Tim Marlow]

Wonderful stuff. Truly inspiring :thumb2:

[Guest]

That is really going places.

[stillp]

Fantastic work Allen.
Pete

[The Smythe Meister]

Yeah, "not bad for an old boy".....
... Cohan's words, not mine!!:thumb2::tongue-out2:

[Mickc1440]

Excellent work Allen