Allen's 1/32 WnW Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 (early)

[tr1ckey66]

Cracking subject for the GB build Allen. Having seen previous builds of yours, I’m absolutely certain that this will be yet another masterpiece with exceptional detail and interesting build techniques.
Hope 2024 is a good year for you
See you on the GB!
Paul

[Allen Dewire]

Late evening good people,

So sorry for the late replies as the sinus infection has put me down for the last 9 days, but it is finally going away. The headaches have subsided and I can wear the optivisor without pain again...

With the crane thing, you could always have the 'plane in the water, as if it's just been lowered, or just about to be lifted
But that would depend on whether you're up for water or not!

And that engine does look pretty damn good

Thanks Chris and water is in the mix of things too. I really don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet, so you will have to be patient for a while. I have to get all the elements together and get the plane finished too. I am able to play again and after the cockpit, that motor is next in line. I hope I can do it justice with a steady hand...

Sorry I'm late to the party Allen! The engine does look very nice!

Thank you Andrew and no need to be sorry either my friend. I am even later than you on keeping up with the builds on here. Hope all is well with you and the family and the new year brings you more time at the table Buddy...

Cracking subject for the GB build Allen. Having seen previous builds of yours, I’m absolutely certain that this will be yet another masterpiece with exceptional detail and interesting build techniques.
Hope 2024 is a good year for you
See you on the GB!
Paul

You are too kind Paul!!! I'm just an old git that loves to build models between cold ones. I really do enjoy the WnW kitsets and they build up almost by themselves. As written above, 2024 definitely started out on the wrong foot my friend. Now that I can again wear the optivisor without pain, I really have to get crackin' on this one...

I have been making progress, somewhat, over the past few days, headache willing. I have cleaned up a lot of parts and today, been working/painting on the cockpit. As usual, I always forget to take pics of the progress. I will try to remember in the morn and then post them up for your perusal. I can't apologize enough to you great folks here for my lack of comments on your great builds. I'm gonna do my best to try and ketchup, even if it takes a month.......

Prost
Allen

[Allen Dewire]

Evening good People,

I have been actually been able to work at the table and wear the Optivisor without a hitch. The damn infection is gone, as well as the headaches too. Great to be human again and the build has made some progress!!! I started building up the pit and have had to paint so many little things along the way for it. Did the wood look on a lot of parts. It's still not finished, but I managed to get it glued together to do a test fit in the fusi,


I rigged up the control wires for the for the rear flappys and steering fin. That was the hardest part of it all...Another pic,


As you can see, the W.12 had a window in the floor for the observer and a window between him and the pilot. He also had a folding table for his maps/charts so he could study them or make notes while underway. I just added the two support wires from some stretched sprue,



There were 3 little decals to add. 2 on the fuel tank and 1 for the throttle. The decal sheet also includes a couple of maps for the observer to have on his table. I didn't detail the oil tank as it is covered by the engine support frame plate. Some other bits in progress,


Pilot and observer's seat, camera, steering wheel and IP. Not sure if I will wrap the steering wheel rim with ribbing yet. There are also a lot of decals (10+) to add to the IP after I paint the bezel rims in chrome. Now, for the test fit,


There won't be a whole lot seen...Typical for a WWI wing thingy,



The pit fits into the fusi 99% perfectly. I just had to scrape the rim over the observer's window and some paint off a few places to close the tiny gap over it. Again, Wingnut's kitset engineering is wonderful and the fit is excellent...

More to come and have a great weekend everybody...

Prost
Allen

[Andy T]

Beautiful work Allen. Great to hear you are feeling better.

[Steve-the-Duck]

Outstanding. Good to see you back to it and progressing apace

[yak face]

Great to hear youre getting back to normal allen , the cockpit is looking excellent , cheers tony

[Tim Marlow]

Nice progress Allen. Pit is looking very sweet.

[scottie3158]

Dude, glad to hear your feeling better mate. Loving the work on the office.

[Neil Merryweather]

Great to hear you are feeling better and back at the coalface, Allen.
Good start, keep the faith!

[Waspie]

What a build so far - amazing.

Sorry to hear about the sinus issue. On that I can empathise, I have suffered intensely with it in the past. Not nice!!!

But that cockpit area!! How do you do it? Looks superb Allen. Going to follow this one!! :thumb2:

[Mickc1440]

Waiting for more tarmac to arrive so had a catch up. That cockpit is outstanding

[JR]

Dude 1 , great work and glad your feeling better.

[Allen Dewire]

Evening from a cold Bamberg,

Work goes on with the W.12 as it's too damn cold to go outside. Hopefully soon, the temp will go over -1° during the day. We won't talk about the temps at night...Anyway,

Beautiful work Allen. Great to hear you are feeling better.

Thanks my friend! It's amazing what you can do when you can wear the Optivisor again...

Outstanding. Good to see you back to it and progressing apace

Thanks Chris and I sure do have a lot more to do too!!!...

Great to hear youre getting back to normal allen , the cockpit is looking excellent , cheers tony

Much appreciated Tony! I'm trying to make the wood butchers on here jealous for a change...

Nice progress Allen. Pit is looking very sweet.

Thanks so much Tim! No curtains here, but believe it or not, The pilot has a double window in the pit floor on this puppy...

Dude, glad to hear your feeling better mate. Loving the work on the office.

Thanks Bro! Sinus infections really suck, but I can finally get back to driving on with this build. Dashboard decals are giving me a scare though, as they are kinda tiny...

Great to hear you are feeling better and back at the coalface, Allen.
Good start, keep the faith!

Thank you too Fred! I did lose over a week, but I'm making up for it now. I'm having a blast (see below)!!! Give my best to Ginger too...

What a build so far - amazing.

Sorry to hear about the sinus issue. On that I can empathise, I have suffered intensely with it in the past. Not nice!!!

But that cockpit area!! How do you do it? Looks superb Allen. Going to follow this one!! :thumb2:

Don't know about amazing Doug, but the worst part of the sinus infection was it was only on the right side of my melon. You blow out the crap and take a breath and the cold air goes straight into the void and the pain is incredible in the right sinus cavity. The pit is just a base coat of Lifecolor Dust. When dry, I sponge some Burnt Umber cheap acrylic oil paint over it and let that dry. Then I quickly brush it all with a mix of Tamiya Clear Orange, Clear Yellow mixed with their X-20A thinner. One swipe with a flat brush as it dries quick, and if you try to go over it, it comes off (typical Tamiya). Set it aside and let it dry overnight. The seat frame and table was done using AV 71.040 Burnt Umber straight from the bottle in a mottle/streak pattern. HTH's and makes sense my friend...

Waiting for more tarmac to arrive so had a catch up. That cockpit is outstanding

Great news Buddy and glad to hear the Roads Council hired you to fix them potholes. Hope the tarmac arrives soon and you can drive on Mick. Thank you for the kind compliment too...

Dude 1 , great work and glad your feeling better.

Thanks Dude 2 (aka B-Boy) Feeling great and happy to report that Richard has been evacuated from the lava flow and is back home!!!

Over the past few days, it was time to attack attempt to do up the Lukgraph resin 150hp Benz motor. It was actually not too shabby to paint. I thought it would be a lot harder being a single piece. I painted the cylinder heads and then went on to doing all the little details. When it was dry, I painted the spark plugs white,


The pushrods were done in AV Metal Chrome. The funny thing is that when you look closely, you can see the resin printing lines on them. The channel behind them is for the spark plug cables from the magneto to the cylinders. It will be capped with a strip of sheet plastic later. I also drilled out the magneto cap for the wires. Then it was on to the nerve wracking job of wiring this baby Benz up,


The right side is done and, as usual, I forgot to take pics of how I did it. Again, the channel will be capped later. Another view,

The chrome pushrods do look like crap here. I will try another coat to fix them up. I did remember to take pics of my wiring work on the left side. It takes a steady pair of hands with the hope, the shakes don't come,


For the wires, I used 0.2 mm lead wire from Plus Model. I drilled out the holes with a 0.3 mm drill bit and yeah, I managed to break one in the progress. A dab of MIG CA on the holes and carefully insert the wires into the them. You have to be very gentle as the lead wire is soft and always wants to bend up in different directions. After this, I went about painting them with my favorite plug wire color, French Blue. I don't paint the whole wire, just around 3/4 of them. This allows you to use the tweezers to put them in place,


A piece of folded strip was inserted to aid in the bending of them up to the spark plugs. A drop of CA on the plug head and press the wires onto them. I added another drop on top to make sure they stayed put. Once dried, I finished painting the wires and gently nipped off the excess wire. Lastly, I added a dab of black for the caps on top of the spark plugs. That was enough for today as the nerves were frayed and I needed a cold one. Tomorrow, I will finish the magneto wires, add the channel covers and get on with painting the rest of the Benz motor. After that and with nerves willing, I can assemble HGW seat belts for the pit. They are some tiny little critters with 10 pcs. for each belt x 4 = 40 total!!!...

That's it for tonight and thank you all very much for the interest in my madness. Stay warm and have a great week...

Prost
Allen

[Ian M]

Glad you are feeling better and are back at the bench.
These WnW kits look pretty darn good. Pity I missed that boat.
Great work on the cockpit and the motor.

[David Lovell]

Great to see your back up and well you know ,I dont /can't run anymore. Certainly looking the part great attention to detail also many thanks for making the whole thing a enjoyable read through your progress so far. Dave