Firstly, an apology quite a while ago Merlin was good enough to send me this as a review kit, however due to me not being massively proficient with word, and work going quite mad i put this kit to one side "just till i get stuff sorted out" in fact i put this kit in such a safe place it got forgot about. and i'm still struggling with word and sending in reviews/features so i hope that building this as a build log goes a little way towards putting this right.

Now onto the good stuff!

This kit has enough parts and decals to build two fokker Dv' types. The injection parts alone would make a really nice kit, with finely recessed panel lines,and quite delicate parts for the interior and engine. Add to that though, a comprehensive etched set, plus a set of paint masks and you're onto a winner. And there is etched jackets for the spandaus which is something i always think looks better than injection parts. For now heres a pic of the box and parts, hopefully there will be something glued together later on today

well i did manage to get some plastic cut, but its only now i've found a spare 5 minutes to get some pics posted.
my first job is to make the inside of the fusalage start to look like varnished wood, i usually do this by spraying on a base coat of a light brown/sandy colour, in this case i used humbrol 94

once thats dried (i put a couple of drops of a product known in the UK as rustins driers (turbene) to help speed up the drying time) i can than use some left over grain coat from the time i transformed a painted bathroom door to look like varnished wood. i use a 000 brush to lightly "stripe" over the base coat and blend it over gently to look like woodgrain

add to this a coat of gloss varnish and then i discover that my camera makes it look a lot harsher than it appears in real life!

Hi Phil!

The Baron is back!

I hope you are keeping your notes for a build feature! I'm looking forward to see your twins finished...

Jean-Luc

P.S. You should clean your bench from time to time!

hi jean-luc! i'm certainly back with a vengeance! thats why i have such a "busy" desk . as for a feature i'm hoping that if i write and post pics in this thread at the time of building i won't be trying to remember stuff at the end of the build, and a feature will almost write itself, copied from these threads. i also hope to put up progress daily or at worst weekly. i've started getting the seat, stick and pedals together but haven't took a picture because i'm charging up the batteries on my camera.

another update, and i'm afraid i have what i hope is a constructive criticism concerning the engine. on the box artwork and in the leaflet with the decal options the pipe from the wing radiator is clearly shown, and is quite a distinctive feature of the albatros, as is the copper "pot" on the end of the engine at the propellor end, however these two parts are not provided in the kit, they are easy enough to scratch up, but to me its a bit of a glaring omission

the kit engine in its entirety, painted as per the instructions.and i'm not really happy with this, i'll paint it up in overall aluminium then give it a dusting of black pastels.

the seat and stick a little further on

and more painting inside the fusalage

Greetings Phil how goes the build(s)?

so much for regular updates! in between work getting really busy, my old computer melting down resulting in the loss of quite few pics of this build (but i luckily did get them back from the abyss) eight months have whizzed by. in the past couple of months i've brought this pair on quite a bit, but have had camera probs with a missing lead so i couldn't put the pics on the 'puter. but enough of my troubles lets get to the good stuff-
or rather it would be if photobucket wasn't so painfully slow or deliberately trying to wind me up
they got their act together! just a quick update then-

the fusalage halves ready to go together

so the fusalage halves get put together. and i find another niggle in that theres quite a nasty seam/join line down the spine of the kit, annoying because to fix it will inevitably lose some of the exellent fine detail

there was nothing for it but to carefully fill,prime, sand,fill,prime,sand, etc.
and i got it sorted with less surrounding damage than i expected, so i'm a happy bunny again!

this pic was taken about half way through the repair process. on the other hand the cockpits have turned out really nice but i couldn't get a decent pic that really shows them!

once the fusalage is closed up its plain sailing, i got the lower wings on, no filler required
and could start to think about painting
the actual paint schemes i chose to finish these aircraft in are identical, with only the decals being different, i chose to finish them as 2065/17 flown by Richard Flashar, jasta 5 July 1917 (the dragon) and serial and pilot unknown jasta 5 July 1917 (the white horse)

i tried to give the ribs on the lower wing a hint of pre shading!

however it did seem to almost totally disappear

now i'm getting to the fun part, putting on the bright colours that were used as camo! and its what makes a lot of these aircraft interesting subjects for modellers

fusalage finished in pale grey, wings in violet and green and the tail masked up for the part i've been looking forward to! that green tail.

now i move on to one thing that i personally think makes a kit like this stand out-
photo etched gun jackets, thats not to say that the kit's plastic spandaus are not that good, i think they are but theres no substitute for a metal part. there are three p/e parts, the jacket an "end cap" and the cocking lever (oo er missus!) at the moment i have two made up, and i'll probably get the others done some time this week

the etched up gun against the standard kit part