Hello all,

Just thought I would share some pics of my latest - the Eduard 1/48 Albatros W4. The W4 was a seaplane adaption of the land based Albatros D.II and was used in front line service by the Imperal German Navy from late 1916 through to early 1918.

The kit is built out of the box other than the replacement of the kit lozenge decals with decals by Pegasus (I liked the colours a bit more). A number of disasters occured during this build, including the need to strip and re-paint the fuselage, and some rather unfortunate issues with the wing struts snapping which needed fixing. None the less, I enjoyed the build. I went for a reasonably weathered look and kept the wood grain on the fuselage to a minimum to represent the heavily varnished fuselage typical of the W4. Rigging is from elastic. Anyways, here are some pics:










All feedback welcomed.

BC

Another jewel Brad! If you were to help other modelers avoid the pitfalls you ran into, what would you give as a heads up?

I just love this W4 It’s an awesome bird and you done it real good Brad. If my references is right and my memory don´t fail the W4 is a relative from the DII. Would it be possible to turn the next coming DI (1/32) from Roden to a W4. Some scratch build will be required off course,What will you say about that project all you referencelovers? Is it possible?
I’ll like you W4 Brad you’re rule…..and you’re build rocks

Larsa

Job well down ! I just bought the kit from RagIII . It should arrive soon do you have any tips that would be helpful for me on this build ?

Very nice job, your wood is excellent.

What kind of elastic did you use? Us newbies want to know!!

DC

Thanks for the kind words!

Stephen / Terri - the kit itself is actually very nice - many of the disasters that affected this build were self inflicted. The only areas to watch for that make this kit trickier than the standard Eduard biplanes are the thin struts (I snapped one during my first attempt at top wing alignment) and the slightly tricky float alignment. The only tip I would have for upper wing attachment is to attach the cabane struts first, attach the upper wing, align, then attach the interplane struts. The first time I tried to attach the top wing (that's right, the FIRST time...) I attached interplanes first then the cabanes - the cabanes took some effort to fit into their holes and I ended up snapping one of the interplane struts during alignment and leaving ugly blobs of glue everywhere that needed to be removed. Trying it the other way prooved no problems at all. Other than that, the kit is a real gem like all of the Eduard Albatros kits.

Lars - the fuselage of the W4 is the same as the D.II (and the D.III for that matter), however the wings are a very different shape from the D.II. The W4 wings are longer and wider in chord, with a smaller centre wing cut out, so they would need to be scratch built. The horizontal stabiliser and elevators are also a different shape (thinner in chord but wider in span) than the D.II/D.III and would also need to be scratchbuilt. Other than that, it is an excellent idea and would make for a unique model!

DC - the elastic I used is the core out of a product called "knitting in elastic" - just remove the outer layers of cotton and you have a nice elastic core - I find this elastic is very fine, is round in section and takes paint very well. As it is elastic it never sags and attaches easily with superglue. I usually "pre-paint" the elastic with a black felt tip pen before installation.

Thanks again!

BC

Brad,
Excellent build. You are the master of many crafts, and my favorites are your finishing techniques. I find these simply outstanding. This kit looks like it smells of shellac and engine lubricants, almost a damp, musty wood smell.
Dwayne

Hi Brad this is the most wonderfull W4 model ive ever seen.
Congratulations!!!!
I must tell you that i use those photos as a referense guide for my model that i am building now.
Thanks for sharing.