Fire scorched wood.
I have been trying to think of a way to scorch the wood of the wing ribs,spars and cap strips. I had originally thought of using pastels after the wing was built but now I am thinking that nothing will look as good as actually scorching the wood itself.I will have to do this before I finish the assembly of the wing.The key is to scorch the wood in such a way as to not affect the glue joints or distort or warp the wood in any way.( I know great time to think of this now)
I was thinking of using a butane lighter but that could easily get out of hand.I have an old iron that I used in my ship building days for bending planks and it seems to me that if you let it get hot enough it would eventually scorch the wood.I also have a wood burning tool that I used for bird feathering on carvings.
I also need to experiment with a controlled burn on fabric ,as although most of it would be flash burned off ,some remnants would remain.
Should be fun!

Another pic

Before scorching and weathering the skeletonized wing assembly I fitted the ribs to the fore and aft spars. Then when they were all bunched together I sanded the noses of all the ribs flat to later accept the leading edge.(there actually was very little to remove) The trailing edge will be worked on after the wing is assembled.

After a few further experiments I decided to go with a woodburning tool set at medium heat.Most other methods did not allow for enough control over the rate of scorching and some were too hard on the glue joints.When the wing is built I can further refine it a bit with pastels.

Greetings John;

I can not avoid this another day. I have actually pulled my 1/16 Alb. D.Va out and am prepping more of the white metal parts.

Hey, that is wonderful news Stephen.Do you plan a diorama with this one? I still think that the Albatros is the second best that they have produced to date.Mostly because of the wood parts and the general beauty of the aircraft design itself.
I won't mention the castings other than to say that with some filing and filling and a little scratchbuilding they can be made to look reasonable.
Ken Foran sells a really nice 1/16th Mercedes engine for this kit which I have built and highly recommend.
Welcome to the world of 1/16th Stephen ,it really seems to be taking off recently which really makes this old guy happy! Cheers! John.

Greetings John;

I did talk to Ken several years ago . I have seen images of his castings and they are worth every penny. The engine is so good it is a shame to hide any bit of it. This was back when my wife was going therough some health problems and I couldn't justify the costs. We'll see what can be done in the near future.

With your build in progress I have the itch to work on mine now. Though I have several things in progress myself.

Another pic

Trailing edge and aileron spars and the leading edge have been temporarily installed.The aileron spars where the leading edge of the ailerons are attached must be shaped into a U type curve.
I had forgotten just how time consuming the the building of the Albatros wings can be,much more so than either the Camel or the Nieuport or maybe it is because I have a short memory!

Short? You must be talking about height or something else. When it comes to talent, clarity, review asessments, insight or skills you are not "short" on anything.

Greetings John,
When you talk about shaping the wing trailing cut out or the leading edge curved wingtips, what do you do / use to laminate them? Epoxy? Do you treat the wood chemically? Steam?

Wood bending tool.
I use an old hair curler for bending wood.It remains at a nice constant temperature and has just the right curve for most hobby work.
I dunk my wood into water and let it soak for awhile depending on the thickness.Then I press the wood up against the curler and slowly bend it to shape.If you are bending right near the end of the wood get an old piece of wood or the end of an eraser to replace your fingers.Take your time and re-soak the wood if necessary.Even thin wood has a grain and some of it does not run lengthwise but is cross grain in nature,so if it keeps breaking select another piece.If the wood splits turn it over and bend the other way.After a while you will become more familiar with the grain of the wood just by looking at it.Experiment and take your time! Have fun.

Glueing up the wing.
The upper wing has been glued up using super thin super glue at all the joints and in between the bend laminated wood strips.The capillary action of the thin glue allows for all parts to be glued while pinned down to the building board.
Where the wing tips join the leading edge I made a 45 deg cut.
Let the glue cure for an hour or so and then the wing can be freed from the building board.Give it a quick check for any loose joints and apply more glue where necessary.Now it is on to the sanding.
Note: there is a pic on my photobucket site that shows the underside.The four rib from the front shows some deformation where the cap strip fits over the spar.I couldn't see this until after the wing was removed.It was probably caused by the rib installation somehow getting out of sequence when they were installed over the tapered spar.Normally I would replace it but this being a wreck I will make it a stress fracture.
There are many areas that could be improved in the fitting of the wood parts etc... I could without too much effort scratch the ailerons etc...but on a large project such as this I can't allow myself to get bogged down into too much detail that will never be seen upon installation.You have just got to draw the line somewhere and modeling for God is that line for me!This is not an excuse for poor modeling just reality if I ever hope to get anything finished.

John,

You need to cease and desist all these fabulous postings.............I REALLY dont want to HAVE to go out and get one of these 1/16 birds (much less a 1/8 scale). I've been watching and hoping that it would just go away.....................it just keeps coming.

Everything else aside (price, complexity, etc).............WHERE do you put one of those things after your done with it? And no, not gonna string it up to the ceiling......wife would shoot me for sure.

Regards
Steve

Another pic

Shaping the leading edge and wing tip.
Draw a line down the center of the leading edge and wing tip,this will be your reference point.This line is maintained until the sanding process is finished , it represents the outermost point to which the rest of the edge is shaped.In other words if you sand off the pencil line you are decreasing the width of the leading edge.Redraw the line if it accidentally gets rubbed or sanded off as soon as possible.Just before you lacquer the leading edge then you can remove the pencil line.Why do I emphasis this so much ? because after 11 years of teaching wood carving this was one of the most difficult points to get across to my students.
Believe it or not, one of the hardest things to carve is a ball from a square block of wood, using only four pencil points as a reference.Great for training the eye and for understanding wood grain.