Now this sounds like a very good plan to me, much better than my silly notion I really like the idea of a gutted DVa being towed. Looking forward to see how it all turns out.

BTW, (Maybe you have already talked about this earlier in your thread?) How do WNWs Albatros compare with Rodens to you? (personally I like both manufacturers products, but for different reasons...)

Best Regards

Mikael

Mikael.

Like you I do like both manufacturers products very much. Also Roden for me were the vital spark that ignited the current flow of 1:32 kits from not just themselves and WNW but others.

Now....WNW have a lot more financial backing and the use of much better facilities, their production is done by another big kitmaker I believe and the style of the sprues does remind me of a certain manufacturer that begins with T. But let us not forget that Roden are ever developing and I'm sure unless they go head to head on releases I see a bright future for both.

WNW .... They have the advantage and it shows, detail and research both shine out on their product, they have the benefit of being able to use Cartograph for their decal sheets, the Albi one is incredibly well done. BUT on both the SE5a and the LVG I had scale issues with them. They also have the benefit of several years advantage since the Roden kits were first released.

Roden... Yes their moulding ability is limited in comparison, theres no Etched set though to be honest WNW's effort here isnt impressive to me, the brass seemed fragile and the detail is nothing compared to Eduard or P of Ps. BUT I have NEVER had a warpage issue with any of Roden's products like I did with the WNW DVA wings, for sure theres no rib detail etc bur that's something for Roden to rise to on future releases. I know they have issuees beyond their control, Russian legislation prevented them using out of country manufacturers for decals etc, their early decals were...not so good. This challenge has been somewhat addressed and the collaboration in producing the Encore kits is wonderful...I too have the DII kit in my stash and it will be built, the ease of build with WNW hasnt put me off and the Seimens will join it eventually. I just hope the WNW fever hasnt made Roden reconsider and stop offering us these wonderful chances to build in this scale.

Both Suppliers kits build into very nice models pretty much out of box, Roden's may require a little work but if WNW hadnt appeared we would all still be lauding thiee bravado and foresight to release such a limited interest range in such a lovely scale to work on.

Now saying that and with things as they stand currently, if both Manufacturers relesed the same subject t their current standard, cost aside I would likely choose WNW.

As an aside on cost..I dont know how or why but it's cheaper to order my Roden kits from Poland and pay postage than buy them here in the UK...

Keith

This of course is meant constructively, I have no desire or wish to knock either of these manufacturers and am truly grateful of the products they give us for me to mutilate and destroy

Okay update witha few pics.

Made some real progress, some guesswork on colours but I took the plunge with what I thought looked right. Between the illustrations in Windsock, other publications and the WNW booklet theres some huge variations so I went with what looked right to moi...eek




Underside of the wings, basecoated in what I thought was linen and realised later was a little more buff, still I masked and preshaded the rib and spar detail in mid grey before coating them in pale blue thinly once the paint was dry and all the masking removed.


Upper and lower wing colour. The violet is mixed from Gunze purple39 & Tamiya light sea grey XF-25 the green is straight life colour Olive green RAL6003. underside is in Humbrol Matt 65.




Fuselage, done in light buff, decals on ready for the blue overcoat, nail heads in the process of being added.....more difficult than it first looks and I really should have done this before assembly.

Anyhow, Blue and green on the fuselage and decalling on the wings tomorrow. I hope.


Keith

Hi Keith

The underside of the wings looks fantastic - it really gives a sense of the underlying structure.

All the best

Rowan

thanks Rowan, the colours are pretty shot in the pics, bad light and flash...the mauve/lilac isnt really that bright, honestly

Hi Keith,

Looking really good – I like your subtle effect on the underside of the wings and the colours seem very good to me, Looking forward to see more.

Best Regards

Mikael

P.S. How do you do the nailheads?

Nail heads?...you want me to give away my secrets? ..NEVER..Mhuaahhaaaahaaah!

I'm trying a Rivet-R, its a set of small pinwheels like tiny circular saw blades that are interchangeable in 4 sizes and they fit into an Exacto type knife handle. Used for adding subtle rivetting to aluminium A/C skins mainly but I thought this would do the job.
If I can pinprick then once its topcoated, they may show as feint dark points in the finish...it's experimental as I really dont want her covered in little dimples

Very nice, Keith. I really like the comparison shot of the two fuselages and the PE is a nice touch. I'm really enjoying watching all of the Albie builds unfold.

Mark

Your project is looking great so far Keith . Nice effect to the under side of the wings as well

Had a disaster day today...I had the fuselage in buff and decalled up ready for the blue...sprayed the fin white, let it dry, slipped a mask sleeve over it and set about laying the blue on....it came out too dark so I tried to lighten it and ended up with it too thick, lost that rough see through appearance... worse when I stripped it down and the decals came with the paint...h hum...Roden decals save the day

Lets see if tomorrow is better.

on a good note the wing decals all sat nicely. and they look quite nice though I want to try to show the faint image of the earlier crosses underneath with a gentle bit of airbrushing...

GULP

Wow, that is real upsetting, and it isn't even my build. It is good you have a knack for recovering from setbacks. But on the bright side, Your build is looking good from your last update photos. I am sure your next set of photos will show a great recovery and a beautiful build.

Hi Keith

That is a real shame! Painting over decals always scares me if you need to rework things. Had you sealed them with varnish (not that it always helps)?

All the best

Rowan

I had yes, one was okay but the thinner got under the other and it went rather strechy weird never gonna look right ever again. laughs


BUT today...much much better the green and Blue I've used may be more vivid than on the WNW instructions but once weathered and toned in I think will look striking.

Over the weekend I'll do some, take pics and post my progress

I'm much happier after testerdays foul up

Keith

Okay...Weekend over..ish.

Progress so far...ups and downs gets me to this point. Now I know the blue & green is bright, I'm not sure how accurate WNWs colours are, but everything seems a little grey/flat. Once they are worn/weathered in I'm sure things will tone down. Besides she will be a nice clourful addition to my cabinet.



Fuselage sitting on its U/c. I did a little wear & tear on the wheels and U/c, more to do but I wanted to experiment with Tensocrom. I made a Faux Pas on the build but I'm not saying what it is..I leave that to the eagle eyes

The Blue & Green are Citadel paints I really do like this brand, colours are different and the names are somewhat odd but for quality they are good.
I had a lot of bleed issues cos I rushed the masking and the artists masking fluid I used was temperemental, set like stone....must be a reaction with acrylic


Okay, tail surfaces, painted with a slight change of tone to the fuselage I'm hoping its subtle but enough to indicate the difference between wood and fabric once done. if you peer real close you can see some of the nailwork...the next one I'll do before she is all together and half painted..lesson learned?..NO of course not


top wing, decalled, they sat nice, no problems but seem thick. probably because of the white. I'm intending to mask and spray the feint outline of the earlier mational markings as if they show through, I had toyed with the idea of double layering the decals but thought it would be too thick to get away with. I dont know if you notice but you even get the data plates for the wings...attention to detail by WNW.



Upper wing rad position, I shaved out around the rad a little, it was a very snug fit and most pics show some gap between wing structure and the rad itself. Also I dipped the fabric behind the rad on the upper surface...AMD and Jamo Kiwi's posts of Tval DVA detail shots is .....grrr (much appreciated really mate)
the rad needs finishing BTW.


but basically this is it...WNW say its natural metal, I'm not so sure thats always the case.



A couple of shots at my attempt at a laminated prop. I need more practice...this is a nendorf prop and the kit should have a Wolff but props got swapped and I like this one, it makes a change from all those Axials on my other builds. That said I'll try painting up others...two kits with 4 props each leaves a lot of very high quality props to toy with.

So thats it so far folks. I intend weathering/wearing her in, this particular plane seemed to have a little service behind it before this point so it will lend itself nicely to wear and tear.

That is looking the part, love the propellers, and i see you are doing the nails using a rivet maker, that was my idea to replicate the effect. I tried on the inside of the tail, mainly to test the hardness / softness of the plastic, before i do it on the outside of the fuselage.

Ok, I wanted to give you the best info I could on the subject. In German niethammer = rivet hammer First the only image we have of Niethammer's Albatros D.V / D/Va is one in which it is wrecked. Greg VanWyngarden says it could be either a D.V or D.Va there is no proof one way or the other except it is ". . .likely a D.Va. . ." No wings says the wing covering could originally be two toned green & lilac upper and lt. blue undersurfaces or 5 colour lozenge. See further comments in bold below.

Here is what we have on record.

Ltn.d.R. Werner Niethammer 6 victories, arrived at Jasta 13 (first mentioned in June 1918) and served til EOW. Hence the belief it is a type D.Va.

1 09 Jun 1918 Jasta 13 Bréguet 14 Ribécourt
2 01 Jul 1918 p.m. Jasta 13 Sopwith Camel (B6369) S of Albert
3 14 Sep 1918 Jasta 13 Bréguet 14 Puxe
4 28 Sep 1918 Jasta 13 Salmson 2A2 Pagny
5 09 Oct 1918 Jasta 13 D.H.4 or Salmson 2A2
6 22 Oct 1918 Jasta 13 Two-seater

Jasta 13 in the "ready" aircraft on16 June 1918 they still have at least one Fok. Dr.I. (That is lost on this date.)

Jasta 13 received its first consignment of Fokker D.VII types in about the 2nd week of June 1918. An example was early Schwerin built D.373/18 lost on 29 June, 1918.

Niethammer's Alb. D.V(a) machine was undoubtedly a hand -me - down. It carries the June 1918 ordered cross on the vertical tail unit. The white paint for the hammer and the vertical tail unit is quite fresh. The wing components could have easily been replacements from several other aircraft by this time. WNW has attempted to give you a speculative two tone upper surface camouflage. The lower (pilot's left side) wing tip has been overpainted and is not factory applied. The fuselage attached wing roots and under carriage axle wing could go either way in colouring.

Greg VanWyngarden speculates that this machine was probably wrecked before Niethammer's first victory on June 9, 1918.

yes I've the Rivet-R in both sizes, and I'm using the 0.75 wheels. I woould reccomend doing as much as is possible before assembling the fuselage in retrospect...I did forget to finish till I had the base paint on. Do them reasonably heavy and sand back the raised lip is my advice, but practice it first...WNW have nice big Sprue No points you can play on

Keith

Thanks Stephen, with no further information I can let my mind rest and my imagination run free then. Thank you for researching this for me, it is much appreciated.

Keith

They were double dipped in solder. It sealed the welded brass components.

Kits progressing...I was gonna shoot a few pics but the weather has closed in and its raining.

Anyhow, tail and lower wings are on, I tried using pastels with mixed effect...looked wonderful but cant fix them without losing the detail... I had issues with the lower wings, they are so snug I had to shave the overspray out of the sockets and wingroots adding a little champfer before they sat in place.
I spent hours today learning how to make turnbuckles...finally got them to look reasonable, 12 made....how many to go..I havent thought eep
I placed the ones at the wing roots before fixing the wings and think they look not too bad.

I also noted thanks to Stephens post that I had missed the area of purple *in service repair?* at the tip of the left wing sp did that, weathering and scruffying up the fuselage, I may have got a tad carried away.

hope to post pics over the next two days, will start rigging tomorrow..(elevator cables) but not sure a turnbuckle is the right answer, I may loop and build up with cyo or white glue instead.

TTFN old beans

Nice work so far Keith ! I really like the shade of blue .

Hi Keith:

It looks like you recovered nicely. Seems that sometimes the gremlins have been put in water and are there at every turn. Your model is turning out nicely and your laminate looks convincing. I am trying the pen method on the DII and........not sure if I like it or not. I am looking forward to more pictures and commentary.

Take care
Best
Mark

Terri, Mark Tnks for the encouraging comments

The blue is really a shade or two darker than the pick make it look and I actually had to lighten the gren so it stood out a little, in the pics it looks the other way around..LOL

Mark I did the prop in a pale shade of enamel and the wood effect I masked and hand painted Citadel Flesh wash over...its translucent like indian ink, peeled the mask and coated it again....realy I should have laquered between coats and been less heavy with the ink. I know for next time....

I tried the pencil method before with no real success though I know some do it well, maybe its a case of pencil choice

K

I think you are doing a great job. You are doing a lot of little things that really add up in the end. I do like the fuselage colors. They look perfect.

Late in the build...I've hit a snag or two no one else has or hasnt picked up on.

1. The fit of the cowls isnt particularly good, leaving a gap under and for the life of me i couldnt work out why but shaving and piddling about I sem to have it down to a reasonable level...I'm just glad I'm building it weatherworn.

2. Maxims...now...I went to fit the guns, noticed to my dismay that the spent belt chutes dont reach the guns not a difficult fix if only the chutes werent already installed in the fuselage. So I checked a build or two here and seems no one has noticed bar me? I know its under the upper wing but AMS kicks in and I feel a tad dismayed, I know already the cocking mechanism is wrong for the albatros as supplied in the kit...theres a nice big pic on page 26 of the handbook that shows it nice and clearly.

other than that things were looking good, I have most my rigging prepared, turnbuckles made and set into the wings and once the cowling and guns were on it was a little work till I took my blue pill and started rigging...

I may take a few days off tis one and work on something else for a while, it is a wonderful kit.

Keith