Since I'm about to start on the albatros build soon, and most of all since I'm a very lazy bastard: I thought we could use this thread to sum up the things that are wrong and/or missing in the kit! This could also be of help to future builders, and for the benefit of humanity in general, hrmm.

I'll start with the things I've discovered - ok, overheard, or leeched is more appropriate - so far:

- The spinner (F4) is a bit too pointy, and you could sand it down a tad for a rounder, softer profile.

- On many copies of the kit the upper, or both upper and lower wings (B3, B4, B6) are slightly warped due to early removal from the molds, and should be straightened with the help of, for axample, hot water.

- The aftmost bulkhead behind the pilots seat (A19) should be painted linen, as it was not a solid wooden bulkhead, but covered in linen. I'm not sure if you should paint a "frame" of wood, and linen in a smaller oval inside this part?

- The ammo chutes (F14) are too short. Not a big issue, as they will not be seen, but if you suffer from AMS...

Please contribute to the thread if you feel like it!
/Hans

Great idea Hans!
and since I am still lazier than you, I'll keep coming here to steal some secrets

Hey Edoardo!
Please do! I'll post as I find tips from others, and discover by my own mistakes

Hi Hans

Another for your list: The fuel tank has a nasty seam to fill and no detail on the filler caps - I've decided to drill them out to make it easier to remove the seam and then replace them, refering to TVAL pics for some details.

All the best

Rowan

Hans, Hi, I suggested a thread like this a while back but was discouraged by Stephen in case it was mistaken for a WNW bashing session.

Any way a few bits to add for you.

Maxims. cocking mechanism is wrong

seat cushion detail...depending on period

Rudder needs the tube that drops into the fuelage, the linkage was internal.

thin coaming missing around gun breeech aperture.

the lower tail fin needs reprofiling or the bracket for the tailskid sits flush not above the surface of the wood.

I had fit issues with the lower wing to fuselage joint, its tight an I had to depaint and tinker with the joints a little.

I had issues with the cowling fit, but that might be my own making as no one else seems to have picked up on it but the lip around the top edge of the cowlings needs adding.

I repositioned some of the rigging points and control wire exit points from the lower wing vee strut area using the TVAL pics from Jamo Kiwi as reference.

Really all things considere these are minor details and even without them the kit builds sweet as a peach.No 2 is already in progress but more on that later.

Keith

P.S. ref the rear former, the fabric was nailed to the front of the former close to the fuselage so no wood frame, unless you get AMS and try to carve detail into the plastic like I did.

The one extra I will add is that the tabs on the lower wing need to be bent upwards slightly to allow the lower wings to sit at the correct dihedral. The fit is very tight and even a couple of layers of paint can affect the fit, so be careful here. The other points mentioned are all good ones, some of which I identified during my OOB build of this kit.

Cheers,

BC

It aint got no sparkplugs

Missing decal for the engine number

I fixed the "too strait" lower wings with placing the tips on paint jars whereas the plane settled down by its own weight and I got a perfect fit while glueing.

Cheers/Jan

Mea Culpa

Hi everybody!

Wow, great suggestions from you all, brilliant!

Please consider this list a "smorgasbord" of possible rectifications and suggestions. I'm planning to do a OOTB build(hm, cough, cough, if I CAN), and will pick up on those parts.

The super-tight fit seems to be a "problem" with all the WNW kits: Ray rimell suggests that you mask off ALL entry holes and location points basically, with Maskol or similar. Seems like a good idea?

Here's a couple more points (I'll harvest the thread later, and make a comprehensive, easy to read list for all:

- Pipes over the front of the fuel tank (part numbers?) apparently can cause some engine fitting problems. careful dryfitting will help.

- Seat belts are probably a wee bit too short, anneal them and dryfit.

Many items can be fixed, added, redone:
What's with that big " TAB" on the back of the seat?? I'm surprised no one has complained about that in any forums? Remove and fill in the slot on the "screen" frame.
An "oval" shape needs to be opened at the bottom of that screen for control lines to pass thru.
If repositioning the rudder, and adjusting the rudder bar to reflect this; make sure you adjust the bar BELOW the rudder to also reflect the same angle.
Control stick is missing the prominent throttle control on left side. If control surfaces are repositioned this piece will have to be completely rebuilt.
Small control levers for all but one control on dash board. ( Fuel mixture controls.) You'll need some valves, lines , etc. on back of this dash board.
Foot loops for rudder bar.
The top control line outlets ( little shallow squares??) on the tail of the fuselage-what the heck are those!! Redo completely. Open up properly represented ones on the bottom side.
Hand loops to pick up a/c by ground crew. They have the holes and fuselage straps there for you, just add the loops.
If displaying the top cowl panels off, make sure the access panel has it's corresponding opening on the other side of the pilot's left panel.
Radiator control handle ( this was missing from the LVG also!?)
Open up control line shrouds.
I agree with other corrections/observations previously made and also, don't get me wrong, this is a great kit and has been a real blast to start up, research, detail and paint! These are just some suggestions for this thread. Some may be a bit AMSish or a bit OC, but you asked!
These are also what I've discovered with my progress so far, so more may be forthcoming!
I can't wait for the D VII!
Ken

I spent an arm and a leg buying this kit and then the extra to get it in to the country, it nice to know what to expect when one gets around to building it, but it seems this list is getting bigger and bigger, and i am now getting depressed, if WingNuts has a great customer service, as some folf say, how about sending an e-mail to them listing the faults, i don't think they can remake the moulds, but they could do corrections to the kit.
And is it just the Albatros kit or are the other releases the same, i know no kit maker can't do a 100% everytime, 99% will do me! but i want this company to keep going and produce the stuff we have been waiting all our modelling lives for.

Hi Keith,

This thread was in no way meant to debunk WNW, or to make you depressed!
I mean, take for an example a look at Brad Cancians totally out-of-the-box build, made in only three weeks:
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/models/47045-wip-wnw-1-32-albatros-dva-10.html. That's what can be done with it without doing any detailing or corrections whatsoever!

It's an absoulutely fantastic kit, and way above what one can usually wish for in an injection moulded kit in that price range, innit?

Having seen shots of the DeLuxe versions (coming later, starting this year) photoetch and decals, I'm pretty sure many, many of the omissions will be dealt with. The photoetch sets will be huge, with more than 250 parts each, and the decal options will be double that of the basic kits. There will also be resin figures customized to fit just that aircraft, as I understand it.
If they were to get it 99% right, I'm afraid they would never be able to finish a mold.
Somewhere along the line the money guy probably says "ok, guys, enough is enough, we really have to get this into production now, or we won't make a penny on it"?

Hi Hans and thanks for the reply, yeah seen Brads build, fantastic job as all the WNN kits are here, and as for my 99% well think i was reaching bit high there,lol!, but look forward to see the decals and P.E sets that will be coming out,

WNW have hit the middle ground very well, true theres a few things that could be better but the only real issue I had was the warpage of the flying surfaces, I bought 2 kits, one was really bad, the other negligable, that and the tightness of joints, a good and bad thing...I marvelled at the dryfit of the SE5a when I got it, realising after the issues once I began assembling the painted parts.

A lot of these points listed here are not faults but improvements that arent needed to build a lovely example for the less AMS afflicted or skilled. Some things are done for ease of construction for those people not Us...take for example the huge tab on the back of the seat and the panel behind it...once built you cant see the tab unless you really look for it and as for the hole for the cables well....I just drilled little holes and used them as the rear anchor points for the control cables under the seat, it is after all out of sight.

True it might have been nice if WNW had expanded the easy options they gave in the LVG and Junkers where you had an option to build the engine with moulded on pushrods or add your own but that would only drive cost up.

I know I grumbled in my thread, its so easy to see ommisions and wonder why things were missed when building to that level of detail but from the start WNW said their intention was to produce kitsets ALL could make.

It just seems the better things get the more we gripe about what really are minor issues. This stands for Roden as well, they drove the upsurge of 1/32 WW1 A/C and deserve our respect and support too.

Like Carl I'm in Albatros heaven at the moment.

Keith

Well put Keith and Keith!

What I'm hoping for most of all, is that WNW gives us early adopters a chance to upgrade our basic kits, by selling the Deluxe stuff separately: decals, photoetch and figures. I have a feeling this is just what they are planning. Makes a lot of sense , doesn't it (for them and us)?

Yes Hans it does, like Roden released their Engines as seperate kits, I for one would love a WNW Merc or two spare to build, for upgrading other 1/32 kits, display or use in a diorama

Hopefully the upgrades will be offered seperately but WNW never seem quick to release things...I hoped coming soon meant just that as I waited for Loz, I so wanted to build this kit as R Greim's silver D.Va

Maybe you missed it in the Feature on WNW and some of the threads here, but Mr. Richard Alexander is keenly aware about this GB. He spends part of his day reading website comments. And we are the only one doing a GB at the moment.

Having completed my Albatros my impression of the kit "out of the box" are strongly favorable.

I have the following suggestions from my own build and on selected suggestions to this thread.

1) open the slots in the tail for the controlwires and thin out the material from the inside before assembling the hulsides - it will make a much better impression

2) the tabs on the rear of teh seat is not visible from the out side and a important contribution to the rigidity of the cockpit assembly - think twice before removing it.

3) while painting the sidewalls a little paint is prone to get into the locating slots for the bulkheads - while it may only seem like very little paint, then due to the tight fit and small tolerances it can wise to clean out the slots before hull assembly

4) missing sparkplugs are visible both with or without cowl

5) when attaching the upper wing, you will notice that the lower wings are not sufficiently bent upwards to connect to the outer supports - I came by this by placing the planes on paintjars on the lower wingpoints, the weight of the kit is sufficient to make the wings sag and connect with the supports.

Other than that I have found no challanges constructionwise.

Beautiful kit!

Jan: Those are really, really great tips, simple and effective ones!

Great, isn't it? That a manufacturer actually cares that much, and follows the buyers and builders thoughts and discussion. That's quite unique, and another plus for WNW in my opinion!

I am back on my D.V build and I love this kit. I am doing this one OOB. It is nice to know some of the things going on with this kit. But I think it is great straight oob. I will modify the next one a bit based on my findings and the suggestions here.

Just thought I would bring this up for many of us that have these kits.

Perfect timing. I have both the DV and Va in the stash and very near the front of "the queue" and there's a lot of good tips and things I was not aware of here. Thanks for bringing it forward Stephen.

Cheers,
Lance

Glad to do it. I also added this thread as a link in the original review.