Entoni,
No doubt in my mind my friend she's a Master Piece in the making.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

Hi,

The Albie has received the lower wings. I also played with small anchor hooks for the bracing wires. These are made from 0.20mm copper wires twisted in loops and secured in place with a drop of CA glue. Since I am totally inexperienced with WWI subjects, I thought that it was just the right time to have them installed. I didn't attach the horizontal stabilizer, because I will practice another method to paint the fuselage. I will be out of Sarajevo for more than two weeks, so it's only tomorrow that I get some more modelling (at least until the match Croatia vs. Italy - I have Croatian ancestors, so it will be interesting to watch!) thumbs up!









All the best,
Entoni

Beautiful precise work Entoni. Yes it's just about the right time to fit the rigging eyelets. I always fit mine as early as is practical. Access to the point they fit being key to that.

Cheers for sharing

Keith

I can only Echo what Keith said – You're spot on Entoni!

Mikael

Fine work so far. Please, Model On!

Hi,

I returned yesterday from a two-week holiday with my family, which we spent in our beautiful seaside home in Croatia. I was cut off without phone or internet connection, but now I am back and will try to continue with the Albie. I really needed some time off with my family.

All the best,
Entoni

Family first - always.

Hear hear,society depends on it

Hi Entoni,

no phone nor internet connection, that's really Family Hollidays ! I often heard that Croatia is a really beautiful site.

Your Albatros is really outstanding, what a really good job ! I will follow forward...

Cheers
nico

Dear friends,

It was long since I was active on the site and the forum. As I have explained earlier, I am facing a difficult period in my life. Apart from the worsening job situation, I was out of the country with my family... My wife is still on her maternity leave, so she gets very long holiday with the kids at the seaside. I went there also to relax and spend some time with the family. This is very near to our house in Croatia.


The week ahead of me will (hopefully) yield some answers concerning my job situation. I returned to Sarajevo on Friday, and I was quite busy with the Albie. I longed to get my hands on plastic after three weeks in Croatia. However, I don't think I will be able to finish it in time. My figurines are still missing, but I was such a lousy contact recently and I have to double check it with Nico. I don't have much time for in depth explanation at the moment, but I did try some rather interesting techniques in this build. So, lets start uploading the mess... Feel free to ask any questions. I will have some time during the week to pop-in an out of the forum...



































All the best,
Entoni

That mottling is absolutely gorgeous! It's going to look fantastic once you finish

Entoni,
Beautiful work (as always)and the mottling is excellent.
Hope things go well with your present challenges.
Cheers,
Lance

Excellent work!

Hi there,

Thanks for the nice comments so far... The life has always been a challenge for me, but your perception of things radically changes after surviving the war - nothing is that difficult.

As it comes to the "mottling" pattern, that was an issue that I tried to tackle in a slightly different manner. As you can see from the photos, it was applied with DIY mottling stick made from natural sponge. The small piece was secured with a drop of CA, and the color (I used the JPS colour this time) was applied gently on the "natural" finnish in distinctive patterns. I practiced a bit on a hangar queen. The colour has to be thinned properly, but not too much. It does look rough in places (and it is only a possible interpretation of the pattern) but the final results were achieved by a light green overspray to blend it nicely. Apart from the pattern, I am more proud of the underbelly, which was painted using the RB wood grain stencil tool - it proved magnificent!

PS. It is nice to be here with all of you again!!!


All the best,
Entoni

Hi Entoni,

Now, this is looking absolutely magnificent – very well done on the mottling – i think your take, with a light overspray of green, is a gerat one – it does as you say, bring it all together.

Mikael

Hi,

...and thanks everybody! The Albie is wrapping up nicely. I got some time today to do the guns, add some weathering touches to the engine, and make the undercarriage legs.

The guns are original Eduard parts, but I decided to use some brass tubing for realism. The guns were sprayed in black, and then finely tuned up with the dark steel pigment. The cushion is a real leather... as well as the cockpit outer rim.

The legs were secured in place with small dots of black (rubber toughened) CA glue and feel a bit shaky, but the braces (I hope) will add some structural stability once installed. That's all for now, so here are the photos. The comments and critics are most welcome.













(I didn't realize it so far, but it seems that this particular build is quite popular if I am to judge on the number of views. It makes me happy of course, but also a bit nervous)

All the best,
Entoni

But it is a fine build! Model On please!

Hi there,

As my signature area clearly reveals ("When everything else fails, read the instructions"), I was not paying proper attention to the campaign rules and regs. From the beginning I was almost definitely sure that I had to finish both the model and the figures in this particular build. It is only now that I realize (after reading the instruction carefully), that new builds have the option be finished for this GB with scale figure(s) incorporated into the build. Is that still correct?

I was afraid that I won't have enough time to finish the Albie, because I lack the figures at the moment. But now I will give my best to finish this build in time and give it a final push! Ah, the sleepless nights! This may well be my first completed campaign on Aeroscale - it could be a daring success!

All the best, and thanks for being with me
Entoni

That is correct.

Entoni,
Very nice progress; I really like the exhaust pipes, the colors are perfect. As for the "real leather", both excellent and genius work! (where did you find such thin leather, I didn't think any insects could be skinned and cured??!!?!
I too am hoping to finish my project on time, although it is a second entry. I'll be following your final efforts closely.
Cheers,
Lance

Hi Lance,

and thank you for your nice comments on the build. I am quite pleased with the final results of my painting, though the neon light didn't bring the best of it. I was struggling since the beginning of this build to achieve some effects that I was not so accustomed to (remember, this is my very first WWI kit). As you may remember, I was particularly keen to achieve the "honey" finish of the wood sections (see the underbelly).

When it comes to the leather, I didn't skin an insect (although I pretty like the idea with so many mosquito around). Well, Bosnia is known for its leather industry - actually, there are several factories that provide some of one the finest automobile leather and are the main suppliers of the German VW. Sarajevo, however, boasts with some of the oldest handmade leather and shoe shops in Europe, so I just politely asked one of the local shoemakers to give me a piece of scrap leather. He gave me the piece of the best quality (but only after I explained what my hobby was), and I never saw something like that before - it is very soft, nice smelling, ease to work with... The batch will last me forever!

The story behind the applying procedure is rather simple: I carefully remove the excess backing with the surgical knife (the Swan&Morton I find impeccably good for this), and sometimes I also use coarse grits to thin it down. Than I soak it in water, but not too much - just enough to be stretchy and workable. It is applied on the kit with a drop of GatorsGlue - which is really, really good. I was really suspicious about the strength of the joints until I tested them. Now I use it very frequently. Just a tip: I use the small syringe and shortened hypodermic needle for precision application - it works just amazing, and the excess is easily removed with wet q-tip or thin brush.

I think this explains it roughly. Maybe I could do an illustrated tutorial on my "skinning" method when I find enough time

All the best,
Entoni

Entoni,
Thanks, I think a tutorial on dealing with leather would be excellent. As a hunter I know a little about leather, hides, and tanning however could not imagine how leather could be reduced/scaled down to work for our purposes. Basically, as I read your reply it's just another layer (or several) as the hide is shaved down to so many thin pieces.
Hope you can find the time, I'd really enjoy seeing how you do it.
Cheers,
Lance

@Lance: you are quite right... actually the key to success is having a nicely processed piece of leather with the thin "epidermis" or the outermost layers of the skin. If you are careful enough and patient, you can thin it down to that finest layer. I will definitely think about making a "tutorial" when I get some free time.

PS. I made some progress last night, but I didn't have time to process and post some images. I will do that tonight. More to come...

All the best,
Entoni

Hi there,

Yesterday and today I didn't have enough time to work on the Albie. Apart from that, I am somewhat stalled with my bad habit of getting caught up with details... but that's how I am, anyway.

I mostly played with the elevator control horns, prop, and the anemometer. Those PE horns provided with the kit are a bit flat and (it seems to me) slightly oversize. So I decided to go with my own try from a leftover control horns and buckles PE set, a piece of brass tubing, and 0,08mm fishing line.



The end result is quite pleasing, although the macro zoom reveals some downsides of this particular design.

As most of you know by now, early aviation is not my field of interest, so it is hard to achieve all the details the way you may expect. This also refers to the prop, and I simply didn't want to mimic the laminated props. I used a somewhat simpler approach by hand-painting, airbrushing and chalk pastels. So, here's the result:



The anemometer consumed plenty of time, but it will be prominent detail on the wing strut, and therefore I decided to give my best and have it scratched. I started with the kit's part, and the rest is almost self-explanatory from the photos. The brass "cups" are punched from thin led foil and formed by the ball pen. The PE dial face is used from the kit set (although not so nice under macro zoom, but quite nice to naked eye). The finished anemometer is really, really small!





The clock is ticking faster now!

All the best,
Entoni

Hi,

Very Good...!

Two askings,

Did you glue the cups whit cyano...?

And The "X" support in the mast were you put the cups, How did you do it...?

Thanks You Very Much

Diego