Hi Michal,

Well, now you open the Pandora's box... That's somehow tricky to answer. The bottom line is that the cleanup procedure has eaten up the plastic in that section and it simply "boiled". So I had to repair that. The other side of answer is more dubious and it might be that I am starting to file the case against me. I don't have many arguments, and I don't want to be mean quarreler. However, I observed many photos of the Oeffag Albatros, and it seems to me that the Eduard kit has overly accentuated "Y" shaped line... the photos are just for orientation (and I am aware that it very much depends on the original angle, etc.) I inserted the plasticard sheet only to slightly "tame" the curve, and get a bit wider ending to the rear of the fuselage, which seems to be more correct. I am also aware that I may be completely wrong, but I was also studying the photos of Mayerhofer's replica aircraft (build almost to original specification), and it also seems that the rear curve is slightly less prominent, and the rear is also wider. But this may be completely wrong judgment... and hey, now it is there!

PS. Thank you for the wonderful and useful article!!!



And now back to the reality... She is not the prom queen, but you wouldn't expect that from a resurrected bird, would you? The primer also revealed several minor mistakes, which I will repair tonight, and (possible) put the base coat on.



All the best,
Entoni

Very cool. Thanks for the explanation.

Hi everybody,

Everything is now drying for the base coat that I will (hopefully) apply tomorrow. However, I still had to make some smaller details, like the Dapag flare gun. It was a real challenge, but I think it does capture the lines of the original gun fairly enough.



All the best,
Entoni

Entoni,
Where on earth do you get those really big matches?? They must be huge to match the detail in that Flare Gun!!
Cheers,
Lance

Hi Lance,

I might well be cheating on you Actually, those are barbecue matches... the head is as big as the tumbnail
I am catching up with the deadline. It's a busy day at work, but I hope to get my hands dirty in late afternoon. The clock is ticking!

All the best,
Entoni

Hi everybody,

I am very sorry, but I have to call it off for this campaign. I am simply spending too much time at the office, and then I am too tired and have no patience to continue and work by the bench. It is simply one of those builds that requires just a bit more, and it is the more that I don't have at the moment. However, I will continue to work on this bird and will keep you informed. I am somehow embarrassed already and I don't want to fool you around with the mission impossible. It would be simply shameful to lose it because of hastiness. I am very grateful that there was a cutoff for the campaign, but I cannot simply make it. Thanks again! ...and please continue to come by!

All the best,
Entoni

Entoni,
I am sorry to hear this but you need not apologise; you really gave it a good shot. I agree, to rush and spoil it would be a very sad thing, take your time, enjoy the rest of the Build, and keep those updates coming!
Cheers,
Lance

No worries sir! From what I have heard there will be a KotS III and kitchen clean ups - inprogress builds seem to the the main menu for these GBs.

If anything was a candidate for the proposed Phoenix campaign this one is
And of course there's always the Hangar Queen.

Hello Entoni, sorry to hear you won't make the deadline, but I will continue to follow this beautiful build of yours. As you know I have a great liking of these Austrian birds.

Best Regards

Mikael

Hi everybody,

Thank you very much for your kind comments and support. I am sure that the bird will get the proper attention when time permits. However, I wanted to share with you something that might have potential to be further developed. I experimented a bit on how to apply and mimic wood grain (again), and I wanted to try something new. I will soon make a short photo tutorial; the process is not that complicated, but the downside is that you need fine airbrush (I used Harder&Steenbeck Grafo T2), Wood grain stencil, and a bottle of fine burnt sienna ink (I used Windsor&Newton). The procedure is fairly simple: you apply a base coat, position the stencil and mist it with undiluted ink to get the grain pattern, and then blend in with some diluted ink (distilled water works best). The ink yields very nice "woody" tone and dries to satin finish, which is very nice. The only possible problem is the ink itself, because it is not water resistant and it will wash of even when completely dry. But you can overcome this by applying a light overcoat of future or clear coat. I find great potential in this technique, and especially for those "natural" wood finishes that are often found on earlier WWI subjects (for instance, Albatros D.III Oeffag 53 or 153 series). Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to make "tutorial", but I will soon post some images and show you the results. I just wanted to share this with you all.

All the best,
Entoni