1/72 Revell Albatros D.III

That's tiny looks good

Thanks guys. Not doing too badly considering the primative conditions. The alignment issue isdefinitely my fault, but as my friend Ted tells me, Just don't display it so its noticale lol.

Because of the clamp I had to remove the rigging on the landing struts and now I'm still trying to puzzle out at what stage I should add them back with the rest of the rigging.

Should I paint first, paint some, or just do it before paint and deal with the occasional knocked-off rigging?

Either of those options has its own shortfalls and advantages. Regardless, I haven't made up my mind yet.

As I was cleaning up around one of the wing spars it came apart from the wing. Seems I didn't get it completely into position the first time. So I used some bits of sprue and reattached it. Fuzzy art pipe cleaners sort of make decent clamps for this sort of thing, lol.

An added bonus is that the wings now line up almost perfectly. Go me.

You can also see the little hole that is in the main spar that attaches to the fuselage. I stuck some more prue into the void behind the part and melted it in with some liquid cement to make sure I have a solid connection there now.

I'll give all of this another 24 hours or more before I make a go at cleaning up all of the joined areas around the spars. Then maybe I can get to painting this thing?

Primer is on and i'll take a closer inspection of the final repairs to the spars tomorrow.

I've included a couple of items for size comparison. Yeah, its a tiny crate. lol

Have a good night, Gents.

Niiice!  The reason I stayed in 1/72 is its compactness.

Nicely done.  The extra added details really does show through.  Great job sir!

Toshi

Thanks guys. I don't know why, but I've always been more comfortable in this scale. :)

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I seem to have forgotten how to use my airbrush properly in these few months I've had it packed away. :/

My first try with some MM Israeli Armor Sand didn't go well at all. For some unexplained reason all that would come out was a little spatter of paint, but mostly clear. ???!



It even dried a semi gloss for some reason. Talk about confusion; I sat there looking at my AB as if had been possessed by Poseidon, while scratching my head. I still haven't figured out how I did that.

I cleaned my AB and tried again. This time with a mix of Tamiya Dark Yellow and white. Still had some issues here.



Second cote...



Okay, this will have to do. I cleaned out the AB and pulled out the brushes. I mixed up Tamiya dark Yellow, Tamiya Flat Earth, and lightened it with some more white to get the neutral wood tone for my base color.



Since I am keeping my paints thin so they don't clog up my panel lines, it took more than one session.




I'll be away for most of the day so that should give me plenty of time before digging around for my oils so I can start trying to replicate wood grain. Fortunately I have a sheet of plywood in front of me while I'm working in my Dad's garage, lol. Good reference for what is coming next.

Well that'll be it for now. You guys have a great day, and for us Uhmeri'kins, Have a safe Memorial Day weekend. See ya 'round.  :)

When you store your AB for any given period of time, dust settles into the interior/exterior of the AB.  Next time, may I suggest a blowing through the AB with lacquer thinner prior to the job.  You've got me to use dish soap with the AB, the dish soap if allowed to dry and or settle can indeed clog the inside of the nozzle tip.

Mind you, don't stop using the recommendation that you gave me in regards to the use of dish soap added to your AB paint mixture as that definately helps from the splattering effect.  Although, if you were building a Luftwaffe plane, that camoflauge motif intentional/un-intentional would have worked to the extremes.  LOL! No one no matter how good they are, would ever be able to replicate that!  LOL!  Another fix would be to purchase a tube of "Super Lube" by Iwata and spread that within the AB housing.  If you have questions on the "Super Lube" by Iwata, I'll be happy to help you with this.  I've been using "Super Lube" religiously.

At my build rate, my AB use is everyday.  Only on this build, I have not used the AB for more than two weeks as the Zoukei Mura Horten HO 229, being a visible (See through) kit.  I'm having AB withdrawals.  LOL!  My brush(es) I have three, (NEO Iwata gravity feed, NEO pistol grip TRN1 gravity feed, and my Harbor Freight Tools siphon feed) will need to be blown out with lacquer thinner prior to use.  Think of it this way.  Most if not all people that owns a car needs to have a oil changed at some point.  It's basically a pre-prep prerequisite of using the car.  If you don't maintain your vehicle, only bad things can happen.  The same theory applies to all things mechanical.  

In my youth, I used to rebuild old classic cars, the more moving parts you'll be dealing with, the more possible breakdowns occur.  Just like your AB.  I can speak (Forgive me for being too forward sir, in all respects to you) for the both of us as I recall that you own the NEO Iwata gravity feed AB as well.  If not, please except my apologies.  This tip should be able to work for you.  Let me know if it doesn't, we can then work step by step on this issues of splattering on the NEO Iwata.

Another note; I break down my AB after every use no matter how small the job.  It's just good practice-habits in knowing the internals of your AB If not only to throughly clean and maintain your tool.  The only issue with the cleaning process that I use is that I can damage my needle and tip, remember the more moving parts, the greater risk of the breakdown.  But if you're careful/anal like I am, the chances of a breakdown should be minimal at best.

Toshi

Hello Mike!

M. Brindos

some issues here.

Dang, when I firs saw it, I said to myself: what a lovely camo pattern! Sometimes the unintended results are so cool it's almost pity to paint them over.

Well I don't know if I can help you any with the airbrush, but I had similar problems with my Paasche VJR when I rebuilt it - it were a simultaneous problems with air pressure setting and assemblying the airbrush. I got a hold of it after a few hours of tweaking and it's been working fine ever since.

So good luck with your airbrush and with your model, and have a nice day

Paweł

I don't think its my AB as much as it's me, Toshi lol. I have no idea why no color would come out when I was using the enamels, but I'm pretty sure I over-did-it with the thinner when I switched to the acrylics. I remember having the test spray almost right where I wanted it so I added just a bit more thinner to the cup. Yep, that was my mistake. But I have gone through and cleaned the snot out of the AB just because I can. I like having it shiny, inside and out. :)

Yes, you remember correctly, I have an Iwata CN with the Iwata Air Compressor. I'm also in the process of rebuilding my Suzuki G10 motor (bad crankshaft) and I've got dirty pieces all over the garage right now, so yeah I know about mechanical stuff lol.

You know, Pawel, I didn't even think of that as a camouflage pattern at all. Looking back it was an interesting effect, but not anything I wated on this project lol. A simple Google image search shows a ton of results for this kit and all the different variations by the different artists. Some of them are really impressive, some of them, not so much, but this is a well documented and popular kit, so it seems.

I've got my work cut out for me i suppose lol.

Well, well, well. I decided to jump into this wood grain idea this morning after feeding the brood some pancakes. This has turned out far better than I expected, as you will see.

I started off my doing a few minor touch-ups with the base color just to get my even tone. Kinda like the color of cardboard, to start. Then I added more Flat Earth to the base color to add my background "wavy" discoloration effect.



Looks like poo, right? Some amateur attempt at painting a tree on plain white paper, lol.

I let that set a while and tried an attempt at trying something different with Watercolor Pencils. That didn't work at all and the results were lousy. Okay, so out with the oils.

Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber are my choices for this project. They should blend well and as long as the Yellow Ochre is my main color it should give me the golden glow I'm looking for.


Standard application of randomized spots of paint.

With a flat wide brush (I used a 1/2 inch brush) I blended the oils into the fuselage using front to back strokes. This was my test, and it worked very well. On to the entire fuselage!



The effect is quite pleasing to the eyes and I only wish I had actually scratched out the panel lines so a nice wash would've given some separation to the grain effect. It's pretty cool and my camera doesn't quite do it justice.







I even did a little of this on the propeller and that turned out pretty good too. I'll be embellishing this a little differently later on, but this doesn't look bad at all.



I chose to use the Burnt Sienna mostly for the propeller. This part will be a little darker when I'm done.

Its all sitting under a MM dull cote right now waiting for that paint to dry. It will be at least another 24 hours of curing time before I want to try anything else with the model. I don't want to risk ruining what I've got here. :)

I'm surprised at how easy this was to accomplish. I've used oils in this manner before, of course, but never for wood grain. I think I will never be nervous about this process ever again lol.

Happy memorial day. Remember the fallen, for they have died so that we may live on.

Man I love the wood tone effects you've done and thanks a ton for explaing your process.  Now I'm off to the craft store to get yellow ochre and some burnt sienna oils. 

Not sure how I missed this one, but this is one really cool build. I love the Albatross, I think it is a very good looking plane. Nice work on this little guy.

BK

Mike, looking very good there.  Usually model companies are all over panel line detail, but being a 1963 rebox, that explains that.

What you could try to suggest a semblance of panels, is masking off a few and giving them a darker (or lighter) filter to set them apart from their surrounding.  Something like can be seen happening in the pic below;

Should mention too, if you are up to it, drawing in the panel lines with a sharp brown pencil is an option as well.   The finish on fuselage though, would need to be flat to accept the graphite. 

regards,

Jack

Thanks, Jay. I've been reading about this process and watching other forum members do this for a long time now. I've used this same process on armor to great effect, but I've not had an opportunity to try my hand at wood grain until now. It is far easier than I thought it should be.
You saw that I decided to add some color variation before applying the oils. This is because the oils are transparent. That step helped out a lot, although I would suggest making the patter smaller for this scale and I did not do that. I just slapped it on there because this was the first time I've done this. Just a head's up on that one, lol.

Brandon, I too, think this is one of the more attractive aircraft of the time period. This design is probably one of the inspirations for the aircraft designers that were foremost in the next generation of developement. It has nice aerodynamic lines and shows some real forward thinking towards future streamlining and efficiency.

Jack, you just saved me a lot of trouble! I'm very glad I checked in on this thread and read your comment before I started on those panel lines! I had made up some dark Brown-Red paint I was going to carefully try to draw those lines with, but your suggestion with the pencil just saved me the trouble. That idea made it super easy and really simple to get the results I wanted. THANK YOU!

I used some thin strips of Tamiya tape to use as guides to make sure the lines were straight and that made it go pretty quikly. I messed up one line, but an eraser solved that problem and I just had to put the tape back down and redraw the line again. Any line that was too dark or thick was simply touched-up with the eraser, and voila!

Now, pictures, or it didn't happen, right?

Tape down and pencil ready, this is the easiest and most consistent method, I never would have thought of.

There's some small area touch-ups to take care of, but this is true for every build. As you can see I've got some of the metal panels painted in. I used MM Steel simply for the tone. I was going to use silver, but I'm afraid that may have been too bright, even after a cote of clear matte.

And here she sits waiting for the dull cote to cure so I can add the last few panel lines around the cockpit. I was afraid of smudging them into oblivion in that small area, so I will wait until the matte cures and then add those as well.

Now that's woodworking of a different sort !    It's turning out very nicely Mike.  

IMO Natural wood and Albatrosses are kinda like shark mouths and P-40's   -   they just go together well.  Very pretty.

Chris

Besides the les than $10 price tag in the LHS, the paint scheme alone grabbed my attention. I hope I can make her as pretty as she should be. I'm quite happy with the wood work!  :)

Thanks, Chris.  :)

I think this will have to do for today's progress. I'm still having problems getting those front vents to shape up right. Probably because I need to relax more. lol

The panel lines are great though.

Still though, its not turning out too bad at all. (famous last words, right?)

Hi Mike, glad to see the pencil idea worked out for you - nicely done!

For the vents, maybe keep the dark pin wash just to the rear, where they would be open?

regards,

Jack

That's the plan. I just haven't gotten there yet lol. I'm almost ready to move on to painting other parts. Thanks again for the tip. :)  that looks really neat and I'm glad you pointed it out.

Usually I just use the pencil for adding a realistic gunmetal sheen to my MG's. Still, lots of little things to sort out, but thanks to you, I'm all that much closer.

That's an  awesome job 

A far cry from what you started with. It's looking real good!

I too never thought of the pencil panel lines. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Crown, thank you. I'm usually in awe of your builds lol. Very glad you like it. ...so far lol.

Steve, I do seem to have a talent for making so-so kits look pretty decent, I'm told. lol. That pencil trick is a life saver fo this build. Seriously, I was going to go at it with a paint brush and hope I could keep the lines straight enough lol. This was much better and I will keep it in mind for later use for more than just making machine guns shiney lol.

That lil' guy is turning out A-OK there Mike! I like it!

You sure brought this build to life with such a simple technique!  Everything looks fantastic!  Can't wait for more updates.

Toshi

Awesome Mike !  

Pencils are an easy tool.  As you mentioned - they're great for getting a metallic type sheen on gunmetal parts - and I've even used super sharpened red/brown colored pencils to add finer grain detail than I could get with a brush - oddly enough - on an Albatross . . .  for both the panels and the prop.

Chris

Any progress on this one Mike? I'm hangin' on till the next update.....

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging! As most of you know, I'm an Armor guy at heart. I've been working on a Tamiya M-41. I wasn't planning on starting it till after I finished up this crate, but I wanted to see how some of the parts would look dry fitted together and the next thing I know, I'm fully invested in it lol.

Don't worry, this little guy is sitting right there in front of me, reminding me that it needs more paint. I've actually got a little bit of a wash over the front of it and that really brought out the details around the engine. She looks spiffy! I'll get her done.  :)

Don't worry about us, you do what you're forte is.  You do that so exceptionally well and it shows and carries over in your craftsmanship when you transfer these techniques over to another genre, as you so proven with this current build and the many others you've artistically rendered.  A piece of art!

If I learned one important facet from this build is that a lesson you taught me sometime ago, and that was to step out of my comfort zone (Box) and not be afraid to experiment.  You've proven that time and time again.  

I don't understand why I can't do that?  As you've read my threads, my whole life has been to not be comfortable.  To just go out and get things done all the while enjoying myself.  

Ah, epiphany!  I am trying to be comfortable.  After the TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) injury, my doctors and Mrs. Toshi told me that my whole life has been nothing but go, go, and go.  Now it was time for me to take it easy.  You see, every time I try to step out of my comfort zone, I injure myself unnecessarily in a very preventable way as I try my old proven technique, go, go, and go!  LOL!

Im so lucky to have you and fellow forum members as such, if it weren't I writing in response to you, I would have never figured out why I don't be much more adventurist.  Mrs. Toshi said that comes with age.  LOL!

Thank you sir (Sensei-Teacher).

Toshi

Toshi, my friend! You really do honor me! When I talk about you stepping out of your comfort zone I do not, in fact, expect you to change everything you do. No way! I simply meant to encourage you to try new ideas and techniques on your models. Always stay calm and enjoy what you do my friend. ALWAYS.

You really are a diamond in the rough, so to speak lol. You are so appreciated and respected here. Stay comfortable lol. We like you just the way you are. ;)

Now, for a very long overdue update.

After a little painting on my M-41 I heard my Albatros calling to me. It needed some attention... and it will still need more. I must have had a few too many cups of coffee as I couldn't keep my hands from jittering and making little errors. I'll make corrections later, but for now I have to put it away. Its time for sleep.

I chose MM Faded O.D. enamel for the left side, Tamiya acrylic Red Brown for the middle, and some artist's Veridian Green acrylic for the right side. They closely matched what I had decided this should look like in my mind. Artist's choice. ;)

Thanks for your interest. Have a good night!