Airfix 1/72 Albatros DVa

danimal518

New Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2012
Messages
80
Been a long time since I've posted, but I have been keeping busy with my modeling.

I am actually posting to ask for some advice. I'm working on this biplane, and was filling some ejector pin marks. The problem is that as I sanded away at the filler, I started to flatten a part of the wing and destroyed some of the ridges. I plan on fixing the ridges with stretched sprue, but the wing looks weird when painted. Does anyone have advice on how to fix this?

f5f07758d32fbbab61a49625aed24dff_zps10b720b0.jpg

Thanks in advance!
 
Maybe you can make a cast from the section that you didn't sand and apply it over the sanded part.

This guy used sealer for the cast and resin for the part, but he claims that you can also use two component adhesive:

http://kalkin.foros.ws/t12502/a-4q-armada-fujimi-172/

Hope it helps.
 
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately my Spanish isn't quite up to par to figure out how he cast that. I even had trouble with google translate (the translation isn't always perfect).

I've never cast anything in resin. Is it easy to do?
 
Hi, what he's basically doing is to make a cast with the sealer (the kind you use to seal bathtubs, sinks, tiles, etc.; it remains elastic even after it has cured). Apparently, he just poured resin into the cast, but he says that one could use two component epoxy adheseive instead. He's referring to a particular brand of adhesive made in Argentina (Poxipol), but I'm sure there are tons of similar products in the US. Once the two components are mixed, they form a grey putty, and it sets rock hard (you can see what it looks like in the penultimate photo of the first post, around the landing gear bays).
I have never tried to make a part from resin, so I can't say how difficult it is. There are many tutorials online.
Hope this helps.
 
Awesome! Thanks! I'll try that this weekend once I get some sealant and the epoxy adhesive.

I think it'll be easier to sand the wing down and just glue the detail on top of the wing than to start chopping the wing apart and gluing the cast part.

I'll make sure to take pictures for posterity too.
 
OK, I was able to get a little work done on my repair attempt the past few days, but haven't quite finished up yet. I took a handful of pictures to show my work in case anyone notices where I went wrong.

What I bought. Some sealant and 5-minute epoxy.
imagejpg2_zpse852bcb0.jpg

A close-up of the damage I did while trying to fill/sand the ejector pin marks:
imagejpg1_zps7af961d3.jpg

I found a section that still looked good and masked it off for my experiment.
imagejpg3_zpse7ba968d.jpg

I slathered the sealant over the wing and let it sit for 24 hours
imagejpg4_zps74fee24c.jpg

It took some careful surgery and a lot of patience, but I was able to lift the sealant off the model pretty much intact. It took the base coat of paint off too.
imagejpg1_zpsd7d079b9.jpg

My next step was to lube up the "mold" and put some of the epoxy in it. I didn't take a picture of that cause both the "mold" and the epoxy are clear, so you couldn't really see anything anyway.

I'll post another update once I know that this does or doesn't work.
 
Here's the epoxy cast piece. It has the simple detail I need, but it's a bit thick. I'm thinking I'll have to sand off all the detail on the original plus a little more to make this work. I'm a little scared sanding the raised supports off.

Does this seem like the best course of action or should I try something else?

imagejpg1_zpsf61511b3.jpg
 
Hmmm. Tricky stuff man.

I'd say you're doing really, really good. You found the right products and made the mold. That curve to the wing will make getting a thin casting really tough. I'm not an expert though simply another experimenter.

I think all you can do it slowly sand the casting to a proper depth, sand the kit part smooth, and try to match them up.

Patience is required. I believe you can do it though. So far, so good and remember; I'll look great under paint.
 
I've done something kind of like this. I wanted to make a canvas top for a truck that didn't offer one with the kit. I used sheet plastic and and small strips of plastic to make the wrinkles. I used brush styrene glue to blend the strips into the plastic. It came out very well. It's just a suggestion.
 
I tried to sand the epoxy glue down but I couldn't thin it down enough. It started to tear as I got it almost thin enough.

I then opted to create the supports using styrene rod and melt it down with thin cement.

imagejpg1_zpsfbca4f45.jpg

It didn't quite come out the way I wanted, they look too proud on the wing compared to the others so I decided to try creating the ripple effect with some milliput.

imagejpg2_zps35081045.jpg

I haven't been able to paint it yet, but I'm hoping it looks good under paint. If not I'll have to figure something else out, maybe some thinned squadron putty.
 
Thanks yanpol!

I managed to paint over the milliput yesterday. I knew it wouldn't look the best just yet, but I wanted an idea of what all the micro-imperfections looked like and where they are so I can address them.

It looks better than I thought it would, but it still needs some attention.

The right wing (left side of the photo that is) looks a little better than the left wing. Unfortunately SWMBO needed me while I was in the middle of smoothing out the left wing out. I don't know if I should sand all the detail away and try it again, or just try to salvage what I have now.

I know it's not going to be a beauty when I'm done with it, but I'm starting to get frustrated with this wing taking so frakking long!

imagejpg1_zps8f79f38c.jpg
 
Alright, I've moved along to the fuselage now. I pre-shaded the panel lines and painted it tamiya desert yellow a few weeks ago. I also painted the back testors insignia red about a week ago.

I opted to just continue the build and leave the wings as is. As my second plane model and my first WW1 biplane this was a learning experience and there's no sense in stressing out over the lost detail, especially not on an $8 kit I bought on a whim.

Today I painted the panels with some oil paints laid on thick. I saw the technique on one of the older SMA YouTube videos that scalemodelmadman did. Instead of base coating each panel a different color, I used 3 different color oil paints, raw umber, burnt umber, and burnt sienna. Then I used a Q-tip and gently rubbed the paint off. It left a nice stain effect that imitates woodgrain fairly well.

I'm gonna need to repaint this wing cause some oil got on the wing
1a4bcdf962ac642492dc359bf8ef3490_zpsc6934776.jpg

Here's the other side
a0274be77d8d998ccb2249992d42f9b8_zps465c67a8.jpg

With different lighting
186d3c8230b50ec235f93ef1cb1b1361_zps812bca67.jpg

From above
bf3bb095d927caabe37f0098ca982f24_zpsa92a9481.jpg

And again
29cc8e5450d4697e6ba9491dd62bfcd9_zpsc08f3b07.jpg

Next step is to let the oil dry and cure. Anyone have any idea how long that takes? I did let some of the linseed oil leech onto some cardboard before I started painting.
 
I let the oil dry for 8 days. It was dry to the touch about 4 days ago, so I gave it more time just to be sure it cured.

I sealed the oil with Future. No pictures because everyone has seen a sealed paint job. I'll continue with construction later. Probably won't have time to get to the bench until next week because it's my birthday this weekend and I've got visitors coming to town to celebrate with me.
 
The fuselage looks really good. Looking forward to your next update.
 
Alright, I managed to get some build time in last week. Here are some progress pictures:

I added the bottom wing, the engine, the machine guns, and the landing gear. And yes, those are holes I drilled in order to rig the plane later.
182af8c7d8be5de0dbab40f05b4573d6_zpsfd8b07bf.jpg

82c2c2f4b3e2ef57afdc60f5a5e7a915_zpse98c3d2f.jpg

c3e76e36d9041bfc6c960de8be8b7094_zps4fd503dc.jpg

3441eccd87ed2cbbf42f5f75e4ccab8d_zps8086fbe0.jpg

fddd567e3b78b4baa2bc00b608e21c6f_zps3e785843.jpg

A little bit of gunmetal paint chipped off the machine gun when I was gluing it into place. I touched it up today.

My next step will be to attach the top wing. My plan is to attach all of the struts to the top wing and then glue the whole thing to the fuselage and bottom wing. I'm thinking how I can ensure that all of the struts are positioned correctly before I glue them to the top wing, but I'm drawing a blank. I tried holding them in place with painter's tape, but that didn't work well at all. Anybody have any ideas/suggestions?
 
Looking good. I don't know if you will want to follow my "advice" after the last time, but maybe you could use the tiniest drop of white glue.
 
yanpol said:
Looking good. I don't know if you will want to follow my "advice" after the last time, but maybe you could use the tiniest drop of white glue.

That's a great idea! I'm gonna try that tomorrow when I get a little time at the bench. I'll post an update afterward.
 
Took me longer than I expected to get into the mancave to work on this puppy. Here are some pictures of the plane with both wings attached.

The rear stabilizer is a little crooked, which I didn't notice when I attached it. I also wasn't able to get the front part of the left strut to attach to the fuselage, which is really upsetting, cause I was positive I had them positioned correctly.
95de6ecb344e6c9445a2f7c1cc1dfc48_zps8e930aa0.jpg

I'm working on the pilot to block the view of the empty cockpit.
5bbb9e8def86535c604088ceeddecde8_zps484176dd.jpg

93ac467984d6aba1ded615b345f7169a_zpse05b6f04.jpg

b288c91f0ad4e13e3c2672d2595a86f0_zps1b340152.jpg

I've been working on the pilot too. I base coated him and started to brush paint. Once I finish the detail painting, I'll wash both the pilot and plane to bring out the detail.

04580c45272d71abc3ff03737c16358f_zps3384cdd6.jpg

2d0fe00088001659f6c57d6310f006a8_zpsfa607469.jpg

9eb9fc028bb7cbc50b9f445a933b00b6_zpsdc7a4fc5.jpg

Any comments would be appreciated
 

Latest posts

Back
Top