AEG G.IV - Creature of the Night by DocRob - FINISHED - Wingnut Wings - 1/32

[RGL]

I think most of us here who have done tall ships realises that it’s all about the sequence of rigging. And it looks great afterwards. I use denier line all the time, but I’ve never used fishing line, what type do you recommend? 

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, RGL said:

I use denier line all the time, but I’ve never used fishing line, what type do you recommend?

Monofilament, in the very smallest sizes, yes they make it that small... If you can't find it in black, that's ok you just use an indelible marker to color it.... If the fishing stores don't have it that small, the sewing/craft stores will....

 

.3mm ferrules for clinching the loops...

[wefalck]

Greg, what do you mean by 'dernier line'? Dernier normally is a measure for the fineness of a thread (1 den = 1  g per 9000 metre) and was also used to classify ladies' stockings and pantyhoses. There are other systems, such as the tex.

 

I am not a great fan of monofilament, as it tends to be relatively springy and, thus, knots tend to unravel, unless immediately secured with some varnish.

 

Some time ago, I became aware of this high-end Japanese fishing line. It's braided, available in 'steel-gray' and down to diameters of 0.06 mm: https://fish.shimano.com/en-GB/product/line/braided/a155f00000c5ijoqa3.html. Quite pricey. I have not tried it myself, because I didn't have a need for 'wire-rope', which it might simulate quite well. 

 

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, RGL said:

I think most of us here who have done tall ships realises that it’s all about the sequence of rigging. And it looks great afterwards. I use denier line all the time, but I’ve never used fishing line, what type do you recommend?

For the wings, I will use Maxima Chameleon fishing line with a diameter of 0,12mm. This is perfect for my ´buckles´ made from brass or aluminum tube with an inner diameter of 0,3 mm and an outer diameter of 0,5 mm. 
The fishing line is threaded through the tiny tube, then through the eyelet, glued to the plane, and finally looped through the tube again. The second pass can be fiddly and you need to be sure, there is no burr in the tubes hole. The good thing, it´s almost self securing after pulled taut. I add a tiny dot of CA to be sure and cut off the rest of the fishing line.
I used to buy the tubes ready cut from Bob´s Buckles, but make them myself now, rolling the tube material on a rubber mat under a sharp blade and nott too much force. Cuts the tube without burr.

Cheers Rob 

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, wefalck said:

Some time ago, I became aware of this high-end Japanese fishing line. It's braided, available in 'steel-gray' and down to diameters of 0.06 mm: https://fish.shimano.com/en-GB/product/line/braided/a155f00000c5ijoqa3.html. Quite pricey. I have not tried it myself, because I didn't have a need for 'wire-rope', which it might simulate quite well. 

That sounds interesting, especially the steel grey ones. The Maxima line is dark brown, which looks ok scale wise, but steel grey would be better. I´m not sure about the braided structure though. I have to do some research, how these threads look.

 

Cheers Rob

[wefalck]

How does the Maxima Chameleon fishing line look like, is this a monofilament?

[DocRob]

Got the center section rigging done. It was not easy to fiddle everything in place with different tweezers, using magnifiers, backlight and a lot of care not to break anything. Now I have to stretch my back and help myself to a nice stiff cocktail.



After testing the stability of the center section, I decided, I could take a peek with the outer wings inserted. She´s a big bat. Somehow the wings disturb the view onto the more interesting middle section, but I will build her with complete wings anyway. Cut away outer wings is scheduled for my Felixstowe maintenance build.




 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, wefalck said:

How does the Maxima Chameleon fishing line look like, is this a monofilament?

Yes, it´s monofilament. With the braided line, it might be more difficult to pass it through the ´turnbuckle´ tubes, especially the second pass after looping through the eyelet.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Ok, there was a lot of talk about tubes, loops, eyelets, ... through the last steps of the build, so I thought, it might be helpful to explain my rigging process.

I cut my ´turnbuckles´ from aluminum tube with the inner diameter of 0,3 mm, the outer 0,5 mm with a length of about 3mm. I roll a fresh blade over the tube until it splits.



You don´t want to run into trouble with burr, later when you try to loop the fishing line through in the middle of a fragile spider web, so I use a 0,5 mm drill bit to remove the burr, holding the tube with a reverse action tweezer.



I glued the eyelets into pre drilled holes into the wing, like here around one strut and for the ailerons with CA. I use Gaspatch eyelets for the structural rigging and Bob´s buckles eyelets, which are finer for steering lines. I orientate the eyelets for the easiest possible rigging.


 

Maxima Chameleon fishing line is the weapon of choice, the brownish color looks ok to me and it´s monofilament.



Now it gets serious, using one piece of tube onto the line and pass it through the eyelet.
 

With tweezers, I pick up the end of the thread and bend it back to the tube and fiddle it through the tube for a second pass.



Finally, I apply a drop of CA to near to the eyelet and push the tube onto it, holding the fishing line into it´s designated direction and cut the protruding rest with a scissor.


 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I pre rigged one wing in about four hours, not too bad. First, I fitted all the lines to the eyelets, like shown above for the entire lower wing. Then I added the struts, where the inner ones had eyelets in their connecting stubs, which were also pre fitted with fishing line. With a pulling test, I made sure, all connections were ok. This is a step, where you want to make proper preparations, as mounting on the second side, the upper wing is more difficult, due to space limitations.
I also made sure, that all the struts fit completely into the wing holes.



In the next step, I pushed the lower wing onto it´s connecting tab, but still without glue and carefully slid the upper wing onto it´s tab, without breaking the struts. When everything aligned correctly, I glued the wings and upper strut connections in place. Luckily the fit is very good. Then I turned the AEG onto it´s upper wing and made the same loop and tubes like before with the upper wing eyelets. This is, where I am now. The fishing line isn´t pulled taut and CA secured for now, as this will be done in one flush, to maintain taut lines in the correct positions throughout.







Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

One side done . I finished the rigging with pulling all lines taught and add a drop of CA to the anchor points to secure everything. This part of rigging was much easier, than the nacelles and inner rigging. I had to fabricate new turnbuckle tubes, which is not the most exciting work, but now, I have enough for side number two.
 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[davec]

Rob - your rigging (and the entire model) look awesome.  I'm particularly appreciative of the tip about deburring with the .5 bit.  I've always struggled with threading the line through the tubing. I've run a .3 bit through the hole, but clearly not the same as deburring.  I'm hoping changing approaches (or doing both) fixes one of the things I've always been really frustrated by.  The DH-9 is British (no turnbuckles) so I will be CA'ing the two ends of elastic rigging.  I will try your way next time I build one of the German planes in my stash.

 

thanks!!

 

Dave

[DocRob]

3 minutes ago, davec said:

Rob - your rigging (and the entire model) look awesome.  I'm particularly appreciative of the tip about deburring with the .5 bit.  I've always struggled with threading the line through the tubing. I've run a .3 bit through the hole, but clearly not the same as deburring.  I'm hoping changing approaches (or doing both) fixes one of the things I've always been really frustrated by.  The DH-9 is British (no turnbuckles) so I will be CA'ing the two ends of elastic rigging.  I will try your way next time I build one of the German planes in my stash.

 

thanks!!

De nada, Dave. The 0,5 mm drill bit does not only take care of the burr, it leaves a little bit conical opening of the tubes hole, which helps, fiddling the fishing line in.
I try to prepare everything as good as possible for rigging, which relates to the hardware, like the right line, de burred tubes, good CA, ... and also the sequence to do the job as easy as possible. Rigging is complicated enough, get stuck somewhere due to poor preparation is a nightmare.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The big bat flexes it´s wings. Today, I finished rigging the wings and I´m happy to have that behind me. It was not overly difficult on the outer wings, but fiddly with lots of scissors and tweezers involved, always adjusting the light and try not to knock off or scratch parts.

I loosely attached the rudder, but not the elevators. The tail will be last, as until now, it´s easy to set the plane onto some foam, bottom up. With about 60 cm of wingspan the bat starts to handle a bit awkward and it´s relatively heave, luckily quite robust.

It´s hard to see on the pics, but the white rudder has spar markings visible. I used 1mm masking tape over the spars, when I sprayed the tinted varnished over the whole airframe. 









Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Very impressive, Rob. That's one massive plane. 👍

[Egilman]

That is one beautiful camo job brother... Very effective.... Excellent photographing job as well....

[Danstream]

The close-up pictures are impressive Rob.

Cheers,

Dan

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Canute said:

Very impressive, Rob. That's one massive plane. 👍

 

16 hours ago, Egilman said:

That is one beautiful camo job brother... Very effective.... Excellent photographing job as well....

 

14 hours ago, Danstream said:

The close-up pictures are impressive Rob.

Thank you Gentlemen, the AEG has the widest wingspan I built until now. I am not so much interested in four engine planes so much, as I don´t enjoy repetitive work so much.
I always had a soft spot for Lozenge camo, with the colorful fighters it adds a beautiful contrast. With the big bat not so much, but somehow it looks special.
Photographing is another hobby of mine, but I still find it difficult to take proper modeling photos. My lightbox helps a lot and I normally use my 45 mm macro lens, which equals to 90 mm with a full format sensor camera. This allows distortion free pictures, which I take free hand, because I´m too lazy to use a tripod. Light metering and white balance is done before capturing and that´s it. I don´t like post processing and try to do as little as possible, mostly none. Sometimes, I make some experiments with different lighting or focus stacking, because I feel, I could do better. 

Cheers Rob

[Danstream]

Thanks for your information about photography. I also like to take pictures of my models once finished (during the construction I find more practical and quick to use my iphone), but my equipment is much more rudimentary than yours and I don't have a macro lens. However, I need to use a tripod because with the low power lamps that I have and small apertures that I mostly use to increase the depth of field, I end up with long exposures that I cannot handle without.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[DocRob]

The AEG got it´s teeth - hmmh, well - besides the painted on jaws I mean. The LMG 17/17 Parabellum are from Gaspatch, airbrushed satin black and then  I rubbed on steel pigments with a cotton swab. Stock and grip are painted with oil colors and after seeing the pictures, I decided to put on some varnish for a more realistic look. The kit guns are not bad and I used one inside the fuselage, but detail of the Gaspatch ones is absolutely fantastic. 
Positioning of the guns is not final. I also made some touch ups and detail painting and added the artificial horizon. 
Gun mounts and other details got sprayed aluminum, then covered with hairspray with the dark sea blue on top and finally weathered with a toothpick.

 
 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[davec]

wow - looks fantastic!  I agree with your comment about the detail on the gaspatch guns.  The ones that come with the WNW kits are awesome - it is a real achievement for an aftermarket company to do even better.

[DocRob]

I´m closing in on the finish line. Due to some back spasms, bench time is somewhat limited lately, but I started painting the figures and props.
These were primed and sprayed with Tamiya Buff then.
 

I wanted to try a new technique for the laminated wood and graining with pencils. My AEG has two different propellers, a good opportunity to finish the props a little different. 
Number one was ´laminated´ with AK weathering pencils Dark Chipping for Wood and Dark Rust by hand following the logical ´flow´ of the lamination.



Number two was ´laminated´ with Sand and Sepia for a bit more contrast



The props were varnished differently,
Number one got Tamiya Clear Orange applied by brush, which removed a lot of the laminating effect. Not all propellers of the time had a verry apparent lamination effect, so I let it be.

Number two was varnished with the airbrush using Tamiya Clear Red, which lead the wood layers show through much more.



Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Hey, those look super, Doc. I like that technique.

[wefalck]

These acrylic paint pens (assuming that is what the AK pens are also) are handy and their soft sharp tip allows good control - in the meantime I have a whole range of Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's pens.

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

Hey, those look super, Doc. I like that technique.

Thank you Craig, I just wanted to try that technique, after I had seen it in described in a book. It´s a bit less time consuming and more flexible, than cutting tiny strips of mask and apply them onto the props, like I did before.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

19 minutes ago, wefalck said:

These acrylic paint pens (assuming that is what the AK pens are also) are handy and their soft sharp tip allows good control - in the meantime I have a whole range of Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's pens.

I can only guess, that these are acrylics, wefalck. The artist pens from F-C should also work fine for this kind of work. Where the AK weathering pencils really shine, is dampened. You can use them as a multicolored wash and weathering medium. I really love to work with them.

Here are some examples of a Sci-Fi build, where weathering was done with the AK pencils dampened:








 

Cheers Rob

[wefalck]

Somehow, I overlooked that these are pencils. Then there are not acrylics (probably). They are what is called 'artistis water colour pens'. They have been around for decades. Unlike normal coloured pencils that are bonded with a greasy substance (not sure what they used), the pigments in them are bonded with a water-soluble binder (chatCPT could probably tell you what it is). The problem from my point of view is that after application the pigment remains water-soluble. One has has to keep this in mind for the following steps in painting. Applying light coats of varnish could solve the problem.

 

I suppose the Tamiya 'clear' lacquers are water-based acrylics? That would explain the smudging effect on your 'wood' layers, because you partly redissolved the pen-pigment, particularly when applied by brush.

[Danstream]

Good work on the propeller. If I may, this is my take with normal pastels over a layer of Tamiya paint, followed by Tamiya clear orange.

Cheers,

Dan

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Danstream said:

Good work on the propeller. If I may, this is my take with normal pastels over a layer of Tamiya paint, followed by Tamiya clear orange.

Thank you Dan, your prop looks terrific with it´s beautiful layering.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Meanwhile, I finished the propellers, painting the hubs with gun metal, later pointing out the screws in silver and last adding black panel line wash for accentuation. When dried, I added the propeller brand logos and on they went.
This was followed by two very frustrating hours, where all the guns fell apart, which were only temporarily fitted. The two in the gun rings while adjusting and worse ,the one in the fuselage fell out. After said two hours, I somehow managed to get the one in the fuselage back in place, using different tweezers and a torch, to reach into that now hard to access area. The other guns fixing is for tomorrow, but I used the chance and varnished their stock and grip with transparent orange.

 
 

 

Cheers Rob