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

[DocRob]

After half a square meter of lozenge decals, I have most of the wings finished. The process of decaling is very time consuming, but the decals behave very well, given these are the largest, I ever worked with. Fit is still outstanding.
A good sequence helps, starting with the undersides from inside to outside. Then softener and hairdryer in iterative circles, until the decal settled around the corners and then on with the upper side. Good work for days, where you don´t have the time for continuous hours at the bench, but work an hour here another there, over the complete days. The most difficult parts were the smaller ailerons, where it is hard to lay the decals around the corners with relatively mild softeners.
 

Now it´s decision time, I haven´t decaled the upper side of the upper wing, because of my pre thought rigging method.
I will use proper eyelets and small brass tube sections for the lower wing side of the rigging, but initially had the idea, to drill the rigging holes in the upper wing through, using flexible rigging thread, inserted through these holes and use only a piece of brass tube as a fake turnbuckle. Then I could glue the taught rigging threads in place cut the rest off and decal over on top to hide the holes.

The proper way would be rigging lower and upper side with eyelets and brass tubes and fishing line as rigging thread, which even strengthen the wing assembly.
 

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Wow, that's a lot of decal work.

[wefalck]

I haven't build anything with decals since about 1980*, I think. Decal technology must have advanced considerably since then.

If I understand the process correctly, then you can apply the 'softener' to already set decals in order to coerce them around obstacles?

I am asking this question, because I just had the idea of laser-printing flags onto decal-sheet and then apply the decals on both sides to a piece of aluminium foil cut to the right size. With this softening and drying technique, the aluminium foil with the decals on could be 'draped' realistically. Does this sound feasible?

 

*apart from the white boot-topping above the waterline that I put onto my current project, for which I used thin strips of white decal-sheet.

[CDW]

3 minutes ago, wefalck said:

I haven't build anything with decals since about 1980*, I think. Decal technology must have advanced considerably since then.

If I understand the process correctly, then you can apply the 'softener' to already set decals in order to coerce them around obstacles?

I am asking this question, because I just had the idea of laser-printing flags onto decal-sheet and then apply the decals on both sides to a piece of aluminium foil cut to the right size. With this softening and drying technique, the aluminium foil with the decals on could be 'draped' realistically. Does this sound feasible?

 

*apart from the white boot-topping above the waterline that I put onto my current project, for which I used thin strips of white decal-sheet.

That's exactly what I do/have done on my 1:700 and 1:350 warship models, except I used commercially available scale flag decals.

 

PS: I first place the decals on the foil and allow it to dry before shaping the flag to appear as though it's waving in the wind.

Edited March 25 by CDW

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

I haven't build anything with decals since about 1980*, I think. Decal technology must have advanced considerably since then.

If I understand the process correctly, then you can apply the 'softener' to already set decals in order to coerce them around obstacles?

I am asking this question, because I just had the idea of laser-printing flags onto decal-sheet and then apply the decals on both sides to a piece of aluminium foil cut to the right size. With this softening and drying technique, the aluminium foil with the decals on could be 'draped' realistically. Does this sound feasible?

 

*apart from the white boot-topping above the waterline that I put onto my current project, for which I used thin strips of white decal-sheet.

Indeed the different available decal solutions help a lot with the application. In case of the wings, I used only warm water with a drop of detergent for applying. When relatively dry, there are still some folds and creases visible. The combination of decal softener solution and use of a hairdryer is used then to get rid of these and to conform the decal round the corners. In this case, I had to do this several times, because the decal solution I used (Tamiya decal adhesive softener type and Micro Sol) are relatively mild. If your decals don`t dissolve with stronger stuff, the process would be faster. The WNW (Cartograph) decals from this kit react with stronger fluids, so I always recommend to test the on a spare decal from the sheet.

 

Like Craig described ,the use of decals on foil for representing flags should work. The only (lie) reason, I drink wine are the tinfoil caps, which are perfectly as flag or for representing other ´cloth´ material . . If you want to bend the flag after the application, I would also use a hairdryer to soften the decal material.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

Wow, that's a lot of decal work.

Yup, my normally used soaking tub was too small and I had to steal something from the kitchen . There are five large sheets of decals with this kit, luckily to a very high standard quality and fit wise.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finished decaling the wings and matte coated them. I´m happy to have finished the decal phase now, never in my builds, decals have covered nearly the whole kit like here. I also started to weather the fuselage and will prepare the wings now, with fitting in the eyelets for rigging.

The manual mentioned, that many AEG´s received a yellow / green tinted varnish over the lozenge cloth and I will see, If I replicate that too.
 

She is a big girl for sure.


 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I test fitted the engine nacelles with their struts to the fuselage/wings, not for vanity, instead for good reason, as it proved impossible to add the cabane struts to their fuselage holes, which they share with the nacelle´s struts. I will have to shave a bit off the lugs, despite, there is no color onto the lugs and holes in the fuselage. While testing, I broke one strut, because these are very fragile, close to the connection points. As this is the area, where some rigging lines lead, later, there is no way drilling through the strut and to weaken it further. I have to find another way and may rigg the nacelles with elastic thread.

Speaking of cabane struts. If you ever build a WNW AEG, watch out closely, when to add them. They skipped my attention in the manual completely, until I inspected the rigging diagram and asked myself, where do these struts come from. I found them relatively hidden in the manual then.

I then drilled out all the holes in the wings, where attachment points for the rigging will be with a 0,4 mm drill bit and then added Gaspatch metal cast eyelets, glued in with CA, orientated that the struts won´t interfere with rigging too much. 
Before airbrushing and decaling the wings,  made photos to show, where the holes for the eyelets lay, which proved to be helpful now, when I probed them with a needle.

With my kit, one side of the cabane struts where completely bent on the sprue. I tried to righten them, but that proved extremely difficult, as I didn´t want to break them. I used a hairdryer and bent them little by little. You can see one of the struts still bent on the picture. 
 

 

 

Cheers Rob

Edited April 1 by DocRob

[Old Collingwood]

Top level modeling   -  lovely  stuff.

 

OC.

[DocRob]

Today, my long awaited parcel from Japan arrived, which included my Infini 0,135 mm aero flexible rigging thread. I never used the stuff and was eager to see, if it is suitable for the classic ´ thread through tube - then through the eyelet - and back a second time through the tube ´rigging and it worked. So this will be my method of rigging the nacelles, which are very delicate with their struts. The outer wings will be made with the same process, but with mor rigid fishing line instead for extra stability.
 

Cheers Rob
 

[DocRob]

Not a lot of difference between these two pics, at least at first sight. What I tried to achieve, is to make the huge wings a little bit more interesting. First, I used a sharpened AK weathering pencil blue green and rubbed the tip over all the seams on the wing spars, quite tedious to do, but did a bit of highlighting.



Then, I mixed Tamiya smoke with some drops of Tamiya clear yellow and sprayed it in slightly irregular patterns over the plane in the direction of the airflow. This tinted everything a bit and blended in the decals even better.
Next was a matte coat, but the Tamiya LP matte clear was not matte enough for my liking. Therefore, I used Pledge with about 25 percent of Tamiya flat base mixed in. I would have liked it a bit more matte, but didn´t dare to add more flat base, as there is a risk at about thirty percent, that the mix sprays with a frosty surface.

On the lower wing, I had some decal lifting on the trailing edge. I ´glued´ these in place with decal adhesive, but this will be a weak spot until finishing the build.


 

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

The presentation give a good indication of how well the camo worked... The only thing anyone would be able to see is the exhausts flares.......

[CDW]

I wonder how this Camo was applied on the 1:1 aircraft back then. Are there any photos of it being applied? Were masks used or was it applied freehand?

[Egilman]

It was printed on the fabric before it was applied to the aircraft..

 

[CDW]

23 minutes ago, Egilman said:

It was printed on the fabric before it was applied to the aircraft..

 

A sort of silk screen process maybe? Have you ever seen modelers apply it using masks? It would be tedious at best.

 

MONTEX K32215 - 1:32 German Lozenge Camouflage (5 colours) - Exito Model Store

(these may not be the correct mask for this particular model)

 

For any of you who may want one of these models, Andys Hobby Headquarters online shop have them on sale for $159. That's one heck of a bargain right there.

Edited April 5 by CDW

[DocRob]

It was printed, like Egilman explained. In case of my AEG, it might have been overpainted with a slightly yellow transparent varnish on the original plane. That´s what I tried to simulate. The varnish make it look a bit like on a sepia photo and I have to say, I like the effect, which unifies the lozenge with the painted areas, Balkenkreuze and markings.

There are some examples of printed Lozenge on the Aviatic webpage, who sell many different variations of lozenge camo decals, which are of very good quality.  used them on other builds and they looked fantastic, having a woven background and looking cloth like. You have to scroll down, too see the pics of the real thing.

1/32 "Lozenge" Decals (aviattic.co.uk)

 

2 hours ago, Egilman said:

The presentation give a good indication of how well the camo worked... The only thing anyone would be able to see is the exhausts flares.......

That´s a very polite way to remind me of my photographic shortcomings, Egilman 

 

1 hour ago, CDW said:

A sort of silk screen process maybe? Have you ever seen modelers apply it using masks? It would be tedious at best.

There was once a build of a Gotha bomber over on LSM, where the builder used masks for the camo and in one of my Wingnut wings related books was another one building a day bomber AEG, using masks. The day bomber schemes consists of larger lozenges, but I have never seen anybody, replicating the smaller lozenged fighter or naval hex schemes.

Cheers Rob
 

[DocRob]

Today, I added some multi color sponge ´chipping´ onto the non lozenged areas. I considered brown Flory clay wash, but decided against, as there are not many panel lines or similar on the fuselage for the wash to lock in.

Then the bat got wheels - Does it make it a Batmobile? The undercarriage is very robust luckily and I added the first rigging through the beforehand glued in eyebolts. I used Infini flexible thread here, which was great to work with, elastic and therefore easy to tauten, but stiff enough to fiddle through the aluminum tubes, even for the second time.

On with the wheels, wich are luckily included in two versions, weighted and normal. I chose the weighted ones for the heavy bird. Hard to imagine landing this huge bat on an improved airfield with only four wheels the size of my mountainbike´s.


 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The beast got teeth, literally I mean. After installing the bomb racks, I added the bomb load. Again, I used CA to glue the parts in place, which I prefer with painted parts. There is less risk of damaging the paint and applied with a tooth pick, it´s a very fine method. I will add some holding belts later, which I will make from fine Kabuki strips.

 
 

The tailskid fits into a massive part inside the fuselage, but lasts only on a tiny plastic peg on the rear end. As this was damaged while handling the AEG, I replaced it with a 1mm brass rod for some extra strength. The fuselage window was very dirty from the inside, possibly due to lacquer fumes, but I could reach the inside from above and clean the panes.
 

 

I removed the masks from the cockpit openings and painted the paddings with oil colors and matte medium thinner. I used a dark brown base color, which I darkened for crevices and shadows with dark blue and lightened with some vanilla yellow for highlighting. I really like oil colors for replicating leather, you get great coverage, easy modulation and about the right shine.
 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[chadwijm6]

The leather looks fantastic Rob. 

[wefalck]

Yep, oils are good for leather. Not sure whether I read this or whether I just tried, when I was into 1/35 military figures in the mid to late 1970s. I gather the Humbrol paints didn't give the right shine and I was look for something more leather-like.

 

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, chadwijm6 said:

The leather looks fantastic Rob. 

 

14 hours ago, wefalck said:

Yep, oils are good for leather. Not sure whether I read this or whether I just tried, when I was into 1/35 military figures in the mid to late 1970s. I gather the Humbrol paints didn't give the right shine and I was look for something more leather-like.

Muchas gracias señhores, oil colors are indeed perfect for leather replication with their good coverage, easy blending and brushstroke free application. My love for oil colors in modelling started only four years ago with the replication of wood, another area, where oil colors are perfectly suitable. I use different thinners for different finishes, like in this case the matte thinner.

Everything started with my Hansa Brandenburg build, where I tried to get a grip on wood reproduction.


 

For the same build, I first discovered the oils capability for looking like aged leather:




 

Later, I used oil colors more and more and don´t even use pre fabricated washes and panel liners any more, as oil colors render the same with a much better ability to control the result.
I even decided to make an experiment and paint a whole airplane kit with brush and oil colors. The Polish PZL was perfect for the job with it´s single color camouflage and corrugated wings, where the oils added some depth. The oil colors proved very versatile in breaking off the monotone olive surface.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

Today, I reached one important milestone with the huge bat. After painting the internal MG, I installed it into the fuselage, because this area will be harder to reach, when the wings are on.
Then, I installed the nacelle struts, which received eyelets before for the nacelles rigging. Before adding the engine nacelles itself, I finished the rigging between the fuselage and the struts, a hard to reach area, after the engines are in place. I used Infini elastic rigging thread and tiny aluminum tubes for the rigging and tried successfully not to break the struts while rigging.
Lastly, I added the engine nacelles itself and the radiator and engine steering axles. 
It was a nerve wrecking task and not all went completely satisfactory. The starbord engine isn´t perfectly upright, but there was no way to correct it without a lot of fuss.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[RGL]

I have one of these (and several other WNW ) kits in my ‘retirement’ stash. This looks great ! 

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, RGL said:

I have one of these (and several other WNW ) kits in my ‘retirement’ stash. This looks great ! 

Thank you Greg, it´s a great kit and is a generally straight forward build, with the exception of decaling, which takes time and the area around the nacelles, with rigging, many struts and not so much space to wiggle, but there is no need to wait until retirement.
I even thought about buying another AEG, but this time the early version.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I managed a very dreaded step in the build, finishing the mid section of the upper wing. Before, I added rigging wires from the nacelles through the cabane struts and later to be fixed under the upper wing, therefore they are not taught.



WNW tells you to install the cabane struts first, reaching diagonally from the fuselage, which makes perfect sense, but then let you put the inner struts from the top of the fuselage to the gas tank in the middle of the upper wing to be glued into it´s wing fitting and then last into the fuselage.



I didn´t like that second part like shown here in the manual and preferred to have all strut gluing to make on the upper wing, which worked good. Alignment was not easy, but now all looks more or less straight.


 

Cheers Rob

[wefalck]

Looks worse than rigging a miniature ship model ...

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, wefalck said:

Looks worse than rigging a miniature ship model ...

Believe me, it isn´t wefalck. I build the Duchess of Kingston as my first serious attempt in wooden ship modelling and tackled the build in three month, including hull, detailing, mast and yards. 
Well, what´s amiss, right - rigging. I got nightmares doing it halfway right only for the bowsprit and postponed the build for now.

I think, rigging the mid part of the plane with the nacelles with elastic thread was a good decision. The thread is easier to handle and is easy to tauten. For the outer wings, I will use fishing line, which gives some strength to the construction.

Cheers Rob

[ccoyle]

18 hours ago, DocRob said:

Today, I managed a very dreaded step in the build

 

I will never complain about the rigging on any of my biplanes ever again. 😮

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I will never complain about the rigging on any of my biplanes ever again. 😮

German WWI biplane rigging is relatively straight forward, even these twin engine bombers, compared to RAF planes with flat rigging and mostly a lot more rigging lines.
I have a WNW FE.2b in stash as well as a Copper State Model Caudron G.3. These giving me the creeps with their spider web rigging.
With the AEG, it´s all about planning the sequence, when it comes to when to add the eyelets, struts and actual rigging.

Cheers Rob

[ccoyle]

17 minutes ago, DocRob said:

German WWI biplane rigging is relatively straight forward

 

Especially the Fokker D.VII -- I really like that one!