Halberstadt Cl.II by davec - Wingnut Wings - 1/32 - Plastic

[davec]

Now that the Spitfire is done, I plan to build the Wingnut Wings Halberstadt Cl.II (late) next.  This is one of the many WNW kits I inherited from my Dad. 

I plan to build scheme D, Lowe. 

 

I plan to use Aviattic decals for the stippled camouglage (painting the 5 color camo then stippling over it by spraying under low enough pressure that the airbrush spits the stippling is way beyond my skills).  Richard at Aviattic was very helpful in helping me get the right decals for this as well as a second Cl.II that I have on the shelf.  I had bought the duelist kit (RE8 and Halberstadt Cl.II) to get the RE8 and will eventually build the second with the extra decals from this kit.  I will also use HGW fabric seatbelts in place of the photo etch ones.   I have some vacation coming up and plan to get finish the two boat kits I have on the other bench, so this may be a little slow at first.

[DocRob]

I will join you in the backseat, as I have the early model Halberstadt and plan to build her with a very demanding paintjob. Have fun with the surely great WNW kit.

Cheers Rob

[Paul Le Wol]

Dave, good luck with this amazing looking model!

[Canute]

I'll be looking over your shoulder, Dave. I have a Fokker D7 in the stash.

[Egilman]

AS will I be watching, I have about a dozen WnW and others to eventually build...

[Landlubber Mike]

I have the same kit in the stash and was planning on doing the D scheme as well.  Looking forward to following along!

[davec]

I've been working a few minutes a day on the model, but it has taken a while to get to the point where there was anything worth sharing.  As with most WNW kits, a huge amount of work is on the interior.  I had thought this would go faster because there was a lot less wood graining, but there is still a lot going on inside.  I've just finished decals, so there is a lot of gloss that will need a coat of clear flat. Even though this is one of the more recent WNW kits, I've found it slower going.  A few of the delicate parts were broken on the sprue and needed repair.  Color call outs in the instructions are less detailed.  Not sure if their research and instruction was declining as they were getting closer to closing or if there just wasn't as much information.  I think there is only one surviving plane.  A lot of the decal information is on the painting and rigging diagram.  If I hadn't looked ahead, I would have missed a lot of the lozenge decals in the cockpit, which would have been a lot harder to place once the cockpit was assembled.

[davec]

I did some work on the engine.  Biggest step forward for me was coming up with a way that works for me to wire the engine.  I had previously used EZ line, which I used on the distributor.  I have found this really hard to work with - it is so thin and soft that my fine forceps don't grasp it, and it takes a while for superglue to dry on it, so usually I made a mess.  I ordered some .2 mm lead wire and used it between the spark plugs and the pipe the wires run through.  It worked great.  I did not show the other side, which was my first attempt and where the wires are too long, the bends too sharp, and there is some visible glue.  This side I got the length right and bends that look realistic.  I found the wire much easier to work with than EZ line and I think looks a lot better.  The manifold hides a lot of the wires, but the first and third are pretty easy to see.  The engine will mostly be covered by the cowl panels, but this was a good learning experience and a path forward for my next plane with a more visible engine.

 

Anyone planning on building the D scheme (Mike) or any of the other variants with the D.IIIa engine should be aware that there is an error in the instructions that is not in the errata on the WNW website.  The kit contains parts for Mercedes D.III and D.IIIa engines.  The main difference between the variants is the right side of the cylinders.  The D.III engine uses parts E2 and E16.  The D.IIIa engine uses parts E25 and E16.  Unfortunately, the instructions for the D.IIIa has a picture of E25, but it is labeled E2.  I did not catch until long after the wrong part was glued in place.  Not an issue as I plan to build with the cowl covers in place, but it would be a problem if I wanted to leave the engine uncovered.

 

Edited October 23, 2024 by davec

[davec]

I've assembled as far as the end of step 1 and put together the HGW seatbelts. Four belts without any of the tiny photoetch parts shooting across the workshop, which is a victory for me.  

[CDW]

Excellent project. I’m in! Great start

[DocRob]

Fantastic work on the interior and engine, Dave. I like your faux woodwork a lot. 
HGW belts are easier to assemble, when the PE is still on the fret, while you wiggle the belt parts through. The engine looks fantastic and I second your experience with lead wire, it´s fantastic for the job.

Cheers Rob

[GrandpaPhil]

Very cool!  Looking good!

[davec]

Thanks everyone for the comments and thumbs ups.  The woodwork is just artists oils.  I've used Rob's tip about the photoetch before (great tip) but on this one most of the openings were easy to thread through except one that was so tight that the belt needed trimming.  Belts are installed and I've finished as far as the end of step 2.  There is some rigging, which will be completely invisible once the fuselage is buttoned up (as will most of the other detail).  I've been careful scraping paint and test fitting, and the fuselage seems to close up without a lot of tension.  I have some business travel coming up, but am hoping that after 8 weeks of slow progress on the cockpit that it will start to look like an airplane in a few weeks.

 

[davec]

Engine in place, and finally feeling like things are moving along.  Not happy about most of the engine wiring and didn't spend a lot of time with extra detail in the engine compartment as none of it would be visible.  I'm looking forward to the next WNW build as I think I can finally wire the engine in a way that does it justice.  I've got the insides of the fuselage painted and will hopefully glue it together later today.  I test fitted and everything still closes up OK with the engine installed.

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking good!

[Javlin]

Looking Sasweet Dave!!

[Jsk]

Wow! Just Wow!

[davec]

Thanks for the likes and comments.  I’ve had some travel and work things, so haven’t had blocks of time to work on the model and was slowed down trying to figure out order of assembly and how to mask the fuselage.  While I was figuring this out, I cut out pieces, painted them and made subassemblies in 15-30 minute blocks of time that randomly came up.   It has added up to some progress.

 

The aviattic decals are clear, so they need to go over gloss white paint.  I did not do any preshading as I usually build the planes as I see them in museums, and the canvas seems to be painted heavily enough that I usually can’t see the framing through the canvas with the available light.  I was also nervous about the decaling and did not want to sink the extra hours into something that was turning into a learning experience.  The fuselage halves are glued together and seams filled.  I built following the instructions and masked the cockpit, engine, and other fuselage openings.  I had my first fit problems at the nose where the fuselage is slightly wider than the assembled cowl.  I added some .02” shim between the two cowl halves to get things to fit. I’ve started to decal and will add some pictures when I get a little further along. Everything in the pictures is Tamiya white primer with Tamiya gloss coat over it.  I’ve painted everything that won’t be covered by the decals.  The instructions did not have color directions for a lot of things, so I went heavily with the grey that was recommended for other similar parts.

 

[davec]

I’ve applied the Aviattic decals to the wings and fuselage. There was a pretty steep learning curve.  They are amazing decals.  This was one of the areas where I was in new territory – these are really big decals (cover almost entire surface of wings and fuselage and go around some significant compound curves). Painting isn’t really an option for me.  I like WW1 airplanes, but I’m not passionate enough about them to do the masking required for painting the lozenge camouflage or even worse, painting the lozenges then spattering paint on top of them for the fuselage camouflage.

The decals are very thin and begin separating as soon as they get wet.  After I got the hang of it, I moistened, then let them sit for 30 seconds, at which point most were easy to manipulate for about 30 seconds.  It was easy to align them given the many openings for struts and other molded details.  Sizing was accurate.  They need to be cut out close to the edge of the design as the design is printed on a single sheet of clear decal film.  They were a little finicky.  Most were easy to apply and conformed really well to the curves.  I thought the fuselage would be the hardest, but those decals went on really well.  I did the center of the top wing last as it was so visible, but thought it would be easy given it was flat and not very large.  For unclear reasons, it bonded instantly and couldn’t be moved.  The picture is after a lot of touching up.  I’m going to try to smooth out the wrinkles a little more, but will need to live with it. 

Once the decals are applied, I used a q-tip from the center of the detail outwards to smooth out bubbles.  Most of the edges around the wings stuck just fine.  The instructions suggest using some white glue as necessary and this worked in the areas that didn’t stick.  I still have some touching up to do and bubbles and wrinkles to work out with solvaset.  Because the decals are clear, if they fold over or overlap you get a dark area.  I learned a valuable lesson trying to unfold an area on the fuselage.  After about 30 seconds the decals can’t be manipulated.  I ended up cutting away the folded over area and replacing it with scrap.  The decalling will be far from perfect with some significant flaws, but overall effect will be good enough to make finishing it worthwhile.  I have another Halberstadt as part of the duelist package, so at some point will get a second chance. 

[DocRob]

Looking good so far, Dave. You may try to get rid of the wrinkles with some decal softener and some applied heat afterwards. I use a hairdryer (test on a dummy part first) for that and usually have no wrinkles with Aviattic decals. The hairdryer also makes it easier to manipulate the decals around the edges. I always start with the lower side, applied with a tiny bit of overlap and then the upper side and have a good transition as a result.
 

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks really good Dave!  I love how the decals show texture - definitely a nice upgrade for those kits.

[raafif]

Hi everybody, great build so far. Glad I found this page as I will soon start my own build of the Halberstadt from the Duellist kit.

 

Dave, why did you not use the kit lozenge for the wings ?  The decals in my kit look quite dark & I'm trying to decide which Aviattic scrumble to get.

[davec]

I got the avaittic wing lozenges mostly to try something new.  I used the wingnuts ones on a prior model and wanted to see the difference.  I found the aviattic ones easier to apply without creases or bubbles, but because they were clear, they needed a lot better surface prep prior to application.  It ended up being about the same in terms of difficulty and final appearance.  The avaiattic would be the better choice if you plan to preshade.

[davec]

I'm back at work on the Halberstadt.  Things got delayed by holidays, finishing the Dory, and a city-wide water outage that lasted almost a week, but mostly by trying to figure out what to do with places where the primer showed through the decals.  This happened in a few areas where I had trouble placing the decal like on the center upper wing or near the cowl, where I misaligned the placement:

The area near the cowl was the worst.  I tried a couple of things.  Trying to cover with scrap decal worked poorly because the pattern did not line up and any place the decals overlapped caused a dark purple area.  Trying to match the color with paint was even worse because even when I got close with the color, the pattern was way off.  The thing that ended up working adequately was just brushing with neutral Tamiya X-22 grey which is used on a lot of the metal fittings.  It isn't perfect, but I think it is adequate:

 

The extreme closeup unfortunately highlights some decal flaws that fought the heat and decal softener and won.  They are a lot less obvious without magnification.  The good news was the modifications I made to the cowl when it didn't fit at the dry fitting stage all worked and it fit on nicely.  The white area was decal misalignment, not an issue with the cowl.  The decal on the other side fit perfectly.  I aligned this side with the openings - the opening for the big nacelle looks aligned correctly, so not sure why I had the big gap when I glued the cowl on.

 

Anyways, some additional assembly.  Stabilizer and gun ring have been added.  Most of the decal flaws and touch up start getting a lot less visible as the magnification drops.

I think I will add the upper wing center section before attaching the upper wings.  I think it will be easier to get all the struts aligned. I started painting the propeller and laying down some gloss for the rest of the decals.  

[davec]

The decal issues are touched up as well as I can do and I’m moving ahead to finish the model.  I’ve added the kit decals, applied micro crystal clear to the lenses, done more touch up, attached the rudder and a few other parts, and sprayed everything clear flat.  I also spent an evening twisting 40 eyelets for the rigging.  The cartograph decals felt much different than the aviatic ones – much thicker and took longer to soak before they were workable.  It was a lot easier to deal with the smaller decals.

Edited 19 hours ago by davec