Wonderful stuff. Truly inspiring 
1/32 Albatros W.4 (late) Floaty Conversion
- Thread starter Allen Dewire
- Start date
Yeah, "not bad for an old boy".....
... Cohan's words, not mine!!
... Cohan's words, not mine!!
Richard48
SMF Supporter
Definately The dogs dangly bits my friend.Some serious bespoke work Alan.
Outstanding wizadry.Earns you a few bottles of Youngs Ramrod.
Richard
Outstanding wizadry.Earns you a few bottles of Youngs Ramrod.
Richard
Jim R
SMF Supporter
What a most fine and impressive job you are doing. You must have got your medication spot on 
Glad the ribs lined up, that would have been a #£*@& if they hadn't. Neat vent removal and rescribing - always worrying incase of a slip. Good luck with the rigging.
That trolley shows the Gods are smiling on you.
Glad the ribs lined up, that would have been a #£*@& if they hadn't. Neat vent removal and rescribing - always worrying incase of a slip. Good luck with the rigging.
That trolley shows the Gods are smiling on you.
Tip top work old boy. Just re-winding to that engine. I do like a nice engine, and that is indeed, a very nice engine.
Greetings again from the Mole everyone,
Sorry for the late replies as I have been kinda busy. Went to a show, worked out more details for the SMC and of course, working on the W.4 in between. First,
So, the work continues and I needed to finish the pit, as well as the rest of the innards to be able to get the fusi together. I went through my HGW seatbelt collection and didn't have any WWI belts that would work. The Albatros used shoulder belts as well as lap belts for the pilot. Most other aircraft only had lap belts for the pilot and the observer. I had a half set of WWII seatbelts in the stash, so I had to do some surgery to make something that looked like Albatros belts,
I had nothing in the etch stash to simulate the Albatros buckles, so I had to scratch some from sheet. Each buckle had 6 holes to be drilled too. I made 2 pieces and sanded them into shape, drilled the 24 holes and then cut the 2 pieces in half. I also had to piecemeal various pieces of the belts and glue them together to get the right lengths. There are 19 pieces total in the seatbelt assemblies. After that absolute nonsense, I went on to adding the 3 decals for the pit. 2 from my Halberstadt decals and one from my 1/48 Mosquito leftovers,
I had also made a plate to cover the opening behind the pilot's seat as per the original D.I, W.4 planes. On to the pit wall painting and attempting to represent some sort of wood,
Very little will be seen after it's closed up, so I didn't go crazy on it. When the forum went down overnight, and after a nice chat with myself, I hit the references on the 160HP Benz III motors. I saw a few variations and saw mine needed a few items added. Some lead wire and an old WnW part helped,
Then on to the seatbelts for the driver,
And a bit of work on the seat. The only prob with the belts from HGW is that they are rather stiff and don't form very well. Next up, was a test fit of how the pieces fit in the fusi,
So far, so good. I had also scrubbed some Tamiya clear orange on the inner walls for effects. Time to finally glue the motor in place to see if it affected the fit of the mount into the fusi,
Not a prob, so I hit it with a few drops of CA on the frame sides. I jumped in full and CA'd the rest of the parts to the right side of the fusi, after I had CA'd the seatbelts to the seat,
I also glued a few tidbits to the side wall. A view from the top,
With that finished, it was time to see if the fusi fit together without a hitch, or maybe with a little correction. I needed to see how the the top cover fit over the whole mess too,
It could be worse!!! The top (R) MG feed chute rubs on the cover. I'll have to sand the cover side a little to make some room for it. The rest will come together when the fusi is glued together. I have to add the cover last because I have to paint it separately. With it in place, masking the top end and motor, would be almost impossible to do. Some of the pit 'stuff',
I dabbed a couple of dots of red on the steering wheel triggers for the MG's. There is a cross bar with the last dial to be added once the fusi is together. I see I have to touch up the paint on the bottom of the steering wheel, along with other spots too. A view of the pit with the cover on,
The interior walls don't look too bad really. They kinda look like wood somewhat (just don't let Ron and JR see it). You can also see that with the cover on, most of the motor disappears too...
Still plenty of work ahead of me. Once the fusi is glued together, I can go back and work on the wings. The alignment of the top wing to the bottom wing is the most critical part of this build....Can you say 'Cabane Struts' boys and girls???...
More to come, thanks for looking in and have a great week everybody! All abuse is necessary too!!!....
Prost
Allen
Sorry for the late replies as I have been kinda busy. Went to a show, worked out more details for the SMC and of course, working on the W.4 in between. First,
Thanks Bro!!! We trying Paul...
Thank you Tim, but I think it's more like perspiring with this build!!!Wonderful stuff. Truly inspiring
Thanks Jakko! If the top wing doesn't fit right, then this will definitely go places...The bin comes to mind...
Thank you very much Sir!!!
You're killin' me Mr. Smiff, but I happen to know that Cohan can't talk!!! Thanks Andy!!!Yeah, "not bad for an old boy".....
... Cohan's words, not mine!!
Much appreciated Mick! I have to say it has been fun...So far...
Thanks Buddy! I have definitely enjoyed a few cold ones as a reward...And then, a few more...
Jim, I don't think there is a med that's strong enough right now. I do admit the clean-up has gone better than I expected. I have done a lot of thinking about how to do the rigging when the time comes, and not bust anything. The trolley was a plus and will be useful. Thanks my friend!!!What a most fine and impressive job you are doing. You must have got your medication spot on
Glad the ribs lined up, that would have been a #£*@& if they hadn't. Neat vent removal and rescribing - always worrying incase of a slip. Good luck with the rigging.
That trolley shows the Gods are smiling on you.
Appreciate the kind words Colin!!! I think detailing a motor is one of the most important things in a build. Especially when you haven't got a hood you can close over it. It's also fun, as long as you don't study reference pics too much...
So, the work continues and I needed to finish the pit, as well as the rest of the innards to be able to get the fusi together. I went through my HGW seatbelt collection and didn't have any WWI belts that would work. The Albatros used shoulder belts as well as lap belts for the pilot. Most other aircraft only had lap belts for the pilot and the observer. I had a half set of WWII seatbelts in the stash, so I had to do some surgery to make something that looked like Albatros belts,
I had nothing in the etch stash to simulate the Albatros buckles, so I had to scratch some from sheet. Each buckle had 6 holes to be drilled too. I made 2 pieces and sanded them into shape, drilled the 24 holes and then cut the 2 pieces in half. I also had to piecemeal various pieces of the belts and glue them together to get the right lengths. There are 19 pieces total in the seatbelt assemblies. After that absolute nonsense, I went on to adding the 3 decals for the pit. 2 from my Halberstadt decals and one from my 1/48 Mosquito leftovers,
I had also made a plate to cover the opening behind the pilot's seat as per the original D.I, W.4 planes. On to the pit wall painting and attempting to represent some sort of wood,
Very little will be seen after it's closed up, so I didn't go crazy on it. When the forum went down overnight, and after a nice chat with myself, I hit the references on the 160HP Benz III motors. I saw a few variations and saw mine needed a few items added. Some lead wire and an old WnW part helped,
Then on to the seatbelts for the driver,
And a bit of work on the seat. The only prob with the belts from HGW is that they are rather stiff and don't form very well. Next up, was a test fit of how the pieces fit in the fusi,
So far, so good. I had also scrubbed some Tamiya clear orange on the inner walls for effects. Time to finally glue the motor in place to see if it affected the fit of the mount into the fusi,
Not a prob, so I hit it with a few drops of CA on the frame sides. I jumped in full and CA'd the rest of the parts to the right side of the fusi, after I had CA'd the seatbelts to the seat,
I also glued a few tidbits to the side wall. A view from the top,
With that finished, it was time to see if the fusi fit together without a hitch, or maybe with a little correction. I needed to see how the the top cover fit over the whole mess too,
It could be worse!!! The top (R) MG feed chute rubs on the cover. I'll have to sand the cover side a little to make some room for it. The rest will come together when the fusi is glued together. I have to add the cover last because I have to paint it separately. With it in place, masking the top end and motor, would be almost impossible to do. Some of the pit 'stuff',
I dabbed a couple of dots of red on the steering wheel triggers for the MG's. There is a cross bar with the last dial to be added once the fusi is together. I see I have to touch up the paint on the bottom of the steering wheel, along with other spots too. A view of the pit with the cover on,
The interior walls don't look too bad really. They kinda look like wood somewhat (just don't let Ron and JR see it). You can also see that with the cover on, most of the motor disappears too...
Still plenty of work ahead of me. Once the fusi is glued together, I can go back and work on the wings. The alignment of the top wing to the bottom wing is the most critical part of this build....Can you say 'Cabane Struts' boys and girls???...
More to come, thanks for looking in and have a great week everybody! All abuse is necessary too!!!....
Prost
Allen
rtfoe
SMF Supporter
Wah! Sangat bagus dan menarik, Allen. I found superlatives from a different language meaning very good and captivating. 
Seriously you're making a WNW out of this Roden kit and more. Had a read back and wouldn't have thought this is only your second foray into wingy things.
Cheers,
Wabble
Seriously you're making a WNW out of this Roden kit and more. Had a read back and wouldn't have thought this is only your second foray into wingy things.Cheers,
Wabble
Abend from the Mole everyone,
Yea, it's time to bore you with an update again. No rest for us old folks, I'm afraid. The deadline is approaching......
I finally got the fusi glued together, using TET and doing a few inches at a time. After it dried, I cleaned up the seam lines and noticed there were a few places that needed some putty and others still needing more work,
The 2 craters on the tail end, on both sides and the tail fin too,
I also needed to clean up the rest of the tail skid mount that I cut off earlier. Lots of sanding to get it all even too! The front half,
It lined up decently, both on the top and bottom. It just needs some cleanup. With the fusi assembled, I began to think about the naval hex decals and would the one sheet be enough to do the job on this. Did a small test,
There is plenty to cover the whole areas on the plane and a bit left over. The sheet is smaller in length than the top wing, but no biggie, as the top wing has to be done in 3 pieces. 2 for the wings and one for the airfoil radiator area. The ruler is there to represent a float x2...Next up was a trial fit of the upper wing to determine the length of the cabane struts. I used a scientifically proven, hi-tech design to suspend it over the fusi and bottom wing for this endeavor,
Wow, it looks like a W.4!!! The parts you see are the kit struts and the landing gear parts. I want to make the struts longer on the short side with the landing gear parts. Prob is, they are not the sturdiest pieces of plastic on this earth. I may end up making new ones from thicker sheet plastic. While pondering this BS, I had a beer and thought about the use of the spoke wheel trolley's under the floats as a base for display. I don't want to break them as I don't have an idea what the W.4 will weigh when it's done, so I went with plan B to display it. These puppies were used on the Flander's Mole too,
For reference only
RR flat cars were used to move the planes from the hangers to the cranes, where they were lowered into the water. After the mission, they were hoisted back up and put back on the flatcars, or the trolleys and stowed back in the hangers for maintenance or repairs.
Using my best gusgofast guesstimation system and Neil's magical math formula, I came up with this,
The basic framework... I added the 1.4 mm brass tubing through the cross members for strength against the middle sagging with weight on it. I moved on to cutting the pieces of 6.8 and 4.6 mm strip plastic for the wheel cover sides,
I marked the critical points and glued these together after trimming the supports to size,
I added a few extra supports for strength. They will be cut down into a semi-circle using my Olga (from the Volga) circle cutter, like in the pic above in the post. Then I'll cap them with the cross boards and add the toolbox on each end. These were made of wood and have a hinged lid. The flatcar also has a planked deck on it. I really have to practice my wood grain painting skills on all this stuff. Again, I'm just shooting from the hip on this thang. There are no plans anywhere for the flatcar and only some old pics that I'm using. It's alright, I love scratchy from 1915-17 pics!!!...
Still plenty to do...Thanks again for stopping in for a look and your comments!!! More to come.....
Prost
Allen
Yea, it's time to bore you with an update again. No rest for us old folks, I'm afraid. The deadline is approaching......
Thank you Andy! As for superlatives, during this build I think I've used them all up...And in 2 1/2 languages too my friend. Most are of the 4-letter kind of course...
Well Rick, do they have emojis for all the 4-letter words? I mean the bad ones Buddy!!!...Too late Andy, all I have left are emojis!!!
Thanks so much my friend! I'm not sure I can compare this build to a WnWs kit, but it is interesting. Nothing as good as your fantastic scratchy on the Belvedere whoop, whoop, and in 1/72 to boot!!! Richard, I think you need to send me some bad words in Malaysian, to use on my build when things go wrong, and to improve my vocabulary...Wah! Sangat bagus dan menarik, Allen. I found superlatives from a different language meaning very good and captivating.
Cheers,
Wabble
I finally got the fusi glued together, using TET and doing a few inches at a time. After it dried, I cleaned up the seam lines and noticed there were a few places that needed some putty and others still needing more work,
The 2 craters on the tail end, on both sides and the tail fin too,
I also needed to clean up the rest of the tail skid mount that I cut off earlier. Lots of sanding to get it all even too! The front half,
It lined up decently, both on the top and bottom. It just needs some cleanup. With the fusi assembled, I began to think about the naval hex decals and would the one sheet be enough to do the job on this. Did a small test,
There is plenty to cover the whole areas on the plane and a bit left over. The sheet is smaller in length than the top wing, but no biggie, as the top wing has to be done in 3 pieces. 2 for the wings and one for the airfoil radiator area. The ruler is there to represent a float x2...Next up was a trial fit of the upper wing to determine the length of the cabane struts. I used a scientifically proven, hi-tech design to suspend it over the fusi and bottom wing for this endeavor,
Wow, it looks like a W.4!!! The parts you see are the kit struts and the landing gear parts. I want to make the struts longer on the short side with the landing gear parts. Prob is, they are not the sturdiest pieces of plastic on this earth. I may end up making new ones from thicker sheet plastic. While pondering this BS, I had a beer and thought about the use of the spoke wheel trolley's under the floats as a base for display. I don't want to break them as I don't have an idea what the W.4 will weigh when it's done, so I went with plan B to display it. These puppies were used on the Flander's Mole too,
For reference only
RR flat cars were used to move the planes from the hangers to the cranes, where they were lowered into the water. After the mission, they were hoisted back up and put back on the flatcars, or the trolleys and stowed back in the hangers for maintenance or repairs.
Using my best gusgofast guesstimation system and Neil's magical math formula, I came up with this,
The basic framework... I added the 1.4 mm brass tubing through the cross members for strength against the middle sagging with weight on it. I moved on to cutting the pieces of 6.8 and 4.6 mm strip plastic for the wheel cover sides,
I marked the critical points and glued these together after trimming the supports to size,
I added a few extra supports for strength. They will be cut down into a semi-circle using my Olga (from the Volga) circle cutter, like in the pic above in the post. Then I'll cap them with the cross boards and add the toolbox on each end. These were made of wood and have a hinged lid. The flatcar also has a planked deck on it. I really have to practice my wood grain painting skills on all this stuff. Again, I'm just shooting from the hip on this thang. There are no plans anywhere for the flatcar and only some old pics that I'm using. It's alright, I love scratchy from 1915-17 pics!!!...
Still plenty to do...Thanks again for stopping in for a look and your comments!!! More to come.....
Prost
Allen
Late evening from the Mole good people,
Some of you, maybe more, have noticed my absence or sporadic activity on the forum of late. I have been heavily involved trying to finish my Albatros W.4 and the rail wagon, to take to the upcoming show in Veldhoven, in 2 weeks. I have entered it into the comps, but don't ask me why, as comps are really not my thing, but kinda interesting. This will be the second one I've entered in my life, the last one being in 2018, in Veldhoven. I figured I might have a chance in the scratchy category to win a gong. It doesn't matter if I do or don't. With the help of one of our distinguished forum members, I might just get it finished before we leave for the show, on the 14th. With that said...
I must apologize for my lack of commenting on all the great builds that have been going on, GB wise and all the other fine things. Sure, I could just throw emojis around, but...As you know, I like to comment and break your stones too!!! Keeps you on your toes folks...I really love this forum and all the wonderful people who are on here, not to mention the fantastic amount of talent you all have, be it beginner or seasoned modeller. I only ask you to please give this old guy a little time to get past his self-induced (stupidity) stress and after the show, I should be back to normal. I will probably be a lot poorer in the wallet too!!!....
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I guess one day when I grow up, I'll be able to keep up with you all. A little update follows...
Rick, my swear jar has turned into a 55 gallon swear drum!!! Damn thing is almost full now too. So what's up with your asperagus wagon buddy? I hope you are well and my best to the family too...
Work on the railroad wagon has been moving along with 10 hour sessions at the table (don't have a bench). My RPToolz chopper/cutter has been working overtime, as well as the rivet punch and the main work is complete. I spent many hours making the wood grain on the 42 planks and then applying 0.7 mm punched plastic rivets into the 0.75 holes I drilled into each one. I had also used my Olga from the Volga circle cutter to cut the side covers for the wheels. With that done, I laid out the planking, squared it all up and taped it together on the bottom side. It makes it easier to paint with the hissystick,
A close up pic of my madness,
I can only hope I don't flood the wood grain with hissy painting and I can add some detail washes to highlight it a bit. It was now time to do a test fit to see how it looked,
It sorta looks like the pic from an original I posted in my last post...The strips on the other wood platter are for the wheel covers (see below). I had also added the end cap beams and the rivets holding them on to the main framework,
Now it was time to make the small plank covers over the round frames of the RR wheels. My 1 mm strips were too thick to use and I didn't have any thinner strips in my Evergreen stash...I had to make my own out of 0.2 mm sheet. That was time consuming and a real beatch to cut 3 mm strips, 20 cm long, and keep them straight. The worse part was cleaning each strip up, to remove the burrs and ridges on the cut edges. After that was all done, I used the same method as before. I carefully laid them out, side to side, until the row was 5.5 cm wide and then hit them with a strip of tape to hold them together. Same principle for ease of painting and such. And with 2 strips of 1 cm wide, 0.15 thick sheet glued to them, they will bend to shape over the side covers,
I didn't add a wood grain pattern on these as it probably wouldn't/couldn't be seen anyway (lazy???) and my wood grain tool is too big for them. BTW, my crazy wood grain tool,
With the blade screwed tightly into the handle, I can get pretty good pressure and pattern coverage too. It takes a bit of practice as the blade wants to go it's own way, but with a steady hand, it works out...
Thanks for your understanding and now I have to get some sleep. In the morn, it's hissy stick time and another 12 hour day at the table. Who says being retired was easy.............Self induced stress of course.................
Prost
Allen
Some of you, maybe more, have noticed my absence or sporadic activity on the forum of late. I have been heavily involved trying to finish my Albatros W.4 and the rail wagon, to take to the upcoming show in Veldhoven, in 2 weeks. I have entered it into the comps, but don't ask me why, as comps are really not my thing, but kinda interesting. This will be the second one I've entered in my life, the last one being in 2018, in Veldhoven. I figured I might have a chance in the scratchy category to win a gong. It doesn't matter if I do or don't. With the help of one of our distinguished forum members, I might just get it finished before we leave for the show, on the 14th. With that said...
I must apologize for my lack of commenting on all the great builds that have been going on, GB wise and all the other fine things. Sure, I could just throw emojis around, but...As you know, I like to comment and break your stones too!!! Keeps you on your toes folks...I really love this forum and all the wonderful people who are on here, not to mention the fantastic amount of talent you all have, be it beginner or seasoned modeller. I only ask you to please give this old guy a little time to get past his self-induced (stupidity) stress and after the show, I should be back to normal. I will probably be a lot poorer in the wallet too!!!....
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I guess one day when I grow up, I'll be able to keep up with you all. A little update follows...
Rick, my swear jar has turned into a 55 gallon swear drum!!! Damn thing is almost full now too. So what's up with your asperagus wagon buddy? I hope you are well and my best to the family too...
Work on the railroad wagon has been moving along with 10 hour sessions at the table (don't have a bench). My RPToolz chopper/cutter has been working overtime, as well as the rivet punch and the main work is complete. I spent many hours making the wood grain on the 42 planks and then applying 0.7 mm punched plastic rivets into the 0.75 holes I drilled into each one. I had also used my Olga from the Volga circle cutter to cut the side covers for the wheels. With that done, I laid out the planking, squared it all up and taped it together on the bottom side. It makes it easier to paint with the hissystick,
A close up pic of my madness,I can only hope I don't flood the wood grain with hissy painting and I can add some detail washes to highlight it a bit. It was now time to do a test fit to see how it looked,It sorta looks like the pic from an original I posted in my last post...The strips on the other wood platter are for the wheel covers (see below). I had also added the end cap beams and the rivets holding them on to the main framework,
Now it was time to make the small plank covers over the round frames of the RR wheels. My 1 mm strips were too thick to use and I didn't have any thinner strips in my Evergreen stash...I had to make my own out of 0.2 mm sheet. That was time consuming and a real beatch to cut 3 mm strips, 20 cm long, and keep them straight. The worse part was cleaning each strip up, to remove the burrs and ridges on the cut edges. After that was all done, I used the same method as before. I carefully laid them out, side to side, until the row was 5.5 cm wide and then hit them with a strip of tape to hold them together. Same principle for ease of painting and such. And with 2 strips of 1 cm wide, 0.15 thick sheet glued to them, they will bend to shape over the side covers,
I didn't add a wood grain pattern on these as it probably wouldn't/couldn't be seen anyway (lazy???) and my wood grain tool is too big for them. BTW, my crazy wood grain tool,
With the blade screwed tightly into the handle, I can get pretty good pressure and pattern coverage too. It takes a bit of practice as the blade wants to go it's own way, but with a steady hand, it works out...
Thanks for your understanding and now I have to get some sleep. In the morn, it's hissy stick time and another 12 hour day at the table. Who says being retired was easy.............Self induced stress of course.................
Prost
Allen
Stirling work Dude.
Airborne01
SMF Supporter
Looking good - should do very well in the comps I'll wager!
Steve
Steve
Neil Merryweather
SMF Supporter
At least you might finish this one, having a deadline like a competition is a good incentive! My god, that will make two this year!!
This is really rather epic Allen, I'm well impressed (but not surprised).
Looking forward to seeing the result, I think you stand a great chance in the competition.
, having a deadline like a competition is a good incentive! My god, that will make two this year!!This is really rather epic Allen, I'm well impressed (but not surprised).
Looking forward to seeing the result, I think you stand a great chance in the competition.