Albatros D.V biplane, Eduard 1/48 Weekend Edition

 

Model, text and images by Luca Cinacchio

This was my first biplane... lots of things to learn, e.g. how to make by myself the turnbuckles for the rigging... I chosen this kit because I was catched by its colorful color scheme, and being a not expensive kit I was not too worried to waste my money ...

The Kit and the Build

I am not expert of biplanes, but i found the kit easy to assemble, and well engineered. The details seems to me good, and there is no flash.

Construction started with the cockpit. I added a couple of seat belt, that i made with some Tamiya tale and some lead wire. Not very accurate, but they greatly improve the look of the cockpit. Then i turned my attention to the side walls, painting the wood grain with my usual method: first a coat of lighter brown (acrylics), and then thinned oils handbrushed and hand-brushed...
Then started the experiments with the pre-shading: i used 2 different techniques, one for the upper wing and another one for the lower wing.
For the upper wing, i taped the "crests" of the "waves", i sprayed some black and then i removed the tape, having ready for final paint the surface that you can see in the image. For the lower wing instead I went free-hand, but this time i sprayed the black on the top of the "crests" (just the opposite). Better one or the other method? I leave the sentence to you, looking at the final reveal photos.
For the turnbuckles I didn't want to spend (yet) money, so I made them by myself. I used a very think leas wire (0.2 mm), and I turned it around a needle, and the cut the excess. The result is not of course like the one that you can have with PE or similar professional made turnbuckles, but ... ehi these were for free, and lot of fun :)
Because I installed the seat belts inside the cockpit, I placed the pilot outside... he seems to be a little uin-willingful too flight :)

Any suggestion and critics is welcome!

 

 

Final Reveal

I took this photos almost one years after completing the model... unfortunately the dust accumulated a lot on it... i sprayed it and brushed it, but the lenses of my camera are still showing it too much... :(

 

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