AEG G.IV - Creature of the Night - WNW 1/32

[DocRob]

I have to admit, I was less than thrilled with this GB initially, when I read about it on my Berlin vacancy. Back home, I decided to browse through my stash for inspirations, still unsure about my participation.
Lots of twins to choose, but one immediately rang a bell, the monstrous (for it´s time) night bomber version of the AEG G.IV by Wingnut Wings. I have a soft spot for quirky designs and since I bought the kits years ago, it was sometimes on my schedule, but was dropped, because of sheer size and complexity. 
Well, now with the GB, there is another possibility to tackle this lozenged monster. I´m absolutely not sure, if I can finish the AEG in time, but will try.

This is the kit and this will be the chosen scheme, but with the shark? mouth only in white.
The entire airframe will be decaled with the kit supplied night lozenge and I have to experiment a bit with the underlying color for contrast and accentuation.

I will use some AM, like HGW Seat belts, Gaspatch MG´s and HGW masks. The figure of the boy will play a role along with a mechanic, which is still to choose. I think about adding Rexx metal exhausts and skipped the thought about adding Taurus timing gear for the engines. I watched at many pictures and decided, the gear is hidden under the wing in a tube metal cage, so not a lot can be seen and I will enhance the kit parts with some detailing.

Rigging will be a nightmare and I´m not finally decided about the rigging material. I liked fishing line and Bob´s buckles a lot with other builds, but may simplify rigging a bit. A while ago I thought about a method, gluing in the thread directly into holes, pre drilled through the wing. this can be pulled taught from above, sealed with CA and cut flush, when dry. Because of the later to apply lozenge decals, the holes will remain invisible. 
Later I found a build log, where the builder used that method on his AEG build and it worked, lets hope the best.

I will further use Karim Bibis great PDF-book, which I acquired from KLP publishing and use it as a guideline through the complex build.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Brilliant choice and surely is going to be an epic build. Will be following with great interest as I've always longed to build a few biplanes and have never been able to cross the finish line. 

[Martinnfb]

This is going to be EPIC ! Great choice Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Oh yes!  I'm in for this one!

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Brilliant choice and surely is going to be an epic build. Will be following with great interest as I've always longed to build a few biplanes and have never been able to cross the finish line. 

 

2 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

This is going to be EPIC ! Great choice Rob

 

20 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Oh yes!  I'm in for this one!

Thank you amigos, it´s not my first WWI build, but by far the most complex. I built a WNW Pfalz, a Hansa Brandenburg and a MikroMir Fokker D.VIII in 1/32 and two Eduard SSW´s in 1/48, but they all were simple to rig. 
Interestingly most of these builds were more rewarding than most other plane builds I did, even with lots of scratching and improvisation with the Mikro Mir Fokker.
There is a lot to learn while building these old stringbags, but I have another even more challenging WWI twin in my stash, Aviattic´s 1/48 Gotha G.V (ex Hippo/AZ) with Aviattic, Gaspatch and Lukgraph extras. This is also a night bomber, but the 1/48 scale and base kit makes it harder than the AEG, I guess.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

Well, it´s a bomber, why not starting with the bombs and the exhausts. In this case, it´s because the smaller 12,5 kg bombs will be filled into inboard racks and have to be painted first. I glued the parts together along with the exhausts, to evaluate the need for substitute them with AM. There are bombs from Kellerkind and the metal exhausts by Rexx.
The parts look promising, but I will decide after priming.

This beast was able to carry a bomb load of up to 800 kg and a later -.b version could handle a 1000 kg bomb, a lot more than the Gotha. It seems the ground was the worst enemy of this type, as many crash landed, due to night conditions and the tendency to nose dive easily when touching down. 
Earlier types were used in daytime raids, but better fighter coverage pushed the AEG´s into night duty.

 

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Rob, what do you think of the Rexx exhausts?  I've wondered about adding their exhausts to some of the kits I own.

[BlrwestSiR]

Wow, that is going to an amazing build. 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Hey Rob, what do you think of the Rexx exhausts?  I've wondered about adding their exhausts to some of the kits I own.

Can´t really tell, Mike, I never owned one. They were hard to find for a while. From the pictures, I´ve seen, they are very nice, thin material with a convincing finish. I think, I will ad them for the AEG, as they are very prominent and the protruding end parts of the exhausts are simplified in plastic.

@Fran made a nice review some years ago, with detailed pictures:

Cheers Rob

[PanzerWomble]

This will be one for the books for sure. A mammoth build in all senses of the word . 

[Landlubber Mike]

Rob, I think those will provide a really nice touch.  They look similar to the former Moskit exhausts which I've been picking up where I can for some of the kits in the stash.  

[HubertB]

Great project, Rob. 
As for the Rexx exhausts, they are galvanically-grown metal parts. And nothing looks like metal like metal …

The only issue is that, even before the invasion of Ukraine, they seemed to be made of unobtainium …

Mind you, there is a modeller on Modelshipworld who showed how to do galvanic-grown parts at home. Seemed easy-peasy 🤪 (😂🤪🤣😂) . He produced some fantastic-looking wind-funnels for his model …

Hubert

[DocRob]

36 minutes ago, HubertB said:

Great project, Rob. 
As for the Rexx exhausts, they are galvanically-grown metal parts. And nothing looks like metal like metal …

The only issue is that, even before the invasion of Ukraine, they seemed to be made of unobtainium …

Mind you, there is a modeller on Modelshipworld who showed how to galvanic-grown parts at home. Seemed easy-peasy 🤪 (😂🤪🤣😂) . He produced some fantastic-looking wind-funnels for his model …

I don´t know why you always have to heap another shovelful onto my narrow shoulders, Hubert . I will look into these galvanic grown parts, but I will not do it for myself. I will order the Rexx exhausts, which seem to be wider available lately. I remember the times, even before the war, where the signature of Rexx was ´sold out´. 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I ordered the missing mechanic and Rexx exhausts for the AEG, my Albatros D.V and Fokker D.VII. The mechanic will be this fellow by Kellerkind:

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I cleaned a zillion parts after cutting them from the sprue. With the tight tolerances, WNW kits usually have, this should be done with great attention. Before I start painting, I´ve done some test fitting, to see, how the innards of the AEG lay out and how the fit will be and which parts are visible and need painting and weathering. Test fitting was promising so far, but yeah these tolerances will call for scraping away paint and use the fiber pencil as my best friend for mating surfaces.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Test fitting surely shows what a beauty she will be, and the tolerances are as tight as Tamiya, every spec of paint will need to be removed for a good, clean fit. 

 

[Bomber_County]

Rob, sitting this one out but will follow along, never seen a WIP of one of these…….

[DocRob]

On 2/11/2024 at 6:58 AM, Peterpools said:

Test fitting surely shows what a beauty she will be, and the tolerances are as tight as Tamiya, every spec of paint will need to be removed for a good, clean fit. 

 

On 2/11/2024 at 11:26 AM, Bomber_County said:

Rob, sitting this one out but will follow along, never seen a WIP of one of these……

Thank you Peter and Phil, today, I will prime and maybe start painting the interior and bombs. I plan to use salt technique for the bombs for a first time. There is not much unpainted wood with that late war bomber, but the cockpit floor will be wood grained and than covered in black, with later to apply abrasion.

@Bomber_County astonishingly there are some very thorough build logs on AEG builds, which will help me along the book by Karim Bibi.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

This is my first take on the salt technique, I chose the bombs for testing, because I wanted to know, how they look in the end, and if I have to replace them with AM. Normally, I build my planes without ordonnance, but in this case, I chose them for contrast and for learning the salt technique. If I´m satisfied, I will use the method for the inside of the cockpit as well, which is primed and salted and waiting for some paint.

First they were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500 in black

Then the bombs were brushed with water with an added drop of detergent for better distribution and then salted with irregular salt grains from a mill.

After drying, I shot a layer of AK Real color RLM 76 overall and now let them dry until tomorrow, before removing the salt. The contrast will be too harsh by far, but that´s ok, because I want to overspray again with color in translucent layers until I reach the desired effect.
First, I wanted to use Tamiya XF-23 but opted for the slightly more bluish tint of the AK color.

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

Bombs are always fun  , meticulous job. 

[DocRob]

I continued with the bombs, removing the salt entirely, which left me with this:

Later, I over sprayed everything with translucent layers of RLM 76 and got what I was looking for. Next will be a panel wash and the brass detonator caps.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I also started with the interior painting. As Opposed to other planes of the time, most of the interior was painted and not left in wood. Again, I used the salt technique, which was a bit of a challenge with a humidity around 90%. The salted parts soaked humidity out of the air and stayed very wet. I had to repeat the salting, using less water and let dry for only some minutes and then use the airbrush for further drying, directly before airbrushing. I used Tamiya XF 76 (IJN light grey green).

I sprayed a thin layer over the salt with the interior side parts loosely inserted into the fuselage, to have shadows, where the tubes are. The salt was removed then and again, the XF 76 was misted on in pronouncing patterns, until I was satisfied for now. The effect is a bit hard to capture on photos, but it´s more or less the same rendition and intensity all around.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Rob.  I'm going to have to try that salt technique.

[DocRob]

Thank you Mike, i start to like the salt technique, as it is very easy to control the depth of the effect and the grinded salt leaves a very random pattern.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The last step for today, was applying some wooden texture onto the cockpit floor. This is very crude and only made with a PE template, first spraying desert yellow, followed by red brown. I decided against the much more refined oil technique, because only a bit of this will be visible. Next, I apply some chipping fluid and then spray Nato black on top, which will then be scratched away with different tools.

Cheers Rob