AEG G.IV - Creature of the Night - WNW 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

 

[Martinnfb]

There's no chance that I would be able to do this without any mental trauma. Great work Rob.

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW, decaling looks simply tremendous and your approach and technique absolutely was the right way to go. Mix in a lot of patience and skill and the results speak for themselves. 

Your rigging POA sounds foolproof and I'll be following all the way.

 

[DocRob]

On 3/26/2024 at 12:30 PM, Peterpools said:

WOW, decaling looks simply tremendous and your approach and technique absolutely was the right way to go. Mix in a lot of patience and skill and the results speak for themselves. 

Your rigging POA sounds foolproof and I'll be following all the way.

Thank you Peter, but I changed my planned modus operandi for simplified rigging for several reasons.
- Since weeks, I´m waiting for my Infini elastic rigging thread to arrive from Japan, but it´s still a no show.
- I don´t want to put on the upper wing lozenge decals as the last step of the build. Better now, with sealing everything, and having a coherent weathering.
- Old school fishing line rigging with brass tubes enhances the rigidity of the wings and struts, not too bad with 60cm of wingspan.

No pictures as of yet, but I´m finalizing the lozenge decal at the moment and started to weather the fuselage and struts.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Always a huge plus to have a secondary plan to fall back on. 

[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

[Peterpools]

Rob

Amazing progress and just so many issues to deal with - glad you are sorting them all out, one by one. I'm surprised that they were bent struts in a WNW kit - was it molded that way or some heat over the years took its toll as they seem to be very delicate? 

Decaling work is extraordinary and perfectly done. 🏆

[Martinnfb]

What I am finding fascinating is the fact that you're able to manipulate this thing without breaking anything. Fantastic work Rob.

Cheers

Martin

[Jeff]

I totally agree with Martin and Peter.  This is a really epic build. And as Peter said , sorting out the issues as well. Seems to me , your sorting is absolutely on the right track. And the decaling is superb. Not sure if I missed it or not , but what decal softener did you use ? Did I miss that part? Excellent work, Rob.

Jeff

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Amazing progress and just so many issues to deal with - glad you are sorting them all out, one by one. I'm surprised that they were bent struts in a WNW kit - was it molded that way or some heat over the years took its toll as they seem to be very delicate? 

Decaling work is extraordinary and perfectly done. 🏆

Thank you Peter, it´s a critical state of the build, where everything comes together and a good plan is necessary. The struts were bent on the sprue, unfortunately. One of the engine cages (the tube construction holding the un-cowled engine) was completely broken and mis-casted. Luckily, my plan was to only show one engine without cowlings.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

What I am finding fascinating is the fact that you're able to manipulate this thing without breaking anything. Fantastic work Rob.

Thank you Martin, the kit is delicate, but due to the relative short fuselage relatively save to handle. That will alter, when the wings will be attached finally.
I broke two struts though, simply while test fitting. They are very fragile close to their connecting lugs.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

27 minutes ago, Jeff said:

I totally agree with Martin and Peter.  This is a really epic build. And as Peter said , sorting out the issues as well. Seems to me , your sorting is absolutely on the right track. And the decaling is superb. Not sure if I missed it or not , but what decal softener did you use ? Did I miss that part? Excellent work, Rob.

Thank you Jeff, if you look closely, there are some tiny folds and creases in the decals, but nothing too critical. It´s difficult, to handle the wings, without damaging the decals, especially on the sharp trailing edge. I will have to patch a little t the final stages.

I used lukewarm water with a drop of detergent to apply the decals, used a flat brush to get rid of bubbles and then hit everything with MicroSol. Around the corners, I added Tamiya decal adhesive softener type and a hairdryer, which is essential. I tried Tamiya Mark strong softener, but it proved too aggressive and on the tiny spots, I used it, I diluted it with water.

Cheers Rob

[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

[Jeff]

51 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Jeff, if you look closely, there are some tiny folds and creases in the decals, but nothing too critical. It´s difficult, to handle the wings, without damaging the decals, especially on the sharp trailing edge. I will have to patch a little t the final stages.

I used lukewarm water with a drop of detergent to apply the decals, used a flat brush to get rid of bubbles and then hit everything with MicroSol. Around the corners, I added Tamiya decal adhesive softener type and a hairdryer, which is essential. I tried Tamiya Mark strong softener, but it proved too aggressive and on the tiny spots, I used it, I diluted it with water.

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob. Exactly what I was looking for…

Jeff

[Peterpools]

Rob

Looks perfect for the job at hand.  

[BlrwestSiR]

Just catching up on your build Rob. The decal and prep work is excellent as the other have mentioned.

I'm not sure I could manage such a fragile model without constantly breaking something. 

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Just catching up on your build Rob. The decal and prep work is excellent as the other have mentioned.

I'm not sure I could manage such a fragile model without constantly breaking something

The struts are really the only very fragile parts, especially these for the nacelles. They have fair sized connecting points, but directly behind, they are extremely thin and fragile. Not to forget, that some of these points need to be rigged and therefore drilled.

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

[Peterpools]

Rob

I can see a little of the work you just accomplished but not much unfortunately. Any chance of retaking the images with more lighting?

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Superb work Rob - really amazing work!  The decaling came out fantastic!  I always thought the Wingnut lozenge decals looked a bit bright to me, but it's clear they look fantastic on the model. 

Good to know, as I was a bit worried about pricing out buying Aviattic decals on some of these Wingnut kits.  A while back, a bought a Roden 1/72 Staaken kit on one of the FB sites for close to nothing.  Ended up spending quite a bit on a set of Aviattic night lozenge sheets, but I needed replacements as the kit ones were a bit messed up.  It would probably cost a fortune to cover a 1/32 bird like yours.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

I can see a little of the work you just accomplished but not much unfortunately. Any chance of retaking the images with more lighting?

That´s what the camo is for, Peter, a night stalker in it´s cloak . I will add one or two ´after´ pics from a bit closer. What I tried to replicate was a yellow tinted varnish, often applied over the printed lozenge camo of the original, which in my case gives a slight sepia toned look, like in old photos.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Got ya. I should have thought of that.

 

 

[DocRob]

17 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Superb work Rob - really amazing work!  The decaling came out fantastic!  I always thought the Wingnut lozenge decals looked a bit bright to me, but it's clear they look fantastic on the model. 

Good to know, as I was a bit worried about pricing out buying Aviattic decals on some of these Wingnut kits.  A while back, a bought a Roden 1/72 Staaken kit on one of the FB sites for close to nothing.  Ended up spending quite a bit on a set of Aviattic night lozenge sheets, but I needed replacements as the kit ones were a bit messed up.  It would probably cost a fortune to cover a 1/32 bird like yours.

Thank you Mike, honestly, you can´t beat Aviattic lozenge decals, period. They have the best color rendition to my eye and they are superb to work with. Another advantage is the possibility of pre shading with the clear backed sheets and the woven linen effect.
For the AEG, I liked the colors of the WNW supplied sheet better than with some of their day camo sheets and costs and the need to cut all the lozenge decals to fit precisely let me use the kit supplied ones. You need huge amounts, if you cut them from sheets and you have to cut them, that the lozenge pattern fits on the borders, which can be hard to achieve, a thing I learned with the naval hex, I used on my Hansa Brandenburg build.

I feel with you considering the Staaken, she is a big bird and needs a lot of sheets, even in 1/72. I have an Aviattic distributed Gotha kit in 1/48 with cookie cut Aviattic night lozenge decals. I wonder, how they look compared with WNW.

It seems, the night lozenge was often overpainted with a dar yellow translucent varnish. I applied something like it here and together with the matte coating, it took away a bit of the edge in the lozenge, contrast wise.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Any chance of retaking the images with more lighting?

Here you go, Peter, I hope, the picture shows the progress a bit clearer.



Cheers Rob