WNW Hannover Cl.II (Early)

[Uncarina]

Want to get an idea of how to assemble a Swiss watch? By a Wingnut Wings kit! I'm building the Hannover Cl.II early version, "White 4" Royal Prussian Schusta 12. 

As with most WWI subjects, colors are an open topic, and WNW interprets this aircraft as having the lower lozenge pattern on the upper wings, with plain linen underneath. The kit contains decals for this, but they don't quite match the lower lozenge pattern on the lower surfaces.

 The lozenge third from the bottom is the WNW interpretation, but they aren't a match for the lower surface lozenge pattern just below. Inspired by the Aviattic decal sets that have come out for the WNW Halberstadt CL.II (Early) kit which also have the lower lozenge pattern on the upper wing surfaces, I went ahead and purchased one of their lower lozenge sheets.

I will cut these using the kit decals as a template and use the WNW ribtapes. I also have Ray Rimell's excellent build guide, where he assembles the same aircraft but with a different interpretation of the lozenge pattern. All good! Having had such success with the water-based oils made by DecoArt for my Sopwith Camel build (RFI coming hopefully soon), I used these on this build as well. They function just like oils for simulating wood but dry as fast as acrylics and clean up with water. Thanks to Mike (Sandbagger) Norris for the tip! Here is where I am so far with the build:

 

 

Cheers,  Tom

[harv]

Oh cool beans !!.......harv 

[Bomber_County]

Tom, lovely clean build. Do like the wood, has Mike done post on the technique?.....

[Uncarina]

Thanks Phil! If I understand correctly, Mike does describe in more detail here: http://igavh2.xara.hosting/index_htm_files/Camel-Barker.pdf

Cheers,  Tom

[Bomber_County]

Thanks Tom....

 

[Uncarina]

Progress: I closed the fuselage halves and began painting. I started with the underside of the fuselage, which has a speculative finish, according to the WNW instructions. Their interpretation is a series of transverse bands of the alternating five colors of the painted lozenge that is on the non-linen surfaces. Since this was not carved in stone, and without evidence to the contrary, I replicated the lozenge pattern for the underside painted surfaces. My first attempt was painting and masking with irregular lozenge shapes each of the five colors, which was suboptimal since I underestimated the size of each lozenge shape, and because it created a noticeable layering effect, resulting in the first colors appearing sunken. My second attempt used a lozenge pattern that I cut onto Tamiya masking tape, with each color labeled:

I used Tamiya colors matched to the kit decals, and here the first color is ready to be applied. Eventually, and with significant touching up (meanwhile I was getting used to a new airbrush), I achieved this result:

Photographs indicate that the fuselage sides and top were also painted with a lozenge pattern, then overcoated forward of the tailplane/rudder with Prussian blue. Because of this, I won't be replicating the entire pattern, but instead I plan to add the lozenge colors that are lighter and darker than the overcoat. To be continued!

 

Cheers,  Tom