Das Kamel - Hansa Brandenburg W.12

[BlrwestSiR]

Great work on the floats. Glad my suggestion worked for you. 

Carl

[DocRob]

After gluing together floats and struts, I couldn't resist a sneak peak and put some of the main components together for a pic.

Then I started the preparations of the wings and ailerons for decaling. All surfaces were rubbed with alcohol, because on the decal areas, I don't want to have an extra coat in the form of primer, just a high sheen gloss white coat.
As I know, how tight the struts fit into the holes, I took great care to avoid getting colour to seep into these holes with liquid mask and pieces of toothpick, which beautifully serve as a drying rack as well after spraying.

All surfaces which will receive decals were then airbrushed with a very thin mix of ca. one third of Tamiya gloss white and two thirds of Mr. Hobby levelling thinner.
This is my new go to mix, because it doesn't build up much thickness and has a high sheen in the end, with just a little bit of polishing, when dry.
I have to thank Ernie, to be so persistent with his praises for the leveling thinner, where nearly all my tries went south, but with Tamiya acrylics it sprays like a dream, and especially the gloss white has so much opacity, that you are able to thin it down that much. 

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Rob,

    Tamiya gloss white mixed with Mr Color Levelling thinner is my go-to primer.  That being said...  Any place I'm going to use masks, I hit with a little sandpaper for that extra bite.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Gaz

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Tamiya gloss white mixed with Mr Color Levelling thinner is my go-to primer.

I have to think about using it as a primer, as well as it sprays, but have to do further testing. I'm a bit sensible when it comes to primers. To me they have to give a smooth surface AND a very high reliability concerning mechanical and chemical abuse. I will try that, but not on these wings, where it is only a gloss base coat for the decals.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The fuselage and horizontal tailplane got a coat of Pledge as base for the Lozenge, crosses and numbers and then it was time to start something new. I worked with Aviattic decals on my SSW twins for a first time and was positively surprised, how good they performed. Given the 48 scale then, I didn't bother with preshading.

This time, I decided to pre shade, which is a lot of work cutting 0,5 mm strips of Kabuki with my Voyager cutting template and apply these on the struts. I did a complete test of the process on one aileron.

Then I cut the linen and Lozenge for upper and underside with the kit part and the WNW decal (above right) as a template. I cut the decals slightly wider than the WNW supplied ones, because I want to fit them around the corners better. The kit aileron got airbrushed with dilluted Tamiya Smoke

Testing the method payed off, The result looks ok to me with the objection, that the preshading, which was equally airbrushed on the upper and lower side shows a lot more intense through the linen. For the next parts, I will take that into account and give the Lozenge side a little more shading

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Brilliant Rob, the only painting I’m doing at the moment is all the windows on the house. I’d rather be where you are than standing on a scaffold.......love the lozenge decals...........

[DocRob]

 

Thanks Phil, I have some time for modelling, but a lot of other duties in the garden and the house as well. Not so much painting in the moment, it's to hot most of the times, but a lot of watering the plants and gardening for hours and some work on one of the roofs.

I finished some wood painting work lately with our main entrance and some other doors, with cobalt pigmented linseed colour. Linseed is perfect for our often hot, but even more humid conditions. This door gets all of it, wind and humidity from the outside and sun and dryness from the inside, sometimes it's nearly impossible to open the door, because of that. The scaffold and painting of the multi colored facade of the house will be next years business.

 

 

 

[Bomber_County]

Looks absolutely gorgeous Rob, wow........I’m trying to get all the exterior windows painted before autumn gales are upon us and then winter, bet you don’t miss Berlin in the winter............

[GazzaS]

Looks excellent, Rob!  You've inspired me to by the same jig.  Do you find it relatively foolproof?  I like your cheery doors, too.

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

bet you don’t miss Berlin in the winter............

Actually I don't miss Berlin at all, well, except for hobby stores, good bars, concerts and cinema. With Covid though, there are only the hobby stores left, so no, I don't miss Berlin .
Another thing is the climate, winter, were I live in the northern mountains of the Canary Islands is mostly nice, often sunny and dry. The worst time is spring, where we have a lot of humidity and wind. Sometimes you feel colder with +10 degrees, than in a -10 degrees winter night in Berlin, where the houses are better insulated and heated and live here on the islands happens to be more outdoor than in a big city.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Looks excellent, Rob!  You've inspired me to by the same jig.  Do you find it relatively foolproof?  I like your cheery doors, too.

Muchas Gracias Gaz. The Jig is very easy to work with, put on the Kabuki tape on the desired template width and slice it with a scalpel, done, much cheaper then ready cut tape in umptenth widths. I have another one for circles, wich I used for the gunner/operator station to cover.
The stripe jig is by far the most used, specially for WWI purposes, like struts masks or to replicate laminated wood for props.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

Muchas Gracias Gaz. The Jig is very easy to work with, put on the Kabuki tape on the desired template width and slice it with a scalpel, done, much cheaper then ready cut tape in umptenth widths. I have another one for circles, wich I used for the gunner/operator station to cover.
The stripe jig is by far the most used, specially for WWI purposes, like struts masks or to replicate laminated wood for props.

Cheers Rob

Rob,

    Thanks for the info.  I've ordered two of those jigs, thinking they'll be great for many things....  especially canopy framing.

 

Gaz

[sandbagger]

Hi Rob,

Just caught up with this build.

Great to see you building the W.12.

I've built the W.29, but the W.12 is still on my 'to do' list'.

I know your pain with some HGW decals and photo-etch.

I only use their seat belts now, as I've also found their decals way too fragile and reluctant to stick and some photo-etch design/fit problems.

Looking forward to your progress,

Mike

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, sandbagger said:

Hi Rob,

Just caught up with this build.

Great to see you building the W.12.

I've built the W.29, but the W.12 is still on my 'to do' list'.

I know your pain with some HGW decals and photo-etch.

I only use their seat belts now, as I've also found their decals way too fragile and reluctant to stick and some photo-etch design/fit problems.

Looking forward to your progress,

Mike

Thank you Mike, this is only my second WNW build and beside my recently finished testbed SSW's in 48 scale, one of the rare excursions in the field of WWI aviation. As I gain more routine and confidence with every build, there is also also a rapidly growing fun factor, while building these kits. It's so rewarding to reproduce the numerous different materials and to see, how these flying machines actually work.
You might have noticed, that I copied (what an ugly word ) some of your techniques with this build. I appreciate your generosity to give us the possibility to browse through your builds and the connected thoughts with your PDF-logs.
My philosophy building kits, is normally not to replicate the last screw, like seen on the original, but make it look right to my eye and fulfil how I imagined the subject. That leaves some place for liberties and imperfections, which to me are completely tolerable.

With the HGW products I have similar experiences like you. I had really good products, made by them with a special mention of the wet transfers of my recently built Mig-31, where I would have gone loco with all these stencils as conventional decals, and the care that would have amounted around them. Their seatbelts are unbeaten normally, but with this kit, even the seat belts weren't too refined, the decals over brittle as you mentioned and the PE was at least a questionable substitute.
The benefit though is, that with the bad results I had with the decals, I learned wood painting, because I had to, and for the future I won't even look for wood decals, because it is frightening me anymore.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Sometimes there are steps in modelling, you get bored even thinking about them. The preparation for the Lozenge and linen decals were of such a kind. My pace building the Kamel slowed considerably down and I even started to do some work on a parallel build, which I rarely do. After putting aside the mental obstacles, I got myself to do the job.

First I cut a zillion of 0,5mm strips and applied them on the struts of the gloss white coated wings, rudder and ailerons.

Then I used a mix of thinner and Tamiya Smoke to airbrush onto the struts, to simulate the shadows / wear, later showing through the decals. I haven't done it too refined, to get a bit of an uneven look.
My test with one aileron showed, that the Lozenge decals hide the preshading effect much better, than the linen decals for the underside, which led me to spray the shadows heavier on the upper side, as you might notice on the picture.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

Looks great. 

I might have to try the shading effect you've presented here Rob. 

[GazzaS]

Imagine modelling without tedious parts...  *shudder*

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Looks great. 

I might have to try the shading effect you've presented here Rob.

Thanks Carl, It's time consuming, but will show through the Aviattic decals. I hope I got it about right.

15 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Imagine modelling without tedious parts...  *shudder*

, truly spoken, in our heart, we are all masochists, that's why we picked modelling as a hobby.
The good thing with that boring masking and preshading is, that I'm not anymore afraid of rigging, which is tempting, but not tedious. Well, the rigging of the Kamel is even less frightening .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

All the Lozenge and linen decals are applied and they behaved great. After all the cutting and thinking about aligning the Lozenge correctly, the Aviattic decals performed absolutely perfect. Good preparation is the key. For me the application with lukewarm water with a drop of liquid soap in it, is the way to go. Decal solutions were only used around the corners of the wings. 

I think, decaling and weathering the wings will be done, before mounting them to the fuselage

For the tail, I used the kit supplied decal, because I want to show, that it is painted on wood instead of printed fabric on wings and ailerons. I'm not sure about the contrast, which was the reason, why I didn't apply the Lozenge decal for the back of the fuselage, which looks the same. I will check that, while putting the tailwing onto the fuselage, with the wings mounted, to see if it works for me. 
The rudder is only crudely prepared and will receive a translucent white overspray. 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Nice work, Rob. 

[Bomber_County]

Stunning Rob, rigging to come........

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Stunning Rob, rigging to come........

Not much rigging with the Kamel, it will be a walk in the park. I think, when decaling is finished and sealed, there are not many more great obstacles in the way.

Today I only managed to overspray the linen decals on the wings with a coat of translucent white, where the Balkenkreuze will be applied and on the rudder. I didn't dare to use Kabuki tape on the Aviattic decals and used post-it's for masking, which worked fine, without leaving any damage.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Sneak peak of the different Lozenge patterns, linen on the wings and rudders, painted at the tail and back of the fuselage (already applied now). I think I will use them like this and tone down the contrast with weathering.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I completed decaling and varnished all surfaces with 70% Pledge and 30% Tamiya Flat, to get a n even surface for oils and other weathering steps. The numbers on the fuselage show some carrier film, which I wasn't able to get rid off. I hope, with some oils onto it, it will not show in the end. I have no idea what it is with me and the decals .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The Kamel got a flat varnish and that helped to tone down the contrasts between the different Lozenge patterns. This will be the base for oils and weathering.

Cheers Rob