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Wingnut Wings Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 Float Plane


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Surely not my cup of tea with rigging and all, not to mention the lack of jet engines. Although, never say never! Especially after seeing how detailed these kits are -  and the great work you've done here! I absolutely love the cockpit with those wooden parts and the foldable map table. Good looking engine too.

 

I was on the impression that sharpies (Sharpies or other brands) always burn through the paint work. In fact I've seen it myself. Not always then? 

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5 hours ago, janman said:

Surely not my cup of tea with rigging and all, not to mention the lack of jet engines. Although, never say never! Especially after seeing how detailed these kits are -  and the great work you've done here! I absolutely love the cockpit with those wooden parts and the foldable map table. Good looking engine too.

 

I was on the impression that sharpies (Sharpies or other brands) always burn through the paint work. In fact I've seen it myself. Not always then? 

Thanks Wolfgun!

 

Janman - I was pretty much a WW2 and helo guy (and still am) but these kits make an enjoyable change of pace and you learn some new tricks that will help on other builds.   I can't deal with heavy rigging but a few of their kits (this one and the Fokker D.VII) only have a few bits.   If you are inclined, rumor has it that WNW might be releasing a Fokker Triplane in the next few months.   That plane has even less rigging than this one (pretty much just the cables to the control surfaces). 

 

Funny about the Sharpie burn-through issue.   It seemed like a really great idea at the time (famous last words), then I week later, I read some of the horror stories about the ink burning through model paint.  I had no idea!

 

We'll have to see how things go.  I let the Sharpie ink dry for nearly a week before I overpainted it.  So far so good....  Fingers are crossed though. 

 

 

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16 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

Great progress 11Bee- The floats look fantastic and I think the fabric over the rib effect looks good as well!  I hope the sharpie ink doesn’t bleed on you.  Keep up the great work 👍🏻

 

Thanks very much.  Yeah, I'm getting nervous about the sharpie issue.  Really thought I had a great idea here, now - maybe not so much.  We'll see how it goes.

 

Onto the build - I applied the WNW lozenge decals to the upper wings.  I'm a big fan of WNW but I'm not sure I like their decals. They seem a bit thick and, per the instructions, decal solvents are not recommended.   The big lozenge decals went down on smooth upper surfaces but really didn't stick to curves such as leading edges and wingtips.  I've used some diluted white glue to try to get them to adhere but even after all that, I've still got some issues.  If I had to do this again, I'd go with aftermarket decals.   Not sure if this is just specific to the W12, on my earlier Fokker DVII, they seemed to work a bit better.  Anyway, here are a few pics of my progress:

 

 EBgJsRc.jpg

 

Note the inset compass, complete with very nice decaled dial.  Got a bit of touch-up to do.

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Also added the fuel line on the underside of the wing. Probably never to be seen again.

kahto0T.jpg

 

The next step will be the critical one.  Mounting the upper wing.  Truly make or break time.  The W12 is a bit easier than most WNW kits, just one set of struts on each wing and the central mounting points over the fuselage.  Even so, one misaligned part and I've got some major problems.  Don't know how those modelers building more complex biplanes (or triplanes) do it.   Stay tuned....

 

 

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Got through the hardest step - upper wing is now mounted to the aircraft.    As noted above, it's the most problematic part of the build, trying to get all the struts to perfectly alight.  Thankfully the W.12 has a pretty basic configuration, especially compared to most other WW1 biplanes but - just one part misaligned and you are out of business.   My only words of wisdom are to dry fit extensively and if needed slight widen the mounting holes so that everything fits.  I also use superglue for this step, putting a dab in the holes in the upper wing.   If you put glue on the male portion of the wing struts, you risk smearing it all over the lower wing surface while you are trying to get everything lined up.    Prior to this, I also light shot the upper lozenge camo with a dilute light grey mix to tone down the camo / iron cross.  I figured being a hard working seaplane, they would show some fading / wear and tear.   Speaking of which, I've got multiple areas on both the upper and lower wing decals that I'll be touching up.   Not happy with the way that these decals set up on the kit.   If I do any lozenge decaling again, I'll probably go aftermarket.   Also used some dark grey pastels to represent scuffing and stains on the lower wing walkways.  

 

Still need to add the 4 bits of wing rigging and the control runs to the ailerons.  

 

 72jiyPz.jpg

 

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Great build, mate! If I have a problem with stuborn decals, I use hairdryer - the hot air softens the decal and when you press it down, it goes into every crevice and elasticly expands over any bulge on the surface.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the compliments Sebastijan.   I tried the hairdryer approach.   I worked well on my Fokker D.VII, not so much on these decals.  No idea why.  

 

Anyway, I've been pretty busy lately but did find some time to get some work done on this beast.  Applied the remaining decals, they went on with no problems over a coat of future.   After that I added a bit of pastel weathering to to them.  I really like the pastel approach for this, it's much more subtle than using paints.  

 

After that, I built the observer's Parabellum MG.  This particular aircraft had the MG equipped with a telescopic sight.   Can't imagine how this was useful on a moving aircraft but Wingnuts was thoughtful enough to include it.  The PE cooling jacket is a bit fiddely to install but it definitely looks better than a solid lump of plastic.  

 

Completed the rigging using stretched sprue.   As noted in the beginning of this build, I'm not a big fan of rigging but everything went on easily.   

 

Added the exhaust manifold to the motor.   Used a couple of colors of rust toned paint and then added some yellow-orange pastels for the final touch.  Also used some dark grey pastels to replicate some light exhaust staining on the upper wing.   

 

That's it for now.   Here are some pictures.  Note - my camera (or more likely, my photography skills) sucks.  I can only take pictures in natural light and when I took these, it was getting dark.  I was also too lazy to set up some white cardboard for the background, so you'll have to forgive my garage and deck showing up in these pics.   Anyway, that's it for now, thanks for looking.

 

LbXwtRl.jpg

 

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dLJ5FTS.jpg

 

CS3PFWE.jpg

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Aside from rigging, the hardest part of building these old aircraft (for me at least) is painting the laminated wooden propeller.  Anyone got any hints on how to do this?  

 

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