I am continually amazed at the way you are painting and detailing those engines Louis (@lgardner). The colors look spot on to me and in a different photo setting and forum, it would be difficult to tell this from the real thing.

I am introduced by your idea of a build journal. I do take many build photos, but I don't typically write anything down except as a caption for the photos.But I can see how doing the journal could be very useful in the future if you wanted to see how you did something. And of course, it is part of your legacy. So much art work of the past is more along the lines of photos only where you can only appreciate the final product and not really know the nuances of what went into making it.

I’m pressed for time right now so I will have to keep this short.

John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)

IAN Convey (@firelockg)

Carl Smoot (@clipper)

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments.

I have made some good progress on the Albatros. I don’t have time to describe exactly what was done.

So I’ll let the pictures do the talking for me.

I “borrowed” an Axial prop and mounting lug from a Wingnut Wings kit. They often have multiple props in each kit.

I was able to get it to work with minimal issues and I still have the necessary parts to install a prop on the WNW kit that it was borrowed from.

I built the fuselage framework and test fit it on both fuselage sides.

Plus I have built the landing gear. I temporarily mocked it in place to make sure it fit perfectly.

8 additional images. Click to enlarge.

PS:
As I expected when I wrapped up the intake manifold with tape, I took a much better look at one of the pictures of Voss’ Albatros.

As luck would have it, the engine in his plane when this photo was taken has a bare / unwrapped intake.

I am currently working on the remaining 5 Roden Mercedes engines for the rest of my Roden kits that have them. I’m going to be building them up while they are still fresh in my mind.

If you look closely you can see that the intake was not wrapped in his plane.

So I will be building another one that is super detailed but this one will remain unwrapped.

Then I will probably remove the sides of the engine covers in hopes that it will make the engine more visible.

I have seen some pictures where they flew like this in the summer to help cool the engine.

Voss was killed in mid September of 1917. Chances are that he could have flown like this without any engine covers during the months just prior while the weather was hot.

I’m still not sure if I will do this or not but it would help to make the engine easier to see.

Also in this photo it appears that the N struts, landing gear, wheels and spinner were painted with a Red color. The N or cabane struts are definitely darker than the outer V struts.

They seem to match well with the wheels, spinner and even the heart on the side of the fuselage.

So I have decided to paint them with Red. This color will also fall in line with the Squadron color. I have seen some people build this exact same plane but with Black in place of the Red color that I chose.

I’m going to take an educated guesstimate here and go with the Red.

As always comments are encouraged.

Good night.

Again. 😉

Excellent progress, my friend @lgardner!

These pictures are definitely speaking for themselves, Louis @lgardner
You made some excellent progress.

Here is what I got done today.

About a week ago I had glued the ailerons in place on the wing. The were fine... but I wanted an option to pose the controls off centered if I wanted to.

So I carefully removed them.

Taking tips from other various Imodeler builders, I carefully drilled out holes that lined up with the wing ribs. I thought this area of the wing would provide more plastic material to drill into in case I was off center a little.

The aileron was also drilled out to match the holes in the wings.

I took some MiG welding wire from the welder I have in the shop. This is .024 diameter wire that I use for welding on body panels in automobiles. Here you can see the wire is sticking out of the wing.

I cut the wires down to the proper length. Then I used CA glue and simply pressed the aileron back in place. Now I should be able to bend the aileron and pose them off center should I desire to do so later on in the build.

This is what the upper wing looks like now. Soon I will be drilling out the wing anchor point locations for the wire rigging. Once I get this done, then both wings will be ready for paint.

I also picked up some beading thread at a sewing / craft store. This stuff is used to make bracelets. It looked to me as if it might work out good to use as the bungee chord spring material that was used on the lower axles on most (if not all) of the aircraft from this era.

So I carefully wrapped the landing gear and using CA glue, I secured it in place. Later I came back with some Tamiya Buff color and painted the string. This gives it an off white color. The last step will be to add the oil wash after it is completely assembled.

Speaking about the rigging anchors. Today I was experimenting with using different kinds of thin wire to make them.

I had been looking at various other builds online, and I stumbled across this method of making anchors for the upcoming rigging. I have tried making them, using several using different kinds of wire, with all of them being in the 28 gauge diameter range.

So I made up several to see how hard it would be. These things are tiny, and my poor old eyes are not quite up to it.
Thank goodness for my 10X magnifying light. These completed anchors are about 1/4 inch long, and will be trimmed down in length once I drill the hole they will be permanently glued in.

I chose different finishes for the wire I had in "Ye Olde Stash". Here I am using a #77 drill bit to make the round portion of the eye for the anchor.

But now I have been told about a much better and efficient way of doing this by our good friend Ian Convey.
He was so kind to post how he does this and I will be adopting his method now.

Thanks Ian ! IAN Convey (@firelockg)

This is a small container that I have placed them in. I have tried making them using silver, brass colored and old dark gray metal. I am leaning towards either the brass or the silver colored versions.

Which one do you think would look the best ? I have seen a lot of aircraft from this era with brass turnbuckles. So I'm kind of leaning towards them.

But the silver ones seem to bend up easier...

Please let me know what you think about this.

Thanks in advance, and as always, comments are encouraged.

Good night.

John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
Thank you John !

Excellent painting and really successful solution with the wire, my friend @lgardner!