Halberstadt CL.II, Mirage, 1:48

Started by Milan Tesař · 15 · 1 day ago
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    Milan Tesař said 1 week, 2 days ago:

    Ian Convay recently published here the assembly of his Halberstadt CL.II and that inspired me to finally build a younger brother to my already built CL.IV.

    I started with a base coat, and finally chose the interior color according to the photos of the only surviving example. I also made and added some details according to the photos. A few detailed parts that were part of the kit were too poorly cast for my taste with large burrs. That's why I made them myself. In the next phase I will add the connecting rods from the aircraft control elements and fine-tune the engine with a few details.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 week, 2 days ago:

    A great entry, Milan @milantesar
    This will be a wonderful addition to your CL.IV
    Excellent start on the interior.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 week ago:

    Another Milan Tesař supreme build coming to life, my friend @milantesar! Looks fantastic so far!

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    Milan Tesař said 6 days, 7 hours ago:

    So I can present a little progress. The wings are almost finished, just a few small details left. The fuselage is closed. The biggest problem was the seating of the panels. I had to shape them in hot water so that they would fit at least a little. Even so, the middle panels were short and I had to adjust 3 mm on each side, which was quite a lot. I had a big dilemma with the color of the fuselage. In the instructions, the fuselage is listed as a very dark reddish-brown color. After studying various publications, I found out that basically the fuselage is the original, which was created in field conditions. The color scale of the different versions differed quite significantly. Therefore, I tried to at least somewhat imitate the color of the fuselage and the center section of the upper wing, according to photos of the preserved aircraft from the museum. I will leave it to the viewers to judge how successful it was.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 6 days, 2 hours ago:

    This looks really nice, Milan @milantesar
    How did you create that look of the fuselage?

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 6 days ago:

    Excellent, my friend @milantesar!

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    IAN Convey said 5 days, 11 hours ago:

    The fuselage colour looks great Milan, this looks like a very nice build.

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    Milan Tesař said 5 days, 6 hours ago:

    John, some modelers are artists and can only achieve this finish with an airbrush. I'm not that good. The kit does contain decals imitating polka dots, but they are unusable. They are very unyielding and the grip is poor. I did eight samples on different substrates and they were all terrible. That's why I came up with my own procedure. I stuck the decals on the rigid. but I made a lot of holes with pliable paper and a very weak hypodermic needle. Then I colored the individual fields. I painted the entire hull light gray with a blue admixture. Then I attached the template and through the holes I knitted the individual fields with colors, grey-green, medium green and purple. First I did the rear of the fuselage to the cockpit and then the front. If you look closely, you can see a bulkhead under the cockpit. Then I made small repairs with a weak brush and painted everything with a glossy varnish. The stencils need to be made more, because the holes quickly become clogged with paint. It's tedious and frustrating work, but I couldn't think of another method. Hopefully my simplified description will suffice.

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    Milan Tesař said 5 days, 6 hours ago:

    In the bottom photo, you can see part of the samples where I tried the decal on different substrates. I think it doesn't look good. Moreover, the prints only stick to a smooth, flat surface. The slightest crease doesn't stick and it crumbles after drying.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Milan Tesař said 5 days, 6 hours ago:

    So another little progress. The hull is almost finished, just some minor repairs and a coat of clear varnish.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 5 days, 5 hours ago:

    Looks really good, Milan @milantesar
    A great way to get this effect done this nicely, thanks for sharing.

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    Milan Tesař said 2 days, 5 hours ago:

    So I can add, another small step forward. The rear fuselage is completely finished. Control rods added, a more realistic compass placed on the wing and a compass cover made of thin plastic.
    A glass tube for checking the coolant was added to the upper wing and a cover for regulating the air supply to the radiator completed on the lower wing.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 days, 1 hour ago:

    Very nice added details, Milan @milantesar

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    IAN Convey said 1 day, 17 hours ago:

    Some fiddly detail work there Milan, you have done it nicely.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 day, 16 hours ago:

    Beautiful detailed work, my friend @milantesar!