Albatros DII 1/32

[Kofoed]

Greetings,

This is planned to be an Albatros DII. I have always loved the DII as it, to my view, is the most beautiful one of the whole family. The late DII, that is, with its low wing layout, sleek lines with no chin radiators and beautiful, wide wings.



And I wanted it with a wooden fuselage. I had a Roden DI 1/32 kit, and as references I had borrowed my son’s Windsock Datafile no. 100 and his Osprey Albatros Aces. Furthermore, I had an Eduard 1/48 kit of the DII and an Eduard etch set for the DIII.

This time I had decided to follow some good advice I had during my build of the DIII: Roden 1/32 Albatros DIII - The Build
and print my plywood decals on clear decal paper. And I must say that was a great advice. After having tested the backing colour, from bright yellow over mid-stone to clear doped linen, I finally found what I think is best, a mix of appr. 2/3 of clear doped linen and 1/3 light grey.

I filled the panel lines with dirt first, and the decals went on without no big fuzz. The clear decals went off the backing paper much faster, and there were no white see-through’s. As before, I cut the panel markings slightly larger, and after they had dried a couple of minutes I cut them in shape along the panel divisions with a scalpel. This operation went rather quickly, half the decals went on during a Friday night.

[Kofoed]

Here’s the finished decal job, the engine in place and the lower wings in place.






The panels have had a couple of layers of Lifecolor’s RLM 02 grey/green.

A little detail shot:

[Kofoed]

I had some planning job here. The struts. After careful measuring on the drawings in the Datafile I found, that the in the kit included center section “N” struts needed only a slight shortening. I did that by dividing the lower rear attachment point, cut off around 1.5 mm and put them together again. The front lower part was easily cut off also. Both places were filed to point as they should.
The interplane struts needed much more, so I decided to cut them in the middle, cut off appr. 4.5mm on one of the parts and glued these together again. After a little sanding the joints were invisible.

The livery made me think a great deal. I had abandoned the most desired choise, D1782/16 with a scull on a red band, which was one of the liveries in the Eduard 1/48 kit. I looked here, there and everywhere without finding an obvious choise.
Finally, I pulled myself together, scanned the Eduard 1/48 decals, enlarged these to 1/32 and “painted” a red RLM 25 around the scull in Photoshop. I printed these on white decal paper, painted the red band around the fuselage with RLM 25 red – and voila…. It worked. The numbers were printed on clear decal paper and presented no problems at all.

[Kofoed]

The elevator, the rudder and the top wing in place:



The camouflage scheme has been made very easy by Dan San Abbott, whose “The Camouflage and Markings of the Albatros DII Aircraft” is downloadable on this site. Simply follow the serial numbers, and the scheme is clearly described – thanks awfully, Dan San.



The center-wing radiator is from the Eduard etch, and so are all the ventilator louvres, panels etc.



Bob’s beautiful buckles are in place and the wires are hanging in a mess, waiting to be pulled tight.



Well, until it’s finished, enjoy your hobby.

Cheers
Kofoed

[PrzemoL]

It will be a beauty, no doubt about it. The wood is terrific. Looking forward to see it ready.

[drIace]

Very nice, await completed pics !!!

[Kalt]

Beautiful, simply beautiful !

What kind of printer and decal paper did you use?
You got excellent results with them.

Congratulations,

Claudio

[Graham Hunter]

Excellent build Kofoed. Very well done wood grain.

[Kofoed]

Thank you very much, guys. Your comments are much appreciated.

Claudio, the decal paper is from Expert's Choise. I made the shots in high-resolution (300 dpi) and printed on my HP 8750 Photosmart. I'm very fond of my printer, it makes some very nice prints, though it's slow, but who cares about that.

Thanks again,
Kofoed

[Epee]

When you say you filled the panel lines with "dirt" what do you mean?

Did you use any kind of setting solution with your decals?