Spuetz

Hello everyone,

I am currently building Proctor's Albatros DVa, working on the dummy engine at the moment. The intake manifolds, gun synchronizer, cam covers and some other parts seem to have been sand castings.
How do you imitade those? I was thinking of mixing light grey with silver or aluminum. What do you think? What are your suggestions? Do you have pictures of your finished product that you could post here or mail to me?

Also a question concerning the water jackets: were they gloss or flat black when new from the factory?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Martin

below a picture of the original Mercedes DIII Engine

abufletcher

To reproduce the texture you might try mixing in some fine grained sand-like substance into the paint. That might provide the rough look of castings. Silver grey sounds about right.

Spuetz

Hello Abufletcher,

thanks for the advice.
So far, so good. I've experimented a little with colors, paints and applying techniques. Now I will age it a little more with colored artist's chalk or similar. Here's a picture:

abufletcher

The Proctor dummy engine kit really looks outstanding! Do you think they might sell it separately? I'm currently thinking about doing a 1/6 scale Pfalz and even if this one is the wrong scale (the Proctor Albi is 1/4 isn't it) it would make a great reference. I'm currently experimenting with turning some wooden cylinders on my new drill press and working of Wylam drawings and some outstanding 3-D renderings (Mark Miller?). So far I'm not getting quite the right shape and the materials are still too heavy. I'd like to try my hand at some resin castings.

BTW, I've been playing around with some plastic model putty and it occurs to me when dry and it an unsanded state it also has that cast look to it.

abufletcher

Also looking at your photo of the actual engine, I might try experimenting with dabbing on two shades of an aluminum paint. For example, Tamiya flat aluminum and Tamiya metallic grey.

BTW, what would be the next step in turning my simple wooden cylinder into a proper plug?

CliffordH

My Feedback: (9)

You should ask Proctor about the engine kit, I think they will sell it to you. Several years ago I boubht just the engine kit for the Jenny so don't know why they wouldn't sell the other.

Cliff

2 Piece

My Feedback: (8)

Spuetz, not sure which D.Va your modelling. The one at Smithsonian also had heat shielding (asbestos wrapped with metal shield on top)around the intake manifolds. I wrapped mine with a heavy twine to imitate the asbestos and made a fiberglass shield painted silver to duplicate the metal shield.
2 Piece

Cub Man

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Spuetz How did you make the sparkplugs and the exhaust headers?

SCALECRAFT

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Hi All

On my 109 header plugs one left and one right , I used a styren plastic and with a stiff model brush dipped in laqure(?) thinner to soften the plastic, , created a sand cast look. May not show in pic.

Steve

Spuetz

Hello Cub Man,
this is a Proctor kit. The spark plugs, cam covers and some other parts are plastic molds - made by williams brothers, a company that apparently has stopped operations. But Proctor might still have the kit. Outstanding molding!

Exhaust headers? Haven't made them yet. I am just now working on the exhaust. it is not in place yet. But in the kit are some plastic parts to immitate the fixing points of the exhaust manifold to the water jackets.

Spuetz

Hello Steve,

great looking exhausts!!! What paints did you use and what colors? I am just now working on the exhaust for the Mercedes engine and I will try your trick with the thinner. good idea!

Cheers, Martin

Spuetz

Hello 2 piece,

long time since we've talked. Remember my looking for the Mikesh book and so on? Meanwhile the project has rested for a year or so and I just picked it up again, working slowly but steadily... bottom wings and fuselage grit with horizonal stab, fin and rudder are done working on the top wing now. The engine I did just to do something else for a while...
I guess I will make "Stropp" so your advice is taken.
It seems however that even Mikesh and his guys made mistakes. It appeares that the lozenge camouflage isn't the right one for Stropp and that it had the green/purple/green camouflage originally. So one can take some liberties, I find. It does not make sense in my opinion to make a totally exact replica of a not so exact original...
Do you have pictures of your model that you can post here or mail to me?

All the best, Martin

2 Piece

My Feedback: (8)

Martin, yes I remember the Mikesh book. I have lost all my old digital photos of my D.Va, but I'll take some news ones and e mail to you.
I thought that Mikesh got the colors for the Stroop from fabric that was wrapped around the aileron/ something? The colors are definitely different than other lozenge patterns I have seen. But as far as scale modeling goes, you have to model a full size aircraft weather it is right or wrong. The good thing about the Stoop is that there is actually a book based on it's restoration complete with scale marking templates, panel lines, paint codes, etc...- a scale modelers dream. There are only two original D.Va's left one in Australia and the other at Smithsonian. The Stroop at Smithsonian is not a !QUOT!complete!QUOT! original, so it seems, as the wing serial numbers do not match the fuselage numbers, they mention this in the book I think.
Anyway, keep up the good work, I know you are enjoying building it!
Gary

SCALECRAFT

My Feedback: (13)

Martin

If I remeber correctly. Basically the Tamiya paints. Rust and brown mix as a base, buff fro the light brown, and a bit of black for carbon deposit.

Assembled in a row as on aircraft before painted to miss locations that carbon would not stain in flight.

Note that thses are headers for a 109, they were known to emit black smoke upon acceleration. Some aircraft burned cleaner, more buff may be used for "hot" clean burning planes, like the P-51 maybe. But I'm sure thay all had those out of tune days.

Enjoy and post pics

steve

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Martin, I have the Mekish book and I am able to view the Stroop often as I live very close to Washington DC. The fabric is brighter than what I have seen on other planes of that period for sure. I too have the Proctor DVa but it's still in the box waiting to be built. After I finish my SE5a maybe I can get to work on it.
If you compete then you need to duplicate the plane you are representing. Even if that plane has mistakes on it. Museums are not always correct but if we model one of their planes then we need to be true to that particular plane. Dave Platt advises us to Replicate and NOT Authenticate. Meaning just reproduce what you have as your subject and don't try to discover what was the original. Now if your not competing then do what you like because it doesn't matter lol.

Spuetz

Hi Gary,

I visited the Australian War Meomorial actually a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, when they enlarged and modernized the museum, they put the DVa in storage. What a shame! But I got to see something else: They have the control column there, that they took Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen's dead hand off of. Isn't that incredible? I was stunned when I saw it - along with some of the red fabric, a piece of wing strut, the rudder pedals, a piece of ammo-belt and parts of the uniform...
They also have a nice SE 5a there and some other remarkable exhibits, like a Me 262, Me 163, Bf 109 G, Lancaster and so on...
Below a picture of that control column..
As for my project: I don't think I will enter a competition. It is more for me, for fun. So I do take liberties here and there. My idea of scale modeling is more like this: Could it have been this way? Sometimes also like: If I bought the full scale, what would I make it look like? I would call it an "authentic-creative" style ;-)
Cheers, Martin

Cheers, Martin