Prudenzio contest Albatros DV

[Darwin]

Bwakkk, bakaak, bakaak. I took the easy path...besides, my three year old grandson gave me a tale of woe how his friend has an airplane hanging from the ceiling of his bedroom, and he doesn't have any airplanes, just a big bare ceiling. I'm still contemplating doing another puzzle, but will use some of these little cuties to recharge the battery between the big stuff. Considering the size, I'm thinking the final product will be a mobile with several planes zooming around a cloud or two. Since one of the Albatroses I plan building is the bloody red baron's, and there will be some Camels, I really need to find where my Snoopy doghouse file went to.....

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Not wanting things to be too easy, I'm going to try rigging these little beasties. It's going to be interesting to see if my method works on models this small...I use a sewing needle and thread, sewing the rigging into the fuselage and wings prior to assembly, with the thread ends extending through unsealed wing tips and body openings. When the wings and body are joined with struts, I then pull the threads taut and superglue into place. When all is secure, I trim off the thread ends as deep inside the structure as I can, then seal up the wing tips, top wing cutout, etc. It works well with 32 scale models....I have visions of a cat's cradle with the smaller ones. I have noticed a few glitches with Zio's kit. Zio designed the cabine struts as "V" struts....the actual airplane (and his location marks on hte fuselage) is an "N" strut. Also, the instructions show a headrest for the pilot, but I cannot find such a part anywhere on the parts page. It will be a day or two before trying to do the rigging...the wife saw me with a packet of her number 28 sharps in one hand and a bottle of superglue in the other and had a full-out hissy fit, so I need to pick up my own packet of needles.

[The Orange]

Great job! I've printed this one out a week earlier, but I was hoping someone would do a build thread. Can't wait to see the rigging.

[Don Boose]

Excellent beginning, Darwin. I will be glad to see what you find out in the process of building this one.

Don

[gomidefilho]

I Watching with great interest! A purple DIII is in my list build. Great work in fuselage and engine...

[Texman]

I for sure will watch with interest, as I am eager to learn your rigging technique.

[rockpaperscissor]

Looking forward to learning your rigging technique. I've spent my paper modelling career dodging models with rigging (although I have quite a few waiting to go). I've got to dip my toes in the water some day soon.

[cjwalas]

I've had one of the Albatrosses printed out for years waiting for me to attack it. Maybe seeing your build will inspire me to get to it. Looking forward to this!
Chris

[doctormax]

I have never tried a biplane with rigging so be looking for builds to see how to do them

[Paperwarrior]

This is looking great thus far. The DV is one of my favorites. I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Jeff

[Darwin]

I've gone about as far as I can go without the needle and thread. The only real problem so far (other than the cabine struts) is that one shouldn't try gluing the tabs on the sides of the seat to the fuselage side. That pulls in the fuselage way too much, and it looses it's nice oval shape. Unless the length of the tabs is increased to provide about an additional 1/8 inch between the attachment points, I'd recommend just attaching the seat at the top of the seat back. After looking at some pics of the actual airplane this model depicts, it appears that the lack of head rest is prototypic.

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[cMags]

I have never tried a biplane with rigging so be looking for builds to see how to do them

Look for Dr. Laser's rigging tutorial or my Albatros D.III build where I used his technique for a great way to do rigging. The link to my Albatros build is in my builds thread in my signature.

Edit: Links:

http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/tutorials/6912-rigging-aircraft-tippet.html

http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/aviation/7785-marek-albatros-d-iii-oeffag-1-72-a.html

/threadjack

[Wyvern]

She's looking good, Darwin!

Wyvern

[Darwin]

After struggling all evening with the rigging, I think I am beginning to look like Bill the Cat in the Bloom County cartoon strip. There is a very good reason that Zeo didn't rig these models. It is not at all pretty, so there are only before and after photos. After my experience tonight, I think it would be a very good idea to glue a piece of fine music wire into the leading edge of the wings to help stiffen them during the rigging process.

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One more session and this one should be done. Next on the agenda is the Red Baron version...however, some photoshopping needs to be done first. In that version, the upper side of the lower wing seems to be a bit wider than it needs to be to get a good fit to the lower side. I need to cut out the upper side, reduce the width (depth?) by about 5 percent while leaving the span the same, then rejoin to the lower side.

[Darwin]

One more completed. These Zio single-pagers are like popcorn....addictive. You can't build just one....

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[cjwalas]

Wow! Fantastic! I love the way this one came out and you've done a great job with the rigging.
Chris

[Darwin]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. As I said, you can't build just one...rather than clutter up the contest forum with separate threads for each plane (of the same type, anyway), I'll use this thread for however many Albatroses I wind up putting together before getting absolutely sick of them. I don't know how that affects the beancounting for the contest, but whatever.... So, the Red Baron is up...as mentioned before, this time I glued some piano wire into the leading edge of the wings. Since the lower wing needs a bit of dihedral, I used two pieces of wire, with a break at the center of the wing. The photo of the piano wire insertion also shows the underscoring I am doing at each wing rib location. The effect is subtle, but does make a bit of a difference. I did do the photoshopping on the lower wing...I reduced the chord of the upper part of the wing by 2 percent...a 3 percent reduction may have actually been a bit better, but I can live with it as it is. The third wing in the pic (at the top of the pic) is the original size, the wing in the middle is the corrected wing. Just a few percent of reduction made a tremendous difference in how easy it was to glue the trailing edges without creating creases in the upper surface by having to force the original wing into submission. Just a very minor tweak, and probably not noticible to the casual observer, but a big change to ease of construction of the model.

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[doctormax]

One more completed. These Zio single-pagers are like popcorn....addictive. You can't build just one....

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yeah they sure are i plan on building one more plane maybe two.

[gomidefilho]

Fine work ! I love the ringing...

[Zathros]

I have seen these modes for many years. I can't help thinking that you are bringing much to them with your building skills. They look great!!

[Paperwarrior]

Darwin,

That came out fantastic! Very impressive rigging. I know what you mean about the addictive. I look forward to seeing your next one.

Jeff

[Darwin]

The devil made me do it.

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[The Orange]

I LOVE IT.


But in all seriousness, the Snoopy does the trick! Mr. Baron would be most certainly pleased.

[Don Boose]

It is indeed an elegant Albatross and the Intrepid Beagle is a nice touch (he can't always be pursuing red triplanes).

Don

[Darwin]

Seeing as how the Baron was flying an Albatross (although, if my faltering memory serves, not in the D-V model) for most of his victories, it somehow seemed appropriate. As a side note, I think the Albatross D-V was the basis for the hero-killer prototype in Blue Max because of its propensity to shed wings during a dive. I've based my rigging on the D-Va model, which had a little extra bracing to try to control wing flutter that resulted from the V-strut configuration.

[Paperwarrior]

Ha Ha Ha

I love it! I almost fell out of my chair laughing. VERY nice touch, Darwin!

Jeff