Marek Albatros D.III (Oeffag) - 1:72

[cMags]

Originally Posted by cgutzmer

As long as you can do it without damaging anything else I say go for it!

I think I can do it. Just waiting on your reply email.

[cgutzmer]

OH! I cant get into it from work.... at least not without getting into trouble - technically its blocked will check it out tonight!
Chris

[cMags]

Thanks Chris, I looked over Fitter's models, and they include a better cockpit design - it includes proper woodgrain bulkheads and floor, accurate instruments, a wire bending guide for a control yoke (generic) and a generic straight wooden rudderbar w/ metal caps. More appropriate than rudder pedals, but not quite accurate for this particular bird. So I decided to scratch build my replacement parts.

Using this era photo as a guide:



As well as this specific picture from the thread over at The Aerodrome on an incredible replica build: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/re...-iii-news.html



So using some scrap gray printed card I cut out the yoke shape, and used gray thread to make the foot hooks:



Then it was time for surgery. I was going to simply bend down the rudder pedals to hide them, but decided to redo the whole floor so the gray rudder bar stood out. So out came the guts (the stick broke apart as I removed it, but no big deal to repair), leaving me with an empty floor:




Using a bit of scrap woodgrain I also printed with the model (I always fill up blank area on my resized parts pages with scrap printed in various matching colors), I slipped in a new floor and attached the rudder bar up front. (Tough angle to shoot.)



And finally repaired and returned the control stick. Surgery success:



Chris asked me to kit up a replacement cockpit for this and the Brumowski version, so I'll draw up a wire guide, the rudder bar, and woodgrain bulkheads/floor for replacement parts. It also seems to me that the cockpit opening should be longer, as the seat is under the fuselage top so a person couldn't sit in it as is without getting the coming in the back of the neck. You can see in the replica photo that the opening is oblong along the length. Nothing I can do about it now though.

[gomidefilho]

Very nice and wonderful build. Great subject, I watching with pleasure this build...

[Wyvern]

Awesome work! Looking forward to your cockpit kit.

Wyvern

[cMags]

It's about half-way there. All I can do though is raster graphics. Haven't figured out how to even begin to work with vector graphics. It's 300dpi for a 1:50 scale which translates to 432dpi for a 1:72 model - should be plenty sufficient.

[Wyvern]

should be fine!

Hey, look around the Web- some guy in Austria made a static replica (1:1) of a 253 series Oeffag Albatros a couple of years back. I saw a walk-around of it online that had some good cockpit shots.

Wyvern

[cgutzmer]

looks good man! Thanks a lot!
Chris

[cMags]

I think this pretty much finalizes the interior. Not photo-perfect, but a lot better than whats with the kit. Also included a fuselage top with enlarged cockpit opening, and extra coming. I will probably at least print a copy of the coming for my model and enlarge the opening - the extra coming will cover the graphics difference.



Comments/suggestions? Otherwise all that's left is to toss a label on it, convert to PDF, and send to Chris.

[jimkrauzlis]

I love the way you improvised, came up with a solution and saw it through to the final result, which is superb!

Absolutely wonderful work!

Cheers!
Jim