Derived from
the Albatros D.I fighter, the W.4 version was developed based on the requirement
of the Military Command of Germany in 1916 to protect naval bases along the
Flanders coast.
The
exploitation of this aircraft in naval environment encountered problems : salt
water spoiling the fabric-covered wings, wooden floats and propelers.
Despite improvements in performance in the later version, the W.4 did not
continue its military service. At
the end of 1917, the successful exploitation of 2-seaters like Friedrichshafen
FF33 and Hansa Bradenburg W.12 proved that 2-seater fighters were more suitable
for naval service.
In total, 118
Albatros W.4 were built. In August
1918, only 9 were still in military service.
The remaining were either at training squadrons or under repair.
The Kit
When I saw this
kit at the local hobby shop, there are 2 things that attracted my eyes.
The floats and the wooden fuselage.
Okay, I have built 2 biplanes before.
But a biplane with floats…. and wooden fuselage…… I just know that I GOT TO HAVE THIS KIT !
Click on
images below to see larger images
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There
are plenty of flash especially on the trailing edges of the wings. Fitting of
the kit was relatively okay but the plastic are brittle though.
I managed to broke several detail parts of the engine. Details of the
engine itself is superb though. The struts are very fragile.
I broken almost half of them. End
up replacing the interplane struts with stretched sprue and wire for the float
struts, since the float struts will bear the weight of the airplane and I
don’t think stretched sprue will be strong enough.
The
wooden panels on the fuselage are simulated using undiluted burnt sienna oil
paints on sand acrylic paints, using stiff bristle brush.
Creating the wood streaks are the fast part, only took about 15 minutes
to complete. The slow part is
letting the oil paint to dry. I
left it for 2 weeks before touching the fuselage again.
The
decals are a bit off registered. They
are brittle and easily broken. It went well using Future as decal solutions
though. After the sub-assembly was
painted, decaled and weathered, rigging was added from stretched sprue.
Finally,
the fuselage and floats are painted semi-gloss, while the fabric wings are flat
coated.
Cheers
Iwan
Jakarta,
Indonesia
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