Something old is something new: 1/48 Mirage Hobby Halberstadt CL.II

After weeks of non-modeling projects keeping me from the table, here goes...

A kit I picked up years back at a Militaria show for a few bucks was the 1/48 Halberstadt CL.II by Mirage Hobby. It is a highly detailed kit with a ton of PE, but not without its challenges,  and therein lies the tale. Several prototypes are possible, but as a fan of the Ring Cycle, how could I not choose Brunhilde?

The kit comes with a level of interior detail I'd expect from Wingnut Wings, but delivers in this smaller scale. First is the nice little Mercedes engine, prime mover in so many period Luftstreitkrafte aircraft. 

Some metallic paints and basic shading help the detail stand out. I built the version with the generator to power Brunhilde's radios.

Even at this early stage, 3 things became evident:

1. The instructions are translations.  Review them carefully end to end to understand the choices you must make to build the version you want.

2. Lots of test fitting and adjustments are necessary. Highly detailed does not equal well-engineered.

3. You may choose not to paint and build in the order specified.  I have made many adjustments with the final paint and decal process in mind.

The kit uses a large one-piece decal sheet to replicate the unusual fuselage finish on the prototype, an almost pointillist version of German camo, using the lozenge colors in a semi-randomized pattern. 

In order to apply this to the required area, all fuselage components that need to be covered by this need to be assembled before application. More on this later.

First, a plethora of interior details must be assembled and painted.

This shows hours worth of work ;-) assembling, trimming, painting, gluing, and in some cases fabricating. To compensate for the instructions, I went to the Wingnut Wings site and used photos of their Halberstadt kit to help guide some placement, color, and version decisions. It has a wealth of illustrations for their aircraft, a great resource. 

The forward-firing machine gun can be mounted left or right of center,  requiring different panels and modifications. The gun itself can be used as-is, or you can replace the cast barrel/shroud with a PE shroud, requiring careful salvage of the plastic receiver and flash hider,  and a barrel of your own making, in this case, stretched sprue. Assembled with ACC it is a delicate but detailed example.

Once the fuselage is closed, I sprayed it an overall mix of white, yellow, and tan enamels to represent a new varnished fabric surface, over which the unique Halberstadt finish decal material would be spread.

The kit provided enough for several attempts.

This was,  however, my Waterloo for this build. 

Trouble lies ahead if decals are large, old or thin. This was all 3. I made a paper pattern for the decal so I would use the minimum amount of material should my first attempt fail. 

It would cover the top and sides, leaving the bottom in clear doped linen. Based on my interpretation of the illustration provided, it appeared that the non-fabric forward engine panels were painted in the same colors, but a different finish. Also, their shapes didn't lend them to being decalled, so I picked out a few colors that looked to match what I saw in the decal. I painted a base of RLM65,  and hand cut a piece of packing foam to a rounded pencil eraser sized tip. This I dipped into the purple color, blotted it out, and began creating semi-regular blotches of color. Once dry, I followed up with dark green applied the same way, some areas darker/more solid, and a general light mottling overall. This seemed to come out reasonably close to the decal. So far so good. 

Note, this is me forgetting that decal paper is blue,  and shows through. The aircraft finish is not blue...

Next was soaking the large decal. I tested it periodically by pushing gently on it with a paintbrush to see if it had released. It took longer than my curiosity, resulting in tearing, as not all of the aged adhesive released at once. No matter, be brave, right? Trying to apply so large a decal over a three sided irregular shape, without more tearing, overlap, gaps, and folding proved...impossible.  Try as I might to repair, adjust, lift, etc, could not put Humpty together again to my satisfaction,  so with a stiff wet brush I scrubbed it all off. 

The fact that A. the remaining decal material was just as thin, old, and large, and B. I had painted a reasonable facsimile with my micro-sponge painting resulted in painting the fuselage instead of decal-ing.

It captures some of the style and color of the original, and I can mask over it without worry where needed.

Next I srprayed the empennage,  fuselage band, and all surfaces to be covered in lozenge, white.

Once dry, I could work on getting that lovely lozenge finish on the wings.

The kit did not provide them, so I sourced some from Aviattic.uk.

I really like these,  you can even see the fabric weave if you look closely. The film is medium weight, strong, and can be softened where needed with Solvaset. The fact that it was years younger than the kit meant I had an easy time of it.  Had the kit decals been similar, I would have a different tale to tell.

I laid out the wings and traced them on the back of the paper, arranged so it would appear that they were applied in a diagonal like the prototype. Note the "seams" direction in the photo. The ailerons are covered separately, along their long axis. Wings set aside, we can work on the fuselage. 

Here we see the fuselage decals applied, and the elevator and fuselage band painted.

We can mount the forward firing machine gun now, after adding the exhaust manifold.

Now back to the wings. All of the wing ribs, so nicely molded in the kit, need to be covered with rib tapes made of lozenge material, which I will cut from the lozenge decal sheet.

This process is slow. Each strip of "tape" is cut from a larger sheet of (leftover from a prior project) lozenge decal, cut to length, soaked, applied, solvaset'd, repeat for each rib, both sides, upper and lower wings.

Laborious, but adds depth of detail and realism. The national markings were added after a spray of vallejo gloss varnish, applied, and sealed in with vallejo matt varnish.

I could now continue construction,  but only after pre-drilling all of the strut ends for rigging using EZ Line, a product new to me. I have previously used copper transformer wire (stretches if bumped, doesn't take paint well)

(old resin Albatros, copper wire rigged)

I have used nylon fishing line (sturdy but tension is affected by seasonal temp changes, tight in winter, slack in summer)

(Aurora Gotha rigged with fishing line)

Not entirely satisfied with either, I solicited recommendations and bought EZ Line.

Due to its elastic nature, a single piece could be fully installed,  put in tension, and glued at all points, many times faster than the 'one at a time' limitation of nylon. Here goes..

I retrospect, some of the remaining detail bits would more easily have been added prior, but the die was cast. Much photoetch, and the prop and spinner, remain.

The prop was sanded to remove all mold lines, painted in Testors' Wood enamel, and dried, and once dry, a fine point dark brown marker was used to draw the dark grain of the "plies", and let nearly dry. It was rubbed by hand to mute the brown and slightly blur the edges. Then, a final coat of matt varnish.

Among the remaining bits were instruments, brackets, boxes, and plumbing.

(note grenade boxes on fuselage, radiator piping, access covers, "wireless" antenna, etc.)

(compass in lower port wing, belt of signal flares behind cockpit)

At this point,  the aircraft is complete. Part II will cover building a diorama base, and air and ground crew members!

Now, a few glamor photos...

Postscript: would I recommend this kit? Yes, with reservations. There is a staggering amount of detail here even for a 1/48 kit. The fit of parts is average; the instructions are challenging - at points I had to refer to the online images of the Wingnut Wings version to decipher what to do. With patience and persistence It makes a beautiful example of the aircraft. It is very fragile. It caused me to push my skills and try some new things which I can add to my arsenal for the next challenge. And I'm relieved it's done ;-)