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Kit: Eduard (1:48)
Lt Menckhoff's Albatros DV, circa September 1917. It's the Eduard 1/48 kit , with a lot of photoetch, and extras provided by myself ( metal plumbing, bungee cord, mirror etc)
Kit: Scratch (1:28)
Above are some pics of my 1/28 scale Albatros DV. She's mainly made from things found around the house, an old block of pine for the mould, plastic card from a date box. The rudder is wire, constructed on a cigarette paper, doped with PVA, and hand painted. The plywood skin is cut up from pictures of wardrobes, in shopping catalogues ( I painted the otherside with gloss-tan, first to prevent anything showing through from that side) The prop, is made from laminations of Ash/Mahogany, glued together in an old tie-press (picked up cheap at a car-boot sale). The leather is again cigarette paper. I recently found some black rubber washers ( used in plumbing) for the tyres....... the hunt goes on !
Albatros W4. She's in typical "Jagdeinsitzer Wasser" colour scheme, all upper surfaces in the "Blue" printed hexagon pattern, one of at least two used. The side surfaces are in "Light Blue Grey".. order F5952, and matched to a surviving sample, underside of fuselage light grey with doped linen wings. The upperwing crosses have been blacked-out by ground crew, and depicts a machine on the Flanders coast 1917-18. The lozenge transfer is rather like a scale down version of the linen used on the actual aircraft, and took two days to make it conform to the detail on the upper float..a bit like wallpapering the cat ! I basically had to "rubberize" the decal so it could be pressed into the detail, and then held there !
F1 103/17, ( Eduard 1/48 kit, photo etch MG's) I've tried to follow the distinctive dark/light streaking, which appears darker at the front of the fuselage, but fainter near the rear.This aircraft had more blue/blue-grey then the production DR1, Also check out the heavy fouling along the lower port longeron note how clean starboard. ( white field pushed up against the "F") Final touches yet to be applied, brace wire, stirup, lift handles, control wires.... I've given" Voss" a troubled look..... taken from a photo!
Kit: Roden (1:72)
Above photos of recently finished commission Roden Gotha GVa 1/72 . A good kit, but there's an awful lot missing..ie shutters for the radiators, mud guard deflectors, "Flettner" servo-rudder also the "Dragon"transfer had to be re-painted a light-green. I passed this crash site in France a couple of weeks back.
Ltn Gustav Bellen's Pfalz DIII ( Eduard 1/48) I've copied the profile for the portside of the fuselage as we dont have the colour demarcation for the rest of the aircraft, I've used Heldmanns scheme for the wings. The underside is based on a photo of this aircraft on it's nose, with lots of engine fouling running the lenght, along the fuselage join.
I found an old picture of the man himself, and his mount 1371/17 ( which is the sistership of Hects 1370/17, downed in December) In another photo of Jasta 10, both 1370 and 1371 are parked side by side. In the fuzzy photo above, we can see the yellow dope ( matched by the way from a paint chip from studying relics of 1370/17 held in IWM archive) already falling off wheel hubs, and note replacement inspection cover ( unpainted) on yellow nose, which I have added to the model. These Eduard models are excellent, but I'e added some photoetch to finish it off , underwing radiator, handle, sump access, pilots straps and control horns..( there are no pilots with these kits.. which I feel is a pity, so I convert 1/48 scale soldiers with milliput and paper)
Kit: Airfix (1:72)
Old Airfix model, revamped with new engine, prop, spinner, machine guns, cellophane windows and scratch undercarriage