Up | Chez Artur Golebiewski | Gallery | Home
The fascination with the AEG CIV just like all my other modeling projects started with the pilot. In this case the pilot of the Polish machine was the most prolific and famous aviation writer in Poland’s history Janusz Meissner. I read his books since I was able to read and ever since reading his memoirs I decided to make a model of a plane he flew.
The AEG shown here is not documented in any pictures. It exists solely on the pages of his memoirs and those were written in the seventies, so chances are he did not get everything right. What is known is that Poland since gaining independence in 1918 came into large stocks of AEG’s in Poznan and after making them airworthy used them in the Bolshevik war of 1920. This particular machine was assigned to the 4th Training Eskadra in Torun, where Meissner was a pilot, but was moved towards the front in August 1920 at the height of the Battle for Warsaw. The serial numbers match what is in the records, the Eskadra badge of the “all protecting eye” was used but it is uncertain if on this particular plane. The orientation of the checkerboard was also not standardized at this time so I have it both ways so I can be at least “half right”
The Copper State model is a challenge but worth attempting if you are stubborn like me to have this particular plane in your collection.
The first Albatros is the plane used by the commander of the 7 Esakdra during the Polish Russian war of 1920, Captain Cedric Fauntleroy. The kit is an Eduard with Cezar Bartnicki's conversion kit for the nose, the complete engine and the wingtop radiator. The plate for the engine is from Witek's collection and the prop boss was made in Tomasz's home workshop. This one had the gun panel removed ( or not covered over ) and the cooling plates ( round ones for the Shwartzlose versus oval for the Spandau ) were added from some railroader's photoetched plate. For the rigging I experimented with hand woven metal turnbucles joined with fishing line...this is the effect, as you see it is quite a challenge to line them up straight, but once done it looks pretty decent. Paint was a home mix of Humbrol greens with a predominance of olive as historical sources venture no farther then saying "dark olive" . The decals are from Mike Grant's excellent set for three Polish Albatrosen. The decals are thick but the colors are beautiful and the white comes through without any need for a white base underneath.
The kit is 1:48 scale Blue Max, the decals are Aeromaster lozenge and Tomasz Gronczewski's decals.
The markings are from the Bolshevik War of 1920. The machine was flown by Wladyslaw Dittmer and ltn. Roder and took part in operations on the Defence of Warsaw and the Northern Front. The swastika may have been a leftover form the airplanes former owners but the "all seeing eye" is a beautiful insignia of the 4th Torun Eskadra, which flew mostly recconaissance and some bombing and attack missions during the war.