Volker Häusler's Central Powers Models
This aircraft - the Albatros D.XII - is one of my favourites; as far as I know,
it was the lightest, most compact German fighter using a inline D III or BMW
engine build. It actually received very favourable comments fom a number of
pilots during the 2nd D type competition, being rated better than the Pfalz
D.XII. However, with Albatros building the even better Fokker D.VII in licence,
and with production of the Pfalz D.XII already ordered, it did not progress
further .
With the exception of an Aeroclub engine and prop and wheels from the spares
box, this model is scratch built. All major components were done using plastic
sheet, with the wings done as I described in a recent mail to the list. Rigging
is a mix of functional (to hold the wings up) rigging of the landing wires
using fishing line and nonfunctional using copper wire for the rest.
The black and white photo is an experiment, where I used a photo of the model
and a scan of a photo of a hangar to put the aircraft in a proper environment.
Well, I still have to work on that one...
However, the hangar belongs to the Albatroswerke Johannistal. Albatros
photographed it's prototypes quite often in front of this hangar.
The pilot comes from a Frog Fokker F VII (actually, it's a resin copy of that
pilot).
Depicting the Albatros D.I flown by Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, built
using the Classic Plane vac. I still like this kit better than the later resins
or the Pegasus kit. I used Aeroclub wheels, engine and Spandaus for this one.
Prop from a source I can't remember.
I called this scene "The Personal Marking", as it shows a mechanic painting
just these (the skull & crossbones) on the Prince's machine, with the
Prince and
some prussian General (maybe a relative?) carefully watching. I choose this
scene for a specific problem: It is known that the Prince's Albatros was
painted green, but the extent of this is not known (photos indicate the wings
were still in camouflage). I therefore showed the mechanic just finishing the
skull marking, with a pot of green paint waiting near the table.
Note also this aircraft did not have the triangular water tank usually
associated to D.I's in what I consider a field modification to improve forward
visibility.
The figures come from Preiser, with the "General" with his "Pickelhaube" coming
from the old Airfix set.
As this is a somewhat older model as well, I did not have access to the
skull&crossbones decal, so I handpainted these.
This is the Warbirds (Rareplanes) vac kit of the Junkers D.I. I used some
wheels and a prop from the spares box and some (Fotocut or Toms Modelworks)
Spandau photoetch jackets. Everything else from the kit or from plastic sheet.
In order not to ruin the wonderful representation of the corrugated metal that
the Warbirds vac has, I airbrushed all markings (actually, I did the markings
before doing the camouflage). I choose the well known machine with the 2 color
fuselage band. As it was maybe a Marine Jasta aircraft, I went for yellow (the
Marine Jagdgeschwader color) and white bands - but it could obviously have been
any other color as well.
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