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Kit: Eduard (1:48)
This is the 1/48 Eduard Albatros D.III backdated to a D.I using the Passchendaele D.II conversion set. The nose was fattened out a little and a few almost invisible ripples put in the plywood with thick paint. The black and white shots are just for fun!
This is the Eduard 1/48 kit. A nasty little collection of styrene lumps, this turned into harrowing job. But I finished it nonetheless. The cockpit was buolt form scratch after cutting back the fuselage side to just behind the pit and reskinning when the interior work was done. Engine, cowl, wheels and other parts were scrounged from an excess DML Fokker Dr.I. The lozenge was hand drawn and colored, computer tickled and ALPS printed. I'm not a complete convert to ALPS decals because the finished product still has a bit too much "computerness" in it, but it's at least "ok".
Kit: Revell (1:28)
This is the Revell 1/28 kit. The wings have the necessary and easy corrections of changing the anhedral to dihedral along the undersurfaces. The aft fuselage behind the cockpit was narrowed in hight and width since the kit notoriously goofed and had a much too bulky rear, which also meant changing the outline of the tail surfaces. None of this is very difficult- it just adds to the enjoyment. The turtle was rebuilt by making stringers, a triangular "ply" fairing from 3x5 card and covering the whole with silkspan tissue and laquer. The lozenge was sprayed through hand cut stiff paper masks. Again more black and white fun!
Kit: scratchbuilt (1:32)
Some time last year, 2003, an e-mail buddy, Tom Genth, sent some new information about this particular Gotha G.IV. Previously depicted as MoRoTa, it actually turned put to be MoRoTAS. Though this 1/32 model has lived for years at the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, I couldn't stand it and had to ask for the model back so I could correct it. This meant striping the entire fuselage along both sides since the previously existing lettering would be way off in spacing. I also took the opportunity to redo the factory inscription along the rear fuselage- the old job I did just wasn't neat enough. Other corrections were made- The model's original rudder was a blunt bottomed LVG style unit, chopped off at the fuselage top line. MoRoTAS really had a Gotha style rudder with the little hangy-down ear shaped extension. The real airplane also had single rudder horns (but still twin cables)- so- off went one horn. The other big change was rerouting the control runs along the fuselage sides.
After fixing everything I managed to destroy/damage/knock off during the ordeal, the model was redelivered.... I never want to touch it again!