..another Revell/Eduard Dr.1 - Richthofen's last machine 425/17 "Three wings for the Red Baron"

 

..time for a red Triplane. What collection of aeroplane models worthy of the name could possibly fail to feature Richthofen's Dr.1? This is the Revell re-box of the Eduard kit - and I'm still having trouble aligning the wings. For some reason the middle wing is slightly askew. 

Richthofen's all-red Dr. 1 was 425/17 - and this was the machine in which the 'Rittmeister' met his end. However Revell supply the old style crosses which is not accurate for the Red Baron's last flight.

Spot the 'deliberate' mistake - I've put the 'Axial' stickers on a non-Axial prop. Will have to fix that. Finishing was not as straight-forward as it might have seemed. Firstly what 'red' to use? and, secondly, how to 'weather' it? In the end I elected to go with  Humbrol 'crimson red' (132) brush-painted in very thin layers and to 'tone' it down a little I tried the oil dot filter method..

Photographed on Leon Bennett's "Three wings for the Red Baron" (Helion, 2019) - a treatise on early aeronautical science and the cul-de-sac that was the triplane. The book examines why exactly Richthofen was such an enthusiastic advocate for a machine in which both himself and other leading German aces lost their lives. Spoiler alert - it even appears that his 'admiration' for the Sopwith Triplane was based on no more than hearsay...and if Leon should happen to chance on this page can I just point out to him that 'la vache' has another meaning in French...

See my other Eduard Triplane build on this blog here

1:76 Airfix Cromwell IV - 'lock-down' shelf-of-doom completions (2)

New-tool Cromwell (back in 2014) which I had never got around to finishing back then. Finished by brush with the acrylic pots in the ‘Gift Set’. The wheels have been given a very diluted wash of sand/earth and the hull has received a 'black' wash to highlight a bit of the detail.
Still a few items such as the stowed tools etc to detail paint and a burnt umber oil wash away from completion..
Now to finish that Zvezda Panther...

a few detail views of Bovington's Cromwell from "World of tanks - inside the tanks" vid...

Eduard Fokker Dr.1 48th - build review finished

Official Kogenluft photo taken at Léchelle, France in late March/Early April 1918 records at least 13 Triplanes of Jastas 6 and 11 (JG I) at the height of the great Offensive. Alex Imrie stated, "During the advance which resulted from the Spring Offensive, JG I occupied the British aerodrome at Léchelle on the evening of 26 March. This photo of Jasta 6 Triplanes lined up there was probably taken a few days later, and shows the aircraft undergoing national insignia changes." There are both Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz) and Balkenkreuz markings on view in this image but all the rudders featuring the newly-applied Balkenkreuz are white. Just beyond the fellow with the binoculars, beyond a two-seater DFW C.V hack machine marked with the number '3', can be seen the red-painted top wing of Richthofen's 425/17 partially obscured by another Triplane - in front of the last of the Bessoneau hangars. The Dr. 1 of Jasta 11 ace Hans Weiss Dr. 1 (545/17) is somewhere on this image...Click to view large..

Completed in the markings of Jasta 11 ace Hans Weiss Dr. 1 545/17 (WNr. 2213 seen on lower rudder). As the name implies much of his machine was painted white.

The Eduard Dr. 1 kit is nicely detailed and I used some of the etch from the ProfiPACK box in the stash to enhance the cockpit (compass etc). The plastic control yoke in the kit is nicely done- on the etch sheet you will find some tiny 'L' and 'R' placards for the MGs ( 'left' and 'right' in German is 'links' and 'rechts'). The fuel tank air pressure hand pump for the right side of the cockpit was scratched..The back of the aluminum seat was evidently covered in fabric on the inner face and the seat cushion was the parachute pack. The alu ammunition boxes don't sit very well in the forward fuselage and needed trimming. Everything lines up well though with the Spandaus which really need the etch jackets of course. Eduard's etch includes the Bowden cable arrangement that operated the triggers on the real machine. The fuel gauge on the upper deck cowling has an etch dial face. As noted previously, aligning the wings proved problematic - on my next build I will do more to ensure that the lower wing sits 'square' in the lower fuselage. The underbelly fuselage seam is fixed with an etch stitching strip and the seam under the forward fuselage can be hidden as I did here with an etch plate which helps secure the very fragile front landing gear legs so there is an even placement of the whole undercarriage - something else I found pretty tricky to achieve. One thing I didn't do on my model was 'fix' the clear inspection window in the top wing which needs to be relocated and the raised edges sanded down. Next time... There are two propeller types offered in the kit - Axial and Heine. Painting a 'laminated' propeller is fairly straight forward - I simply gave the item a coat of “buff” or linen and when dry, streaked some burnt umber oil over the part with a stiff brush. You could mask the prop off in strips. I used a similar technique for the wings with '502 Abteilung' Olive green oil paint. Eduard's etch sheet for the Dr.1 includes the "Reich” / government ownership plate located on the starboard side of the cowling. I did some minimal rigging with E-Z Line which I always find difficult to work with as it is so 'elastic'.  Thanks to Stephen T. Lawson for help with this build!

 The first victory recorded in a Fokker Triplane was achieved by Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen when he brought down an RE 8 on the morning of 1 September 1917 for his 60th victory in his first combat flight in the type. (Kranzhof states 2 September). The crew believed the oncoming machine to be a British Sopwith Triplane. Poor construction and the proximity of the top wing to the propeller wash subsequently caused a number of well-documented failures in-flight. The type was temporarily withdrawn to re-appear in strength in January 1918. The Fokker Triplane equipped most of the Jagdstaffeln of the three Jagdgeschwader of the German Fliegertruppe during the first half of 1918.

Incidentally, the word Jagdgeschwader translates as 'fighter wing' or 'fighter wings' - there is NO plural form of this word in German, unless the sentence construction in the German involves a dative case. There is no 's' and certainly no 'n' at the end of the word in its nominative form! One of my pet 'hates' when reading works by authors who don't really know German - even vanWyngarden does this, although in every other respect I find his work to be exceptional. Shame that Osprey have stated that it doesn't sell well and that apparently there will be no more..

Airport, Aerodromes and Airfields SIG display

A superb collection of airliner models in British Airways markings via the AAA SIG's Stephen Harper seen at Saturday's 'On Track' show. These are mostly Airfix, Revell and Zvesda (787 Dreamliner) with the odd Frog Viscount also in the line-up..

I was impressed with the paint job on these - no airbrush was used, although Halfords Appliance White spray cans feature heavily...otherwise the builder reported that Xtracolor don't do British Airways 'Pearl Grey' any more. Aftermarket decals via "26 Decals"

I’ve fancied doing some airliner models for a while now myself - the Zvezda kits look very nice indeed and there is of course no cockpit to worry about - but in all the years this blog has existed I’ve never gotten around to it. These are therefore the first airliners to feature here!

Revell/Matchbox Wellington Mk. X 1:72 - back to the brushes!

Having marveled at Diego Quijano's latest amazing creation, back to rather more mundane modelling matters - my build of the ancient Revell (ex-Matchbox) Wellington. I'm putting this together as a 'quick'  OOB build, but its been a while since I've had to work this hard on a kit and I'm wondering whether my 'skill' level is up to doing this one justice.  Progress has been slow and painful - poor fit and airbrush problems! Having replaced my broken nozzle I have been unable to get my airbrush to spray as nicely since I snapped the nozzle in the first place to the point that I have ended up brush painting this one ...a thin enamel coat or two with a wide flat brush over a primer undercoat, its been a while since I finished a model like this but I quite enjoyed it. I used a spray can for the wheels/props/armament. Goes without saying that white is a very hard colour to paint... and photograph.. As for my airbrush troubles, what a pain. I've always used a very cheap set-up (Badger 200, Premi-Air G 35, some Chinese copy, cheap Iwata compressor) on the basis that it keeps things 'uncomplicated' and up to now that philosophy has never given any problems. But all of a sudden I've got three brushes in bits on the bench and no idea what to do next frankly - aside from invest in a new Iwata Eclipse or some such. Will see how I feel when the 'On Track' show comes around at the end of February. Meanwhile nozzle, needle, seals have all been replaced and I'm still getting far too much splatter and the nozzle (0.30) clogging after a minute or so spraying on the G 35 - which up to now has always worked well for me.  I know the paint is not the problem- highly thinned enamels go through one brush, acrylics through another! Anyway the point is, that I've done anything at all recently is down to brush painting. Brush painting too has stirred all sorts of long-forgotten memories; from finishing a Frog Blackburn Shark to my first Airfix Dogfight Double aged 11 and knocking out a 1:24 Harrier in a matter of weeks aged 13 - all brush painted!  Of course some of the best modellers out there use brushes - not perhaps technically the best, but as people, certainly among the best! You can see why  too. Brush-painting is very therapeutic for one thing. You do of course lose all pretensions to becoming a modelling 'deity' knowing that most modellers out there will look rather disdainfully at your work ..but if you've got the paint at least you can get some modelling done!