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I was leafing (or scrolling) through "Air Archive No 1 WWI German" book, and what caught my attention were that many of the propellers, especially Fokker E.III ones, do look pretty uniform in colour, so that there is not a big contrast between the layers. Of course the B&W photos are not that sharp, so subtle differences are not visible. I assume that also these propellers that look more uniform in colour, are also made of laminates. Were there propellers that were made of solid wood? I know Tintin whittled one from a solid piece of wood during his adventures in the land of the Soviets, and I think Mickey Mouse did too in one of the 1930s stories, but that's about all the knowledge I have about propellers. My actual question is, how could I replicate that kind kind of more uniform dark coloured propeller, so that there's still some wood grain visible? When I paint lighter propellers, I first put a light base colour, then brush oil paint or acrylic oil paint on it, and when dry spray orange/yellow clear on top. But how would I do it, to achieve a dark brown or reddish brow finish with still visible wood grain pattern. In the future I will probably also paint larger sections in a Camel in reddish brown, so I'm interested to hear how you WWI modellers achieve that kind of finish.

Hi all This is my next project: FOKKER EINDECKER E.II "69/15", Baron Kurt von Crailsheim, FFA 53, Monthois, France, October 1915. Baron von Crailsheim scored the first (and his only) air victory for FFA 53 Eindeckers I'll be using the Airfix kit 01086 in 1/72nd scale. The art work(as for most recent Airfix releases) is very appealing Two grey sprue, very crisp details, no sink marks or flash The box back with the painting and decalling instructions Since this will be my first ever WWI project, I'll keep it basically straight from the box. However, I'll add a few things that I've noticed are missing (the windscreen in front of the cockpit, harness and the rigging). Oddly, I decided to start this building by the propellers. The kit brings two propellers types to chose from. One from Garuda Propellers (wider paddles) and one from Germania Propellers (slim paddles). I used the following technique to paint the wood laminated propellers: For the Germania propeller (lighter in colour on the photos below); Paint the part with XF-02 Flat White Watercolour pencil Brown and Ochre to make the wood veins 20% Gunze H91 Clear Yellow + 80% thinner 20% Gunze H92 Clear Orange + 80% thinner Mr Color C218 Aluminium for the metal centre. For the Garuda propeller (darker colour on the photos below); Paint the part with XF-02 Flat White Watercolour pencil Brown and Ochre to make the wood veins 20% Gunze H91 Clear Yellow + 80% thinner 10% Gunze H92 Clear Orange + 10% Gunze H93 Clear Blue + 80% thinner Mr Color C218 Aluminium for the metal centre. After painting with XF-02, use various browns shades using a pointed brush to create wood grain in the Germania propeller You can either draw it on the piece or use the brush to paint it, blende it with some water if desired Next steps is to add colours with the various clear shades Front view: Left the Garuda propeller and on the right side the Germania propeller Back view: Left the Garuda propeller and Germania on the right side I'm still undecided which one to use. Next I started on the cockpit. The first thing I've done was to close some annoying release marks. Only the one on the front of the cockpit would be visible and required to putty I've used the same technique used to paint the propellers to paint the floor board and back of the seat. In this case I've used the lighter wood colour. After the XF-02, watercolour pencils were used to simulate wood For the first time I decided to try the Mr Metal Color lacquer paints. I don't ever use Alclad due it's extreme smell and I'm allergic to it. Therefore it seems to be a viable option. Used for the first time and I was really impressed with the results and quality of the paint Airbrushed MrColors 211 - Chrome Silver on the "metal" parts using the following settings: 1 paint : 2 Mr Levelling Thinner (MLT) @ 15psi. The result was outstanding and I became a fan to it. Metal parts sprayed with MrColors 211 with any prior preparation on the plastic. Fuselages halves ready to be glued together I've added some synthetic fibre harnesses from my spare parts box. Maybe not the correct one but will do the job on this scale. I also did improve the handle on the control stick. The part is hallowed but comes as a single flat piece of plastic in the kit Cockpit masked and ready for the next painting task The Fokker Eindecker had a very distinctive metal characteristic. All Aluminium panels and cowls remained unpainted and were given a "squiggly turned" finish. Please observe the squiggly turned finish on the cowl Since the beginning of this project I was trying to figure it out how to represent it in this small scale. I came up with this technique that I was happy with the result. First airbrush the metal parts with Chrome Silver (211) Spray a coat of Tamiya X-19 Clear Smoke (40% paint : 60% Thinner) Brush paint MrColor C218 Aluminium in format of the squiggly marks Airbrush a final coat with MrColor C159 Super Silver (40% paint : 60% MLT) Next in my list was to add some detail to the engine. The Eindecker E.II was powered by a 100hp Oberursel U.1 (which was a license built 100hp Gnome Monosoupape). I added the ignition wirings to the cylinders using EZLine fine. After a first base with X-01 Black I sprayed it with MrColor C159 Super Silver (50% paint : 50% MLT @ 15psi) Following I did spray the cylinders only with: 1st: 20% X-19 Clear Smoke + 80% thinner 2nd: 20% Gunze H91 Clear Yellow + 80% thinner 3rd: 20% Gunze H93 Clear Blue + 80% thinner 4th and final, Tamiya Panel Accent BLACXK wash. The Eindecker was equipped with an IMG 08 "Spandau" 7.92mm machine gun. Obviously the kit would benefit from an aftermarket representation of this machine gun. However, I have decided to build it as most out-of-the-box as possible, so I just painted the piece XF-01 Flat Black and had some graphite powder rubbed into it afterwards. A new aftermarket machine gun would add value to kit. Note how characteristic it is XF-01 Flat Black applied Graphite powder was rubbed overall I did open the machine gun barrel to add some detail Fuselage is now masked and ready to get painted. Comments and critics are very welcome! To be continued!