pheonix Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 I am posting this again as I have been having problems with photographs from photobucket. Hopefully this time everything will work! Bear Paw has posted a lovely model of the Airfix Albatros so this is another antique, (well nearly), Airfix Albatros D Va. I built it as part of a WW1 GB on another site - the build log can be found at http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=508&t=42907. I know that this kit is terribly inaccurate - the nose is too short and shallow, the cockpit is bare, the engine is a joke (or in my case was missing from the kit altogether), … I could go on. HOWEVER, a reasonable model can be made from this with a little effort and even less cost if one wants to. For me this was also a trip down memory lane as I had originally built one of these over 50 years ago (giving my age away there), when I desperately wanted to make a model that was not just OOB but lacked the skills to do so. I had found an article in a comic which was about a zebra-striped Albatros D Va so I painted mine in these markings (minus the wing stars which were not mentioned), in gloss(!) colours. To this day I am not sure who the pilot in the article was but I wanted to repeat the exercise for purely nostalgic reasons. This model represents a machine as flown by Ltn. Rudolf Windisch of Jasta 32 in the summer of 1917. Windisch started flying bombers and reconnaissance sorties on the Eastern Front in 1916, but transferred to fighters in early 1917 and was posted to Jasta 32 where he adopted the scheme illustrated in the rise of flight. He was credited with 8 victories with Jasta 32 and transferred to become commander of Jasta 66 in February 1918, where he was credited with another 14 victories before he was forced down and disappeared on 27 May 1918. His fate is not known. According to the rise of flight website two versions of his personal scheme are recorded in photos, one with wider borders to the national crosses and wider lines for the stars. I know that there were at least four different pilots who flew Albatros aircraft with zebra stripes, this is just one of them. Apart from having to add an engine and exhaust which I built from scratch, I put some detail into the cockpit. thinned the trailing edges, replaced the elevator, guns from Aeroclub, new prop and spinner, and put in some other details such as engine covers from card. The markings were partly from the kit except for the upper wing crosses, one of which disintegrated because it was so old, (I bought the kit in the late 1970's): very fortunately Stevehed gave me some spares from his box. The stars on the top wing were made from Letraline dry transfers touched up with Humbrol enamel. The model was painted with Humbrol enamels and a hairy stick. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Paw Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Hi Pheonix, that is a lot of work on this tiny kit and it looks excellent. Impressive work on the engine and cowls and just goes to show how it is possible to get so much good modelling out of these old kits. Thanks for posting. Andrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polo1112 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Very good job !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Superb model. I love all the details added and the scheme applied. Brilliant cheers Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Interesting model, very nice build. I am not very familiar with WWI machines but the I knew that particulary German ones have colourful camo schemes. This is one it really surprising with David stars along with black cross - I think that it must be difficult to publish photo of such machine after 1933 in Germany... Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngaero Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 What a stunning little model. I really love to see an old and classic kit being given the TLC it deserves and this doesn't disappoint. This is a fine example that there was life before the shake and bake revolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BerndM Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Awesome result ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glatisant Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Lovely build of the old Airfix Albatros.Engine and cowls are an improvement on what the kit provides.Excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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