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Halberstadt CL.II 'Marianne,' 1918 (Mirage 1/48)


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This is Mirage's petite and capricious Halberstadt CL.II 'early' in the colors of Schlachtstaffel 23b, ca. March 1918. Though lesser known than similar types on the Allied side, the Halberstadt was roughly comparable in many ways to the Bristol F.2B: a two-seater with performance close to that of a fighter, nimble and versatile and with a 'sting in the tail' to surprise the unwary opponent.

 

Mirage's kit is well-molded and with generally excellent detail and fit...albeit with the company's equally-rather characteristic challenges of awkward-to-clean-up sprue attachments and truly chaotic instructions. Definitely not a 'shake the box' kit, but well-worth the time and effort to show it some TLC.

 

Build log is here for those who may be curious.

 

Enjoy.

 

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Edited by thorfinn
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Thanks to one and all for your kind words!

 

9 hours ago, Harold55 said:

What a wonderful job you have done here.  I am curious if the fuselage was painted or you were using decals?  It looks very good.

The 'impressionist' style fuselage mottle which Halberstadt applied as a factory finish was (thankfully) supplied in the kit, as one big decal. Since the fuselage contours are mostly compound curves, I applied it in sections; with a little care and planning, I was able to match the pattern 'joins' where decal edges met fairly closely. 'In progress' photos are already posted in the build log, so I will refer you there if you are curious.

Edited by thorfinn
sloppy typing
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What a superb RFI.

 

Having watched the WIP on this one, I can appreciate the level of work you have put into this. The lozenge application is one of the best I've seen, and the construction and attention to detail is admirable. Sometimes lozenge can appear "too bright" even if colour matches are credible, so I think the way you have used the overlying decal covering to tome things down and add some body to the fabric really makes this look as realistic as we might imagine the real thing looked.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Terry

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Fantastic build!

i always admire modelers working on WWI planes, lot of details, lot of color variations, and at the end rigging.

And you done all perfect.

Regards Djordje

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Thanks, Gents, for your supportive comments!

3 hours ago, JWM said:

Really superb!

Let me tell that the fuselage of a real thing (the only one worldwide preserved AFAIK) is in Krakow Nuseum of Polish Aviation

http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/zbiory_sz.php?ido=8&w=a\

J-W

Kind of you to post that link. I've spent long hours scrutinizing every photo I could find of that a/c. Only wish I could see her in person!  Some day....🇵🇱✈️

 

21 hours ago, Twentecable said:

That girl certainly stole my heart... A winner!

Greetings TC

I must say...I've quite fallen under her spell, as well. Something about that mottle finish makes me just keep staring.... :o

 

3 hours ago, Killingholme said:

Lovely model. That's quite a 'spice rack' on the fuselage sides!

And mine isn't even properly 'loaded'!:rolleyes:

Since I got my grenades slightly too large for scale, I had to cut down the number, to make them fit; the real a/c usually carried six to a side...though occasionally more.

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1 hour ago, thorfinn said:

Kind of you to post that link. I've spent long hours scrutinizing every photo I could find of that a/c. Only wish I could see her in person!  Some day....🇵🇱✈️

I wish you to do this trip. I made opposite trip 12 years ago. During my short (duty) visit near Washington  I was visiting  Smithonnian Museum with Enola Gay and many others very interesting subjects. This place is not far away from your place in MD, I belive ...

Regards

J-W

 

 

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Looks fantastic, very neat and rarely seen model.

I just tackle WW1 aircraft and still searching for the right scale, your work looks great for this scale and I like how you did rigging. It looks very convincing.

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Most grateful for the enthusiastic comments!

6 hours ago, Lanmi said:

Looks fantastic, very neat and rarely seen model.

I just tackle WW1 aircraft and still searching for the right scale, your work looks great for this scale and I like how you did rigging. It looks very convincing.

I do WW1 (and everything else) in all three major scales, and find that 1/48 is the near-perfect trade-off between detail, workability and shelf space. You can pack in nearly the same detail as in 1/32...and a lot easier to see to rig than 1/72.

Cheers

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