Werner Voss Experiment - Part 1

[Pauls9cb]

Fascinated by the exploits of Leutnant der Reserve Werner Voss during his short but active life flying various German scouts on the Western Front during 1916/1917, I decided some time back that the appearance of a 1/48 scale model of the pilot reflecting the well-known photo of him in front of the early Fokker Triplane in which he met his end offered 2 interesting departures for me in my erratic modelling hobby. First it gave me the chance to try to improve my figure painting skills (poor at best) and secondl,y it offered me the chance to buils a trio of the scouts he flew, decorated with my interpretation of their colour schemes and markings.

 

         

 

The Albatros DIII flown by Voss (while he was comanding Jasta 5 from May 1917 to end July 1917) has been well documented and modelled over time. I've no doubt that Voss flew the earlier Albatros DII, as well as the Halberstadt scout, but I was unable to find sufficient research data on their appearance to warrant adding theses to the project. Nevertheless, I decided the DIII was a worthwhile starting point, since he made claims for as many as 10 Allied aircraft while flying this machine and a replacement after the first was damaged in combat.

 

This was my first experiment with wood grain decals which turned out reasonably well after a few false starts. After researching the contemporary photos of this a/c for clues to the actual colour patterns on the wings, I decided to follow the general and learned opinion of Dan San Abbott in this area, interpreting as I went along, so it ended up as my view, right or wrong. I had intended to use some GasPatch turnbuckles to add to the detail in the rigging department. Sadly my fingers and eyesight prevented this, and my rigging thread was too thick to connect through the eyeholes, so I did without.

 

  

 

These 1/48 scale Eduard kits are generally pretty good all round, despite fumble fingers like mine being prone to snapping or losing some of the more delicate parts. However, one gripe that I've aired before with some of the German kits with wing radiators is that no effort was made to include the coolant pipework to and from the rad and the Mercedes engine. A strange omission for a part of the structure that's very viisible on the real aiircraft, so I decided to correct this with some 30 amp fuse wire, suitably bent and glued with cyano.

 

 

 

 

 

More amusement to follow in Part 2.

 

 

Comments and criticisms always appreciated. Paul

 

 

[DMC]

Old “fumble fingers” managed to do a pretty good job on the rigging. 

 

Dennis 

[Smithy]

Nice work and well done!

 

I've got Voss' F.I on the go at the moment with Roden's 1/72 kit and have made a WIP thread for it, although I found there wasn't really interest in the thread sadly. It's actually on the backburner now anyway after I dropped it. It's fixable but I just couldn't face the kerfuffle of putting it back together again.

 

I like your streaking on the Fokker too, nicely accomplished.

[Faraway]

Nice. Rigging looks good. As does the whole build.

[DMC]

On 2/24/2020 at 8:21 PM, Smithy said:

there wasn't really interest in the thread sadly.

Hi @Smithy, I have the Roden kit and would have liked to follow your WIP.  A shame about the accident.  Not that much interest in WW1 bi-planes, probably because of the rigging.  As we speak, I am digesting everything I can about methods, materials and so on.  Many choices.

 

Did your Roden “Voss” kit come with a “face” decal?  Mine didn’t.

 

Dennis

 

[Smithy]

26 minutes ago, DMC said:

Hi @Smithy, I have the Roden kit and would have liked to follow your WIP.  A shame about the accident.  Not that much interest in WW1 bi-planes, probably because of the rigging.  As we speak, I am digesting everything I can about methods, materials and so on.  Many choices.

 

Did your Roden “Voss” kit come with a “face” decal?  Mine didn’t.

 

Dennis

 

 

Hi Dennis,

 

Thanks for the interest. My Roden kit came with the white face decal which is actually rather difficult to see on the sheet.

 

Sadly I've had two WWI WIP threads on here, one the Fokker and the other a Roden 1/48 SE5a and neither elicited interest, the Fokker none whatsoever. I think that you're right that there is limited interest in WWI modelling here so a lot of people don't bother to look at, let alone follow, WIP threads for them. It's a little disheartening though to start a thread and go through the trouble of adding photos to feel like you're talking to an empty room. But that's how it is, I'll probably post my WWI stuff over on the WWIaircraftmodels forum from now on and do my WWII modelling here as this seems to be the focal point for here.

 

Here's the most recent photo of the Roden with a Zippo lighter to show scale - it's tiny! This was before attaching the wings and "the accident". And yes I'm in the Alex Imrie camp when it comes to the colour of that cowling!

 

[bertielissie]

Love all the WW1 posts and am in awe at what WW1 modellers achieve. I feel so inadequate with some of my efforts.so to all you WW1 aviation modellers____KEEP POSTING!!  

[John Masters]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

because of the rigging

People blow this all out of proportion.  Rigging takes time and patience.  It is really quite easy.

 

22 minutes ago, Smithy said:

there is limited interest in WWI modelling here

Not from my bench!  The more we model, the more interest there will be.  Btw...you know about the controversy regarding the colour of the cowling, right?  😉

I, for one, would finish it. You're almost there.   I have built several of these and they are always a treat to see.  And it is small.  The real thing is small as well.  

 

--John

 

 

[Smithy]

40 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Not from my bench!  The more we model, the more interest there will be.  Btw...you know about the controversy regarding the colour of the cowling, right?  😉

I, for one, would finish it. You're almost there.   I have built several of these and they are always a treat to see.  And it is small.  The real thing is small as well.  

 

--John

 

 

 

Thanks John and it's nice some are interested. The problem is that it doesn't feel worth going through the bother of making a thread, taking the photos, formatting them, etc, for few, if no one to comment. It will be finished I just needed a break to cool down as I was pretty annoyed with dropping it.

 

Oh and I've discussed "that" cowling with many, many people over the years including Alex Revell. There's a few things which have turned up and not been published which I think reinforce the idea that if the cowling did carry the face on the 23rd September then it was almost certainly chrome yellow and not green. But that's probably for another discussion!

 

And apologies @Pauls9cb if I have distracted this thread from your superb Voss builds!

Edited February 27, 2020 by Smithy
Typo

[Pauls9cb]

Smithy - Not a problem. I haven't read the Alex Imrie work, having done the Paul Leaman thing in my fascination with Triplanes in general. I read the Aerodrome posts with interest though. It's a confusing subject with only b&w contemporary pics to analyse. Still, the whole point of my experiment was to underline yet again my admiration for the German Ace. The plastic a.c are just bits of fun to underline the "Biggles" fascination from which lots of iis suffer. Cheers - Paul