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Hansa Brandenburg D.1 (EASTERN EXPRESS) " Cherry-coloured Funk".


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In tandem with my ...slowboat... Shavrov Sh-2 build here on BritModeller, this marvellous example of Flash engineering hiding a Hansa Brandenburg aircraft within must be revealed as precisely what happens when your moulds become "cream-crackered". EE certainly knew the problem well, evidently, as does Roden.

 

I have, then, for your reading pleasure, started this thing without due praise and/or reward because the H-B D.I was an interesting plane in its own light and the kit is becoming rarer now, most probably because nobody but me wishes to spend all day cutting through whole acres of flash. Hannants has a few left at the time of posting, iirc.

 

The aircraft:

Our HB D.I wil be: from Flik 16D, Serial: 28.30 flown by one Erwin Funk, a brilliant name that anyone would give their left Schwarzlose to possess. Here's a profile:

 

NtStva.jpg

 

(The angled gun is a typical Flik 16D modification as well as the enlarged windscreen, allegedly).

 

I like the simple cherry coloured band on 28.30 because it ties in rather absurdly with a song from my favouritest indie popsters and, well, it gives me a go at smothering raw ochre oil paints over feeble acrylic undercoats; always time well spent in the life of a modern day artisan with his (or her) moustaches, fan brush and paisley cravat.

 

TBC with pics ... and Best Wishes to you.

 

Edited by Major Flannel
Incorrect manufacturer
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NxnSOl.jpg

 

There's a Starstrutter waiting in the sky...

 

Nxna4w.jpg

 

Tacky wood decal but acceptable horseshoe print.

 

NxneGF.jpg

 

This Hansa Brandenburg D. I was equipped with TWO types of horizontal empennage simultaneously.

 

NxnjHi.th.jpg

 

I paint engines real quick.

 

That's the contents shorn of 45mm of flash on every major part, except the engine cover which won't be used, then. The flying surfaces have those typical scallops which were more 'fun' than anyone might deem possible. Be thankful you didn't have to do it. /grumble.

 

As you can see there is a problem at the empennage, the rectangular elevator is the correct shape, the rounder far cooler-looking, a bit Albatros-ey,  but needs fixing.

It is a very simple, boxy, K.u.k aircraft envisaged well by... Eastern Expresses Toko's minions, flash not withstanding.

 

TBC. Best wishes.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Major Flannel
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You got very unlucky. I've built one and have 2 more, original Toko issue, and no flash except a small amount arounf one side cockpit opening and the opening for the engine.  It would be inreresting to hear what the other Eastern Express re-boxings are like. On the plus side, the decal sheet has been redesigned. My instructions only showed the scheme for 28.69, although the serials for 28.65 are also on the sheet (but none of the 3 personal markings your sheet has). I hope they perform better than Toko decals though, which were always the worst bit of their kits.

 

Paul.

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Not seen worse in a long while and that's with Roden's W4 seaplane in mind (good grief) even if we note the EASTERN EXPRESS logo on the box... uh...

Not Toko, then, I apologise for the shameful slur. Well spotted.

 

Although it's cleaned up, even the sprues stil look like former target practice and we must include the shorted rudder to its woes.

Never fear, cleaning up takes 1 hour of our lives now and again. 

 

Yes, the decals are pleasant with some recognisable personal machines among them. Nicely matt and thin. Incidentally, this was part of the recent Hannants' Eastern Express invasion with the whole catalogue of WW1 subjects for sale included plus the LaGG etc. I still won't be tempted by the Bleriot XI, whether Toko, Frog, Novo or EE but I bagged a Salamander. Who wouldn't? 

 

Best wishes to you.

 

Edit: Where are our model Bleriots, Deperdussins and Antoinettes? Is it sensible to suggest we are hard done by, not having these pioneer aircraft available to savour? Choroszy do their best of course but plastic injected equivalents are very very thin on the ground. Even the Nie. 11 "Bebe' is invisible except via old stock. Remarkable!

Edited by Major Flannel
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  • Major Flannel changed the title to Hansa Brandenburg D.1 (EASTERN EXPRESS) " Cherry-coloured Funk".

An interesting project. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of it, somewhere deep in the stash I have the Eduard 1/48 kit of this aircraft.

 

On an unconnected note, with a name like Major Flannel, you wouldn't be related to our very own @general melchett by any chance?

 

Martian 👽

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Martian, pre-WW1 and WW1 subjects are a treat aren't they, in any scale? My favourite kit happens to be the somewhat foreshortened Amodel Nieuport IV, even with its flaws. I get to drool over its pioneer looks and heritage time and again. The Nie. II is superficially close (Anzani 2 cylinder) but no kit ever produced.

Just look at her:

 

NxIOCx.jpg

 

French mechanic M. Lefevre tries to add his not inconsiderable weight so as to dispel rumours of tail-sitting.

 

General Melchett was of Blackadder?, no connexion to that masterpiece of comedy at all.

Best wishes.

Edited by Major Flannel
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Looking forward to this one.

However I would recommend not going within 3 miles of the Bleriot kit. It is USELESS! My first scratchbuild came as a result of that kit, and finally realising that not 1 single part was actually usable!

I do have a Blue Rider Bleriot kit I don't need though, which I acquired after I had scratch built one. If you're interested, PM me!

 

Ian 

Ps I have a build log of the Nieuport IV kit on here somewhere, corrected and NOT a tail sitter!

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I like Hansa Brandenburgs but when I get around to one it will be in 1/48. And Blue Bell Knoll is my favourite song ever. 
 

Watching the build intently.

 

A friend of mine got me into the Cocteau twins when we were in college. I can’t remember which album ( might have been Victorialand) was released on two 12 inch discs for months he played them at 33 rpm thinking it sounded great only to realise about six months later that they were EP’s and should be played at 45 rpm….

Edited by Marklo
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2 hours ago, Brandy said:

Looking forward to this one.

However I would recommend not going within 3 miles of the Bleriot kit. It is USELESS! My first scratchbuild came as a result of that kit, and finally realising that not 1 single part was actually usable!

But it has a fully realised Stalin figure included!... I recall Gabriel Stern writing in his usual droll satirical manner about him and baby Bleriot, also included.

 

Your Nie. IV build was what got me ordering small stuff engines and embracing the early pioneer aircraft. I thank you for it. : )

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44 minutes ago, Marklo said:

I like Hansa Brandenburgs but when I get around to one it will be in 1/48. And Blue Bell Knoll is my favourite song ever. 
 

Watching the build intently.

 

A friend of mine got me into the Cocteau twins when we were in college. I can’t remember which album ( might have been Victorialand) was released on two 12 inch discs for months he played them at 33 rpm thinking it sounded great only to realise about six months later that they were EP’s and should be played at 45 rpm….

Tiny Dynamine is music from another universe. As is Victorialand and Bluebell. Sheer hyperbole never does the band justice, it would seem.

So, here's to Elisabeth, Robin, Simon and Will Heggie.

And Feldwebel Erwin "Cherry Coloured" Funk.

Best wishes.

 

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6 minutes ago, Major Flannel said:

Tiny Dynamine is music from another universe. As is Victorialand and Bluebell. Sheer hyperbole never does the band justice, it would seem.

 

You are now giving me flashbacks to the summer of 1986, when I spent what seemed each weekend either visiting friends from university days or attendings airshows, with the windows down, the roof back, and Victorialand blasting out of the customs speakers on the back shelf as I motored around the UK. Glorious!
I also remember a couple of years earlier, when This Mortal Coil's take on Song to the Siren was played over the PA in Sefton Park in Liverpool just before a fireworks display and reduced spectators to entranced silence.

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Not the first time their music has bewitched the unwary. You know how chatty, soul-destroying and banal office work is, of course -we all do (did). So Victorialand is the one that provides the most beneficial medicine; I played this in an office once or twice on the quite good CD player and lo! a very quiet, subdued office. One lady seemed very tearful. That's the magic right there. 'Garlands' less so : D

Anyway, surely the mods are donning their boxing gloves even now with a view to demanding we discuss plastic and wire instead of revelling in luxury. 

 

NxhCvl.jpg

 

Top and bottom view of a 'typical' D.1.

 

NxtPbS.jpg

 

Another mount of Britmodeller's favourite Austria-Hungarian pilot: Erwin Funk, 65.68.  

Incidentally, the gun 'coffin' on the top wing must be borrowed from a Lloyd C.V as the one included looks like some strangled species of one legged turtle such as it came in the box.

 

 

Edited by Major Flannel
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I came for the Cocteaus reference (my favourite band of all time!) but stayed for the beautiful model.

 

An interesting aside about Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay is that the songs were never originally intended for release. They'd just finished building their first studio in Acton and recorded a bunch of songs just to test everything out. I'm eternally glad that they did release those songs, as some of my favourites are on there. Pink Orange Red is as close to an "our song" that my wife and I have. That dreamy E min add9 chord that starts the song off is pure joy.

 

I always listen to those two EPs as if they were one album, but then I've always believed in The Album as a thing that needs to be listened to in its entirety, just as the artist intended. And the lepidopterist in me can't help but love the many references to moths and butterflies contained in those two EPs.  Mellonella is a type of moth and they "lyrics" (I always hesitate to use that word when dealing with the words Liz uses) are taxonomic names for various moths. But then Liz could sing the listings in a telephone directory and still reduce me to a blubbering wreck.

 

For me, the Cocteaus go beyond music in a way I haven't experienced with any other band apart from Boards Of Canada. It's a profound thing and almost impossible to explain. I don't consider myself a spiritual person in any way, but it feels like the Cocteaus have a direct line to my soul.

 

I was lucky in my last job in that I had my own room, so I had my iPod going through an old NAD amp and some Mission 760is. It got me through the day.

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'Spangled Fritillary' should be x-rated, it's so heavily impregnated with rapture and the unbridled human spirit. Their Harold Budd collaboration was similar: 'The Ghost...' makes me blub like a baby; who knew that simply enunciating the letter  's' inside a song could make a grown man cry?

 

Mods!  Plastic WW1 pilots! They're exquisite, ideal for the Hansa and available.

NxG3Pw.jpg

 

Edited by Major Flannel
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I was actually a Harold Budd fan slightly before I was a Cocteaus fan, due to his work with Brian Eno. I was overjoyed when his collaboration with the Cocteaus was announced and it didn't disappoint.  I was gutted to hear of his recent passing, just days after his latest LP with Robin was released.

 

There's two Eno/Budd albums that I listen to on headphones just before trying to sleep (chronic insomniac here): Ambient 2 and The Pearl. I've listened to one of these (or parts of) almost every day since the late 80s!

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2 hours ago, Major Flannel said:

Mods!  Plastic WW1 pilots! They're exquisite, ideal for the Hansa and available.

NxG3Pw.jpg

 

These are very nice indeed. I've got a couple of boxes of them in the stash, which is all packed up ready for a move in a couple of weeks' time. No active modelling for me now until I'm settled in to the new flat, but I can lurk with the best of them in the meantime.

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The great thing about Roden-alike aircraft is how many Austro Daimlers and Mercedes engines one can accumulate over time. No Heiros but could be wrong. 

 

NxMN4w.jpg

This Nie. 27 likes its rotaries, danke und bitte... In the background is Amy Johnson's d.H. 60 for my daughter, in dirty heretic scale.

 

Its pick and mix time while the base enamel coat is drying before a "naples yellow" oil application inside the cockpit. H-Bs tend to have lighter woods in hue, despite the mahogany on the box art, Lohner seaplane style. Curious.

Edited by Major Flannel
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So a small update. The Hansa had an enamel base coat of Hu 121 spicily topped with a Future acrylic barrier (the old Future didn't possess this strange blue hue). Now some pure W&N "Naples Yellow" was brushed into the interior, raw. 30 minutes later, without turps or thinner, the coat was removed with a dry 'saw' brush to leave a residual yellow colour that is about right for such an enclosed area. Later, the internal frame will be picked out with a very pale ochre hue.

 

Nxlrpl.jpg

 

An Offag 153 joins in on the fun as well, but as a base exterior coat. Later either clear yellow and orange respectively for both aircraft. The Offag's wood much darker in colour, tending to quite the saturated orange. A suitable WW1 pilot has been chosen for each aircraft as well; our Feldwebel Erwin Funk (for it is he!) leans against the box wondering why polyethylene accepts no known earthly paint.

The Offag 153.xx 's cowl has the first coat laid in of my extra secret reflective aluminium technique (traditionally known as "winging it without a coherent plan"). And yes, the fifth exhaust for the fine engine needs repositioning.

 

Nxl8bw.jpg

 

Excuse the odd yellow light. That was the ambient light this morning. Stormy weather I hope.

 

Best wishes to you.

 

Edit: I frequently malign acrylic paints but Tamiya's 'clear yellow' is the shizzle. It fits what we think the D.I's wood hue was like a Dual Monarchic (?) fist in a glove... or something dramatic like this.

Pics soon.

Edited by Major Flannel
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On 29/06/2021 at 16:27, lasermonkey said:

I was actually a Harold Budd fan slightly before I was a Cocteaus fan, due to his work with Brian Eno. I was overjoyed when his collaboration with the Cocteaus was announced and it didn't disappoint.  I was gutted to hear of his recent passing, just days after his latest LP with Robin was released.

 

There's two Eno/Budd albums that I listen to on headphones just before trying to sleep (chronic insomniac here): Ambient 2 and The Pearl. I've listened to one of these (or parts of) almost every day since the late 80s!

That's sad, dire, news indeed. "White Arcades" knocked my socks off, over and again, back in the day. Thanks for letting me know.

All best wishes.

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53 minutes ago, GrzeM said:

I definitely do! Blimey... they're just exquisite. How on earth did you come by them? 

Meanwhile, good info on Britmodeller's own Erwin Funk is hard to come by: we know he was assigned to Flik 16D and had a single kill to his name. We know Flik 16D carried a red (cherry, mm) fuse band PLUS a white number as tactical markings (source: Petr Tesar's Offag s.53/153/253 Albatros D.III work).

That's it. The search continues.

 

Thanks for that link...

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Just a note on the Austro engine. Toko/EE supplies half a one that simply drops into its recess. In the spares box there are many Austro- Daimlers from previous Rodens but we won't use them. Funk's D. I 28.30 profile shows the hood buttoned up tightly. We'll go that way.

 

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This is Karaya's A-D 200hp in 1/48th. They're silly cheap, well packaged, Neomega☆,  and in resin, too. Also available are an Argus, Mercedeses and a Hispano V. Completely useless for this thread but they're nice to have knocking about for heretics in their own scale to enjoy assembling.

 

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In real life, the Emperor of Wien und Buda-Pest used one or more Austros to power giant whisks in the Imperial kitchens as an easy but noisy means to whip up some delicious Caramel sorbets for his Royal entourage.

"Viribus Unitis" is latin for "One more unit of caramel fancy, and be quick about it ".

 

☆ Don't ask.

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