Steve's Models

[Sailor Steve]

A week late and more money short than I can count, it's finally done.

The Aviatik C.I. It's dressed in one of the early 'sky' camoflage schemes, in this case all white except for the engine panels and upper deck.





Hidden Serial Number.






This was the last German two-seater to have the observer in the front cockpit. Normally he had one gun which he could switch from side to side. Sometimes they carried two, at a cost in performance. I gave him two guns to illustrate this. He's firing the port gun forward. There is a wire brace to keep him from shooting the propeller. The starboard gun is facing aft and swinging free.




I had originally hoped to have this one done by Christmas and another one done before the year was out. This time I have no real excuse other than that I got lazy.

[Jimbuna]

Looks graet, hope she wins tonight's dogfight

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Looks graet, hope she wins tonight's dogfight

That's one of the unfortunate things about this building spree I've been on: The odds of any one of them flying on any given night are very low.

[gi_dan2987]

I love the fine detail! Excellent job Steve-O!

[Sailor Steve]

Game Session!

I decided to take my camera to tonight's game. The first scenario we rolled up was an Allied balloon bust, which means the Allies were trying to shoot down a German observation balloon. It was Game Period 3, which covers January to June 1917. There were three Allied attackers, a SPAD 7, a Sopwith Pup and an FE.8. The Germans were three Albatros D.IIIs. The Allies came in separately. My SPAD was several hundred meters above the target, the Pup was about 150 meters below it, and the poor FE.8 was very far down and struggling just to get up to the fight.

1. The Balloon


2. The Defenders


3. The Pup


4. One Albatros was orbiting high above


5. The SPAD and the FE.8.


6. The SPAD dives down on the helpless balloon


7. The Pup is already in trouble


8. The SPAD takes his first shot. The balloon took some hits, but didn't blow up


9. I was so fixated on the balloon that I let one of the bad guys get behind me. I guess since I was trying to knock down their balloon, technically I was the bad guy.

I just noticed my reflection in the window, taking the picture.

10. At this point I managed to elude the Albatros and get another shot. Unfortunately the balloon still remained aloft. It was useless, though, as the balloonists had already bailed out.


11. At this point I decided the best idea was to dive and run for home. The SPAD was fast and a very good diver.


12. One of the Huns managed to get a good position and put some hits on me. Though I outdove him, I couldn't keep it up as we were too close to the ground. In the end one of his shots put me out of control. There was no room to attempt to recover, so the plane spun in at high speed, killing the pilot.



Oh well. It's only a game.

[Sailor Steve]

We did have time for a second session. This one was another balloon bust, but in Period 4 (July 1917-February 1918). This time the shoe was on the other foot, with Germans attacking an Allied balloon. There were three defenders - a Nieuport N.17, a SPAD 13 and an early SE.5. Attacking were two Albatros D.Vas. I was German this time. We managed to slip in past the Nieuport, who then turned to attack us. We turned to face him and then our momentum took us apart. We turned back on the balloon and this time I managed to destroy it. I turned and climbed, narrowly avoiding getting singed by the burning wreckage. We then engaged in a running dogfight. I put a lot of damage on the Nieuport, but he was saved by the SPAD, which forced me to maneuver wildly away. The crippled Nieuport escaped with a wounded pilot. The fight continued until darkness set in (closing time for the store).

It was a fun fight. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of that one.

[Gerald]

Nice pictures here

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

It was a fun fight. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of that one.

Pictures or it didn't happen

Speak later.

[Buddahaid]

Looks fun. Steve have you ever read "They Fought for the Sky" by Quentin Reynolds? It's an easy read and fun enough, but the best part is the bibliography which references many old publications on the subject.

One such reference.
http://www.amazon.com/Victor-Chapman.../dp/1437430902

[Sailor Steve]

No, but then there are a lot of things I haven't read. One of the things I hated most about being homeless was going to the library. I got a lot of reading done at that time, but the first thing I noticed upon entering every day was the millions of books I will never get to read.

My own reading on subjects like that tend to lean less to personal accounts (though they are fun) and more toward the technical side of things.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Looks fun. Steve have you ever read "They Fought for the Sky" by Quentin Reynolds? It's an easy read and fun enough, but the best part is the bibliography which references many old publications on the subject.

You twisted devil! not only do you play Dogfight but you reference the BIBLE I keep under my pillow after 50 years...still the best of all!

[Sailor Steve]

First project of the new year: a Fokker E.I. Nobody makes one, so this will be converted from the Eduard E.III kit, which in this case is a reprint from Smer.



The E.I is problematic because there is controversy over exactly what it was. Nobody argues about it, but sources do say different things. What is agreed upon is that Anthony Fokker had four models of his own design, all called 'Spinne' ('Spider') due to the shape of the plane and the amount of rigging. These were later numbered, M1 through M4. At one point he purchased a Morane-Saulnier model 'H' and proceeded to change the fuselage into a structure of welded steel tubing rather than wood. He also redesigned the landing gear to be stronger, and ended up with a much better plane than the Morane, which he called M5. He made two variants, M5K ('Kurz', or short wing) and M5L ('Lange', or long wing). These served as fast unarmed scouts over the front in the days when nobody had a machine gun.

Roland Garros became the first fighter pilot in his Morane 'L' parasol with the Hotchkiss gun firing through deflector plates protecting the propeller. Garros shot down three German two-seaters in two weeks. Then, on April 18, 1915, Garros went down behind German lines, either shot down by German troops as he strafed them, or from engine failure. He and his plane were captured and delivered to Idflieg. According to Anthony Fokker himself the plane was shown to him, he took a machine gun home with him and sketched out and built the world's first working synchonizer gear in just 48 hours. It seems more likely that every major manufacturer was allowed to look at Garros' plane, and the plans for the interrupter gear designed by Franz Schneider the year before were made available. On the other hand what is not in dispute is that the Fokker design team did indeed come up with the world's first working synchronizer.

Here is where the controversy comes in. There is no question that the Fokker team fitted machine guns to the M5K, calling it M5K/MG, and had them ready for combat in short order. The problem is that some sources say that all E.Is were M5K/MGs, with the short wing. The one who says differently is Peter M Grosz, who most consider to be the leading expert on all the stuff. Grosz says that only the first five planes were M5K/MG, and the remaining 43 were the long-wing version, built from the factory with the gun installed and designated M14. Which story is the truth? Who knows.

Many years ago I "converted" a Revell E.III kit into an E.I, the only real change being to cut down the wing to the correct span. No seven-cylinder 80hp engine. I didn't realize until later that the one change I did make might be wrong, most of the having the longer wing and the early engine being the only difference. I was planning to replace the engine on that model when I found out another intriguing difference: The early M5 models, both short and long wing, had the wings set up near the top of the fuselage, only being lowered later to improve the pilot's downward vision. I couldn't raise the wing on the Revell kit since it slots into a cutout in the side cowling extensions. The Eduard kit, however, is the opposite: The cowling extension is whole, and the wing has a cutout in the forward leading edge to fit around it. This would make it easy to raise the wing since I would need to shorten it anyway.

This leaves me with a minor dilemma:

1. Replace the engine on the Revell kit and just say it's from later when the wings were lowered. This would leave me with two of the Eduard kits to play with.

2. Build and convert the Eduard kit, giving me the early "raised wing" version. I would have the Revell version on hand, but it couldn't represent a later E.I because it still has the short wings. Someone suggested that I build the Eduard kit and then give the Revell one to a fellow player who doesn't have one. This is probably the best course, because no one but me cares about how many cylinders the engine has or how long the wings are. It would just be a case of "Here, now you have a Fokker E.I."

I'm thinking I'll follow the latter course.

[Sailor Steve]

The interior that no one will ever see. Thank goodness for small favors.



If it was a display kit with the interior exposed I would be redoing the entire thing just to get the lines straight. To the naked eye they look fine, but in extreme close-up they look ragged and sloppy. I have to convince myself not to go back and fix them because in the end nobody will ever know.

[Sailor Steve]

Fuselage and landing gear done, plus horizontal tailplane. The old holes for the wing pins are puttied over.

[Sailor Steve]

Primered and ready for finishing.