Knights of the Air

 

 Knights of the air 

 I like to build ww1 aircraft for my Bloody April WW1 games every year. Both aircraft are hand painted one 1/72 Revell and one Roden kit, both with airfix pilots. 

First Aircraft completed for  Jasta 11 Lothar Richthofen, brother of the famous Baron! 

First aircraft for Jasta 36 Harold von Bülow-Bothkamp, a very colorful Fokker DR1, an ace fighter pilot of both world wars.

Cheers

Matt

Jasta 18 Raben Ravens

 Jasta 18 Rabens Ravens 

A project that has the aircraft built in some cases for 7 years or more, I finally decided to get this unit done in a mad rush of three days for the analogue painting challenge. Apart for airbrush undercoat white, all hand painted, the transfers are from Pheon Models range. the aircraft are 1/72 a mix of Airfix, Roden and Italeri I think......the pilots are a mix of Airfix and Wartime Miniatures ww1 pilots all ready for a Canvas Eagles or WOW clash!

Ltn August Raben, Montingen October 1915, Fokker drI

Ltn Hans Schultz, Lomme June 1918

Ltn Heinz Kuttner, Montingen 1918

Ltn Fredrich Hess Montingen August 1918

Hanover CII

cheers

Matt

Junkers D1 Luftstreitkräfte

 Junkers D1 (the furniture van)

Next build for canvas eagles collection is a Roden Junkers D1 and was a great build very simple and easy in comparison too its twin winged friends. I painted totally in purple and green, copying a similar build using the fabulous 1/32nd Wingnut models. The Roden 1/72 decals were delicate, so I switched to Pheon models decals to save the day, the pilot is a ww1 20mm Wartime Miniatures pilot. As it is a Canvas eagles model no wires were added. Really happy with my results

 

Junkers D1 1/72 Roden kit

One of the groundbreaking aircraft of WW1, the all metal monoplane with a thick cantilevered wing design creating extra lift and using duralumin pipes with aluminium riveted corrugated duralumin (alloy), it first seen frontline use in september 1917. I knew I had to build one when I seen the kit on a shelf at the local model shop.

The Junk D1 was nicknamed the furniture Van and only flew with the Luftstreitkräfte. The colour schemes are contentious, The Air Ministry report on Junkers D.1 5183/18 found abandoned at Evere, Belgium in January 1919 notes that “The wings are painted a pale green, with irregular patches of light mauve on top, and white underneath”. Close examination of photographic evidence shows that the “light mauve” and “white” were not sprayed on but applied with a brush or perhaps by sponge etc. The fuselage of 5183/18 had been overpainted ...“a chocolate-brown colour, except underneath, where a white pigment has been applied”. It also noted that “pale green” could be seen where the brown paint had come off. Interior duralumin surfaces and frames were left unpainted on the prototype J 7 and may have remained unpainted on the first few aircraft but a photo on page 12 of Datafile 33 shows the interior painted in a reasonably dark colour that was probably grey-green. Interior steel brackets and collars riveted with iron rivets appear to have been painted black or possibly with red-brown primer unless overpainted with grey-green.




cheers
Matt

Jasta 10 part two lt Hans Klein

Jasta 10 part 2

Completed my first aircraft for the three aircraft I am building for Jasta 10. The Roden kit was very tricky build with a lot of parts being replaced otherwise it would not handle normal wargame handling for Canvas eagles. The transfers again were appalling so I used Pheon transfers.  

I am sort of happy, not really 100% with the build. I hand painted the yellow and I had it little too thick but I did achieve the stripey look of hand painted canvas with the white. I nevertheless it will take to the skies and very soon be on the table using canvas eagles rules. The pilot is from Wartime Miniatures ww1 pilot range I commissioned a number of years ago.

The aircraft is Lt Hans Klein, he lead Jasta 10 from the 17th September 1917 until he was wounded in February 1918 flying a Pfalz dxiii. a record of 22 victories, 1 unconfirmed. 

Lt Hans Klein Jasta 10

Lt Hans Klein Jasta 10

cheers

Matt

Jasta 10 ww1 WIP 1

Jasta 10 1916-18 Part one

It has been a while since I have built any ww1 aircraft for my Flying Circus but during my three week painters block I watched two ww1 films and put together four kits. Two of these will join Jasta 10, the others are for another Luftstreitkräfte posts. 

In June 1917 Jasta 10 joined the flying circus along and was credited with 118 enemy planes and 33 enemy observation balloons destroyed. In turn, it would lose twenty killed in action, another killed in a flying accident, ten wounded in action, and four held as prisoners of war


First plane off the block is the most famous Pilot of the Jasta, Werner Voss credited with 48 kills, 14 with Jasta 10. I will paint his triplane in the familiar colours of Jasta 10, a yellow nose and tail (as per recorded his shot down aircraft), not sure if I will add the large white field to the cross pattée and yellow tail plane tops (not recorded for Voss)

"Capt. J. McCudden, No. 56 Squadron ... saw a S.E.5a fighting a triplane, so with others dived at it, and for the next ten minutes the enemy triplane fought the five S.E.5s with great skill and determination. Eventually, however, it was destroyed by 2nd-Lieut. Rhys Davids of the same squadron, who had previously driven down a two-seater. . .The triplane was seen to crash in our lines by other pilots and the other occupant proved to be Lieut. Werner Voss, who was killed." Royal Flying Corps Communique

The second aircraft is Lt Hans Klein, he lead the Hasta from the 17th September 1917 until he was wounded in February 1918 flying a Pfalz dxiii. a record of 22 victories, 1 unconfirmed. I have built the Roden kit for this, a lot of work......

lt Hans Klein Jasta 10

The third will be Adam Barth, one confirmed before he was shot down. 

Vizefeldwebel Adam Barth

And another ace Obt Erich Löwenhardt, flying a Fokker Dvii. The son of a doctor, Löwenhardt served with an infantry regiment before he volunteered for the German Air Force. He was wounded in action over Roulers on 20 September 1917. After scoring his 54th victory, he collided with Lieutenant Alfred Wenz of Jasta 11, on the 10th August. Both men jumped from their planes but Löwenhardt was killed when his parachute failed to open. Löwenhardt had 54 victories at the time of his death.

Cheers

Matt 

WW1 20mm/172 Jasta Pilots

 WW1 1/72-20mm pilots

A few little pieces off the table in between jobs, some metal Wartime Miniatures 1/72-20mm ww1 pilots. I commissioned these figures a number of years ago so I could fill my WW1 aircraft both Allied squadrons and German Jastas and my  Spanish Civil war, and early war german aircraft. I have three Fokker DR1 aircraft to finish off from Jasta 11 in my project draw, I hope to build them over the christmas break

cheers

matt

Prinz Friedrich-Karl von Preussen WW1

Roden recently released a 1/72 model of the Albatross D1 flown by Prinz Friedrich-Karl von Preussen. A really nice and easy kit, yet to add a pilot to this one also, I also need to add a cross to the tail plane, stuff up the decals for this, I may just paint a white box and add the cross later.

The prinz actually commanded a artillery battery but flew this kite for observation, for Flieger-abteilung A 258. He was shot down and taken prisoner on the 21st March 1917, by lt Pickthorne from the 32nd sqn RFC, the prinz later died from his head wounds he revived in the crash.

Albatross D1 flown by Prinz Friedrich-Karl von Preussen

Cheers

Matt

Jasta 2 Lt D R Wilhelm Prien 1917

first German aircraft off the table for some time, this is the partner to the SE5a I built in the twin pack from italeri, a easy build, I chose to do lt DR Wilhelm Prien aircraft for Jasta 2 in June 1917. Prien
also flew with Jasta 10.

Bertholds Jagdstaffel 18

First miniatures off the desk this year are these three completed 1/72nd aircraft, most were base coated but not completed. They consist of two Roden Pfalz DIIIa and a Revell albatross DIII all with wartime miniatures pilots. Theses aircraft represent the Jagdstaffel under the command of Rudolf Berthold who commanded from August to October 1917. There are two more aircraft to be completed before I move onto Rabens Ravens.

Cheers
Matt

Bloody April canvas eagles

The month of April 1917 was known as Bloody April by the Royal Flying Corps. The RFC suffered particularly severe losses — about three times as many as the Imperial German Army Air Service during the spring offensive in support of the ground assaults.


We played 5 games in four hours (with two coffee and one lunch brake in between) we tuned up the game mechanics a little as we played, the game was on a six by five table with four players and was normally over in 15 minutes although one did last less than three minutes.

We had a good day out, the Germans however had the worse of it and this April ended up very bloody for them! I was happy how the rules played, the key to convention rules is simplicity and speed so you can churn players through the game. A big thanks to Ryan, Boyd Ian and Greg For the great games

cheers
Matt