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Purple aces... With purple faces

The following paragraph is from " The Vintage Library" at http://www.vintagelibrary.com as part of their salute to writer Robert J. Hogan and his wonderful series. " The year is 1933 and the era of the great pulp heroes is just beginning. Flying out of the fertile minds of Popular Publications comes G-8 and His Battle Aces. A World War I flying spy who takes on the most fantastic of German foes that ever flew a Fokker. Written by former WWI aviator, Robert J. Hogan, G-8 flew the newstands for 110 issues until the horror of World War II in 1943. Hogan colors this latest mystery with G-8's usual flair for disguise and daring. With Nippy and Bull flying alongside--from the skies of wartime France to a centuries-old dungeon of torture--Spads and Fokkers take to the skies until the hypnotic cloud of darkness, and the secret of the Purple Aces, is blown to pieces. . . The Allies wait in terror while G-8 and his sky pals take up a fighting trail against this mystery staffel of death! In Hogan's second G-8 novel, the Battle Aces must flush out another devilish plot--captured American airmen, with purple-tinted faces, are leading a savage suicide mission against their own men. Is this the latest diabolical scheme of the madman, Herr Doktor Krueger?. . . ""

The author Robert J. Hogan open this cliffhanger with; ". . ."PURPLE--Purple Aces--Purple faces--coming to kill you---Everybody! To blow up the field--at dawn---' The voice broke in a gurgle of sound. Blood sprayed from the swollen lips of the speaker. Sprayed with every choked word of warning. Dusk! An hour past sun-down. A dying Yank pilot Lt. , lay in the tangled wreck of his crashed Fokker D.VII near the Tarmac. . ..

The Major -- the first to reach the crash---crouching crouching over Lt. ... 'No--no dont move me. Let me die--here. Listen. Come closer. Getting weaker... Listen, Order of the Purple Ace Almost got me but I escaped. Came to warn you all. Purple Aces are devils, want to be killed in action to gain honour.' Some one rushed up with a torch (flashlight.) It slashed across the face of the dying pilot. Slowly, weakly, his hand rose, index figer extended. It reached the blood smeared for head and pointed. The Major blinked and stared in the light of the electric torch. He bent down closer. A gasp of astonishment left his lips. 'A Purple Ace' he muttered 'A Purple Aces of Spades' The head of the injured pilot nodded very slowly. 'Yes, Purple Aces. Almost got me. Organization of great aces, Suicide club. Honour to die. I escaped--afraid I couldn't get here--before it was too late. Before it got hold of me. Got to stop them. No chance--if they.... "

". . .There, coming toward that commanding cloud that seemed to make men brave with its presence and youngsters frightened with the lack of it, were ten more Fokkers. Ten Fokkers as at first. Coming to meet the cloud and that lone remaining Fokker. G-8 lifted his glasses to his eyes from their case and stared. Purple faces again. Ten more purple faces. He groaned. . . Tac-tac-tac! . . .From behind came the rattle of Spandau guns. G-8 whirled, kicked out and snarled in again. Two Fokkers had dropped their loads and were plunging into the fight so that those Fokkers that hadn't yet unloaded could do so unmolested. . ."

So that was the trick? Drop the bombs at all costs and then, if the pilot still lived, go into the dogfight so that the others might do their stuff. Brave work. Work for machine men, not human beings. And still these men looked real. Looked human except for the weird purple skin about their faces."

Thus the pulp fiction of post WWI continued to grab the minds of readers everywhere. From the "Dime Novels" of the exploits of gunslingers in the old west grew to include the exploits of the great pilot / spy "G-8 and his Battle Aces." Today these "novels" are called comic books or graphic arts novels. From Jesse James to Hans von Hammer to Wolverine they have proliferated. It seem that in the future this will not slow down anytime soon.

The Build
I decided on doing a psyudo version of the cover art on the 1971 issue. This has the serial Fokker D.VII 517/18. This narrows down the perameters to;

1. 4 colour lozenge from Eagle Strike.

2. Rib tapes in 4 colour loz from Eagle Strike lozenge.

3. Narrow full chord crosses on the wings. Partial white border.

4. 5:4 ratio crosses with full border on fuselage (overpainted.)

5. Normal layout for the tail insignia.

6. Fokker green interplane, cabane, and landing gear.

7. 'Lift here' (in German) in white letters on black eliptical patches on wing tips.

8. Fuselage overpainted 'Mauve' with white band, mauve Ace of Spades with a white skull at its center.

9. Serial repainted on the original fuselage cover in white.

10. Wheel covers "mauve'.

11. Engine will probably have to be the Mercedes D.IIIaü 180hp or D.IIIav 200hp. (Checking the Fokker allocation lists.) With low side mounted exhaust.

12. Upper engine cowlings removed for summer months.