Seem to be having problems with photobucket,will try again later.

I managed to pick up some sample veneers a few years ago.They are great for this kind of work,and are paper backed so there is no warping or breakage.They can be made even thinner by sanding the paper backing off.

Actually the sanded doesn't look too bad
!If it was textured horizontally and shaded a bit it may look OK from a scale distance.In old car terms it could be a twenty footer.

John, actually, if you sanded the plastic part in just one direction, they would be so similar that one would think they're both wood.

Are you going to thin down the plastic parts, then glue the Veneer wood on top for all the shaped panels, or use the veneer pcs, and make the details from plastic?

Joel

Ya know you got me thinking,if you wanted to be really accurate both inside and out you could sand down the interior plastic and replace it with wood and then add the sanded off details in wood as well.I might try this with one piece to see how it goes.It sounds like a great idea for hand held models but in my case I would be wasting a lot of time on something that would never be see.

John, I was referring to outside, visible panels. Why spend time detailing panels when no one will ever see them? My philosophy is different then yours. If it can't be seen, I don't even include it, and if I do because it's needed for structural purposes, I just glue it in place, and move on to more important parts.

Knowing that it's complete is a personal preference, one that also has to take into account whether or not it's a model for personal display, professional display, or a commissioned piece. Then it's a whole new ballgame.

Joel

Joel the only details that I am planning right now for the outside are the screws on the panels.

I am spending way too much time detailing this model for use in a diorama but I enjoy experimenting too.I hope that I don't have to rush at the end for it to be ready for the 100th anniversary of WW1.My back up position is that I am really depicting events from 1917.

John, Have to admit that at 1st I thought those panels were made from your veneer wood they look that good. I guess one of the problems is that we were viewing them way to close.

Please don't rush to make a self imposed deadline. The wait will be well worth it.

Joel

Joel,Ya at this distance the camera picks up every little thing.It is like viewing a painting with your nose almost touching the canvas or sculpture.Even Michelangelo would have a hard time passing this standard.

See my friend Ken Foran's 1/15th scale model for some great ideas.

I just learned today that there was a captured Camel that flew for the German side in WW1 with Jasta 23b .It was painted over in their colors and actually shot down an SE5a.It later crashed but the pilot survived.There is no record of what happened to it after that,so I am assuming that because it was a survivable crash that there was no fire to consume the whole airplane.Therefore I feel that I can go ahead and paint the parts and pieces in German colors and put it in the Fokker facility, which will only add a little more color to the storyline.It could have happened so that is good enough for me.
Still researching.....

Image by Don Allen

John, certainly a novel idea about converting it to a captured aircraft, but somehow it just doesn't seem right. It's like a baseball player that played for more then one team, makes the Hall of Fame, and elects to go in with the team that he spent the least amount of time with, rather then the team where he was most known for.

Of course that's just my two cents worth.

Joel

There were attempts both pre-war and during the war to develop a synthetic clear covering for aeroplanes. The benefits the experimenters were trying to obtain were:

-- true "sky" type camouflage, where the near-transparent aeroplane blended into the background sky.

-- reduced surface friction as compared to doped fabric, so better aerodynamics and increased speed.

-- better durability as compared to doped fabric.

-- increased ease of maintenance and situational awareness by the pilot (as relates to airframe damage), where the interior structure is completely visible to the eye.

The experiments were carried out in several countries and some of these aeroplanes were actually flown. In addition to Cellon, there was also a material called Emaillite. See this article from Flight describing an Etrich Taube that was covered in Emaillite and apparently flown at least a few times:

wiener neustadt | aeronautical society | royal meteorological | 1914 | 0071 | Flight Archive

blackburn | 1914 | 0072 | Flight Archive

Cellon and Emaillite are early versions of plastics, and there were attempts to fabricate airframe and automotive structural components as well as covering materials from them. I found some references to this in early automotive engineering publications on Google Books; there were also fittings like control wheels and handles that were made of solid Cellon.

So far as the E's go, they definitely flew (see thumbnail pic, also misidentified as 396) but I agree with Hans and Josef; probably never used operationally.

The camouflage angle proved to be a bust; although the plane did blend into the sky at certain heights and angles, it also caught sunlight on it's highly reflective surfaces which gave it away. And the materials all seemed to suffer from flexibility, wrinkling & wavy-ness manufacturing & fab problems that never got fully resolved, and as Hans points out, they did not wear well in humid or wet conditions. Finally, when drawn out into a thin covering and stretched over an airframe, any small puncture could cause complete failure with the covering shredding itself into ribbons in the airstream -- not a desirable feature for something that's probably going to collect a few bullet holes
Attached Images
File Type: jpg cellon1.jpg (24.1 KB, 40 views)
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— Patrick Demski —
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Old 14 May 2011, 01:56 PM

For the technical success of a fighter aircraft it is next to the speed and armament is another important factor - the camouflage. In addition there was in the early days of aviation test experiments to the effectiveness of different camouflage patterns. But as soon as the weather changed, the camouflage was often ineffective because the painting no longer corresponded to the area.
The best camouflage is of course the invisibility. This invisibility was attempted by covering the wings to reach Cellon. This fabric was also known as D-strings (transparent cover). Cellon is a transparent material Acetatcellulose that was developed in 1901 as a replacement for the explosive nitro-cellulose at IG Farben. Overall, the bestant Cellon woven with a thickness of 0.4 mm.

For use were conventional aircraft such as Albatros B. II, but also larger ones such as the bomber used RI 8 / 15.

These experiments were carried out at the airport Berlin-Doeberitz.

On the progress of developments in the field of aircraft cello, Carl Duisberg, held as head of IG Farben, to date. On this page you will see the secret papers from the project in 1916.

The First Stealth Aircraft

During the First World War, an attempt to reduce the visibility of military aircraft through the experimental use of "Cellon" plastic transparent covering material resulted in single examples of the Fokker E.III Eindecker fighter monoplane, the Albatros C.I two-seat observation biplane, and one German heavy bomber design, the Linke-Hofmann R.I all being covered with the "Cellon" material; the latter two aircraft had all-wooden structures covered with the "Cellon" material, which degraded rapidly in direct sunlight and were not proceeded with any further.

I am thinking of converting the Camel wings to look like Fokker's early experimentation with Cellon covering and then hanging them on the test facility walls.Being on the side walls in a shadowbox this should be fairly easy to fake.

Stealth technology 1916 - The Linke-Hofmann R.1 Cellon experiment


In 1965, the Beatles recorded a song that, had it been available 50 years prior, could have been used as part of a press release by German military authorities regarding the stealth potential from using a clear covering over an experimental combat aircraft.
“I’m looking through you, where did you go?” are the opening words of I’m Looking Through You credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (although McCartney wrote most of it) from the album Rubber Soul, but one can imagine the German authorities, pointing to the partially transparent Linke-Hofmann R.1 bomber, and singing the same words to skeptical observers. The transparency was from a cellon covering on the aircraft meant to make it less visible in the air. This was stealth technology in 1916.
The firm Linke-Hofmann, located in the town of Breslau, was a newcomer to aircraft manufacturing, having been established in the previous century to produce locomotives and railroad rolling stock. When World War One broke out, many German companies were drawn in to aircraft design and production. Since Linke-Hofmann had prior experience with steam locomotives, which were considered very complex mechanisms, the flimsy, kite-like aircraft of the time were viewed as being rather simple and uncomplicated machines and, under license, the company was soon building and repairing Roland and Albatros two-seaters, which supplanted railroad machinery.
A view of the Linke-Hofmann R.1 under construction. In the lower left foreground is the fuselage of a Roland C.II.
In 1916, the company was awarded a contract to design and construct a four-engine bomber of the “R” classification type, meaning Riesenflugzeug, or “giant aircraft”. Their first design, the R.1, was unconventional from the start, completely filled the interplane gap between the biplane’s wings. The large fuselage contained the crew compartments divided into three levels. The top deck housed the pilots and radio operator with a wireless station; the middle section held the four Mercedes D.IVa engines and associated clutches and combined gearboxes to the two tractor propellers outside between the wings, and the lower section, the bombardiers, fuel tanks and payload. The aircraft was constructed largely of wood and transparent Cellon was used to cover the rear of the fuselage and tail surfaces.
Two views of the R.1 in Cellon covering
The Cellon was utilized in the hopes of making the aircraft somewhat transparent and therefore less visible while in flight. Unfortunately, it instead tended to reflect sunlight, making the machine even more visible. The material was also highly flammable, quickly yellowed due to the effects of ultraviolet radiation, and shrank and stretched from temperature changes. The experiment was a failure due to those insurmountable problems and the R.1 never flew operationally, but at the time, it was considered revolutionary since the company was attempting to provide stealth to the aircraft by "looking through them" allowing them to blend with the sky.
Artwork side view of the Linke-Hofmann R.1
Linke-Hofmann was not the only firm to experiment with Cellon covering on aircraft to reduce their visibility. In late 1916, an Albatros C.1 two-seater and a Fokker E.III single-seater were also covered and trials were carried out. It is doubtful either saw any operational service.
A Fokker Eindecker in Cellon covering
Great War stealth technology became a quest to hide the aircraft by other means, and most often, it was by using dopes and paints to camouflage the machines on the ground and in the air. In the long run, this proved to be much more effective and stealth by camouflage paint is still the accepted method around the world, even in an age of radar-absorbing materials on many current combat machines.