Another change,(what else is new!) The Camel wings will be modified to look like Eindecker wings covered with Cellon
and then hung on the side wall of the test facility.Because this is a shadowbox it will be easy to fake. Just another story in the Fokker legacy.

My review sample arrived today.Thank you Model Airways.

"Against the Wind "is a very important concept in aviation.We take off against the wind,it determines our air and ground speed,stall speed and our range of flight just to name a few examples.Crosswinds,turbulence,micro bursts etc..all are part the our aircraft's home environment , aviator's must at their peril, be well aware of the consequences of ignoring this fact.
The history of aviation has always been a struggle "Against the Wind",thus the title.

The storyline is starting to come together.It will center around a crashed Fokker Dr.I being hauled to the Fokker test facility on a flatbed ,to try to resolve the upper wing/aileron failures experience in the field.As usual I will be widely deviating from the kit example and it's instruction booklet.Anyone interested in building this kit "out of the box"the instructions are in the box and there is no sense in my repeating it here.

There is a slight change in plans.My research has it that Fokker Fok.DR. 141/17 was the aircraft that the baron had his accident in due to wing problems.It was this airplane that was sent for testing at Adlershof on Nov 5/17.In the diorama I will show this airplanes wing being tested on the hanger floor.It should make a nice addition with its red fabric and insignia.I have learned that the 141/17 may have survived the war and ended up in Cooksfield USA.Somehow it was sent back to German museum but was evacuated to Poland when the allies were pounding Berlin.Someone from the Polish town said that during WW2 he remembers a kid cutting it up for firewood.
The other crashed airplane on the trailer bed will be a different aircraft altogether with no insignia whatsoever.It will be stripped of its fabric except for the area on the fuselage between the pilots seat and the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer.
Adding the Baron's wing being worked on ,just helps me add to the storyline without any major changes.

Courtesy of Shep Paine.

Courtesy of Shep Paine.

Another change !
I was reading about captured aircraft and it seems that it was quite common to force down an aircraft ,steal any new technology,change it's markings and use it for various purposes.
It got me to thinking about the Camel build.Why not build an operational Camel being inspected and having its markings changed.To make room in the diorama I could eliminate the sand truck,bag the sand and load the wing that way.I could then finish the Camel's fuselage,put the wings in racks against the L/H wall of the facility and add a whole new angle to the storyline....

....I soon learned that something I had originally thought was a rare exception, was in fact a widespread, even systematic practice, not only in the Second World War, but from the very first time aircraft were pitted against each other in war.

One thing I know is that no fighter pilot relishes a fair fight. What they want above all is an advantage so that when they go toe to toe with the enemy, they are assured a much greater chance of the win than their opponent. Ever since David and Goliath, a fighter with a technological edge can triumph over a greater opponent. A Luftwaffe fighter pilot would rather engage a Fairey Battle than a Supermarine Spitfire, because the outcome would be weighted in his favour.

One of the simple ways to gain a technological advantage over an enemy it simply know his weaknesses, be familiar with his blind spots, know what it is he can and can't do. As the greatest war theorist of all time, Sun Tzu, wrote in The Art of War – “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles ”. To this end, Allied and Axis nations alike in both World Wars slavered at the chance to take possession of one of their enemy's flying machines and study it up close on the ground and in the air.
Courtesy of Dave O'Malley,Vintage News, Canada.

Compiled by Dave O'Malley from the World Wide Web, with the assistance of Alex Soupy Campbell and Omer Syed.



Over the past seven years of researching aviation stories on the web, I have kept a folder on my laptop dedicated to images of Second World War aircraft that had been captured and had suffered the indignity of being painted in the national makings of the enemy they were designed to fight and vanquish–like a Spitfire in the service of the Luftwaffe, a Zero in US Navy markings.

It has always struck me as undignified to see a Supermarine Spitfire wearing the hated Hakenkreuz (swastika). Here was an aircraft which came to be the poster child for the strength of the British people and their ability to withstand the international bully that was Nazi Germany and now they had their hands and evil symbols all over it. To me, it was an outrage–like vandals spray-painting foul language on my mother's car; as if some thugs had stolen Terry Fox's van and painted 666 and neopaganist pentagrams on the sides.

But I soon learned that something I had originally thought was a rare exception, was in fact a widespread, even systematic practice, not only in the Second World War, but from the very first time aircraft were pitted against each other in war.

One thing I know is that no fighter pilot relishes a fair fight. What they want above all is an advantage so that when they go toe to toe with the enemy, they are assured a much greater chance of the win than their opponent. Ever since David and Goliath, a fighter with a technological edge can triumph over a greater opponent. A Luftwaffe fighter pilot would rather engage a Fairey Battle than a Supermarine Spitfire, because the outcome would be weighted in his favour.

One of the simple ways to gain a technological advantage over an enemy it simply know his weaknesses, be familiar with his blind spots, know what it is he can and can't do. As the greatest war theorist of all time, Sun Tzu, wrote in The Art of War – “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles ”. To this end, Allied and Axis nations alike in both World Wars slavered at the chance to take possession of one of their enemy's flying machines and study it up close on the ground and in the air.

This folder of mine grew to hundreds of photographs and many links to the stories that explained the images. Over the years, I realized that many images that had been in this folder had long ago lost their links to the information I needed to explain them. But that didn't stop me from putting together a pictorial essay. Here for you enjoyment and edification are nearly 250 of those images of captured aircraft wearing spurious markings. The truth is I could have made this a 500 image pictorial tribute, but one has to stop somewhere. These images have come from many sources over the years, and some links I have lost or have ceased to exist. I have written many of the accompanying texts, but in most cases, I have simply edited the texts that I found with the images (thank you Wikipedia). In each case I attempted to find additional sources on the web to back up the stories associated with each image.

In no way is this definitive. In no way is this a historical treatise or be-all and end-all of anything. In no way is this more than simply a visual tribute to all those aircraft that had to endure the indignity of enemy symbols. In many cases I may in fact have it wrong and I invite anyone to show me the correct information and I will update anything. In fact, for this I would be grateful. If anyone has issue with the use of any of this material if it is proprietary, let me know and I will remove offending images.

Let's get the show on the road.

The First World War

During the First World War, advances in aviation were astounding... certainly greater than any “advances” on the ground. The difference between the aircraft at the outset and at the end was nothing short of astonishing. It was easy for one combatant to gain air superiority over another with the simple application of a single new technology. The introduction of the Fokker Eindecker monoplane with its ability to fire its machine gun forward through the propeller without deflectors on the propeller was such an advance, the Allied air forces were at a distinct disadvantage for some months. The capture an enemy aircraft on either side meant a chance to look closely at new technology like synchronizing propellers, new structural and engine technologies. The world of military aviation was advancing so fast, that seeing what the other half was doing was as important as one's own research.

When the First World War started in 1914, it was the habit of ground troops to fire on all aircraft, friend or foe, which “encouraged” the need for some form of identification mark on all aircraft. At first, the Union Flag was painted under the wings and on the sides of the fuselages of Royal Flying Corps (RFC) aircraft. It soon became obvious that, at a distance, the St George's Cross of the Union Flag could be confused with the Iron Cross that was already being used to identify German aircraft – particularly from below and against the glare of the sky. After a Union Flag inside a shield was tried unsuccessfully, it was decided to follow the lead of the French air force which used a circular symbol resembling, and called, a “cockade” (a rosette of red and white with a blue centre). The British reversed the colours and it became the standard marking on Royal Flying Corps aircraft from 11 December 1914, although it was well into 1915 before the new marking was used entirely consistently. The Royal Naval Air Service meanwhile briefly used a red ring, without the blue centre, until it was sensibly decided to standardize on the RFC roundel for all British aircraft.

With ground troops and pilots on both sides attuned to identifying friend from foe based on these new national markings displayed on aircraft, it behooved pilots who were test flying enemy aircraft to mark them in the manner of their own armed forces. This had two benefits. Firstly, all test flights were conducted over friendly territory where ground troops would not take kindly to the flight of a single enemy-marked aircraft doing loops and rolls overhead. Marking the aircraft as friendly was simply common sense. Secondly, should a pilot testing an enemy aircraft, through disorientation, find himself over enemy territory and forced down, it would not result in a good outcome should he be flying an aircraft in the markings of the men who captured him. He would, no doubt, be considered a spy, and despite what ever he did to convince them otherwise, the pilot would likely be shot for wearing the markings of his enemy, much as ground troops posing as their enemies to gain superiority would be treated.

During the First World War, engine technology was still in its infancy. Rotary, in-line and radial engines could and often did, under many situations, simply stop in flight, either packed-in, mishandled or roughly handled. Aerial battles were always conducted over enemy territory for one side or another. Aircraft in perfect condition, except for engine trouble, quite regularly were forced down and captured.

This is an obvious copy of Shep Paine's work but it is interesting to see how the box is put together.Builder unknown.

I often use a plain B&W pic to help with the composition and lighting.

Box builder unknown.
Most boxes excessively restrict the view with mattes(in this case plywood)and with what is called a reveal.I choose to leave my boxes open for viewing with only a small outer frame as a decoration.

Very interesting thread (as ususal). Just a pity that half of the pictures are not there anymore

That is a big problem with photobucket if you try to move pictures around you lose them on the websites.

Here is a pic that I composed to look like a shadow box with a fake reveal,matte border and frame.

Just finishing up the Fokker wings,I am planning to start putting the box back together starting today.The major parts of the composition have been completed ,now it is on to the details.I finished a little more of the composition than I had originally planned for pic taking purposes.A lot of this composition will only exist in pics once the diorama is completed.

Edited pic.

I put this up just because I wanted to see 8,000 before going to bed.

I learned my lesson with the "Keepers Of The Flame" diorama to keep it simple when closing up the diorama.What I mean is a simple way to take it apart and put it back together.There are two reasons for this,one is for future maintenance by the museum and the other is to be able to work on it easily while under construction.
To help myself out I figure that the best way to do this would be to build the box around a semi-permanent wall(In this case the L/H wall)to square everything up,build it,then cut it free when the rest of the structure is built.Of course I could have built a plywood box,screwed it together,but that would have been too easy.I like to erect my structures as they would be built in real life.First the framing and then so on.I like the imperfections !
I am working on an idea involving the use of Velcro instead of screws and glue to hold everything temporarily in place.When finished I could then screw it together and remove the Velcro or leave it on too depending on how I want to finish the outer containment box.