Has any of you gentlemen ever tought of building a WWI fighter and painted it in YOUR colours, your own personal markings etc?
If so what would it look like?

Interesting question Jan. I have often thought about a Spitfire in my personal markings, it would have a sharkmouth and be coded MP-M. I live in hope of flying one, in those markings, in Il2 Stormovik I am in the process of building my first WW 1 aircrfat model a Fokker D.VI and I love it (see the Royal Fokker thread) German planes were so colourful but british ones, on the whole weren't. However there were a few British aircraft that sported some colourful markings so why not add a few. I am, at the moment stuck for choice. I don't know what aircraft I would prefer so hopefully Jackflash will jump in here and tell me which British aircraft in WW 1 was, in his opinion, the best. Because if you are going to have a great set of markings you'd want the best aircraft (like the Spitfire) to put them on. I can then try and come up with scheme, but it will probably be red and blue, my Corpos colours
Mal

Hi Mal,
Jackflash is of course the expert, but if it's put to a vote the Sopwith Scout gets mine.

Greetings all;

The best of the best and doing "your own Flying Circus machine"? Jan and Mal do know how to make a post interesting! Here is one of several I have done in hypothetical markings. Betcha thought it was going to be another Fokker D.VII....Surprise! Consider this the Albatros D.V (not Va) machine of my alter ego from the Royal Fokker thread, Oblt. Stefan Löwenson when he served in Jasta 78b in about autumn 1917.

While the Alb. D.V was not the best of the best my line of thinking was that I wanted to use up some of the spare decals I had. So I combined leftover items from four different schemes to concock my own plausible markings.

For the best of the best there are several lines of thought.

A. Low altitude = rotary engined.
B. High altitude = inline engined.
C. What year of the war?
D. Overall ultimate, singleseat fighter...the cats whiskers?
E. Allied or Central powers.
F. Prototypes or production.

It is said that there were two kinds of pilots, rotary or inline. In my point of view;

Overall allied rotary... the Sopwith 2F.1 land version with the Bentley B.R. 1, 150hp

Overall allied inline... the Royal aircraft Factory SE 5a with the Wolseley Viper ,200-220hp. The only reason I don't include the Spad XIII with the Hispano - Suiza 220hp is that they had a lot of down time. The radiator was attached directly to the gear housing and vibrations degraded the double soldered radiator. Lots of leaks. But when it flew there was a reasobnable comparison between them.

Overall Central powers rotary...Siemens Schuckert D.III or D.IV with the Siemens Halske .IIIa , 160hp ( that actually put out 200 -220hp.)

Overall Central powers inline... Fokker D.VII with the BMW IIIa 185hp (that actually put out closer to 200hp.)

My sincerest thanks for your's and Mal's kind words

Hi Jan

Well, if I ever manage to get on with it, the Sopwith Camel I'm building is called Black Prince and marked with a neat "M" for Merlin! :-)

Thinking of the Black Prince made me wonder if there was a mediaeval coat of arms I could legitimately put on the side of my fictional fighter... amazingly, there is! And it would look pretty cool!

All the best

Rowan

I think that I'll dig more into this could be fun...
I think that I'll do one Allied and Central powers machine though, too difficult to choose sides...lol! I'll see if I can come up with something for a Lucky13 for the Allied one and Black Knight (another name that I use) for the Central...

What to fly......what to fly.....

The whole plane would be painted in the Stewart tartan for the Scot in me.
Insignia would be made by a Canadian flag with the maple leaf replaced with a green shamrock to denote my Irish ancestry and the side bars green, too. A bow and arrow will designate the last name of Archer!

Hmmmmmmmmm, sounds like an interesting thing to do!

Indeed it does.....

As for choosing sides here is an interesting thought. How about two brothers separated at birth or the sinking of the Titanic? They grew up in separate European households. You could do a machine from both combatants.

Also a further comment on the "Cats Whiskers" There was the Sopwith Snipe which could be considered as Lord Tommy Sopwith's last great fighter.

Cool idea Steph! I like it very much......

So far I have decided that it'll be early September 1917 and my German alter ego has just recieved his spanking new Fokker Dr.I ...

My allied counterpart will have recieved an equally new Spad XIII......

Both will have survived almost a year at the front.

And for victories.....?

Embarrassingly to admit--most of mine up to recently.

It all started as a kid reading SGT Rock, Enemy Ace, etc., playing war games with personal characters like Red Baron, Dauntless, Air Force, Squad Leader; having a proclivity for art and a creative streak, and interest in history. The advent of computer games like Aces Over The Pacific, Aces Over Europe and especially Red Baron ( I & II) really helped jump-start me back into modeling.

I have had jobs with a great deal of down-time affording me much time to read, study, make notes, daydream... I even have unit histories for some of my creations. Not surprisingly, I have a detailed history of my freelance model railroad.

One thing I always strive for is plausibility. I can not bring myself to just make something up.
many of my models, e.g., Fokker Dr.I, P-40E "Merry Beth" (not the Hasegawa Aleutian Tiger--it is 100% Chennault's), Ki-44 Shoki, the recently posted FW-190 and Bf-109F, Panzer IIIE...all are my own units/markings. Created via research of the prototype...

Really like the idea Steph...worth thinking more about.
Anyhoo.....
Was bored today, so I Christened my Central Power pilot Johann Otto Burghausen.....
While I'm on the line folks.......what's in your toolbox?

What's the comments on Roden's SE-5's in 1/48? Any heads up?

Here is a bit of fun on the subject.
http://aircraft.armorama.com/review/1239

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/568

Note this is a build from another modeler on another site. See the exhausts...too far away from the fuselage. Double RAF wires too far apart. White bar on turtle deck has some silvering. Otherwise a very nice build.

Hi Stephen

That is a lovely build! With a couple of Roden's SE5as on the shelf waiting to be built one day, I was struck by your comment about the exhausts. Does that mean the kit's manifold covers are too prominent too?

All the best

Rowan

Hey Rowan!
it is a matter of getting the right distance of the exhaust tubes from the fuselage and adjusting the sit of the heads accordinly. First I dry fitted the parts. On one kit, I had to modify the cutout in the upper cowling ( where the heads sit) and on the next I simply cut down the base of the heads that insert into the cutout. Either way work fine. I would post images but they are commited to a magazine article yet to be published.

[quote]


Hi
Se5a is real nice figther,If you don´t have Parts echt for the kit already.order it.
Would like to see a Se5a thread after the summer
Lars

Yayyy!!

Christmas is early this year ! :-) Just got my (1/48) two Roden SE-5's, one -5 and one -5a plus a Eduard Nieuport Ni-17 and Albatros D. V....
Now I'm only waiting for my Royal Fokkers...... Before I attempt anything, I'm gonna study the plans hard to make sure that I understand them and so on, see where everything is going, rigging, PE...... I'm also checking those links that you gave me Stephen, thanks!
What's the best and/or easiest way to deal with the rigging on these lovely ladies? The plans for that is a wee bit confusing, being used to WW II aircraft. I saw that on the PE for the Albatros and the Nieport that they're already holes in them for the lines. Questions is though is that enough or should I use a small drill and pull the lines through and glue them?
Any help and suggestions are MOST welcome and appreciated my friends...
Now I'm off to get some glues, tools and stuff....
Is it just me, or does everybody feel like a wee kid again when they get a new kit??? :-) :-)

Mine is also pretty cool, don't you think?

Mal

That would look really cool on a fighter....on the sides or on the top of the wing.....
Come on Mal......Now I want to see you build something with that on... :-) :-)

Mine seems to fit me.
http://www.houseofnames.com/coatofarms_details.asp?sId=&s=Lawson

Now we just need to decide what kind of aircraft? Since these are coats of arms from the English points of view...

I was thinking about a Sopwith 2F.1 with twin Lewis guns and twin Vickers. Bentley rotary, maybe a BR .2 220hp?

I haven't really given it any thought until I read this post, but I would have to go with a Bf-109 E-4 and have my tattoo,(the newest one on my upper arm) as my flight insignia. It's a duck with almost all his feathers plucked off and he's asking.... Who! Me? I haven't decided to paint all the nose yellow or just the bottom portion, or what color the spinner will be.

Keep talking, keep talking.....
This would be my crest. mum and dad changed their last name in the 60's...

http://www.houseofnames.com/coatofarms_details.asp?sId=&s=Nordstrom

Soon enough we'll end up with our own Jasta or something with fighters adorned with family crests....