NOTE: All pictures in this thread are "thumbnails" -- click on them for a larger picture if you desire.


I have selected a combat from 25 April 1917, except in this case, the ace is the loser. If you followed discussions over in the campaign Forum thread you'll know there is some controversy over this action and no little conflicting information. I have selected the information I like and here we go -- my interpretations are as good as any.



On 25 April 1917 at 0815AM (0915 German time) near the towns of Oppy/Gavrelle, Vizefeldwebel Sebastian Festner, an NCO pilot of Jasta 11 with 12 kills, attacked Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutters of 43 Sqn, RFC, and was shot down and killed. The victors were Lt C.R. O'Brien (pilot) and 2Lt J.L. Dickson (gunner). Although Dickson apparently fired the fatal shots, both received credit -- their 3rd and 2nd victories respectively.



Vzfw Festner's aircraft. All sources seem to agree that he flew Albatros D.III 2251/16. There are no known pictures of this aircraft and only the Kagero Jasta 11 book has gone out on a limb and published a color drawing. Right, wrong, or unknown, I'm going to use that as my guide -- it is reasonable given the sketchy descriptions in other books. Fortunately my chosen color scheme is simple, except the factory finish nose.

I am using the Eduard 1/48 Albatros D.III Limited Edition kit, and also have the Profi-Pack version. This is going to be a fairly simple build -- I'll use some but not all of the extra goodies. These two kits certainly are nice and they come with a lot of markings options.



O'Brien/Dickson's aircraft. A 2-seater Strutter, serial A8232. I have no photo of this specific aircraft but 43 Sqn did not adopt it's pyramid squadron marking until later summer so it is reasonable to assume a simple PC-10/CDL scheme with typical national markings. In 43 Sqn, as with many others, aircraft were marked with a letter for the flight and a number for the aircraft within the flight. These varied in size, location, and "font". I do not know what flight O'Brien or Dickson were part of, nor the aircraft number so I am simply going to use the B5 that comes with the kit.

I am using the Roden 1/48 Strutter kit - this is the one with clear plastic fuselage and flying surfaces will supposedly enable one to achieve true "see-thru" of doped fabric aircraft. Don't hold your breath ... in fact I've probably blown that in the fuselage already by spraying very very light grey as inside fabric. Regardless of my thoughts on clear plastic, this is a typically good Roden multi-media kit.



An afternote. Festner we know about. O'Brien, in a different aircraft with a different gunner, was shot down on 1 May 1917 and became a POW. He apparently survived captivity but I know nothing else of him. I can find no mention of J.L. Dickson in casualty lists and so assume he also survived the war but I know nothing more of his service or life after the war.

Please note that I have some other priorities on the workbench right now, so this will not progress very fast for a while. But just to show that plastic is being harmed, here's my pile of plastic with some paint applied ...



Questions, comments, etc ???

John

Greeting JRatz!

Very nice start! One word of caution. The camouflage on this machine was in the 3 colour format. dk grn, light green and Venetian red (red brown.) The undersurfaces were of course in lt. blue. Member Dan San Abbott's forte is the the Albatros D.III camouflage. You may want to check with him for the sequence and layout.

Funny picture your last one. I do wonder what you make of the Strutter with its clear plastic. Got one on my stash. Understood that Rode got so many bad critics for it, they changed it into normal plastic.

Greetings, Nico

Stephen (and Nico):

I got this from DSA, over on The Aerodrome I think, and I plan to adjust the Kagara colors accordingly (well within limits of what I have in paint available or can sorta mix) ...
All Albatros built machines in following serial number batch had their upper surfaces painted in an asymetric three color camouflage of : Dark olive green, pale whitish green and rust brown. The rudder was painted the same color as the central color on the tailplane. The trailing edge of the rudder was straight, not rounded. The under surfaces and wheel covers were painted sky blue. Fuselage were shellacked and varnished in warm yellow color, they were not stained. All Struts, cowlings and all external metal parts were painted grey, tinged green.
1. 400 Alb.D.III 1910/16 to 2309/16.

Nico,
The concept was interesting, but I think it takes more painting skill than I have. Also it makes for brittle plastic and, especially on tailplane, a much thicker plastic than usual ... It won't be all that pretty ...

John

Tick tick tick... John! Oh John! Now where is he...? His area of the hangar is quiet.

Buried, struggling, etc. 3 IPMS reviews behind, review posting on IPMS got behind, some major stuff going on in the town that I'm involved with, all the usual real life stuff ...

I'm mostly done the interior of the Albie, but a couple pieces a day just isn't progress. I had hoped to have it buttoned up 3 weeks ago so I could start the Strutter interior.

I will keep plugging away ...

John

8 April Update (click on images for larger)

Just to show I haven't been completely idle, just too darn busy, here are the pix of my Albatros cockpit.
After a double check that I haven't left anything too obvious out, I'll go ahead & seal up the fuselage.



I then intend to shift to the Strutter and get it to roughly the same state of build ...

Sorry, but this isn't going at all the way I planned ...
John

That looks quit familiar to me

Carry on building

Nico (reaching end of part one; the Albatros)

Nico,

Don't do what I did -- Stephen pointed out that I got the magneto switch (the black assembly on the RHS wall) on the wrong fuselage side & sure enough when I went back to the instructions & looked closely I could see it. Wish they had a "This end forward" arrow. Anyway, it's gonna stay right where it is ...

John

OK, fuselage is closed up, tail is on, lower wings are on, landing gear is prepped.

I'm starting to paint the fuselage.

And the wings, and now I'm confused about the order of colors. I have a post from DSA that gives colors as Dark Olive Green, Pale Whitish Green, Rust Brown on top wing and I assume that runs from left to right.

Roden color charts, many others, have different order. I note Stephen & Nico seem to follow the DSA sequence. What is correct and how can so many references have so many different schemes ?

Now you know why I do British -- PC10/12 up, CDL under - easy ...

Thanks,
John

As if PC10/PC12 is easy!!!! Wow, I can hardly recall the number of fierce arguments wether PC10 is brown or green

As far as the DIII went, I simply stuck to Stephen's findings

Greetings, Nico

Hey John,

There is some evidence that the camouflage pattern or the sequnce of colours was changed or completely flipped every 50 or so machines.

My serial is 2251/16, what would you guess that to be - Dark Olive on the Left or the Right ?

Thx, John

I'll have Dan San Abott ring in on that. This is his forte.

John you still out there? Waggle your wings sir!

Yes, I have an assembled fuselage with lower wings attached.
I have the plywood front fuselage painted, the red rear fuselage painted, and the green stripe -- and some leakage thru the masking to fix. I have a paint batch mixed for what I understand is primered metal up front. I'm gonna mix some light blue under-wing colors & the top of wing colors, any day now ...

I'm really buried with some other things, and my bench is not getting a lot of attention right now ... Strutter is really dormant ... Let's not be real hard & fast on ending dates ....

John

Greetings John;

You and Nico seem to be in the same boat as it were. Would it help if we moved the finish date to July 31st?

Hey John check this out.




DONE!!!

All I can promise is valiant effort ...

John

Sorry, I am formally dropping out. I have not been near my bench in a month and when I get there, I have other priorities.

I regret having to do this because I certainly enjoyed the research effort that I had to put into this GB and I highly recommend a similar format for other GB -- well done, Stephen !!!

Again, my apologies
John

No worries John. Life sort of takes over once in awhile. Were still here and with you no matter what comes.