Wednesday, December 02, 2009 - 06:54 AM UTC
Based on Roden’s plastic and inspired by the aircraft of the movie version of Jack D. Hunter’s fictional character Bruno Stachel, here are some infos and pictures of Encore E Models' new 1:72 scale Pfalz D.III "Blue Max" kit.
EC72004 "Blue Max" Pfalz D.III 1:72 scale ECONO-KIT $9.99 Retail

Bagged kit. Luftstreitkrafte streamlined and rugged biplane fighter kit. Features detailed exterior, full Mercedes engine and cockpit interior. Decals and painting reference for a single fictitious cinema inspired lozenge covered machine.


While the Pfalz D.III and follow-on D.IIIa were historically significant and aesthetically pleasing, these aircraft are seldom represented in the fiction and cinema of WWI.

The most notable exception is found in Jack D. Hunter’s 1964 novel, The Blue Max, in which the protagonist, Leutnant Bruno Stachel, is assigned to pilot Pfalz 4201/17. This aircraft would have been a very early D.IIIa with raked lower wingtips and blunt cabane strut ends (as on the earlier D.III). This machine is further described as being finished in factory-standard silver-gray with no insignia excepting black and white iron cross insignia (typically Pfalz did not apply white borders around the cross pattée).

When the book was adapted to the silver screen in 1966, Stachel’s Pfalz received a very different look. No Pfalz D.III then existed and CGI was years away, so two ‘replicas’ were built – one incorporated a modified de Havilland Tiger Moth fuselage and the other a custom wooden fuselage. These machines exhibited a mixture of D.III and D.IIIa qualities – guns mounted on the upper fuselage decking (as on the D.IIIa) and a trapezoidal tailplane (as on the D.III). Further the markings were not authentic, most of the aircraft being covered in a 7-color lozenge camouflage (German standard patterns were 4 and 5 color combinations) and were never applied to a Pfalz as seen in this motion picture. Still, the effect was remarkable and this approximation of an approximation is what this kit seeks to capture.


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Comments

I just had the Squadron Dec.09 supplement catalog delivered in the mail. This item takes front page. Its interesting that the original two machines were built (in 1965) by Doug Bianchi (died 1977) in the UK from Gypsy Moths and still exist in private hands. I wonder if the lozenge decals are included in the kit?
DEC 02, 2009 - 08:41 AM
Will be looking out for this one once it hit's the shelf at the LHS Thanks Jean-Luc !
DEC 02, 2009 - 01:02 PM
The original movie aircraft now resides in New Zealand in Peter Jackson's collection. It has been repainted in a more authentic finish and flies regularly at airshows here.
DEC 03, 2009 - 10:14 AM
Looks like they are!
DEC 14, 2009 - 07:03 AM
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