Albatros D.III O.A.W.

Kit: Eduard (1:48)

This was an OOB build of Eduard's 1/48 scale kit. Markings were taken from an aftermarket Eagle Strike sheet. My main reason for this choice was that I'd never done an Albatros before, and I wanted a crack at the lovely wood finish of these birds. The kit went to together nicely, all I added was a clear styrene windshield. The fuselage was brush-painted in oils, with each panel a slightly different shade and grain (which turned out difficult to see). Once it had cured for a few days, I brushed over it with future and applied the decals. The wings were brush-painted with acrylics, futured, decaled and the whole thing futured again. Rigging was 2lb fishing line painted with acrylic blackish-silver. Weathering was light, a bit of dry-brushing round the tail surfaces and some 'flaked off paint' around the spinner. The lesson here was to do with rigging; as per the DURAS system, drill the rigging holes at the angle the line is to come out at!

Fokker D.VII

Kit: Revell (1:48)

This was an OOB build of Revell's 1/48 scale kit in the markings of Ltn Oliver von Beaulieu-Marconnay, of Jasta 15 in the summer of 1918. My main reason for this choice was that I'd never done lozenge before, and this option gave me the chance. The kit went to together nicely, and I was able to get a bit creative in hand painting the instruments and adding a clear styrene windshield. Te aircraft was finished in acrylics and was brush-painted. I feel that my choice of blue was perhaps a little dark, but following on from a lesson learned in my previous SE5a build, I masked and painted under the white personal markings on the fuselage. Weathering was a simple dry-brushing of a sooty/oily brown colour. I also hand painted the rib-tapes on the underside of the wings. The main lesson from this kit was to do a little more research on colours, etc before starting. For instance The only profile I have subsequently seen of this aircraft shows lozenge on top of wings, whereas kit instructions had them as blue.