Albatros Dr.III; mount of Ltn. Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte, JaSta 15

Dizzyfugu · April 01, 2015, 09:14:51 AM

An early Easter Egg... and a small and colorful one it is!

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
The Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke's Dr.III was a German triplane single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured during the final stages of the First World War. The Dr.III Triplane had a long development phase and ecame operational at the Western Front in mid 1918, where it was to complement the better known Fokker Dr.I triplane.

However, the path to the Albatros Dr.III was not a straight one. The Albatros Dr. I was the company's first triplane, a direct derivative of the D.V fitted with three pairs of wings instead of two. Identical in most other respects to the D.V, in the summer of 1917 it was flown side by side with the existing biplane in comparison trials. There was no discernible performance advantage and development was halted at the prototype stage.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Next came the Albatros Dr.II, a prototype single-seat fighter triplane. The sole example flew in the spring of 1918, and it was similar in many respects to the D.X biplane, employing among other features the same 145 kW (195 hp) Benz Bz.IIIbo engine and twin 7.92 mm (.312 in) machine guns. The three pairs of wings were sharply staggered, braced by broad I-struts, and shared parallel chords. All three pairs were equipped with ailerons, which were linked by hinged struts.

Stability problems and lack of agility stopped any further development, but directly led to the Dr.III which actually a private venture of Albatros. The aircraft featured a new, shorter fuselage and three narrow-chord wings to provide the pilot with an improved field of view. Ailerons were fitted to all three wings.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Dr.III was powered by the Albatros D.V's proven Mercedes D.IIIa piston engine with 150 kW (200 hp), driving a 2-bladed wooden propeller. The prototype Dr.III first flew on 18 May 1918, and it showed a very good performance and handling, and the inline engine reduced the induced torque through the alternative rotary engines of the era and made the Dr.III a relatively stable weapon platform.

After an official presentation in July 1918 Idflieg placed orders for 250 Dr.III aircraft. Anyway, the D.V still ran in parallel and the Fokker Dr.I received higher priority (also due to its popularity in propaganda), so the Albatros triplane fighter was only built in comparatively small numbers until the end of the First World War: only about 100 aircraft reached the front units from late 1918 on, primarily at the Western Front.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 22 ft 2 in (6.76 m)
Wingspan: 26 ft 8 in (8,13 m)
Height: 10 ft 6 in (3.26 m)
Wing area: 231 ft² (21.46 m²)
Empty weight: 1,101 lb (500 kg)
Gross weight: 1,541 lb (700 kg)

Powerplant:
1× Mercedes D.IIIa piston engine, 150 kW (200 hp), driving a 2-bladed wooden propeller

Performance:
Maximum speed: 117 mph (187 km/h) at 5,000 ft (1,830 m)
Endurance: 350 km
Service ceiling: 20,500 ft (6,250 m)
Rate of climb: 4.17 m/s (821 ft/min)
Time to 6,000 ft (1,830 m): 5 min 50 s
Time to 16,400 ft (5,000 m): 26 min 30 s

Armament:
Guns: 2 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) LMG 08/15 machine guns

The kit and its assembly:
A different subject - WWI whifs are rather rare, and I was looking for a new challenge. Basic idea had been to build an alternative to the famous Fokker Dr.I triplane, and soon I found the sleek Albatros fighters with their typical inline engine to be a good alternative basis.
Anyway, i was surpised that there had actually been two triplane designs by Albatros, so I eventually ended up with a fictional Dr.III designation...

This whif model is a bashing of two Revell kits: the vintage Albatros D.III kit (I built one maybe 30 yerars ago, all red, horrible styrene) and a Sopwith Triplane. I was surprised that material quality was considerably improved since my last encounter with Revell biplane kits, and the moulds aren't bad, either, even though especiacially the D.III kit cannot conceal its age.

Things started with some measurements: simply grafting the Sopwith's wings onto the D.III fuselage would not work, or yield something like the rather ugly Albatros Dr.I. So I used the Sopwith's wingspan/fuselage ratio as benchmark and modified the D.III's fuselage accordingly, cutting away ~1cm of the rear fuselage behind the cockpit and sculpting a new transition towards the tail section from putty - I wanted to keep the typical Albatros teardrop shape.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

From that, the Sopwith Triplane's wings were added from lowest to the top, using the the OOB outer wing struts. Once all wings were in place I placed the Albatros struts between the upper wing and fuselage, which worked pretty well.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The landing gear was taken wholesale from the Sopwith Triplane (it's the smaller of both donation aircraft), but I replaced the rather ugly wheels from both kits with a pair of Hawker Fury wheels from a Matchbox kit, found in the spare box.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Pilot, engine, machine guns and exhaust were taken OOB from the D.III kit, I just scratched a new cooler for the upper wing with styrene.
Rigging was done before painting, with heated sprues (of black plastic); certainly not the orthodox method, but it works for me and my way of building/painting.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Painting and markings:
If you need some color inspiration and destraction from dull RAL and FS tones, I can whole-heartedly recommend a WWI aircraft. German specimen might be extra mind-boggling, e .g. through the complex Lozenge scheme or just the choice of bold colors.
The famous "Red Baron" Dr.I is actually rather dull - there were so many weird and bright machines, some with fantastic personal decorations, it's a wild field for both real world and whif modelers!

My Dr.III has no real paradigm, I rather intergrated several inspirations and was surprised how it turned out! One element I wanted to incorporate was the stunning combination of green and purple on the upper wing surfaces - and I even found a benchmark with three tones.

I uses a mix of Humbrol 73 and 68 (Wine Red and Purple) for the red tone, plus Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green) and 102 (Army Green) as the complementary greens, on all three wings. The tail was to become blue, and I used Humbrol 221 (Garter Blue) since it resembles Prussian Blue. The white trim was inspired by German Albatros D.V fighters, operated by JaSta 5 (green tails with red trim, similar style, though).
The front of the fuselage was kept in Aluminum (Humbrol 56) and bare ply wood under clear varnish. The latter was created with wet-in-wet painting with Humbrol 63 (Sand) and 62 (Leather). As counter-contrasts the spinner and the wheel disks were painted in bright red.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The rest was done with decals. The German "Crosses pattée" for the wings had to be taken from an aftermarket sheet (plus the white contrast fields below them), the wing and fin crosses come from the Revell kit. The white and black fuselage stripes are decals, too, as well as the silver flaps alongside the engine.

For a more personal touch the Dr.III received red lion markings on the flanks - actually, these are the emblems of Aurigny Airways, but the emblem style can also be found in many German ensigns. And I found the German name 'Paul' in white type with red shadows in the decal box - from a conquered British Mark IV tank (Emhar kit, 1:35) - and it perfectly fitted on the rizontal stabilizer als personal pilot marking.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The kit received a very light black ink was as well as some counter-shading and dry-brusing with medium grey in order to emphasize the nice surface structure of the Sopwith Triplane parts. Finally everything was sealed under matt acrylic varnish, applied from a rattle can.

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Albatros Dr.III; mount of Leutnant Paul Cölian, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte's Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel (JaSta) 15; Thiaucourt, October 1918 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A literally small project, I think this one is one of the tiniest aircraft kits I ever built. It's colorful, and looks surprisingly plausible - and I was amazed to find out that my fictional colors markings (red nose, blue tail) more or less resembled the real markings of JaSta 15 from late 1918 on - so there's unexpected realism added to the otherwise fictional aircraft!

Suitable for an April 1st posting!

Flyer · April 01, 2015, 09:24:21 AM

That looks great

TallEng · April 01, 2015, 10:08:55 AM

Is there no end to the Mans talents?

Tanks, WW1 Triplanes.... What ever next?
Nice job

had me puzzled for a while
I knew something was different about the fuselage.
I've got a couple of those old Revell kits maybe I'll give it ago

Regards
Keith

Dizzyfugu · April 01, 2015, 10:33:00 AM

Heh heh... nothing is safe. Just as noone expects the Spanish Inquisition...!

Thank you very much! The fuselage had to be shortened, because the Sopwith Triplane as wing donator is SO tiny... and what sound simple was more complicated than expected, because I had to bridge a 1-2mm gap and still keep the Albatros' fuselage lines. From teardrop to tadpole, sort of? But it works, despite the large original tail surfaces.

DogfighterZen · April 01, 2015, 01:26:14 PM

Great work once again!!

NARSES2 · April 02, 2015, 07:23:57 AM

Flipping heck he does tri-planes as well.

I love it

After the success of the Sopwith tri-plane every man and his dog produced at least one tri-plane design. So if you like them the worlds your oyster.

PR19_Kit · April 02, 2015, 08:22:30 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on April 02, 2015, 07:23:57 AM

After the success of the Sopwith tri-plane every man and his dog produced at least one tri-plane design. So if you like them the worlds your oyster.

Think of all that rigging, aaaaaaggggghhhhh!

Glenn Gilbertson · April 02, 2015, 06:01:05 PM

That looks great!

comrade harps · April 02, 2015, 11:28:54 PM

Another fantastic result from our Renaissance whiffer!

NARSES2 · April 03, 2015, 07:29:00 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on April 02, 2015, 08:22:30 AM
Quote from: NARSES2 on April 02, 2015, 07:23:57 AM

After the success of the Sopwith tri-plane every man and his dog produced at least one tri-plane design. So if you like them the worlds your oyster.

Think of all that rigging, aaaaaaggggghhhhh!

A lot of the tri-plane types didn't need that much rigging

Dizzyfugu · April 03, 2015, 11:08:51 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on April 03, 2015, 07:29:00 AM
A lot of the tri-plane types didn't need that much rigging

That's exactly the selling point here, too! Look at the Fokker Dr.I oder the Triplane: very simple (for the modeler), I actually did more than necessary for this lil' kit. If you want self-punishment, try e. g. a Gloster Gladiator...

Thanks a lot for the feedback, highly appreciated!

Captain Canada · April 03, 2015, 04:37:22 PM

Wow. What a great job on this one ! Love that last pic of her taking off....looks like the real thing ! One of your best yet. Great stuff.

Dizzyfugu · April 04, 2015, 02:09:11 AM

Quote from: Captain Canada on April 03, 2015, 04:37:22 PM
Wow. What a great job on this one ! Love that last pic of her taking off....looks like the real thing ! One of your best yet. Great stuff.

Oh, thanks!? A WWI is a bit unusual, but inspiring. Highly recommended.

PACOPEPE · April 07, 2015, 06:10:38 AM

I just came back from holidays....Fantastic!; i love it!. Very good work too.

Fran

buzzbomb · April 08, 2015, 04:36:08 AM

Nice job, all around everything is really well done