World War One Whifs

[Wardukw]

Beautiful stuff Steve..love it     

[NARSES2]

I like that Steve 

Leave it in RFC markings with that engine/radiator and you could almost say it was the progenitor of the Bristol Fighter, especially from the front. 

[stevehed]

Thanks Gentlemen. The BE is has great whif potential. Funny the Biff was mentioned. I've been going through the stash and came across an Airfix Bristol Fighter. Don't need another real world version and can't remember what I bought it for?

[stevehed]

This is a follow on from the Albatros D.VI whif entered in the 2015 ATF Whif GB and posted earlier in this thread. The main differences are the tail unit which in this version remains the standard Albatros D.V fantail type instead of the twin elevator of the earlier entry. No aerodynamic reasons, it was to reduce the workload to speed up production. To endure the extreme heat of the Middle East twin radiators have been fitted. Standard Albatros types, mainly DIII's, had two aerofoil radiators in the top wing. For this version there is a single aerofoil which is supported by a car type radiator in the nose in similar fashion to the Fokker DVII. The wings are the same as the 2015 kit and are cut down from the Hannover CLIIIa kit.

In this time line the war continues well into 1919. The Turks have retreated to what is the modern day border and are in dire need of re-equipment. The Albatros DVI appears at the right time and is despatched urgently to the Balkans and Middle East. With this build the main change was the adoption of the car type radiator. I've got several spares from Revell Fokker DVII's. I widened the nose with a piece of 10 thou card and filed the edges to match the contours. It was deeper than the frontpiece so I leveled it into the lower cowling with card which increased the capacity of the radiator. At least that was the theory. Pipe work was 20 thou rod. Although this was supposed to be almost the same basic aircraft as the earlier version it has ended up more different than intended. The upper wing has more forward stagger which, at first, I found a little perplexing. However, I think, last time I added the cabane struts first. These were from the Hannover kit. The top wing was positioned and I had to modify the interplane struts by reducing height and slightly splaying one of the legs. This time I installed the wing struts, unsplayed, as to be honest, I had forgotten why I had splayed them the last time. This meant the Hannover cabanes didn't fit but I found the original Albatros cabanes were a decent fit so what the hell. The rest of the build was pretty much OOB. The prop was a spare, acetate windscreen and the undercarriage was scratched from rod as the kit part had only one leg. This kit first came out in 1957 and is showing its age. The markings are Ottoman squares which were just painted on, the iron crosses show that the pilot was German and the personal marking is an Eastern Express spare, with the cross added to make it a little different. It represents an Albatros DVI, modified for extreme heat, operating with an Ottoman air force Feld Flieger Abteilung, in southern Turkey, circa 1918-19.

This is my first Turkish WW1 type. In real world scenarios I've seen a few Fokker Eindekkers but very little else although there are quite a few options regarding German two seat types. Not forgetting the Allies who flew numerous different types too. But it looks like another area of operations that is ripe for whiffery if 1919 is added into the equation.

[NARSES2]

That looks very good      and yes a Turkish/Balkans post 1918 scenario is an intriguing one.

[DogfighterZen]

Great work indeed!   

[Mossie]

Nice to see an aircraft from the central powers that's not German, rare to see. 

[chrisonord]

I have only just caught up with these, and I am impressed by your skill and patience with these kind of models. i would have given up with them very quickly with my truncheon fingers. 

[zenrat]

Good job.   

In reality fighting did continue in 1919 with various (British) Imperial detachments getting involved in Russia and the likes of Dunsterforce roaming the Caucasus.

[NARSES2]

Good job.   

In reality fighting did continue in 1919 with various (British) Imperial detachments getting involved in Russia and the likes of Dunsterforce roaming the Caucasus.

Very much so and you also had Freikorps operations on the Eastern Front which make fascinating (if slightly) confusing reading.

[stevehed]

Thank You Gentlemen, much appreciated. 1919 can be very confusing. I need to look up the Dunsterforce activities again but if I make them wait a while I may be able to whif a Turko-Russian aerial confrontation in the area as well as re-equipping the Middle East forces.

[scooter]

Good job.   

In reality fighting did continue in 1919 with various (British) Imperial detachments getting involved in Russia and the likes of Dunsterforce roaming the Caucasus.

And US Marines in Vladivostok and Murmansk, supporting the British force.

[stevehed]

Ottoman Fokker DVII and Fokker CI

With the aim of continuing the same Middle East 1919 theme from the last posting, research revealed that a few Fokker DVII's had reached Turkey near the end of the war.  On one site it was claimed a DH9 may have been brought down in the Dardenalles region. For a while I'd fancied trying to kit bash a couple of DVII's into the two seat CI and realized expanding the Ottoman 1919 scenario provided the perfect opportunity. There was a Revell DVII in the stash and I acquired two Esci DVII's. This should provide enough material to kit bash the CI and build a tropicalized  DVII.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/revell-esci-fokker-c-1-conversion-t59924.html

It is one of the simpler conversions which can be finished without lozenge if finished as post war real world. German machines sported all over lozenge and one would have thought this is how such machines would have been sent to Turkey. However, there are several posts on the net that show Turkish DVII's with black square markings sporting all over green. Lozenge apparently faded very quickly in sunlight so it looks like it was probably protected with an overall covering of green varnish. Problem solved but I did apply lozenge on the underwings.

The back story is that the Germans needed a replacement for the venerable Albatros CIII in the Middle East. Fokker had begun production of the CI despite the German Air Ministry, Idfleig, preferring the Halberstadt CV and LVG CVI, for short range duties. In 1919 it would have found ready users in the Middle East so I decided to modify the type for severely hot weather duties. This meant an additional radiator along the leading edge to complement the normal car type. The standard DVII fuselage has to be elongated and I used the Revell forward section combined to the rear of an Esci fuselage. The Esci wings were used and two sets were required to get the extra span of the CI. Strutwise, the Esci cabanes were used but the interplanes were a tad short so I used the Revell set which were a smidgeon longer. The Esci undercarriage looked better to my eyes while the tail sections are identical and interchangeable. This left me with an Esci fuselage and Revell wings which I used to make the tropicalized DVII with a similar leading edge radiator. Markings for both aircraft are fictional and I've gone for dark green upper surfaces with Spanish blue undersurfaces as standard. The CI has lozenge under surface wings as the machines would have come direct from the Fokker works.






The DVII combination of Esci fuselage and Revell wings went together alright and I used Esci undercarriage, wheels and tail unit. On both types the radiator was made from two pieces of undercarriage mounted radiator from the Heller Nieuport 622. Pipework is 20thou rod.






It's proving to be a fruitful are of operations for whiffery. I have a couple of ideas regarding a vac form Pfalz XII and an SE5a, not forgetting, a real world Albatros DIII which could well figure in a whif land scenario.

[Joe C-P]

Great idea, and (sadly) plausible.  Looking forward to more projects, and maybe might trigger some in my own head.

[NARSES2]

Nice to see some WWI wiffs