The Little World

An internet site claims that Manfred v. Richthofen flew a red, yellow-tailed Albatross D.III at some stage of his career. I have no idea if this is true.

However, I like the idea of breaking up the all-red of the Revell kit’s scheme so this was as good a choice as any. I recognise the limitations of the kit, and will save a more ambitious paint job for a new Airfix or Eduard example of the plane.

The build was actually pleasant – if you get past the scrappy nature of he sprue trees on old kits, you can come to some consolation in the end. I regard 1:72 s a miniature or a sketch, and it pleases me as such.

The wings do not set quite right. I suspect I have crossed a cabane somehow…but do not want to wrench it apart for a few degrees correction. In the past I have done this and discovered that it was not I who erred, but the maker of the kit. And I had a worse mess than before. I depend upon the splendid red to dazzle the eye of the spectator and leave it at that.

I do not have enough models yet to set up an Imperial German Air Service shelf in the collection as distinct from other WW1 types. However, there are models still on the shop shelves or in the stash and the fear of biplanes is diminishing.