A Little Fokker

The German Fokker E. IV (eindecker) was designed as a replacement for the highly successful E. III to counter the British RAF over the trenches of the Western Front in World War I. Unfortunately, the E. IV was found to be less reliable, slower and much less maneuverable than its predecessor. And it proved to be a poor climber, adding to its woes. Only 49 were built.

This 1/72 scale model represents the aircraft flown by Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of Feld Flieger 6b in 1916.

Wintgens was a pilot of some note in the German air service. He unofficially claimed the first German fighter kill in history on July 1, 1915, when he shot down a Nieuport Parasol. While that kill went unconfirmed, Wintgens went on to become an ace with an official tally of 19 kills. He was the fourth pilot to be awarded the Pour le Merite, the famous Blue Max.

One of only three German pilots known to have worn glasses during World War I, Wintgens went on to receive numerous other awards. before being shot down and killed on September 25, 1916 while defending a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft. We was only 22 years old.

Only one example of an E. IV still exists, housed at the Science Museum in London.

I built this model several years ago from the ICM kit. The rigging is made from paint brush bristles, my tried and proven technique for 1/72 scale aircraft. All in all, it make for a nice addition to my collection of World War I aircraft.

Airacobras!

Here is the rest of the CY6 project I was able to complete last weekend. Yes, I know that totals out to only six aircraft, but at the rate I am going, that’s a lot.

As you can probably tell, this is a pair of P-39 Airacobras. Sorta. I should probably clip that cannon off the front of the one. My original intent was to do four P-400’s for use with the Guadalcanal campaign book. But partway through, I got new info on the paint scheme (who knew those were camouflaged similar to the Flying Tigers?), and so in keeping with recent themes, these ended up as P-39’s in early-war livery. They are most likely destined for use in the Aleutians as well, hence the numbers that match photos I found of P-39’s in that theater. Rest assured I do have some more unpainted P-39/P-400’s, so I will be able to get some painted up for Guadalcanal.

In other news, I did bottle up the latest batch of homemade brew last night. It’s an American blonde ale, sounds pretty good. It will be ready for drinking in about a month. I need to get a shot up of the Cascadia Pale Ale I just did. I must say that it turned out quite well, and may rank among my favorites to date. I have ingredients for another pale ale, I might try that one next.

Lightnings!

A couple more that were finished up over the weekend, a pair of P-38 Lightnings. These are from Scotia and painted up better than I thought, actually. While these may be a later model, I painted them up in an early-war olive drab over neutral gray. The immediate idea is that they will see service in some Aleutians scenarios, among others.

(Wow, I called these P-39s in the original post. Oops. Edited for accuracy.)

A Productive Weekend

This was a weekend for getting things done – hobby related and otherwise.

On Saturday, I got to hang out with the girls a while Saturday morning while my wife went garage saleing, then after I got some outdoor work done, they actually zonked out for a nap for a couple hours. That’s been a rarity lately, and it ended up being my longest uninterrupted time at the bench in weeks. Probably a month and a half or more, if I really think about it.

I used the time to work mostly on some CY6 items that had been languishing, and start some new CY6 projects. More on those in a future update, but this week I’ll at least try to share some of what I finished, like these two P-40Bs. These are the new Raiden minis, and they are simply stunning. While I can’t claim to have seen every 1/285 or 1/300 aircraft out there, these probably rank as the nicest in my collection. So far I picked up a half a dozen, with these two painted up to represent Pearl Harbor defenders Ken Taylor and George Welch. Somewhat limited in terms of scenario options, perhaps, but nice looking aircraft. The other four are slated for Flying Tigers duty. I’ve started them, but they’re not finished yet. These were painted with Testors/Polly S neutral grey undersurfaces and olive drab upper. National insignia are from Dom's decals, the others from I-94.

And to top it all off, I even got the garden planted this weekend! We planted the usual items – tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, onions, zucchini, squash and pumpkins. It may be a little early, but as was the case last year, the last part of May tends to be busy for us, and before you know it, it’s June and getting late. So I’m very glad we got it in. It has done very well the last few years, so I think we can look forward to some tasty goodies. We also have plans to upgrade our herb garden, so we’ll see how that goes. Oh, and my wife had some new idea about planting with Epsom salts that is supposed to act as a natural fertilizer. We’ll see how that goes. I’m also thinking about investing in some nicer tomato cages. You can see I didn’t put any up yet – I have those old circular, flimsy ones that are pain to put in and don’t work that great anyway.

About the only thing I didn’t get to this weekend is I do have a batch of beer that needs bottling. Maybe some evening. Yeah, right.