JASTA 5 "The Green Tails"
I've just added three more Albatross to my JASTA 5 for a total of 12 Albatross D.V and 1 Pfalz D.III ... and I'm officially done with it! I won't paint another green tail ... for now
JASTA 5 Line-up of 8 airplanes as seen at Boistarncourt, July 1917
Four more Albatross D.Va from a diferent time frame. From left to right:
Richad Flashard "iron guantelet"
First Rumey (45 kills)
Joachim Hippel (2 kills)
Unknown Pilot (red with white star)
my full 12 Albatrossen JASTA 5
Karl Lowensen, worked as a civil servant in a tax office. His 3 leaves clover personal marking is a Steuerwappen (tax seal)
one of my favourite Jasta 5 Albatross is this White Stalion. Pilot is unknown
First Rummey definetelly liked flamboyant schemes for his flying machines.
Alfred Sturm's "Phoenix", he claimed his only victory flying this airplane. Sturm survived the war and become a Ltn General in the Luftwaffe during WW2
Ltn Wolf: with only two confirmed victories this guy had one of the most complicated schemes I've seen. The re-painting was surprisingly straightforward though: I nailed it with the decals' size and it took me least than a leak to finish it!
Ltn. Niesen's airplane was one of the hardest re-painting. The white field underneath the bacl bar under the cockpit was really hard to do as a decal or to mask and airbrush, so I ended up hand painting it.
Look what you have done! Until now I thought six Jasta 5 are enough. But those great planes have made me thinking about building another six Valom .
By the way: I would have been done the bar decal as follows: white base coat on the model. Printing the black bar with a transparent surrounding area which is again surrounded by a grey line on a transparent decal sheet. So you can easily paint with the grey fuselage colour „against“ the grey outline. Of course you could use a white decal sheet, too.
Very impressive planes, just lovely
More Albatrossy loveliness!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
A fine flight they look too Ezekiel.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Very nice J18 and J17.
Nice job on the two Jasta, Ezekiel. Really well done wood on J17 which tough to do at 1/144 scale
Well, they'll do!
Lovely job!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Hey Ezekiel, you've got a lot of great looking aircraft on this thread.
Nice work Ezekiel, a bit of yellow mellow followed by some red and white delight !
Sapiens qui vigilat... "He is wise who watches"
Thanks Paul! It's quite simple actually: first prime the mini on flat white paint. Then just paint it with a yellow ochre oil painting using a flat brush. That will give you a wood grain looking. Let it dry for at least three days and add a protective clear coat -- I spray it with semi-gloss Rust-Oleum Clear Painting. It is a good idea to do two light protective coats.
Finally, for a bonus-points finishing you may want to highlight panels lines: get a very slim brush and use a very diluted mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna (start with 50-50) oils: grab a small drop of the mix and let it drain through the panel lines. Let dry for a few hours, and clean any excess using an ear stick gently wet with thinner. Be careful with the ear-stick: the keyword here is "gently": gently wet and gently rubbing. Thinner is a strong solvent and you risk washing out even the Rust-Oleum protective coat if you rub hard. With some practice you can even create a blurred effect -- but I don't care to go that far in a playing mini.
Let dry well again for a couple of days and finish with two additional Clear-Rust Oleum protective coats.
I know it sounds difficult, but it's actually quite simple -- although somewhat time-consuming.
*JASTA 26*
This is the final cut of my JASTA 26
They are a total of eight Albatros D.Va
*Historical Background*
Jagdstaffel 26 was established at FEA 9 in Darmstadt on 14 December 1916. It was a successful Jasta: the unit scored 177 verified aerial victories. His most notorious commander was Oblt Bruno Loezer, who was credited with 44 aerial kills and is infamous for his close friendship with Hermann Goering. On 21 February 1918, Jasta 26 was assigned to Jagdgeschwader III (JG III), along with Jasta 2, Jasta 27, and Jasta 36. Hauptmann Loerzer was promoted to command the new wing. Bruno's younger brother, Fritz Loerzer, assumed command of Jasta 26, while the Bruno took command of the J.III -- although he kept flying with the J-26
*The Color Scheme*
Jasta 26 did have in my opinion one of the most eye-catching painting schemes of all German Luftstreitkrafte, consisting of wide black and white vertical stripes all along the fuselage. I'm always surprised that I haven't seen any other re-painting of these planes beside mines, and it's a shame Ares never produced an official J-26 unit. Granted, it is a difficult scheme to paint. I have over 30 years of experience building scale models and I've re-painted dozens of WoG miniatures, and yet I've run into no little troubles to come up with a decent re-painting for this pesky scheme. But it is doable, and I've seen some other schemes that are also quite hard to do. So, yes, I'm surprised I haven't seen other people doing re-paintings of this Jasta.
*The Planes*
Albatros with Lozenge Camo are Valom Kits, improved with wing ribs made with stretched plastic, scratch built struts and Aviattik's decals. They were all located at Isehem in the late summer of 1917
Albatros with Purple and Green camo are official Neux Wings of Glory re-paintings. I fully disassemble them and re-painted fuselage. I kept however wings original cammo as much as I could. These planes were located at Albeele and Bavichove in October-November of 1917
All of them have 3D printed undercarriages designed by Kampfyer and available at Shapeways. The fuselages were airbrushed using Vallejo Air Acrylics. For masking, I used Tamiya flexible masking tape 3mm for black stripes and 4mm for white stripes. Decals for national markings (the Maltese Crosses) are both from Valom and Miscmini. Personal pilot's markings are home printed decals.
Valom kits vs Neux Oficial WoW Miniatures
Comparing Valom Kit vs Neux/Ares Miniature
Valom's fuselage and rudder are much better than WoG's ones
WoG's wings are better given Valom's lack of ribs. I had to scratch build ribs for Valom's kit wings. The result is good because I added a lozenge decal. If I had to paint it the looking would have been not satisfactory.
WoG miniature is, of course, sturdier than Valom's kit. But using scratch building struts the Valom one is good enough. It is still weaker than Neux/Ares miniature but is sturdy enough as other gaming miniatures such as Starwars ones.
If I could, I would build only 'Frankensteins' using Valom's fuselages with WoG wings and engines, and 3D printed undercarriages. Problem is each miniature would cost over $25
I hope you enjoy them
Very nice Ezekiel. Like you I'm surprised there are no J26 planes here. I have some Shapeways put aside for J26 but am not sure when I will get to them.
As you say, Exekiel, that quite a bit of work. Rep dispatched!
Nice looking aircraft, Ezekiel. Nice bit of information to go with the pictures too.
With the little knowledge I have on reproducing conic sections I managed to knock out a couple of the circles for making my own decals, but as the taper is not a true cone quite a bit of fudgery was needed to get them looking anything, and aircraft all vary so they can only be used on one type. I went back to hand painting them.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
I agree painting straight lines around cigar/cone-shaped fuselage of the Albatros D.V is a hard one. I had repainted a couple of Jasta 26 before but I wasn’t happy with the result. This time I think I nailed it though.
My first, un-satisfactory, had been masking and airbrushing. Later, I tried decals, just like Rob. It didn’t work at all.
So this is my third attempt.
Here is what I did now:
Just like at my first attempt I did go for the masking and airbrushing. But this time I (a) studied pictures carefully and come with very precise mask size, and (b) used Tamiya flexible masking tape. Flexible masking tape is crucial because it allows you to correct it while wrapping around the cone-shape fuselage.
So If someone wants to give it a try there is what I’ve learned. Step by step.
1. You need complete disassembly the miniature (or use a Valom kit)
2. Prime the fuselage in white.
3. Let dry and cover the fuselage with a protective coat (I use Rust-Oleum transparent clear paint).
4. Now you wrap the Tamiya Flexible Masking Tape. There are some other ones in the market. There is a light blue one that is good for the money -- it isn’t for modeling though.
There are a few things you have to be careful with:
Flexible masking tape has a higher adherence than regular one. So it is a good idea to take some of it out by applying and removing the tape on a clean surface. The protective transparent coat applied on the previous step also helps.
Black stripes are narrower than white ones. The stripe that goes around the cockpit is the narrowest. It is also a good idea to make wider white bands for the sections where the pilot’s personal marking and the national insignia decals will be placed – the two last in the fuselage.
With that in mind, I used 4mm wide tape for masking.
And I left 3mm wide sections between them for airbrushing the black stripes. 2mm for the black stripe around the cockpit. And for the two black stripes on the very front of the nose and the one on the very read I just left a small spot: I wrapped the white tape following the panel lines close to the nose and tail and left the tips unmasked.
If you look at the following pic: Blue Stripes #2 and #4 are 3mm wide. Strip #3 is 2mm wide. Strips #1 and #5 are whatever they are. All White Stripes are 3mm
Now, here is an important trip about how to do the masking: I started from one of the tips, usually the nose, and applied the Tamiya 4mm masking tape following close a panel line. That way you make sure you are wrapping around the cone-shape in a correct way. The flexible tape will allow you to make adjustments. Once I had that first masking tape applied, I applied a second masking tape of a different color (light blue), this is now a 3mm tape. Apply it as close as the first one you can. This second light blue masking tape will be removed before airbrushing. Its only purpose is to give you the correct wideness for your black stripe. Then apply another Tamiya White 4mm right next to the light blue one. Repeat the operation.
Once you finish masking this way you simply remove the light blue tapes and you are ready for airbrushing.
5. AIRBRUSH! Vallejo Acrylic Air black.
6. Remove masking tapes.
7. Make any correction with a small flat brush. Be very careful
8. Apply a protective coat.
9. If you are going to do any paneling, this is the moment.
10. Decals!
Important note: the fuselage of Valom kits is much better (and accurate) than Ares/Neux. It's cone-shape is correct, with more vertical sides. Neux/Ares is very much a circle. This makes Valom's much easier to masking for this Jasta Scheme. So I strongly recommend considering getting Valom kits for those of you who really want to do a Jasta 26
If anyone wants the files for home-printing the pilot’s personal markings, just PM me
Last edited by flash; 09-10-2020 at 23:23.
Great job on the Jasta 7 Tim
I love those black birds
Degelow's Pfalz is one of the most elegant airplanes in all WW1
Ezekiel, those are amazing! I love the detail!
Great looking trio Ezekiel.
Thanks Jeff. You know there will be at least one more coming!
wow pete, youre creeping towards clipper level productivity lol!!! nice lookin pfalzes
Another very impressive showing Pete.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Those are beautiful, Peter! Great color choices.
Magnificent Jasta!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Amazing! Candy for my eyes. Very wonderful Pete!
Thanks guys. I think Jasta 30 looks really sharp and is way under-painted! Not sure when I'll get to fly these. Covid-19, go away!
Would love to know HOW you did these, especially Bohning. Superb work Ezekiel, and very discouraging to normal human beings.......
Really nice Jasta 30 work Peter. Is a lot of this paint? lordy..............
i wish I could paint so small with my shaking hands very nicely done.
Peter, the lineup is quite a display!
Awesome work Maestros. I'm humbled.
Well, not super amazing but I am happy with my results. I wanted a few more Jasta 10 Pfalz. Here are my recruits.
First is my version of Aloys Helmann. Vallejo Pale Grey Blue one the Fuselage with Vallejo Blue for the tail. Decals from the Aerodrome Store.
I continued the scheme of different color tails. Next is Pilot Roter Schwanz. Vallejo Pale Grey Blue one the Fuselage with Vallejo Vermilion for the tail. Decals from the Aerodrome Store.
Finally is Pilot Lila Schwanz. Vallejo Pale Grey Blue one the Fuselage with Vallejo Blue Violet for the tail. Decals from the Aerodrome Store.
Now Werner Voss and Hans Klein have some wing men to go hunting with.
WOW Dan those are fantastic. Someday we will get to see them in person.
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