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WNW Fokker D.VII Unknown Pilot Jasta 54


Gazzas

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Hey everyone,

   It's been a while since I posted a build here.  I'm not good enough to be a slow builder, but there has been a lot of armor and other scale stuff that I've spent time on.   Once in a while, there is a photo that pops up that just know you must do.  Sometimes, I find that other modellers have already beat me to the punch, and I need to find another scheme.  I did Wollf's D.Va by WNW a couple years ago, and although I enjoyed every minute of it, I felt like I was just 'assembling' somebody else' fantastic work once finished.  This has caused me to give away the remainder of the Green Tail Trilogy decals.

 

Likewise with this Fokker D.VII.  This kit is actually the Fokker D.VII (Alb).  But I have dressed it up as a Fokker D.VII (OAW).   And here is my inspiration photo:

VpdJ6O.png

I've probably gotten quite a few things wrong...  but what else can you do when you have one picture?  Guesswork.  And a little help from some people who know more.  Anyway...  here are my results:

 

107463991_952599915206750_41315455375016

 

107249000_952599891873419_53019835140186

 

106786661_952599898540085_77234788639342

 

107707708_952599955206746_22480212298620

 

106734728_952599971873411_26967042635555

 

107603218_952599978540077_46723874525009

 

107608398_952600005206741_73168785886229

 

106382703_952600021873406_54413037496870

 

107036108_952600041873404_30920252684371

 

106800845_952600065206735_77090496626180

 

107312567_952600085206733_29655327633436

 

106695116_952600195206722_31373381853231

 

107504449_952600201873388_78583307807297

 

107848757_952600215206720_58426788772517

 

106547114_952600258540049_26593360924569

 

107420487_952600265206715_27861096069663

 

107271432_952600251873383_26102867759293

 

106700929_952600308540044_75177140725903

 

 

 

Thank you for looking!

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Very beautiful and well built Fokker Gaz.  You did a great job on the weathering and your hand painted prop is fantastic.  I think the camo and the pilots individual marking make for an eye-catching scheme.   Your photography is also very well executed!

 

Ernest

Edited by Greif8
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1 hour ago, Wolf Buddee said:

Ok Gazzas,

 

We’re gonna need a lot more info on the beauty of a build! What all did you use to build this DVII? We’re did the markings come from? C’mon, inquiring minds (me in particular) need to know these things!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

Wolf,

    Thank you!  You give me too much credit.  Except for paint, it's all OOB.  The propeller and fuselage bands masks were made with my Silhouette Portrait.   The cowling lozenge and tail stripes were all just Tamiya tape.   The Lozenge is WNW decal toned down first with a mist of light gray and a second misting of the same light gray mixed with brown.  The fuselage bands were painted with MRP lacquers.  The rest of the the paint:  lavender, dark gray green, light gray green are all hand mixed from Tamiya colors.   The leather is by the Vallejo wood and leather set.  Finally it's all matte coated with Alclad lacquer thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner.

 

I'll tell you about my research.  My research started last year.  The first thing I looked for was German heraldry with three black diamonds, because I thought they were black.  After a bit of work, I found a German family from the time of knights that had three black diamonds.   The Coat of arms I found was granted to the town of Burbach by the West German Gov't a while back.   The German word for these coats of arms is called Wappen...  and much easier to type so I'll  use it from here on out.

 

3FLSZO.png

 

So, this made the colors black, yellow, and blue...  and our pilot would have been from The Rhein-Westfalen area.  I was content with this for a while, but found the tones of the B&W image inconsistent with these colors.  So, I laid it aside a while.

 

A year later I asked anybody in a thread over at WWIaircraft models...dotcom etcetera etcetera about the photo at the top of this thread.  And one of the guys actually got hold of one of those authors who've done a shyteload of those skinny profile books...  and he passed one that it was most likely an OAW machine (built at Ostdeustche Albatros Werke) from Jasta 54, a Saxon unit that had a green and white striped tail that had 5 green stripes.  The picture being taken most likely after the Armistice when Germany had to surrender all of it's Fokker D.VII's.  The photo was likely taken at Saarbrücken.

 

This very much welcomed information, caused me to renew the research.  Now I needed a Saxon pilot, though I know there were often Bavarians in Prussian Jastas and vice versa.  But the information on Jasta 54 is pretty slim.  I looked at probably 1,000 German wappen looking for three Diamonds.   I found white diamonds, green diamonds, and red diamonds.  The green diamonds were a real possibility, but further research led me to the fact that the coat of arms was granted by the  West German Gov't to an entirely new municipality around a convent.   No good at all!   Researching the Red diamonds, just to be thorough again took me away from Saxony.  A couple other examples of black diamonds did appear, but these all took me away from Saxony.

With all of my searching going nowhere, and frustration setting in, I hit upon the idea to find a list of Saxon cities.  Bear in mind, that Saxony has changed sizes, more than once due to the Napoleonic wars and also that little thing we call WWII.  But anyway, I found a list.  So, I called up each city, looking up it's Wappen.  Eventually, I came to Leisnig.

 

DSYnoy.jpg

Leisnig is a town first chronicled back in 1046.  It hosts Mildenstein Castle with is over 1,000 years old.   Here was my winner.

 

I doubted that gold would have been an easy color to find.  But the black, yellow, and red with 4 diamonds fit the rest of the puzzle.

 

Gaz

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4 hours ago, GDW said:

I like this a lot! Fantastic job sir. The wood propeller looks great and the decal work is really well done! 

 

Greg

 

Thank you, Greg!

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4 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Very beautiful and well built Fokker Gaz.  You did a great job on the weathering and your hand painted prop is fantastic.  I think the camo and the pilots individual marking make for an eye-catching scheme.   Your photography is also very well executed!

 

Ernest

 

Thank you, Ernest!

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2 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

Totally cool. With all of the D.VII references that I have (and I have quite a lot), I'd never seen this particular scheme before. 

Thank you!  I've only seen it in the one photo shown.  I can't even remember where I DL'd it from.  I'm more into Albatros and other sleek bodied fighters, but this was the one D.VII scheme that I had to do.

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