You may well be thinking
that this doesn't look exactly like the aircraft that
currently resides in the Smithsonian's National Air &
Space Museum and you would be quite correct. For whatever
reason, the NASM decided to restore the aircraft with
both wings covered in lozenge camo and a white rudder
but when it originally came into their posession it looked
more like I've depicted it here; camouflaged upper wing,
clear doped linen rudder and non-standard crosses under
the bottom wing. Who knows which is really correct and
how it looked during wartime, but it is known that the
lower wings at least are replacements, which makes it
entirely possible that both wings were camouflaged at
one time. Nonetheless, it makes it a bit more colourful
this way and it saved me the chore of putting all those
pesky rib tapes on the top wing.
This is built from the
'Profi-Pack' (whatever that means!) release and is pretty
much straight from the box with only a few minor additions.
Prop is carved from wood and rigging is stretched sprue
as usual. Lozenge camo is from Pegasus, the rest of the
decals are from the kit except the Albatros logo on the
rudder which is from Americal/Gryphon. Wood finish fuselage
is Bill
Arnold's method of water soluble coloured
pencils over a Humbrol Oak base. A coat of Pledge (formerly
known as Future, or Klear in the UK) brushed over top
blends the pencil marks in nicely and creates a nice woodgrain
finish. A thin sprayed coat of Tamiya Clear Orange finishes
it off.
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