My Bi-Plane Boast

As I mentioned in my intro to this blog. I started making my own minis with WWI airplanes. This isn't the full truth. There were a couple of things I had carved previous to the planes, but I'll talk about those elsewhere. But it was in carving the planes that I started to devote time to carving and miniatures. After a bit of background, I will introduce you to some of my planes.

As I was browsing BGG, I came across an interesting-looking game. It was a WW1 flight combat game with high ratings from users. It was also entirely a DIY project as one is only supplied the rules, the rest of the game is up to the one who wants to play. It was called Canvas Eagles.

My first play was with one of my brothers using paper plane cut-outs from Junior General and a star field hex map from my copy of Renegade Legion: Leviathan. It was a one-on-one game which we played to a draw - we ran out of gas. Still liking the concept after playing, I dove into carving models and getting ideas for a board.

To make a long story short (maybe I can tell the long story some other time), I ended up halting progress on Canvas Eagles to focus on Wings of War(/Glory) instead, since it has been a lot easier to get to the table and I can still use the planes I have carved.

On to images. I would have uploaded more, but I'd have to sift through folders trying to remember where they are. One might notice a lack of propellers. I just haven't got around to it and I'm not too worried if I don't.

I started with a pair of Albatross D.IIIs. Only the fuselage was carved from wood for each model, the rest was cereal-box cardboard. While they turned out okay, I have since begun upgrades to wooden wings and I am contemplating forming metal landing gear somehow. One I painted red because every WW1 set needs a Red Baron and he mainly flew the Albatrosses! Besides, I think they are pretty planes too. However, there seems to be a number of variation in the colour schemes M. von Richtofen used on his planes, so I decided not to follow any of them and do a simple red fuselage with tan wings. This way it could be Richtofen or not.

Albatross D.III: The Red Baron? Cardboard wings are ok, for a while.

I served part of my LDS mission in Brussels, Belgium, so I wanted to give a nod to the Belgians. After a bit of research, a pair of Hanriot HD1s came next. A blue one for Willy Coppens (pictured) and one green with tan wings for a generic pilot. This image is taken post-upgrade to wooden wings and landing gear, but I still glued cardboard wheels on, which have now come off.

Hanriot HD1: a little darker blue than Coppens' plane.

Two Phalz D.IIIs followed. Chosen merely because I liked the paint jobs on some images found on the Internet one day.

Two Phalz D.IIIs; the black insignia were an experiment with using Sharpie instead of paint.

 
Next came four Neiuport 17s. No real influence beyond having watched Flyboys a little bit before. I researched pilots who flew the 17s and decided on painting one up for Billy Bishop (pictured) and a second for Charles Nungesser. The other two I made generic French planes.

Neiuport 17s painted as Charles Nungesser (top) and Billy Bishop (bottom).

Continuing on the Flyboys influence, three Fokker Dr.Is. One black one (pictured), similar to the antagonist of the movie, and one painted up like Lothar von Richtofen's plane (would have been better for a picture). The third is unpainted save for an orange tail section, having been damaged and needing repair.

Fokker Dr.I

I don't remember where in the chronology of this list the DH-9 goes, I just know it was completed before the following two entries and a Gotha bomber. But the DH-9 is one of my favourites from my second generation of plane carvings.

Airco DH-9

Generations? Yes. The Albatrosses and Hanriots had cardboard wings to start. Cardboard didn't seem to like staying glued to the wood, especially after painting. I needed to make a change to how I was doing things. My second generation planes are those with which I avoided using cardboard. The Gotha bomber (of which I currently can't seem to find the pictures I took) will be the last of the second generation as I made another sweeping change, which may be somewhat visible in the next two images; I started rounding the wings so they look more like airplane wings than lengths of 2x10s. And what a difference that made!

Both of these planes I painted at the same time. So without further ado:

A SPAD XIII with markings inspired by one of the many pictures that came up in a Google image search.

SPAD XIII: Could be one of the Lafayette Escadrille!

Then a Halberstadt CLII. With the specs made up for it by a Wings of War/Glory fan, this is a virtually unbeatable plane so far in the games I've played with or against it. That aspect pretty much lines up with the information I've been able to find on it: a two-seater designed to perform like a fighter plane.

Halberstadt CL.II

In early 2014 things got busy and I wandered into other interests, like space ships, and I haven't carved any planes since. Though I do know that the next one I do will be a Sopwith Camel. Why? Because it's the only one I have need in order to cover all the maneuvre decks available in the Wings of War game I have.