Albatros D.III in Voss' markings
1/48 Eduard

By: Tomasz Gronczewski

Werner Voss

The man

Werner Voss is an ace who deserves a book rather than a couple of paragraphs on the construction page. All interested in Voss' career should visit a website at the address http://blindkat.tripod.com/voss/voss.html, which is entirely devoted this outstanding pilot. Werner Voss started war as a hussar on the Eastern Front, but in Autumn 1915 he joined aviation and fought with FEA 7 and KG 4. On November 21st 1916, a month after Boelcke's death, Voss joined Jasta 2. Until early May of 1917 he scored 28 victories, and then moved to Jasta 5 to score further 6 kills. All his early kills were scored with Albatros scout. In summer he was acted temporarily as a commander of Jasta 29, later Jasta 14, but failed to down any enemy with these outfits. On July 30th 1917 Voss was nominated Jastaführer of Jasta 10. During two months he scored further 14 victories, mainly with a new Fokker F.I Dreidecker, but on September 23rd, after bringind down his last 48th victim, he was fell into a trap prepared by 56th Sqn RFC and was killed by British pilots after epic dogfight. Mortal bullet was shot by an ace Arthur Rhys Davis. Until the end of war Werner Voss remained fourth ranking German ace. In February and March 1917 he was leading German scorer with 8 and 11 victories respectively. Since then and until his death he had been continuously a second best living German ace after Manfred von Richthofen.  It has been confirmed that he downed at least two RFC aces: Capt N W W Webb (14 victories) on August 16th 1917 and Lt O L McMaking (6 victories) on September 11th 1917.

and the machine

Except of Voss' famous Fokker F.I, his Albatros D.III belongs probably to best know German scouts of the Great War. It was early production D.III with centrally located wing radiator and some extra air scoops around the cowling. It bore extremely colorful finish with red heart and white swastika boldly marked on the fuselage. Voss adopted this plane while fighting with Jasta 2, what can be witnessed by a white tail. Nevertheless after his assignment to Jasta 5, he brought his beloved machine with him and flew it on without major change of markings.

Werner Voss’ scoreboard

Sources:

• Above the Lines

• Jasta Pilots

• Albatros Fighters in Action

The model

Although it was my first model of D.III which provided me with some experience before starting Ray's and Allmenröder's project, I will not describe its construction in a detailed way. Simply construction process was very similar to this done at Ray's project. Below you can find only these steps which were unique.

construction

Nose air scoops:

Despite I worked with Profipack kit, which had PE parts for nose air scoops, I decided to scratchbuild them. I made them out of thin plexi sheet, which had been heated over a candle and molded with a rounded tip of the brush. After cutting the scoops out I just glued them to the nose.

Three color scheme:

In March 1917, when Voss was still within Jasta 2, his Albatros carried three color scheme of Dark Olive Green / Red Brown / Pale Green. Later, after the aircraft was taken by Voss to Jasta 5, red brown fields in camouflage might have been overpainted with violet or purple. In order to avoid any doubts I decided to make this Albatros as it was in March 1917. I used three ready Humbrol colors to apply camouflage:

• Humbrol 163 as Dark Olive Green

• Humbrol 120 as Pale Green

• Humbrol 133 as Red Brown

Finally two white stripes were sprayed with Tamiya Gloss white after masking them with Tamiya masking tape.

Bottom surfaces of the wings were painted with a Humbrol mixture (8 x H 65 Matt Aircraft Blue + 1 x H 48 Mediterranean Blue)

Woodgrain:

I don't know who (Bob Laskodi?) invented clear yellow overcoat to simulate shellac but he was a genius. It is simply the best technique I have ever tried, but let us move back to the earlier stage.

First I sprayed all "plywood" areas with Humbrol 121 Stone color. After a night I drew first woodrgrain pattern using red brown color pencil (crayon). Then I smeared the pattern with a finger in order to break homogenous sand background color. Later I started to draw final pattern using red brown, light brown and white pencils. Panel line were darkened with red brown pencil as well. The technique was so nice that all the time I had to resist temptation to overdo pattern, which was supposed to simulate plywood only. After all woodgrain had been done I oversprayed it with a mixture of Tamiya Clear Yellow + Tamiya Clear Orange. Finally a coat of Future prepared ground for further decal application. Having decals applied I gave a fuselage a shot of Aeromaster Flat Clear + Future mixture. Although the photo is darker and a bit redder than real thing, the idea of the technique can be seen below:

"Metal" panels and elements:

I made the kit before I had collected more photos, and I decided to paint "metal" surfaces with Humbrol 31 Gray Green. Now, If I started the model again, I would choose lighter Humbrol 64 Gray.

The gallery

Three color scheme, natural plywood simulation and flamboyant markings provided me with a lot of fun while building this kit:

Other Cookup pages of Tomasz Gronczewski

Franz Ray | Karl Allmenröder | cookup subjects comparison