Halberstadt CL.II
In Detail
A rarely modeled warbird from the “Great War” is a standout in scale!
By Rob Caso PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB CASO W 18
hy a CL.II? Well, I really want- ed a complement, or perhaps an adversary, to my 1⁄9 scale DH2 and would like one day to see
them in the air together. Although about 900 were produced, the CL.II is a lesser known aircraft of the Great War, due prob- ably to its “mud moving” focus and not the more glamorous air-to-air enjoyed by Fokker and Albatros. The responsive, well- built and easy to fly CL.IIs and IVs quickly established themselves as the best ground attack aircraft of the war and each variant nevertheless boasted a few aerial combat aces. The CL.II that I selected is featured on
the cover of Windsock Datafile #27 and was captured intact in 1918 after its pilot sur- rendered to Australian Flying Corps airmen flying an RE8. Aside from aesthetics, I liked the CL.II as
a scale subject for a number of reasons: it has only two ailerons, two sets of interplane struts and a relatively conventional overall configuration. I’ve always liked the shape of an Albatros, which also crossed my mind, but they seem so over modeled and the CL.II is somewhat similar in outline, other than the two-seat setup. It has plenty of wing and enough detail to keep it interesting, includ- ing a large cockpit, forward and rear arma-
ment, grenade racks and a partially exposed straight six Mercedes engine. It also has an interesting torque-rod aileron system which would obviate the need to try to hide servos in the thin airfoil. The swept upper wing is also a nice touch. I wanted to push myself a bit on the fin-
ish on this one as I had never done a lozenge scheme or wood grain on a model. I probably overdid it here as I counted eighteen sepa- rate colors used for the finish, a number of which had to be mixed. As far as size goes, yes, the larger models are more impressive, but consume far more time and resources and the CL easily fits in the trunk of a car,
JUNE 2012
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