Halberstadt CL. II
The fiberglass cockpit surround was holed for the instruments (above left),
the machine gun, the aileron pushrods and the inverted “V” cabane struts. The 1⁄8 scale pilot (above right) got Rob close enough. A scale fuel tank was vacuformed to hide the backs of the servos. The aft MG is fully flexible. A plastic plate (below left) with faux bolts surrounds the slot for the interplane strut, while
a scale-like, functional fitting was made from square brass tube to secure the ends of the rigging. Ship model turnbuckles reside only at the lower ends of the rigging. A prefinish photo of the details on the center wing section (below right)—mostly plastic and 1⁄64 ply. This area was later refinished in the yellow fuselage scheme.
ors before I picked them up on the brush. I then lined the panel separations with a soft pencil, allowing the pencil to indent the sur- face just a bit and then clear coated it all with Testor’s Dullcote. The fuselage was basecoated with dark
yellow and the green specks are Duplicolor green primer whisked over the surface after a lot of testing and practice. Finally, I paint- ed the markings, all of which seemed easy compared to what I had been through. Once it was all painted, I faced the dilemma of leaving it nice and neat or potentially ruin- ing it all with weathering. I chose the latter. After festooning the model with the details described below and in the photos, I closed my eyes, held my breath and hosed the wings down with light gray to dull the effect of the camouflage and markings and hit the fuselage and wings with logically placed streaks of burnt umber. Never looking back, I asked some friends to tell me if it came out okay.
Details To me, there should be no difference be-
tween an accurate, well detailed plastic model sitting on a shelf and a flying scale model. I never get there, but I keep trying. While this is a relatively small model, it is still big enough to warrant a lot of detail. Prominent to the outline of the aircraft is the Mercedes D.III engine, the machine guns and gunner’s ring along with the cen- ter section’s equipment. While I did a lot of
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the small details in CAD and on the laser, much of it was made by hand such as the D.III’s cylinders, the machine guns as well as many of the small plastic details, some of which I am still rediscovering. The key here is being able to break things down into their basic shapes and to get the proportions correct. I used a number of drawings and photos
to help me with all this but, in the end, a lot of “eyeball engineering” came into play. If it looks right, it probably is. Don’t over- look other scale model venues for sources of detail stuff - like ships and trains. I used a ton of railroad model bolt castings and the turnbuckles are from a scale boat resource. If you want to detail, learn to work in alu- minum, brass and plastic sheet, tube and rod; it’s really not that hard, but you have to want to do it. Don’t restrict yourself to a cer- tain material—like wood. Use whatever works. Since the cockpit is open, I also built up the pilot. Starting with a bust, I added the torso, arms, hands and the legs down to the knees. All this was made from blue in- sulation foam, filled with vinyl spackle, sealed with Polycrylic and painted with MM. Again, there is no “rocket surgery” here; just a lot of sanding and filling using measurements taken from myself to get the proportions correct. “Anthropometry” I think they call it. Although I could sit for hours fondling a glass of Schloss Vollrads and a good cigar
while solemnly pontificating about where all the mistakes are, I am pretty happy the way the little CL came out. So much so that I am really thinking of doing one in a larger scale. Being only my second WWI subject and a true exercise in modeling, I learned a lot about WWI aircraft and improved my mod- eling skills along the way. Isn’t that what scale modeling is all about?
References
Windsock Datafile #27, Halberstadt CL.II, P.M. Grosz, ISBN #0-948414- 31-6
Windsock Datafile #43, Halberstadt CL.IV, P.M. Grosz, ISBN #0-948414- 58-8
Aircraft Archive, Aircraft of World War I, Vol 1, p77–78, ISBN #0-85242-983-5
Scale Aircraft Drawings, Vol I, WWI, Airage Publishing, p148, ISBN #0- 911285-02-X
German Machine Guns, 2nd Ed, D. Musgrave, ISBN #0-935554-06-8
AMA Magazine, January 1985, Bill Boss, Control Line Scale, p69, 170, 171
Mirage Hobby, Halberstadt CL.II, 1⁄48 scale plastic model kit #481306
JUNE 2012
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