Our WWI aerial combat game did take off. After half a dozen sessions, we had several memorable moments with tense dogfights, unbelievable luck and unluck, smoke and fireballs in the sky… In the current stage of the campaign, Fokker Dr.I became my favourite. This distinct looking aircraft has a good range of manoeuvres, it’s armed with twin machine guns and it’s fairly reliable and durable. Apparently, I needed more of these 1:144 triplanes, so I ordered five of them from Decapod Models on Shapeways.
Since these are gaming pieces, I did not aim for historical accuracy, but I still tried to keep them reasonably authentic looking. I used historical references to Manfred von Richthofen and to Werner Voss, but I had neither the time, nor the intention to research these subjects in detail. I found that the sources contradict each other and there are many ongoing disputes about the interpretation of the available photographs. Again, I do not claim to be historically accurate, these minis are painted based on my interpretation of the information I found, with the limitations of my painting skills.
Werner Voss – hands down, this was the most challenging one, so it deserves to be the first on my list. I used Russ Grey for the greyish blue base colour and Coat d’Arms Golden Yellow for the yellow parts. The yellow parts then were enhanced and highlighted with Winsor & Newton Cadmium Yellow. After this, I painted the details:
- the propeller with XV-88 and highlighted with Ushabti Bone
- the pilots with Gore-Gruntha Fur contrast paint
- the metallic parts with Vallejo Steel, followed by a Nuln Oil wash and a silver highlight
- the tyres were painted with MIG-0033 Rubber and Tyres
At the end of this stage, I applied a thin layer of gloss varnish and switched to oil paints: Earth, Field Green and Starship Bay Sludge – all from the Oilbrusher range of MIG Jimenez. I painted thin, parallel lines in a more or less random order and after 5 minutes, I used a fan brush and a small amount of enamel thinner to fade and blend them. The result was surprisingly good, so I let it dry for a whole day and applied gloss varnish on it.
The iconic face on the engine cowling was hand-painted – initially with light grey and then with white. It took several attempts, it’s not 100% accurate, but in this scale, I think it’s a fairly good representation.
I added the decals I bought from Pendraken and when they fully dried, I finished with a layer of gloss and a layer of matt varnish.
The Red Baron – von Richthofen’s aircraft was significantly easier to paint. The red surfaces were basecoated with Mechrite Red, overbrushed with Khorne Red and highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The white surfaces were painted with Apothecary White contrast paint and drybrushed with white.
The details, the decals and the varnishing were done as described above – for the sake of simplicity I won’t repeat it in the next sections.
The Canary – This was a fictional one but I wanted to have a bright aircraft in the fleet. The yellow surfaces were painted Coat d’Arms Golden Yellow and Winsor & Newton Cadmium Yellow. Highlighting yellow was a bit tricky, as Coat d’Arms Sun Yellow was not really visible, but adding white to Cadmium Yellow looked too pale. I tried to find a good balance, with moderate success.
The two blue planes – One of them is the blue version of the Fokker Dr.I I painted previously and the other one is inspired by pictures I found online. I painted both of them the same way: after masking the white parts, I painted them with Macrage Blue and used Teclis Blue for the highlights.
Six of these triplanes in total should be enough for a while. I hope they will be lucky in the upcoming gaming sessions and their pilots will reach veteran status soon.