Rowan Broadbent

Don't really know why anyone has to search for a downside, but each to their own. For me, the easiest way to look at this is to recognise what WNW have single-handedly done for WWI aircraft modelling in general, but in 32nd scale in particular; many, many modellers who would never have considered building a WWI aircraft are now buying almost every kit that WNW turn out (and many are also building them!!). This is solely the result of the product's quality and the corollary is that nobody will want to enter the same market unless they can also come close to equalling that quality. Now, if this market reaches a size which would make it profitable for a "normal" profit-driven kit producer to dip a toe in (and I don't think that time is too far off), they would, I hope, know that it is a market which is quality driven and therefore produce a suitably researched and moulded product - because if they don't, it just won't sell. Now that CAN'T be a bad thing, surely?

You seem to be saying that Wingnut wings are so good that nobody else is entering the market, because they can't compete with their quality and that this is somehow a bad thing. That can't be what you meant, can it? Without WNW just how many 1/32nd scale kits would we have seen in the last five years? Maybe a half-dozen so-so Roden efforts and at best, that would be it. Have you bought and built all the non-German Wingnut Wings kits released so far? In any case, Special Hobby have just released a very nice 1/32nd Bristol M.1c (if enough buy it there might be others? Its not German either....) and now it seems that a Chinese set-up called Merit are going to release some 1/24th kits of an SE5a, a SPAD XIII and a Dr.I, so some aren't that "discouraged". Perhaps releasing in a different scale means Merit don't want to be measured against WNW - if so that doesn't bode too well for the kit's quality, does it?

So difficult to narrow it down to just three....... Felixstowe F2a (he he) Voisin 10 Ca (or Voisin 8) Sopwith Strutter - fighter, bomber, single or two seat, French or British (RNAS or RFC) even USAS - probably three or five different boxings to do! Sopwith Dolphin Are we allowed first reserves? if so: HP 0/400 or 100 Breguet 14 DH4 (British and US, RR & Liberty) Would like also: Macchi M5 Oeffag Albatros D.III Caproni Ca3 and Voisin 3 and 5 AW FK8 AGO C.III and.....

Jon Kunac-Tabinor's Hannover actually looks just the ticket in my view - particularly 'in the flesh' but you are welcome to your opinion, of course. The story behind the Hannover fuselage camouflage is probably lost now, if it was ever documented. I have a scenario (based on circumstantial evidence and probability/possibility only - so for goodness sake don't take this as gospel!) which goes like this: Each factory in Germany had resident inspector(s) put in place by Idflieg (the office of the inspector of "flying troops") and part of their role was to ensure that various army strictures were followed, including the question of camouflage. The first Cl IIs were sent to the front with the fuselages painted with a variety of colours intended to mimic the dyes used in the printed camouflage fabric. Feed-back from the frontline units to Idflieg suggested that the camouflage idea wasn't working as the colour contrasts were too great at the low altitudes at which the majority of Schlaghtstaffeln were working and could the manufacturer tone the effect down in some way? The easiest way to cut down on the contrast was an over-spray of some dark colour to 'blend things in' and this apparently satisfied the operational units. So, Instead of reassessing the camouflage issue and doing something more logical and less labour intensive and therefore costly in time, the factory simply continued the practice of painting the patches and then overspraying because it apparently worked and they were following the inspector's wishes...... I suspect that the painters stopped being too careful with the painted colour demarcations over time and resorted to the afore-mentioned rough spraying of the various patches of colour before the final coat. Anyway, for what little it's worth, that's my interpretation and it allows for a myriad of different model finishes and seems to fit with what can be discerned from the published photographic record. It could be total balls, of course..... I know that you need to join the site to see those last two links, but it is easy to do and is a great resource for the modeller of WWI subjects - thoroughly recommended. Thanks for posting the review link, James. Modesty forbids etc. Rowan

The Aviattic will be doing the centre section as well as wing surface loz cookie cuts but the fuselage shapes (not the wing centre section) were actually pretty indistinct in many cases - some look as if they were roughly sprayed on before being over-sprayed with the dark blue (or dark green,,,,). If you have even a slight facility with an airbrush it would be quite a simple matter to mix up some approximate colours and apply them and then glaze the lot with a thinned blue/green. A much better solution to ultra sharp colour contrasts with decals and tailopring those around the curves of the Hannover's fuselage would be a near impossibility, I'd think. You could always do the Roland-built trainer option or even the Polish one on our decal sheet if you wanted to avoid the issue... Here's some more for you to browse: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234947070-wingnut-wings-hannover-clii-build-for-telford/page-4?hl=hannover# http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1417.0 http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1318.0 Hope that helps, Rowan

Thanks for putting this up over the holiday time, James and thanks for the great comments, you chaps. I'd been working on digging out photos of the Salmson for a while and gradually building up the drawings in expectation of the Wingnut and Gaspatch kits on the horizon, I just had to wait to see what WNW were going to do with their marking options before I selected the ones for our sets. I've really enjoyed delving into French escadrille markings in particular and it has given me plenty of ideas for future decals - I think the Roden Nieuport 27 could do with some decent schemes as well as some detail parts.... we'll see. I just hope these tickle enough interest - I love German markings as much as the next WWI modeller but they didn't have a monopoly on colourful paintwork. I'm waiting for my DH9 to be delivered and then we'll see what can be done for that one! Rowan

Quite high by "plastic standards" but it is mostly resin and therefrore costly to produce - I think around £80 or so and it seems to be a good quality kit from what I picked up.

Hello Francisco, Karaya had the kit on sale at Telford (and sold out quickly) - though it isn't listed on their website at the moment. Try dropping them an email? http://www.karaya.pl/en/-/18/3/2/items.html

Thanks for the review, James. Since this set was designed, it has been suggested that Baby Mine was actually marked with a red nose: Sorry, Jeroen!

Hello Dave. I think that the engine cowlings were standard but Hermann had changes made around the cockpit on the port side, where the coaming was cut away and a grab handle fitted to ease entry due to his hip/leg problems. He also had solid sheet metal deflectors fitted on each side outsdie the guns. All these differences are shown on our profile if you look closely and we'll add scale drawings of the necessary modifications to the info booklet. All pretty easy to do but I share Jeroen's concern about getting the white finish to look right..... probably not as easy as you might think. One area which I'm unsure of is the type of fabric covering used. Was it standard lozenge overpainted white (would need a lot of white coats to get the pristine finish in the pics or was it plain linen fabric or even silk (which was once suggested as the covering for Richthoffen's last triplane which may have been painted red at the Fokker factory)? The choice is interesting because it would have shown in the cockpit interior. I'd go for plain fabric, myself. Thanks, Jim for posting the announcement. Orders are starting to come in already (thanks folks!) so I hope that we can get this printed soon. Rowan