1:32 ALBATROS D III

A pattee cross on a sesquiplane from Johannisthal

The Albatros D.III reached front-line units in January 1917 and by the spring it was already among the most successful German fighters. Its makers borrowed the narrow lower wing with a single spar from the French Nieuport: the view downwards from the cockpit was much better, but the leading edge tended to crack in a steep dive. The pilots of Jasta 11 flew the April fighting of 1917 on this machine.

An insignia that had its regulation

The national insignia of the German air service was then the Eisernes Kreuz, the iron cross with arms flaring outwards into paws. It was worn on the upper and lower surface of both wings, on the sides of the fuselage and on the rudder, and its size was derived from the wing chord. On a dark finish a white border accompanied it, because otherwise black artwork would have merged with an olive and violet base. It is that border which tends to be the hardest part of a build: it has to hold the same width around the whole perimeter, and a brush rarely manages that.

How the stencils are used

The film is lifted off the backing, laid on degreased and dry paint and pressed down with a soft wooden stick from the center toward the edges. The paint goes on in several thin coats so that it does not bleed under the edge of the cutout, and the stencil is lifted before the film has hardened completely. Inside you will find three stencils for the national insignia and nothing else: neither the aircraft itself nor paints are part of the delivery.

Against a decal, a sprayed insignia has two advantages. It does not sit above the surface as a thin film, so no visible outline arises once a clear coat goes on, and there is no risk of it wrinkling or breaking on the ribbed surface of a fabric-covered wing. The drawback is that a mistake cannot be lifted off with water: an oversprayed edge has to be sanded back and the area painted again.