Eduard 1/72 Albatros D.Va
You may well be thinking that this doesn't look exactly like the aircraft that currently resides in the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum and you would be quite correct. For whatever reason, the NASM decided to restore the aircraft with both wings covered in lozenge camo and a white rudder but when it originally came into their posession it looked more like I've depicted it here; camouflaged upper wing, clear doped linen rudder and non-standard crosses under the bottom wing. Who knows which is really correct and how it looked during wartime, but it is known that the lower wings at least are replacements, which makes it entirely possible that both wings were camouflaged at one time. Nonetheless, it makes it a bit more colourful this way and it saved me the chore of putting all those pesky rib tapes on the top wing.
This is built from the 'Profi-Pack' (whatever that means!) release and is pretty much straight from the box with only a few minor additions. Prop is carved from wood and rigging is stretched sprue as usual. Lozenge camo is from Pegasus, the rest of the decals are from the kit except the Albatros logo on the rudder which is from Americal/Gryphon. Wood finish fuselage is Bill Arnold's method of water soluble coloured pencils over Humbrol Oak with a brushed coat of Klear/Future which blends the pencil marks in nicely. A thin coat of Tamiya Clear Orange finishes it off.
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