Skip forward many, many years, and I found a copy second-hand, and bought it immediately.
It is by no means a simulation of aerial combat in WW1. It is extremely simplistic. But it holds up better as a game than I really expected.
I wouldn't play it in preference to an actual aerial wargame, but I wouldn't turn down a game as a moderately entertaining way of passing the time.
The Albatros D-III was built under license by the Austro-Hungarian OEFAG factory, but they improved it considerably with a much more powerful engine and strengthened structure.
They usually (but not always) removed the propellor spinner, as they found it made the machine faster.
It was often armed with a pair of German Spandau machine-guns, like the original D-III, but it was also often armed with a pair of fully-shrouded Schwarzlose guns shooting out through the engine bay, as I've represented here.
I've taken my 1:144 scale Albatros D-III model and given it a new nose profile and engine to represent the OEFAG Albatros.
The test print went absolutely fine, but I gradually became aware that something was missing.
When I exported the STL from Blender, I had the centre-section struts hidden, so they weren't rendered.
I still didn't notice right through the slicing process, and printed it like this.
The simplest thing to do would be to just re-slice and reprint the whole thing, but instead I'm printing some struts and I'll glue them in position. It will be a fiddly task, but doable I think.
If that doesn't work, I'll reprint the whole thing.
It didn't work.
Instead, I made some replacement struts out of copper wire.
It was a fiddly job with my sausage-fingers; they kept twisting in the tweezers and getting out of place, but I managed it eventually.
They're slightly wonky, but they'll do the trick, and it means that a couple of otherwise fine 3d prints won't go to waste.
I've always tilted my aeroplane models for 3d printing, either nose or tail down, because it gives me smoother surfaces overall.
However, I've noticed in recent prints off my Mars 5 that long edges Like wings, when parallel with the print bed, sometimes end up slightly distorted.
So with the test print for my Albatros DV, I've tilted it in two axes, and from what I can discern in amongst the forest of supports, it seems to have worked quite well.
It does increase print time slightly, as the overall model is taller within the print area, but it's not too bad — this one went from about two hours to two and a half (ish).
I've put together a 1:144 Albatros D-V, mostly using components from my D-III.
It just needed a new tail fin and rudder, and I had to rebuild the fuselage in its more rounded form, and add the undercarriage aerofoil. None of the other detail changes between the D-III and D-V are visible in this scale, so I haven't bothered with them.
Although the D-V was the replacement for the D-III, which was struggling against the new generation of Allied fighters, it was not as well liked as the earlier model had been, being heavier and less nimble while failing to add anything much in speed or climb.
The STL is available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/brands/mojobob-hoochyman
The Strutter was the first British aeroplane of WW1 to have a synchronised forward-firing Vickers gun, and it went into front-line service in February 1916. It did well at first, but it was too stable to make a good dogfighter in the long run, and it was one of the types that suffered very badly in Bloody April.
Its long range and stability made it an ideal candidate for a Home Defence fighter, in which role it was usually configured as a two-seater, though single-seaters were not uncommon.
Snipes to the left, Dolphins to the right, and a Camel down in front.
They should be able to give those Fokker D-VII a run for their money.
Though in all honesty, I'm going to print it on my new Mars 5, because it's twice as fast, as well as giving me a more detailed and smooth print.
It's a very simple dogfight game, though its rulebook could do with a bit of editing for clarity. There are a bunch of additional rules in various supplements too, which could do with all being gathered together in one set of instructions.
The card-based movement has the big advantage that a big hex-grid isn't required for play, just a flat surface.
The lines running from the centre outwards define the aircraft's firing arc. This Albatros D-II would just use the front one, while most two-seaters would also use the rear arc for the observer.
For weirdos like the BE2c, with the observer up front, I'd use the two side arcs — not precisely accurate, but then what is? Personally I think the 60 ° front arc is a bit overly generous, but then it's just a game after all.
I'm still a bit in the dark about how the game is supposed to handle altitude. Those rules appear only to be available by buying yet another expensive box set, which I am reluctant to do, even if it's still in print.
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| BE2c |
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BE12 |
For the BE2c, I think I'd rule that you'd have to spend a turn flying straight to be able to shift the gun from one side to the other.
I've had this on the back-burner for a while now, and I finally got it finished. It's the Sopwith Snipe of 1918, the replacement for the Camel.
Once again, I've designed it in 1:144 scale, with tolerances to allow it to be printed in FDM with a standard 0.4mm nozzle.
I've done it in early and late configuration. The initial production (the back two in the render) had an odd tail fin arrangement that proved to be unsatisfactory, and it was replaced in the later models (the front one) with a more conservative tail design.
The Snipe remained the standard RAF fighter until well into the 1920s.
The Siemens-Schuckert D-III was very fast, very manoeuvrable, and climbed like a rocket. It went into service in April-May 1918, but the aforementioned engine issues kept it from being the game-changer it might otherwise have been. By the time those issues were fixed, and its replacement by the D-IV, the Great War was pretty much over.
Now it's ready to go out and shoot down that BE12. Or maybe get shot down by it. It could happen.
It's FDM printed on my Ender 3, and the undercarriage needed substantial post-printing repairs.
Eindekker #02. This one was printed on my new Mars 5, and judging by the banding on the fuselage, I may have to experiment a bit with antialiasing to smooth things out.
On this one I painted in all the small crosses by hand, and reserved the decals for the big wing crosses. They're not as perfect as the decals would have been, but with these teensy-tiny ones it was less trouble overall.
I've 3d printed some little pedestals, and glued a 6x2.5mm magnet into a socket at the top of each one. The models all have steel pegs in their bellies for attachment to magnetized flight stands, so they cling quite happily to the board. I'll paint it tomorrow.
The board can go on a plate-stand thing for display, or I suppose I could hang it like a picture.
The benefit of it is that it makes very conveniently accessible display and/or storage.
All done, and I whipped up a plywood plate-stand sort of thing to hold it upright.There are only four spaces left on this board, but if I get completely over-enthusiastic I can make another board very easily — it's just a bit of 5mm MDF with 3d printed magnet pillars glued to it.
One of my favourite air-war fiction writers is Derek Robinson, who wrote a book called "War Story" about a WW1 RFC squadron flying FE2b and FE2d aircraft. He's perhaps better known for "A Piece of Cake", which was made into a TV show some years ago.
Anyway, his book prompted me to make this 1:144 scale FE2b. I think the only major difference between the FE2b and FE2d, visually at least, is that the FE2d had a much bigger engine, and a different radiator placement. I may (or may not) make a FE2d as well one of these days, if I can track down some reliable drawings.
I am printing far more aeroplanes than I can keep up with, and there are another couple of dozen in a drawer.
I can stop any time I want to. Really.
This is the SPAD XI two-seater, designed by the same guy who did the SPAD VII and SPAD XIII. And the visual similarities between all three are pretty obvious.
The STL is available now at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_spad_xi_1_144_
The observer/gunner sat in the forward cockpit with the pilot behind. This arrangement gave the observer's machine-gun a very limited range of fire, and in the last 50 aircraft produced the seating positions were reversed.
To be honest, I'm not sure why I went to the effort of modelling this — probably because I wanted my Germans to have something as useless as the BE2c.
I've put both the Aviatik and the BE2c up at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_early_ww1_recon_pack_1_144_ as a two-for-one pack. I very much doubt that many people would be interested in buying them individually, so perhaps this will make them a bit more attractive.
It was an excellent aeroplane for its day, stable, reliable, and easy to fly. Unfortunately its innate stability, along with the crew positions, made it an absolutely terrible fighting machine, and they suffered very badly against the Fokker monoplanes with their forward-firing machine gun. It stayed in service far longer than it should have, and killed a great many young men of the RFC.
The Fokker itself was not a very good aeroplane, but its plenitude of easy prey inflated its reputation far beyond its actual capabilities.
I've modified my BE2c model to make a BE12, the laughable attempt to turn the BE2 into a fighter. It was a resounding failure, and you have to pity the poor sods who were sent up in them to compete with the Fokker Eindekker.
The STL is available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_be12_1_144_
That means that they need something to escort, so I've made this 1:144 scale RE8, nicknamed Harry Tate by the RFC.
It was intended as the replacement for the BE2, that had suffered so badly in the days of the Fokker Scourge, and it was certainly an improvement over that type as a fighting machine. However, the bar for improvement was pretty low, and an unaccompanied RE8 stood little chance of survival against even the most mediocre of enemy scouts.
Groups of RE8s, when attacked, would go into a mutually supporting circle, in which several of them could fire on any approaching enemy. It was better than nothing, but it was an innately defensive tactic, and of course it disrupted the work for which the type was intended — so it could be argued that that was a success for the German pilots.
So far I haven't been able to get it to actually print anything, and what the exact problem is I do not know. Nothing sticks to the platen, though it does stick to the FEP.
I vaguely remember having issues with the Mars Pro when I first got that, so I'm not giving up all hope just yet. However, it is borne in on me just how much 3d printing is not yet a mature consumer technology — they're so finicky, and you have to be a tinkerer to get the things running and keep them running.
It's a magical technology, but it's pretty bloody hermetic magic.
I haven't tried printing it yet, but no doubt I'll get to it soon enough.
FDM test print turned out mostly okay, eventually. The print failed in a tail-down orientation by breaking the back of the fuselage, and in a nose-down print posture the nose failed to print, so I had to cut off that bit and replace it with a nose section I printed separately.
Alas, my elderly resin printer — an Elegoo Mars Pro — is bung, and it's too old to find replacement parts for now, so a resin test print will have to wait until I get a new printer. Which may be, if I'm lucky, this afternoon.
After fiddling with the thickness of struts and things, and tinkering endlessly with the placement and height and angle to the print bed, plus adding some custom supports in problem spots, I've finally got a model that will reliably print a 1:144 Albatros D-III in one piece. Now I can get my forces together for Bloody April.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though; I have many more models waiting to be printed and painted than I have finished.
I'm not really satisfied with the fairing of the lower wing with the fuselage, though I'm not really sure how I can fix that.
I've done two test prints of my DH2 model, for comparison purposes. The one on the left is FDM, printed on my Ender 3, and on the right is resin, from my Mars Pro.
The resin print has clear superiority in terms of detail and cleanliness of line, but it is structurally weaker than the FDM print. The resin print is quicker and easier to clean up, as I don't have to worry about clearing off stringing and nubbins.
They each took about the same time to print — a bit over three hours — though if I had a more modern FDM printer, such as a Bambu A1, that print time would likely be cut in half.
The FDM print, though physically stronger, is much more sensitive to heat. You can see where the starboard wing tip and struts have been distorted from when I was flash-burning out the stringing. Also, I like to use a little hair dryer to speed up paint drying, and that's a bit perilous especially on slender members like struts and booms.
At tabletop distances, the difference in detail isn't really obvious, especially to those with old eyes. However, I'd probably still prefer the resin print, in spite of its relative fragility, if not for the fact that I'm having some issues with the Mars Pro and I'm lazy when it comes to printer maintenance.
Many, many years ago I built the Airfix model of the Roland C-II Walfisch (whale). I was always rather fond of its portly form.
Alas, somebody dropped something heavy on it, and that model is no more. But today, in a fit of nostalgia, I built a new one in 1:144 scale.
I haven't tried printing it yet; that will probably be for tomorrow, if I have time
It was the replacement for the Sopwith Pup, and initially, when it was introduced in 1917, it was nicknamed the Big Pup, but the name Camel eventually took off because of the hump in front of the pilot that partially shrouded the guns.
I realise now, looking at the render, that I've forgotten to give it any elevators or ailerons, so i suppose I'd better take care of that.
It's designed for FDM printing, and for use as a gaming piece rather than a display model, so all the struts and things are way out of scale.
This next one is the Siemens-Schuckert D-III, from very late in the war. It was very fast and manoeuvrable, and could climb like a rocket, but its huge 4-bladed propeller meant that it had to have very tall undercarriage, making it tricky to control on the ground, and the powerful engine was prone to overheating. The overheating issues were solved in the D-IV, but by then the war was pretty much over.
I've done a couple of 1/144 Albatros D-II, one with the side-mounted "ear" radiators, and one with the centrally wing-mounted radiator perfectly positioned to spray boiling water straight into the pilot's face if a bullet goes through it.
I haven't tried printing them yet; probably tomorrow.
I've successfully test-printed one of these models, and splashed some paint on to it, and overall I'm pretty satisfied with it.
I've been working on a 1/144 scale Junkers D1, a German metal monoplane fighter from very late in WW1.
I've been tossing up whether or not to try to represent the corrugations of the metal skin — on the one hand, they were very characteristic of the Junkers aeroplanes, but on the other hand, in this scale (and when printed in FDM) they'd be barely perceptible unless they were wildly out of scale.
It's a usable wargaming model just as is. I might try a corrugated one just to see, but I suspect it won't really be worth the trouble.
I've printed and painted it now, and I'm glad I didn't corrugate the crap out of it.
The original design was (I think) from CapnAhab on Thingiverse. He has done a lot of models, designed in 1:100 scale, but intended for printing at 1/300. The geometry is always very simple; no wing ribs or anything like that, and sized to be able to be shrunk down without issues.
I've just smoothed out the faceting of some (most) of the elements, and provided it with a socket for a flight stand attachment.
Having smooth wing surfaces should ease the application of decals, and I can paint on wing ribs, as I've done on 1/300 and 1/200 models.
For gaming purposes, the silhouette is much more important than fine detail, which seldom gets seen at tabletop distances in any case. I have one on the printer at this moment, so we shall see how it turns out.
The Tripe printed without any real issues, and I also did a Fokker D-VIII from a similar style of model, which also printed very easily.
I clean up the prints as best as I can straight off the printer, but inevitably I find that I miss a bunch of zits and nubbins in the raw bright white PLA which is very hard to distinguish detail in. A quick primer coat reveals them though.
I've made the model a touch less simple by the addition of some wing ribs. I couldn't resist.
I also tidied up quite a bit of the geometry while I was at it.
