Snipe

 

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. 

Siemens-Schuckert D-III (1:144)

 

This 1:144 model represents one of the modified variants with the cutaway engine cowling to increase engine cooling, a necessary change as the initial production suffered seriously from engine overheating, a problem caused by the synthetic oil that replaced the scarce castor oil by 1918.

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.

Fokker E-III (1:144)

 

It's taken a while to get around to it, but I've finally painted this 1:144 scale Fokker Eindekker.

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.

 Next day...

 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. 

FE2b

 

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.

Falling Behind

 

I am falling behind a bit in my painting queue.

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. 

SPAD XI

 

Somebody mentioned wanting a French reconnaissance aeroplane, and lo! One appears!

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_ 

Aviatik C1

 

The Aviatik C1 was introduced in 1915, one of the first German C-type armed reconnaissance aircraft.

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. 

 Next day...

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.

BE2c

 

Doing the RE8 reminded me of this, the BE2c.

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. 

A coupla days later...

 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_

 I've printed and painted my BE12 model, and I think I'm going to have to tone down the wing ribs a bit — trying to get decals down in amongst them was quite a trial.

HarryTate

 

A large part of the duties of the British scout squadrons in WW1 were escorts, attempting to keep the arguably more important reconnaissance and bombing machines from getting shot down.

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. 

Bristol Fighter

 

I just finished this 1:144 scale Bristol Fighter to add to my menagerie.

I haven't tried printing it yet, but no doubt I'll get to it soon enough. 

 2026-09-16

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.  

Albatros D-III — success at last

 

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.

 

Nieuport 17

 

Somebody asked me if I was going to make a Nieuport 17, and I thought that was a good idea, so I did. I want to do a Nieport 11 Bebe as well, if I can just find my drawings for it. I know they're around somewhere.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though; I have many more models waiting to be printed and painted than I have finished. 

Pfalz D-III

 

I've built another German aeroplane for 1917, the Pfalz D-III. It was generally considered to be inferior to the contemporary Albatros D-III, but it was much stronger and could survive the G-forces in pulling out of a dive when the Albatros would fall to bits.

 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.

 The test print is FDM (eSun PLA+) off my old Ender 3 with a bog-standard 0.4mm nozzle.

The Whale

 

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

Camel

 

Next up is the famous Sopwith Camel, the famous mount of the famous Biggles himself. 

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. 

Pup

 

I've been concentrating pretty much on German aeroplanes, so I thought I'd better make some opposition to all the Albatroses and Hamberstadts, and fired up Blender to make this 1:144 scale Sopwith Pup.

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. 

Siemens-Schuckert D-III

 

I'm on a real WW1 aeroplane kick at the moment, so I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts.

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.

Albatros D-II

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.

 Some days later...

I've successfully test-printed one of these models, and splashed some paint on to it, and overall I'm pretty satisfied with it. 

Fokker D-VIII

 

The next teensy aeroplane in the queue is this 1:144 scale Fokker D-VIII, nicknamed "the Flying Razor". It appeared late in 1918 with spectacular performance, but it came too late and too few were ever put into service for it to affect the course of WW1.

Junkers D1

 

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.

 2026-09-06

I've printed and painted it now, and I'm glad I didn't corrugate the crap out of it.