The heading says it all!
A distinct category for the SE5 as opposed to the SE5a
I'm so fed up with artists, modellers, printers and manufacturers erroneously bedecking SE5a creations in the early 60 Squadron SE5 colours - which were only briefly applied to the first SE5 aircraft for a matter of weeks before the dead hand of officialdom denied the freedom of expression and had the aeroplanes repainted in PC10.
Of course the temptation is there to want to display these colourful subjects - A Flight in RED, B Flight in YELLOW and C Flight in BLUE on noses, tailfins, (some) wheels and stripes - but it is just not historically correct to apply to an SE5a.
After all, the SE5 was a different beast from the SE5a in the same way as an Albatros D.III is a different beast from the D.V. It started off with pointed wings, a slim nose with horseshoe cowling, stub exhausts and, at first a crazy glasshouse over the cockpit (quickly removed). Of course as time progressed, surviving SE5s went back to repair depots and were retro-fitted with the later blunt wings and bigger engines and radiators of the 5a and, in the process, became indistinguishable from the later machine - thus the reason for much of the confusion.
But the lovely blue and red 60 Sqdn SE5s of Bishop, Caldwell et al were definitively SE5s with the distinctive nose contours and to use these colours on a 5a model is as wrong as, say, putting Werner Voss' hearts and laurels on an Albatros D.V model. (It didn't stop Corgi doing so with A8898 though!)
Rant over. My solution was to convert a 1/32 Roden SE5a model to the 60Sqdn config of Billy Bishop's A8936 and here she is.
(Ideally I'd love to do three of these - in blue, red and especially yellow!)
Build log over in the construction thread
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14217.0Sandy
