Martinsyde G.100 'Elephant', With 'Dunsterforce' At Baku, September, 1918, 1/72

[Old Man]

Again, m'Lady and Gentlemen, my thanks for your kind words.

This was a favorite machine of mine for some time, and learning they had been involved with Baku finally got me to take a run at it. I think this was the first model I assembled such a detailed background account for. I got invaluable assistance from two people on the old Great War Forum (which no longer seems to be there), one of whom noted that the serial of Lt. MacKay's Elephant was concealed by a typo in an official record, which showed the machine as written off earlier than it had arrived in No. 72 Sqdn, but on the month and day appropriate to the Baku operation.

Here are some links you might find interesting, if you have some time.

First, Gen. Dunsterville's memoir of the operation. I suspect he is unfair to the Armenian militiamen, but such a dismissive attitude would be normal for an English officer of his day:

https://books.google.com/books?id=M4I9AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true


Second, an essay by George Orwell on Rudyard Kipling, which I think is a marvelous appreciation of the writer, presented with great fairness and respect.

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/rudyard-kipling/

Finally, a link to 'Stalky and Company', an excellent read, and a look at young Dunsterville to boot. The connection between Gen. Dunsterville and this book, which I read as a boy and greatly enjoyed, was a sort of icing on the cake of this project.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3006/3006-h/3006-h.htm

[rhallinger]

Thanks so much OM for sharing this beautiful model and interesting history.  I was intrigued and wanted to learn more, and was just about to do an Amazon search for books when your message with links appeared.  You are a full-service modeler and forumite!  Thanks again, and very well done.

I have a separate request, if you have the time and available material.  I recall seeing a post of yours many years ago about an early Fokker A model, I think,which was an early prototype of the Eindecker series as I recall.  You had scratch-built a beautiful model of this aircraft and provided a detailed history.  Most enjoyable!  Can you please re-post that, or provide a link?  I seem to recall that you linked to another site with that earlier post. 

Thanks again for your contributions here.  It's good to have you back!

Best,

Bob
 

[Old Man]

Thanks, Bob.

Good of you to recall that.

I did up the finished model here, in this forum. Here is a link to it:

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2235.0


What I had linked to was a WIP thread, and that, unfortunately, seems lost. It was on the old HyperScale site, which now is under 'Tapatalk' configuration, and the old 'Network 54' links no longer work. Some can be located, however, if searched for by title, as most material was carried over to the new format, but coverage seems spotty. I will do a search and see if any come up.

The model was a conversion, using two Eduard E.III kits, with  some other modifications,  to produce a Fokker A.II, which was the military designation for the 'long-span' version of the Fokker M.5 monoplane. The armed E-types derived from the
short-span' M.5 I do still have the photographs illustrating the operation, and could append the most important to the display thread.