"Uffz Hertel", he haid said, "if you ever want to be promoted beyond a mere Unteroffizier, you have to produce
Abschüsse! If you want to be famous, you have to produce
Abschüsse! Get into the air again!!!" "
Abschüsse Abschüsse Abschüsse!" "Or do you want to go back to the mud slogging infantry, back into the trenches?"
He couldn't understand i was mortally afraid when airborne, and there was no way i could have told him. But Dilthey is dead now, having been killed above Lille. No harrassment about Abschüsse any longer.
But the new Staffelführer isn't any better.... "Uffz Hertel", he had said, "do you ever want to fly one of those fancy new Fokkers? Have a look at my beautiful black crate with that nice white stag motif. Isn't she lovely? Do you ever want to change your old Pfalz into such a plane? Get into the air again! And look at your plane - the grass has grown long around it, even the flowers are grown so large by now, you can't even see your Pfalz. It's a disgrace to the Royal Saxon Jagdstaffel. Get airborne or get out!"
Degelow couldn't understand i was mortally afraid when airborne either, and there was no way i could have told him. But that Fokker is sooooo beautiful, i have to do something. So i talked to my trusted mechanic, Unteroffizier Keller from Dresden, and he had an idea, the good fellow: I will get airborne, fly for some minutes, than come back and wreck my Pfalz while landing. That way i will receive my Fokker and nobody can harrass me any longer.... So, dear Keller: "It's time for
Contact! Swing the propeller!"
Of course I have no idea, if Unteroffizier Hertel really was afraid in the air, if there really where plans to wreck his beautiful Pfalz to exchange it against that brutish Fokker D.VII. Not much is knwon about him, at all. No records on any Abschüsse have survived, just some photographs of his aircraft, adorned with the winged dagger. Pfalz and Fokker, to the joy of us modellers a century later.
As promised i present to you photos of my finished Pfalz D.IIIa in Royal Saxonian Jagdstaffel 40s livrée. The build log can be found here
http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=7384.0
WNW have managed to include a feature the D.III and D.IIIa were critized for very often: tail warpage, coming from the use of green wood. Honestly, somehow i managed to distort the tailplane. I assume this comes from the pilot's figure.
Up to here you will already know all the photos, as i had posted them on fb and Hyperscale yesterday.
The next set will only be shown here (exclusively, if you want to say so). This my way to say thank you to Des for providing me an internet home. All my future builds will include some photos, only to be shown here. Unteroffizier Keller is again a figure from Wings Cockpit, one of the first every sculpted, very low on detail. I had to add buttons on the jacket and a score of other little details that are included in more modern figures. You can't see it in the photos, but he has the correct green-white-green cocarde for a Saxon soldier on his Feldmütze.
