Sunday Market & Op Shop Sweep part 2: The Yellow Baron

 A recent Melbourne op-shop rummage produced a tin plate yellow bi-plane. It had no propellers or pilot. I also found, at another op shop a magazine featuring Lancaster bombers and including part of a kit, Happily this included a propeller. I bought six, for $2 each in order to get the propellers for planes I have without them.

On reflection, the propeller looks huge! Oh well, I am using this as a fictional imagi-nations plane, possibly for a later era Beerstein. I am going to call these planes, 'Noseies'.

  I bought some metal cutters to cut out the cockpit opening. The pilot I made from an Airfix vehicle driver and cut off his legs and part of his posterior so he could fit.

                                                        It looks like it was a windup toy.

                                                   A metal pilot, origin or brand forgotten....

                                            Here is the pilot with flyer's cap, scarf and goggles.

 

I like the way the plane is painted so I won't repaint it but I might make the nose cone red. I also need to make a machine gun. Should I make it twin linked or single?

  I'll also make a stand so the plane can be airborne.

  The pilot will have a red-brown cap and black jacket. The scarf will be red and green. The interior of the plane will be painted black to disguise that the pilot is legless!

P.S. I did this conversion without looking at references. Most WW1 biplanes don't have nosecones and mostly two propellers, and occasionally four! I was about to rip my one off when I saw a German Albatross. Ok, it is not the same and seems to have only two propellers, but I stand by my defence that I am making a fictional aircraft which is only vaguely WW1 style.