CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS #1 and #2 12 July 2024
The left photo concentrates on the improvised instrument panel built from the kit's relatively blank panel using Eduard WW1 instruments.  At the top and more clearly on the right phot0 is the engine.  Finding suitable material for the six straight-forward exhausts I settled on solder wire of the appropriate diameter.  This is why the copper-painted exhausts look out of alighment being so easily moved.  The right photo also shows the probable alignment of the two seats.  The rest of the cockpit interior needs to be filled in with more improvisation.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #3 19 July 2024

The landing gear was the next step but I had to determine how I was going to attach the lower wings.  There are not pins or pre-drilled holes for lower wing attachment.  You can faintly see two holes in the hashed area where the lower wing fits.  I placed the lower wing against the hash and carefully marked a corresponding location on the hash mark field and the lower wing.  This alignment is where holes were drilled in the hash area and lower wing for each side.  Brass pins were installed and each wing was test fitted.  I then worked on the landing gear and, as shown, fit a proper brass rod through each wheel and matched that to the drawing to get the proper spread.  Each landing gear leg was drilled to take a small brass rod.  The undeside of the fuselage had slight indentations for the landing gear legs.  These were drilled out.  Brass rod was fitted to each leg and test fitted before being glued.  When dry, the brass axle was glued.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #4 19 July 2024

This view shows the fit (not glued) of the lower wings especially the brass pins on the right.  Fortunately, the wings were thick enough and the pin location was just below the cockpit floorboard.

  

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #5 27 July 2024

The tail unit was completed by gluing the horizontal plane first.  Brass rod supports were added to each side as shown.  The tail skid is simply a flattened piece of brass rod cut to length and rounded at the point where it touches the ground.  The tail unit consists of a triangular fin glued to the rudder and the completed sub-assembly glued to the rear of the model.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #6 30 July 2024

The cockpit interior has been completely re-finished.  The back-to-back seating shown in photos #1 and #2 is incorrect.  The white unpainted former between the two seated positions is interpreted as a wall separating the two sub-compartments.  The pilot's compartment appears slanted due to the angle of the camera.  Added for the pilot are the steering wheel,  hand pump (barely visible fight front), and other instruments on the side walls (not visible).  The observer's compartment has various instruments for photography and gun-fire direction.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #7 14 August 2024

I deceided to extend what basic knowledge I have for complex soldering.  The complicated rear-seat observer's gun ring was soldered using thin brass rod as shown.The cockpit interior has been completely re-finished.  The four upright support columns were first shaped and then glued to the fuselage. The bottom ring was soldered first followed by the top ring.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #8 30 September 2024

I decided early on to support the top wing with brass rod and tube struts.  The key to top wing support are the two inverted "V" central fuselage strut.  Two large recesses were gouged out of the center portion of the underside of the top wing to accept each inverted "V" strut.  Further, a non-standard length of flat brass rod was glued across the width of the wing to add additional support to the two inverted "V" struts.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #9 7 December 2025

It's been one year since the previou photo panel (#8) was made due to serious construction problems with this model but especially with how the model is to be finished.  The cockpit layout and its defensive machine gun ring were stumbling blocks.  The cockpit interior was re-arranged (to be presented in a future photo) but the gun ring still presents a problem but will be resolved shortly.  In the meantime, quite a bit of research was done on the finishing scheme.  Excluding all existing color profiles and relying strictly on the written word, I have found no definitive answer to the camouflage scheme.  Apparently, no less than four possibilities are to be discussed in a future article.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #10 16 December 2025

The primary focus of this photo is the installation of a circular wood machine gun mount for the observer.  I gave up on the complicated two-ring version as shown in photo #7.  This replacement is an Aeroclub V.101 German Gun Ring.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #11 16 December 2025

This photo concentrates on the addition of the wing-mounted radiator less pipes and support brackets for now.

  

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #12 24 December 2025

I've decided that this late-war aircraft was probably camouflaged two-tone gray.  For now, I have painted the overall upper surfaces in Vallejo 883 Silver Grey to represent the "light gray" in the two-tone scheme.  My research does not come away with a definitive scheme.  There are several possibilities.  You are referred to Dr. Martin D. O'Conner's detailed article appearing in Cross and Cockade International, volume 18, No. 2 (see bibliography).  First, colors:  either green/tan brown (O'Conner) or light gray/dark gray (modern historians and artists).  Nearly all of the profile artists in the last ten years have opted for the gray scheme but I cannot find any source that has discovered the actual Austro-Hungarian color specificatiion except some research that has examined the underlying paint layers that seem to reveal the gray scheme and not the green/tan scheme (note: post-war built C.Is were apparently finished in the green/tan scheme).  Second, there is a progression of the various schemes that originated from 1) colored hexangonal attempts; 2) stair stepped application of two colors on the fuselage and upper wing surfaces; 3) to irregular patches on the wings but not the fuselage; 4) to irregular patches in two colors to all upper surfaces including the fuselage.  More in the next photo panel.

  

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #13 30 December 2025

The only reliable source I have found for Austro-Hungarian aircraft remains to be O'Conner's aged treatise that appeared in Cross & Cockade years ago (see bibliography below).  In view of more recent color profiles I've decided to go ahead and paint the C.I in  camouflaged two-tone gray.  I used Vallejo 883 Silver Grey for the "light gray" and Vallejo 994 Dark Grey for the darker shade.  I also made the decision to cover all upper surfaces as shown above in irregular patches sometimes referrred to as "cloud pattern".  The underside remains in Humbrol 148 Radome Tan.  The rudder is painted white to be adorned with the late-war cross.

  
  

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #14

This view shows the installation of the propeller-driven generator attached to the right front landing gear strut.  Another addition is the cicular access plate on the underside.  Radiator pipes have been added to the wing-mounted radiator.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #15

One additional tail unit strut (middle) was added according to the drawings in Windsock Datafile 110, page 15.  All tail rigging is completed (rudder and elevators).  Additionally, a black cross decal was added to the white field of the rudder.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #16

This photo shows the upper details of the right side of the tail unit.  Note the single bracking wire.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #17

This right frontal view shows more of the radiator piping, the wind-driven generator on the right front landing gear strut, and the front underside circular access plate.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #18

The cockpit is highlighted in this photo.  Note the items in the rear cockpit:  safety belt, observer's seat folded up, and the flare cartridge rack on the outside.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #19

This underside photo of the tail unit shows the arrangement of the control wires for the tail's elevators and rudder.  Note that the upper elevator wire passes through elongated openings near the middle support struts on either side.  These openings were not indicated on the kit's drawings but discovered in the drawings of Windsock Datafile 110.  Two holes were drilled front and rear.  An X-Acto knife was used to crave out the elongated opening.

    

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #20

This cockpit view shows the addition of a mirror crudely handing from two cords and the windscreen cut from scrap clear plastic.

        

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #21

The following additions starting at the front 1) the foot step attached to the left front landing gear strut; 2) the wiring from the generator to the cockpit underside ; 3) the aerial antenna for the transmitter; 4) the foot step bottom of fuselage below the flare rack; 5) the addition of a third tail strut (the middle one).

References:

Cowin, Hugh W.  German and Austrian Aviation of World War I.  Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2000.

Grosz, Peter M, George Haddow, and Peter Schiemer.  Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One, scale drawings by George Haddow, published by Flying Machines Press, Boulder, Colorado, 2002.

O'Conner, Martin D. Dr. Markings and Camouflage of Austro-Hungarian Aircraft in World War I, Part 6.  Cross and Cockade International, Volume 18, No.2, Summer 1987.

Owers, Colin A.  Hansa-Brandenburg Aircraft of WWI: Volume 1 Landplanes.  Aeronaut Books, 2015.

Owers, Colin A.  Hansa-Brandenburg C-Types. Windsock Datafile 110.  Berkhamstead, UK: Albatros Productions, Ltd, 2005.

Tesar, Aharon Petr.  K.u.k. Luftfahrtruppe Photo Album 1914-18, Volume 1.  Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic: Revi Publications,2008.

 

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10 January 2026