Pfalz

Pfalz D.III by Warplanes 1/72 scale vacuform.

The Pfalz D.III prototype appeared in the spring of 1917 and was a beautifully proportioned and elegant machine. It was the product of the firm's chief engineer Rudolph Geringer and designers Paulus and Goldmacher and was powered by the 160hp Mercedes DIII. The D.III entered service in August 1917 and by October 145 were in service. By the spring of 1918 the D.III had been largely withdrawn from Front line service and re-assigned for training use.

This model is one of my first vacuforms and is 100% plastic. There were no metal parts available at this time. The model depicits the plane flown by Vizfeldwebel Hecht of Jasta 10 when he was forced down on Dec 27, 1918. The color scheme is the subject of Windsock Volume1, No.1, Spring 1985.

Pfalz D.IIIa by Roden, injection molded.

The D.IIIa first arrived at the Front in the autumn of 1917. It was a modification of the D.III in that it removed the machine guns buried in the fuselage and brought them up to the eye level with the pilot. There was also an increased size in the tail plane. 750 D.IIIas were built and more than 15 Jastas used the aircraft. The D.IIIa served until the end of the war, but in early 1918, they were being deleted from service in favor of the Fokker D.VII.

This Model depicts the plane flown by Ltn. Karl Degelow, commander of Jasta 40 in the summer of 1918. He was the lasts airman to receive the Order Pour le Merite with 30 victories

The leaping stag decal was replaced by PD Decals, sheet 72-016.

Pfalz DR1 by Merlin 1/72 scale short run injection mold.

The success of the Sopwith Triplane spawned other triplanes but only two, the Fokker and the Pfalz were put into production.

The Pfalz was designed by Ernst Everbusch and was powered by the Siemens-Halske 160 hp engine. The prop was larger than normal, being especially designed to get the best out of the slow rpm of the engine. Armament was the usual twin Spandaus, firing through the prop.

In Dec 1917, von Richthofen flew the DR1 but found it inferior in performance and handling qualities to the fokker aircraft. A total of 10 machines were produced and some saw service. This model decipits 3050/17 and is built OOB. The kit contains metal parts and decals. This is Merlin kit # 22 and is an example of Merlin's very good early work.

The Pfalz Flugzeugwerke, due to the success of the D.III and IIIa, had doubled in size by November 1917. Of 11 projects that were under developement at this time, #11 was a D.IIIa with "twin bay Spad-type wing assembly" in design. This project would become the Pfalz D.XII but would not reach squadron service until June 1918. Five D.XII's reached service by June 30, 1918 with 168 machines in service by August 1918.

The D.XII was not liked by its pilots due to sluggish controls, it's tendency to lose altitude in a turn and its difficulty in landing. But it was more than an adequate replacement for the 470-odd rapidly aging Albatros D.Va and Pfalz D.IIIa fighters still at the Front in August of 1918. Between 750-800 fighters were ordered and built.

This model decipits a D.XII flown by Lt. G. Klien in the summer of 1918. An easy OOB build using Americal decals for the lozenge pattern.

Pfalz E.I by Roseplanes, 1/72 resin

The Pfalz E.I appeared on the Front on October 21, 1915, some four months after the Fokker E.I. By April 1916, there were 27 E.Is in service. The aircraft was powered by 80 hp Oberursel U.O rotary engine. The plane was not well liked by its pilots and there were numerous fatal crashes. The aircraft had been withdrawn from service by Oct 1916.

The kit is all resin and all dimensions match the Datafile exactly. The interior, landing struts, machine gun, tailskid and instrument panel were taken from an ICM Pfalz E.IV. Larger wheels came from my collection of wheels.

The wings and fuselage were painted separately. The rib tapes were applied with a Sharpie Ultra Fine felt tip pen. The black outline on the wings and fuselage were drawn freehand with a wider Sharpie felt tip.

The only construction problem was my failure to correctly sand the angle of the wings when they mated to the fuselage. The rigging is DURAS and building time was under 10 hours.

Pfalz E.IV by ICM, 1/72 injection

The E.IV arrived at the Front in April, 1916, with five aircraft in service. It was powered by the 160 hp Oberursel U.III twin-row rotary engine. All E.IVs were armed with twin machine guns. The Pfalz fighters hardly made a dent in the German fighter strength. As the frontline inventory shows, the Pfalz E-type fighters arrived too late and in too small a number to effect the overall picture.

The ICM kit requires major surgery to make it a Pfalz. ICM released the Fokker E.IV at the same time and used the same fuselage. The Pfalz fighters were 75cm shorter than the Fokker planes. Construction started with cutting 7/16" off the tail and then sanding the bottom back to the pointed tail profile. Also, sheet plastic was added to the front bottom of the plane to correct the profile. Careful sanding and constant checking with Datafile 59 gave me a good representation of a Pflaz E.IV. The wings are one panel too short so I cut the wings and added a panel from another set of wings that will not be used. This changed the rib layout, so all ribs were sanded off, round stock was glued on with liquid glue and sanded almost flat when dry. The cowling had to be rounded to get the correct profile. The plastic is thick enough that is easily accomplished. The cooling holes added by the pilot were drilled at this time. The wheels are too small and were replaced. While this sounds like a major project, all of this did not increase the building time two hours.

From this point on, construction is out of the box. The wings and fuselage are painted and outlined with the Sharpie pen. The decals are from the box but the fuselage crosses are a little too large to fit in their exact location. I should have replaced them with markings a little smaller. After assembly, Ltn Friedrich "Fritz" Grunzweig's personal color scheme was handpainted. The colors will never be known but Grey and Red Brown was used per Ray Rimell. The plane was rigged using DURAS and construction was about 15 hours.

Pfalz D.V, a modified ICM kit, 1/72 injection

The E.V was an attempt to upgrade the E-types with a 120 hp Mercedes D.II in-line engine. Fifty of the aircraft were ordered but less than 10 were built. Three Pfalz E.V monoplanes were carried on the front line inventory on June 30, 1916 but it is doubtful they saw combat.

The ICM fuselage rear was shortened and the front section was built up with card stock to house the in line-engine. I built the plane that was undergoing type testing in the Spring of 1916, which had a 100 hp Mercedes D.I engine. I built a four-cylinder engine without any detail since only the upper portion will show. The exhaust is from the scrape box with two of the six exhausts removed. The nose is from a Fokker D.VII, re-scribed to more closely resemble the E.V nose. Sheet stock was used to enclose the engine.

The kit wings are too short and the chord is too narrow. I used Rosepart wings blanks to build a wing. This did not take an hour.

As with the other planes, they were painted, scribed with the Sharpie felt tip pen and assembled. All kit parts were used for the landing struts and tailskid. The wheels were replaced, as they were too small. The inspection plates are aluminum foil scribed with a tool to resemble louvers. The kit was rigged using DURAS and the decals were from the kit. Total building time was maybe 10 hours.