The Unfortunate Fate of the C27...

[Hauksbee]

Got an itch to play with Hansa-Brandenburgs...here's the result.

 

On Dec.11, 1917 a flight of three W-12s led by ObLtn. Friedrich Christiansen, was on the homeward leg of their patrol. Nearing the coast, the No.3 plane, the 'Tail-End Charley', spoted an Asta-Torres airship and dove to the attack. Christiansen and his other wingman turned back to join in, but by the time they arrived it was burning. Neither plane could add much to the process as the C27 was already going down. Being Flt. Leader, Christiansen claimed the kill, and it was confirmed. After the war, in subsequent statements, he acknowledged the role of his No.3, and some accounts credit each with half a kill.

 

EDIT: Here's the re-make. All planes now have pilots and gunners. The second picture is different because, for some reason, the file corrupted and everything, planes, lights, etc., were stacked at the same point in space: 0,0,0. So it had to be re-built.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Hauksbee

[+Olham]

Great build, Hauksbee! And an interesting shape of a plane, and good colouring!

But the left picture seems to show aircraft without pilots, and their numbers are mirrored.

Secret weapons of the Luftwaffe?

[Hauksbee]

...and their numbers are mirrored.

Thanks, Olham. And...well spotted. Fact of the matter is, I started the right hand poster first. As it started to come together, I opened a second document with the same model and tried a different scene with other photo backgrounds. As both posters marched along to completion, I rendered successive versions of the picture. When it came time to assemble the finals, I hastily grabbed an early rendering without pilots, and without the corrected numbers. I'll re-post that one tomorrow.

 

But if you think that's bad, yesterday, just as I was getting ready to post the pic. of the C27 fight, I had a twinge of unease. I had been going on the assumption that the W-12 and the W-29 were basically the same plane. [which, in many respects, they were.] Sorta like the Albatros D.I and the D.III. Unless you really know your Albatros's, it's hard to tell them apart. A quick google disabused me of that notion. The W-12 was a biplane; the W-29 was a monoplane. Just a little difference. I would have been years living that down.

[+Olham]

The complicated game of the graphic designers (Lol!!!)

But really - in our job, there often is so much to change and change again, that you can quickly

overlook some bad mistakes. I know that too well.