LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
FELDPOST
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Modelling
the Kister
Albatros
EDITOR’S As a long-time
CHOICE
modeller and
painter, I’d been looking for
a suitable First World War
project to compliment the
ever-growing array of high-
quality kits now available
on the market. Inspiration
came by way of the Josef
Kister diary published in Iron
Cross and the remarkable
detective work to determine
the colours of Jasta 1 aircraft.
Seeing the photographs in all
their glory prompted me to
The ‘Greif’ Badge of Kampfgeschwader 55
I read with interest your
feature on the griffon emblem
of KG55.
Most references, including
artwork representations,
show the shield behind the
griffon as white just as your
artist represented it. However,
research has proven the shield
was actually painted gold. That
said, the usual presentation
of the shield as white is an
understandable mistake for
several reasons.
First, the emblem of the
town of Giessen (on which the
badge was based) has a white
shield. Second, monochrome
images reflect light in a way
that the shield appears white.
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track down a suitable kit with
which I could replicate those
colours.
My first choice was the
stunning Wingnut Wings
Albatros (1/32 scale) but it had
long sold out. Second choice
was the 1/48 scale Albatros by
the Czech company, Eduard
Models. That too was out of
production, but I managed to
track one down via eBay.
I admit that the project
tested my resolve on many
occasions - from hand-painting
the fuselage to replacing the
supplied lozenge pattern
decals with more accurate ones
from the excellent Aviattic
range. I also had to call on
fellow modeler, Dave Crosby,
light is not so highly reflected.
It is also described as gold in
RAF Air Intelligence reports.
Also, a rare colour photograph
of the emblem clearly shows
it as gold. However, looking
at late war images, the shield
may have then been white –
perhaps because gold paint
became harder to source? So,
white could
be correct
for the late
war period.
I would add
that the wings
are described
However, evidence for as blue by RAF
it being gold is shown in intelligence –
period images where the again, conflicting
to cut me a set of scaled masks
with his Silhouette Cameo 3
cutter for the number ‘6’ on the
fuselage sides.
The two figures depicting
pilot and mechanic were
sourced from America. They
pay homage to Josef Kister and
his mechanic as depicted in
one of your photographs.
The photos attached
hopefully speak for
themselves. Thank you for
allowing me this opportunity
to share my efforts with your
readers.
David Ulke (By email)
Editor: This truly is a stunning
model and far too good not
to share with our readership.
with the Giessen emblem.
Additionally, a KG55 stick pin
has the wings in black, albeit
that the ground is gold.
Adding further confusion,
reports state the fishes of the
8th Staffel badge were blue.
That said, the surviving 8./
KG55 emblem in your article
clearly shows they were yellow
in 1941.
Interpreting colours from
period images can be tricky.
There were clearly wide
variations and your analysis of
the First World War Albatros
colours was fascinating.
Thank you for an excellent
magazine.
Clint Mitchell, Kent (By email)