Drachen

 Part of my most recent order to Tumbling Dice (from four years ago) were a couple of observation balloons. I though I'd bought one of each - a Drachen type and  a Caquot one - but it seems I bought two Drachens (or that's what I received, anyway).

Anyway, this weekend I painted one.

It comes as two pieces of softish resin (easy to drill), which stuck together easily and needed just a little filling and filing to look right. There were also two small metal pieces which I realised were observation baskets. Not sure why each model had two though. Anyway, I used a couple of pieces of sturdy wire to attach one to the balloon.

Here's some other painting from last week; four Sopwith Triplanes.

Triplanes attacking a balloon. The balloons really do seem to have flown at that odd angle; it was something to do with that sausage-shaped attachment on the underside, which was really just a hollow tube designed to catch the wind and keep the balloon facing into the wind.

I have chosen not to put any national markings on the balloon at this stage, as it may get used as German, French or British. All sides used this design early in the war, until the French came up with the more stable Caquot design, when everyone switched to that instead.