The Last of the Knights

Ahnab · 27 December 2008, 11:02 PM

Greetings all! 'The Last of the Knights' is an animated short film I'm working on which is about

Werner Voss' famous last fight. As such, I'd like make the following disclaimer:

My film, although based on actual historical events, is the story of one man's courage in the face of immense odds. If the measure of a man's character is in the manner of his death, then surely Werner Voss was a god among men. It is my intention, to the best of my abilities, to show his spirit and bravery. To that end, I have taken some artistic liberties regarding certain aircraft details and/or details of the dogfight itself. As I stated earlier, it is my intention to show the essense of the man Werner Voss was; details such as each and every nut and bolt or the exact color scheme of the aircraft is secondary in light of the story and how I intend to tell it. This a tale about a man, not the machine.

Also, please keep in mind that I'm working on this film in my spare time (which basically amounts to a couple of hours on the weekends), so please be patient and bear with me!

Right, now that we've got that mumbo-jumbo out of the way, lets get on with the show!

Ahnab · 27 December 2008, 11:08 PM

First off, we have

Werner Voss' venerable Fokker Dr. I. It still has a lot of work left on it. Enjoy!

Ahnab · 27 December 2008, 11:12 PM

Next we have 56 Squadron's SE5a.

dacattack · 28 December 2008, 06:29 AM

Man, those models look great! Great start on those!

What software tools are you using? I'll definitely keep track on this one!

well done so far!

JFM · 28 December 2008, 08:29 AM

Great start! I know you aren't worried about "every nut and bolt" but is it too nitpicky of me to mention Voss flew a Fokker F.I and not Dr.I?

Gregvan · 28 December 2008, 09:15 AM

Let me add my congrats on a great start! As JFM mentioned, a minor nitpick is that Voss flew an F.I. One very noticeable difference is that the horizontal stabilizer (tailplane) had a somewhat curved leading edge, in comparison to the production Dr.I's.

Greg

Ahnab · 28 December 2008, 08:01 PM

Thanx for all your input guys, appreciate it!

David:
I use 3ds Max 2008 for all my modeling, animation and lighting/shading, VRay for rendering, Photoshop for my textures and Combustion for composites (although I'm thinking of finally making the transition to Nuke). The current polycount is almost 250, 000 on both planes (unsmoothed ofcourse, slightly higher for the Fokker). What tools do you use? Btw, KILLER work on your Albatross! It was great to see such a fine aircraft getting such a fine treatment!

JFM & Greg:
Thanx for correcting me guys, and for pointing out the slight curvature of the tailplane. I know that Voss was flying a prototype and actually thought that the lack of the wing skids was the only major difference between the Dr. I and the F. I on the outside. Are there any other differences I should know about?

werner vontobler · 29 December 2008, 05:42 AM

Like everyone else here I am not trying to be "nit Picky", but I believe the F.1 also had different ailerons on the top wing. I want to say thanks to you as well for doing this project

Werner Voss is my Favorite World War One Aviator.
Yours Respectfully
Werner VonTobler

Ahnab · 29 December 2008, 08:08 PM

Thanx for all your feedback guys!

Werner:
I sincerely hope I can do justice to Voss' legacy. Don't worry, with the help of all the aces here at Aerodrome, it'll come out fabulous!

Btw, any idea where I can get any diagrams or detailed views of the F. I prototype? Just wanna nail the slight changes to the tailplane and ailerons you've mentioned.

Tom M · 29 December 2008, 09:00 PM

There are scale drawings in Fokker Dr.I Triplane" by Paul Leaman showing aileron differences and in the Fokker Dr. I Datafile Special the elevator.

Tom