New Work - "Blue Iron"

[Russell Smith]

Whew! Finally finished it! You guys guys have seen the sketches and the color study, now here is the finished product.

Blue Iron depicts the famous blue and red aircraft of Jasta 15 on approach to their airfield at Balatre. Seen here are the Albatros DV that was formerly flown by Arthur Rahn, and the Pfalz DIII flown by the unit's leader Rudolf Berthold.

Jasta 15 had one of the most unusual histories of the Jasta squadrons. After assuming command of JGII in March, 1918, Hptm Rudolph Berthold tried to have his old unit, Jasta 18, attached to JGII. After failing to do so, he then arranged to have all of Jasta 18’s flying personnel swapped out with those of Jasta 15, a unit already attached to JGII. With them, the former pilots of Jasta 18 brought their unit’s colors – blue fuselages and red noses.

Hptm Rudolf Berthold was one Germany's finest pilots and squadron leaders. Berthold received several very painful wounds during his combat career - wounds that made it difficult for him to fly. Despite his painful wounds, however, he still managed to lead his squadron by example and managed to build under him a core of very loyal and effective pilots. Berthold marked all of his aircraft with his famed flying sword insignia. He finished the war with an impressive 44 victories.

Leutnant Arthur Rahn was one of the pilots involved in the personnel transfer from Jasta 18 to Jasta 15. Rahn marked all of his aircraft with a distinct banded diamond pattern. Having originally come from Jasta 19, Rahn returned to that unit in March of 1918, leaving behind his distinctly marked Albatros for use by other Jasta 15 pilots. He ended the war with 6 victories.

[Russell Smith]

Arthur Rahn's wartime photo album is now part of the USAFM collection. This piece was commisssioned by a client who gained permission to scan the photos from that album for archival purposes. Seen below are two photos of the Jasta 15 lineup at Balatre, taken from opposite ends. At one end you can see the Diamond marked albatros that formerly belonged the Rahn. From the oether end you can clearly see the Pfalz DIII of Rudolf Berthold. Notice the hangar that had beeen damaged by allied shelling just days prior to these photos.

Also attached is a photo of Arthur Rahn in his Albatros

russ

[Owen D]

I don't usually do Americanisms but....

Awesome dude!

[Dolphin]

Russell

Excellent! When looking at the painting you can almost hear the engines and smell the dope and the exhaust fumes.

You've done really well.

Gareth

[Russell Smith]

Thanks so much guys. In truth, I'm a little dissatisfied with the color on screen. the aircraft are good, but the color of the background is very slightly off. Those are supposed to be spring colors in the trees but they're looking a bit fallish. It would be april, so the leaves are just starting to bud. If you've ever looked at a budding tree it has a sort of reddish-gray look to it. maybe I'm just splitting hairs.

oh, well. either my color correcting skills are going downhill or my standards are going up because i never find myself completely satisfied anymore with my images onscreen. I bought a high-end scanner a few months back to make scanning and color correcting easier, and believe it or not, it actually makes it harder! the darn thing works so well that it even picks up the texture of the primer and transfers that into the image. that means i have to go in and clone out all that junk. GRRR!

anyway, i guess the aircraft are the subject, so as long as they'e correct...

russ

[Sgt_Hazell_Great_Grandson]

Stunning.

The different shades under the wings are quite superb.

Roland.

[Andyshep]

An amazing piece of work. I'm throwing away my brushes.

Andy