The Albatros DII was one of several models of fighting aeroplane prefered by Manfred Von Richthofen "The Red Baron" during WWI. Powered by a 160hp Mercedes DIII water-cooled inline six-cylinder engine and armed with two 7.92 mm Spandau machine guns, the Albatros helped secure Germany's domination of the European skies.
This particular model took a total of around 4 or 5 days to create and an additional 2 or 3 days to unwrap and texture. Along with the basic color/grime map I also created a normal map and specularity map all with a 1024x1024 resolution. I might post the maps up here later. I tried to keep it reletivily low poly but at 4850 triangles this is probably close to if not THE close-up hero model.
I didn't have to search too hard for reference material and I found a couple good orthographic layouts in no time at all. The REAL difficulty was choosing the aircraft. I didn't want to do the obvious yet, none the less iconic Fokker DR1 triplane. Clicking through webpages I was struck by the odd, somewhat fearsome bomb shaped fuselage and the extremely low upper wing of the Albatros. I also loved the horribly unaestetic engine cylinders with the way the cut into the profile of the nose and the large triangular radiator that sat on top of the cylinders.
After viewing hundreds of refernce pics for the DII I found that I liked bits and pieces of the different model's paint jobs and insignias. The texture that I created has is an amalgamation of the DII throught the later DV models. It was also VERY temping to give it Richthofen's signature red paint job.
