Now I had relegated this model in to the “yeah, prolly not” pile but on a whim this morning thought I would give it a whirl:

The detail here is amazing – propeller, landing gear, double wings with strut to keep them apart, tail, engine, reasonably shaped fuselage

I would like to pretend this model came easily – it did not – so many obscure instructions, torturous collapses and closed sinks (often only to discover they were inside the body of the model and would not be seen anyway). It is a paper engineering marvel that I nearly gave up on 4 times.

In the end, an A3-cut square collapsed down to a tiny plane that is 10cm long and has a wingspan of 12cm – wow! Accuracy was a real problem as the model is so oddly shaped getting corners sharp on deeply fatigued paper was tough – copy paper is NOT the ideal medium for this model, still remarkably it held up (with some very gentle coaxing towards the end).

I am very happy with this, the first fold. Should I decide to fold it again I would do it much smarter. I will, however, accept discrete applause now, thank you.

Achtung!
Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte
Über den schweinköpfigen Hund
Und den lieben Red Baron

After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men have never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird

Eins, zwei, drei, vier ….

Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richthofen was his name
Eighty men tried and eighty men died
Now they’re buried together on the countryside

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Left, two, three, four ….

In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-lookin’ dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down “Curses, foiled again!”

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Now, Snoopy had sworn that he’d get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight

That Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He’d tried everything, but he’d run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Well, ten, twenty ….