Brian Knight Eindecker paintings ?

[Paul Forster]

There appears to be two different versions of his Eindecker painting that was used on model box covers back in the 60s. One with a pilot's head in the lower left corner and one without. Which one is the original? Or did he paint two different versions?

[Gregvan]

Hello,
A good question! I am fairly certain that the version WITHOUT the bizarre inclusion of the pilot's head is the (in my opinion superior) original. I think the original US version was issued without the pilot's head; then, for some strange reason, the pilot's head was added for the release by Revell UK. If I recall, this is how Brad Hansen described the sequence in his book "WWI in Plastic."

The original is one of my all-time favorite WWI aviation paintings, no doubt influenced by nostalgia as it was one of the very first WWI kits I built. The composition, the details of the delicate yet menacing Eindecker, the tracer bullets standing out against the smoke trail of the opponent, it's all great. If you needed one image to exemplify the "Fokker Scourge" of 1915-16, this is it.



Then, when the kit was issued in Britain, they inexplicably decided to add the strange pilot's head in the lower corner, and added the "bronze nameplate" which sometimes appeared on Revell kits. It spoils the whole composition. I don't know if Knight had to paint over his original, or how it was achieved.

[Gregvan]

I'm no expert, but most of the Revell 1/72 WWI kits that were first issued in the US, and then had a release by Revell Great Britain, featured different or modified cover art on the Great Britain kits.

Here is the box top art for Revell's original US DH-2 kit, again a wonderfully atmospheric image by Brian Knight (even if we now know that the nacelle wasn't plywood covered as he depicts), showing the pusher plugging along through the "archie" in a stately manner.



Here is the Revell Great Britain version, in which the whole plane has been painted a sickly green, and the bronze nameplate added.

[Paul Forster]

I figured the one without the extra head was the original. One of my favorites too !

[Paul Forster]

I think I first saw it in Illustrated History Of WWI In The Air by Stanley Ulanoff, the book that started my interest in WWI aviation. Must have been in the 70s.

[Gregvan]

Paul, a lot of us of a certain age had that same inspiration from the Illustrated History of WWI in the Air. A fairly simple, entry-level book that still had a huge impact on young minds.

[Paul Forster]

I have been searching the internet for a good version of the headless one so I could print out a copy. There are quite a few of them on various websites but they all seem to have some sort of flaw, the colors are off or they are slightly blurred. The one Greg posted is the best one I have seen so far. I was wondering if anyone knows of an even better one somewhere ?