Being somewhat caught up with studies and away from home, I thought I'd compensate for my lack of building activity with some future projects research
Specifically, I've been meaning to pick up a few of the much recommended windsock datafiles on various WW1 A/C.
I'm not quite sure what to expect though, so before placing an order it would be great to get some insight into the format of information featured.
I understand they're acclaimed as an invaluable reference to modellers of all scales, particularly suitable to 1:48 and 1:72 it would seem.
The emphasis with a lot of the datafiles seems to be on a very comprehensive compilation of historical background, original or replica photos, color schemes and profiles.

As I intend to scratch build (draw plans) it would be good to know to what degree of detail and accuracy the featured 3-view drawings can be used for a say, 1/5 scale project.

Also, are detailed illustrations of wing profiles, incidences, rigging details, fuse-sections ect. featured?

I'd appreciate any comments!

I have some of the windsock material and its pretty complete for the subject matter. I can't speak to the absolute accuracy of the three views because I don't have the Engneering drawins of the original to compare to. I would think though, that they are as close as most others out there. I would suggest that you purchase one data file on a plane that interests you and see if it satisfies your needs. If it does then you're all set. If not you haven't spent a lot of $ in the process.
The reason they are valued in the 1/48 and 1/72 scales is because they cater to those scales for the plastic modelers. They publish some of the scale information in those two scales making them very handy.

Trev, I find myself in the same boat, i.e. no time or facilities for scale building (all I can manage at present is an Ugly Stik ARF). So I too have decided to focus on "scale research" for the moment. Before I left the US I ordered the data files on the Albatros BI and II, CI and CIII, CV, CVII, DIII (OEF), Pfalz DIII and LVG CVI. While they are all informative, some are better than others. Some of the 3-views are better (more detailed) than others. None of them represent the sort of comprehensive documentation of a single aircraft that you see on the FTS EIII CD for example. But you'll get some new and interesting original photos (like the one of the Pfalz with a teddy bear wired on behind the cockpit) some color plates with documented color schemes, lots of textual description of features important to modellers, and enough close up photos to be able to model the major features (and variations). I don't imagine that any one all by itself would be sufficient though.

I also ordered some standard 3-views from Nexus in the UK (don't have their address handy at the moment) but those were a bit of a mixed bag. Most were little better than you can get on the web, but the one of the LVG VI was much larger scale and full of informative detail. The DIII was also OK.

One resource that I quite frankly treasure is the MAN Scale Drawings WWI book. This is a collection of drawings most by William Wylam and Joseph Nieto and while many of these drawings have come under attack for assorted inaccuracies, I still find them the most exhaustively detailed available. For example, the several pages of technical drawings in this book on the Pfalz DIII totally blow away the simple 3-views in the Pfalz DIII Windsock datafile. And I can't imagine how anyone building a scale DrI or DVII could even consider going forward without the Joself Nieto plans (in the case of the DVII four large sheets of them) available fairly inexpensively through the National Aeronautics and Space Museum.

I guess all I can do for the time being is dream and read -- and work on my flying skills a bit. BTW, I'm currently 3 for 4 crashes to flights on my Spacewalker ARF! But I'm gettin' better!

Thanks for the advice guys.
I've gone and ordered 2 issues now featuring the Nieuport 10/12 and the Halberstadt fighters
Not too much of a financial commitment and I believe they should be quite alright for my needs.

Btw Abu, I've searched for that WWI scale drawings book you mentioned, would this be the one?

This it seems is available via amazon. Makes it a lot easier to obtain plus no shipping charges.

a respectable ratio you've got there Abu, can't be too severe if she's still in flying condition. More like taxiing mishaps, eh?
My 2nd plane was (and is still) a CG piper cub, very docile and probably handles a bit easier than the low wing spacewalker/
by the time you're through with it your flying skills should be well advanced

Trev, yeah that's the book. I just love looking through it and thinking of all the possibilities. In the forward of the book it states that all the drawings in the book are avaible at "full scale" as well but I've done a lot of checking into this and apparently this is simply no longer true. A small number of these plans are available through MAN but even the Smithsonian does not appear to have copies. I wrote and asked about plans by William Wylam and was sent copies of some of the drawings photocopied (badly) right out of the MAN book! And even then the librarian admitted that some of the pages were just no longer there -- they had been cut out. Sorry state of affairs. Sad also that these little copies in the book are apparently the only trace left of the glorious full-sized drawings.

Anyway, between these sort of drawings, what's on the web, Replicraft plans, datafiles and Squadron publications I suppose we should find enough to keep us busy!

On the flying, partly these are teething problems at my new club. The field is much smaller, has some tall brush growing just alongside the dirt and grass (and mud) runway, has a pretty much constant light crosswinds, and I have to do everything in Japanese! The first crash was on the maiden when it wasn't balanced right -- I was lucky to have gotten it down at only the cost of the landing gear. The second flight I clipped some weeds on take-off and torn off the wing and cracked the horizontal stab. The third flight as a reasonable success but short (a couple of circuits and then in for a landing). I immediately sent it up again and just after the first ciruit it went deadstick. I was able to get it back over the field (a terraced plateau) just barely but again torn the wing off on a rough landing in the brush. To tell the truth I'm not expecting this plane to last too long.