Roden's Albatros D.I in 1/32nd scale

 

The early Albatros fighters, (the D.I and D.II), have sparked my interest ever since I read about them in Thomas Funderburk's "The Fighters", back in the 60s!  Back then there were no kits of those versions but nowadays there are several to choose from! I wanted to do 1/32 scale so I picked up a Roden kit a while back at a modest price from Amazon. 

I was a little intimidated by the Roden kits, (I've accumulated a few now), so I didn't try to build this one until I had a couple of  biplanes under my belt. Now that I've done a Hobbycraft Sopwith Camel and the Monogram F3F, I felt ready to tackle one. 

The aircraft I decided to model was the Jasta 5 machine flown by a Lt. Spitzhoff. It is one of the schemes offered in the kit's decals and it was a nice colorful scheme. I didn't want to try a plain varnished finish this time, I wanted to get familiar with this kit and I also wanted an example of the green/brown camouflage.

Lt. Spitzhoff's D.I

A profile shot of the finished kit for comparison to the actual a/c above.

Sorting it out!

Roden's models have a reputation of being "fiddly" with finely molded but fragile components. They offer some really exciting kits and over the years I've managed to collect quite a few. As it happened, I stumbled upon this particular kit on eBay at quite an attractive price. To my surprise, it also included a nice set of Eduard photo-etch parts and a special "wood grain" simulation in decals from Aeromaster! This also happened to be the second Albatros D.I in my stash, so I felt I had a little room for error in selecting this kit!

As usual, I began with the interior details. first was the beautiful little Mercedes DIII motor. I spent a fair amount of time painting and detailing this. Later, I would find that a lot of my work would disappear under the cowlings, but it was still fun to work on it.

Mercedes DIII

Next came the interior frame members which supported the engine and cockpit. These were all quite fragile and the Roden instructions were somewhat vague...I actually installed one of the engine compartment members backwards because of a bad illustration in the instructions! I was able to fix that but it did make me wonder about the instructions in this kit!

Dry fitting interior details.

Aligning the interior components.

Everything installed! Note I have removed the propeller shaft for better alignment,

As you can see, there is a lot of stuff stuck inside the fuselage halves! This is one of the wonderful things about this kit1 The level of detail is far beyond what I've encountered in the older kits i normally build!

Some details. PE jackets for the MG's and wood grain simulated with watercolor pencils!

A first for me: II used a couple of photo etched parts in this kit! Actually I used some machine gun jackets that were pre-rolled to a cylindrical shape and were quite easy to use. Roden actually provides extra machine guns molded without a jacket so you can easily install the PE ones. This really is a must for a 1/32 scale Spandau!

I also experimented with using water color pencils to simulate the wood grain on the propellers. In the case of the Albatros, with a large spinner covering the prop's center, this proved to by very effective. But I could not create a realistic pattern around the hub. For an aircraft without a spinner, ie; any Fokker, I will have to try something else.

Test fitting the Spandaus!

I spent a lot of time trying to get the Spandaus properly fixed to the upper decking. They are supposed to fit on a couple of brackets attached to the interior framing, but they didn't quite match up. They also had to be trimmed quite a bit to fit between the ammunition feed tray and spent cartridge collector.

In preparation for rigging, it was necessary to drill a series of holes through the lower wing, and partially through the upper. i also had to plug up two incorrectly placed rigging holes in the fuselage side.  

finally, it was time to start painting!. First, everything got a coat of Tamiya primer. This stuff really smells nasty, but it is an excellent base coat for the acrylic paint I like to use.

I first had to paint the white fields for the national insignia on both the upper and lower wings. These were masked and then the underside color of light blue was applied. My first attempt wasn't satisfactory; Tamiya's light blue had a very green cast to it! I eventually mixed my own shade and repainted the belly.

The final underside painting.

Next came the upper side camo! I was excited at this stage because I was going to try my hand at freee-hand airbrush camouflage. 

First, an overall coat of brown.

Next I lightly penciled the pattern for the green paint and then gave it a go!

Applying the green coat,

The paint job didn't go faultlessly, there were several hiccups, but eventually I reached where I felt satisfied. Upon removing the masking tape, I was relieved to find all the paint behaved well and there was no pulling out and just a few spots that required cleanup with a brush.

Painting done!

The step was to apply the decals. This turned out to be much more of a challenge than I expected. The decals seems hesitant to release from the backing, and when they did they were quite fragile. I mentioned earlier that I had a second kit, I had to rain that kit's decals to finish this one! Eventually, i found that by using warm water, the decals both released easier and softened up a smidge. somethigni'll have to remember since I have about TEN more Roden kits to build!

Finally getting the decals on!

It was now time to begin thinking about the final assembly. One problem i foresaw was with the center (cabane) struts. One ad already broken on the sprue as I was drilling a rigging hole in it! Not a good sign! I decided to reinforce the forward cabane struts with a length of styrene.

The reinforced cabane struts.

Cabanes installed, you can't see the reinforcements at all!

I installed some rigging from the cabanes to lower wings and also the side mounted radiators before installing the top wing. The upper wing, (which already had rigging wires attached), was then cemented in place and secured by taping it down to a flat surface.

Upper wing installation.

Once the upper wing was secured I was able to run the rigging through the holes I had drilled out earlier. One of my favorite parts of these biplane builds, I think it really adds a lot to the finished model.

A view of the rigging and the cockpit.

The landing gear was next. While quite a nice looking molding, I worried about the strength of this part. I went ahead and assembled them and wasn't impressed with their strength. to simulate the bungees used in the actual a/c, I wrapped the axle and strut with embroidery thread, hoping it would add a little more security.

The landing gear; nice looking but oh so fragile!

I eventually cemented the gear onto the fuselage and let it set for a couple of days. Eventually the time came to test it. I flipped the bird over and set it on it's feet. They held! They are still awfully fragile looking and there is a very slight lean to the left, but I can accept all that for now!

On it's feet, and holding!

Now all that was left was a few small details! The control surfaces on this aircraft are all separate so they had to be installed. Then the prop was finally glued on. Then, a final coat of dullcoat to tone down the future sheen, and it was done!

Some shots of the finished model: