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:

 Monogram's 1/32 scale Grumman F3F.

Monogram's 1/32 scale Grumman F3F-3

Several years ago I visited a local, (now long gone), hobby shop and spied this kit, the Monogram 1/32 scale F3F-3! As a kid I had built the Grumman Gulfhawk version of this model and always wanted to do the Navy version, so I uncharacteristically purchased it on the spot! The unbuilt model sat in my stash for several years until now. I suddenly had an urge to build it!

This kit's molds are over 50 years old and I've found some of re-popped Monogram kits (their P-40B for instance), have suffered from heavy use. This kit, however, seems to have weathered the years pretty well. It's molds probably have not had the heavy use as the very popular 1/48 scale kits.

Still, this kit does lack a lot of detail compared to recent models. The big Wright Cyclone engine is a prominent feature on the aircraft and definitely needs some attention.  I drilled out some of the leads for the ignition wires and various tubing and added a couple of lumps on the crankcase cover.

Working on the Wright Cycone.

Not a great picture, but you can see some of the added detail on the Cyclone!

One unique feature on this kit is a retracting landing gear operated by turning the propeller! Unfortunately, this feature results in a couple of problems if you're trying to produce a more accurate static model: two large gears stick out of the fuselage, and the landing gear legs have some very non-scale hinge points! I decided to forego the retracting mechanism and starting by filling in the holes on the fuselage halves. 

Some modification of the landing gear legs was necessary. At this point I was considering having the gear retract without the propeller linkage. Later on, I gave up on that idea.

Landing gear linkage modified.

The cockpit interior had some nice detailing for a kit of this age. I added some belts for the seat. The decal for the instrument panel fell apart in water so I made a more accurate panel from sheet styrene. Seeing the decal fall apart caused a little apprehension since i had planned on using the kits decals. Fortunately the is a company, Yellow Wings Decals, which offers a nice sheet for this kit! They are a good little company and I received a nice sheet from them within days of ordering one. 

New instrument panel and seat details.

To finish off the interior I added a few strips of  Evergreen plastic strips to give the cockpit a little more detail. Then I shot the interior with a coat of aluminum paint.

Interior ribbing.

Then it was time to button it up! I had to do a little trimming to get the fuselage halves to settle together well.

Here's a peek inside the cockpit:

Next it was time to attach the lower wings. These required a fair amount of filling. 

Prepared for the first primer coat.

Now it was time for some real painting! I first sprayed the wings with Tamiya Chrome Silver. Then came a coat of Flat Aluminum on the Fuselage. The black non skid panels at the wingroot were next. Then finally I applied a home brew mix of Tamiya Blues for the tail feathers.

The top wing, with it's brilliant yellow upper surfaces was a little more work. After the primer coat I shot the undersurface with Chrome Silver, as on the lower wings, masking the leading edge off. Next, the leading edge and the upper wing surface were painted a flat white. Finally, Gloss Yellow was sprayed on these surfaces. I was pretty happy, (and relieved), with the look of the yellow wing after this. I didn't even need a second coat!

It was time for the initial decaling. Using the Yellow Wings decals, I applied the national insignia to the upper and lower wings along with the "section" chevron and aircraft number. The decals went on without any drama and worked well with Micro-sol.

Wing decals applied.

Painting continued with the cowling. I was modeling the third aircraft in the section, so, following Navy instructions, the section color was applies to the lower half of the cowling. 

I applied the decals for the fuselage, which included the squadron code, (VF-6), and squadron logo.

Preparing for assembly.

Assembly of the major components could now begin! I started by cementing the upper wing to the  cabane struts. 

Upper wing installed!

After the cabane struts had set, I installed the interplane struts at the wings' ends. At this point I began the rigging, using dyed EZ line. The rigging scheme on the F3F is pretty simple and Monogram molded in points to attach the rigging to to make it easier! I deviated a bit from the Monogram instructions since I was using super glue, which sets fast enough that you needed tape the rigging down to set.

Rigging started.

Even with super glue and EZ Line, I find rigging a little scary1 however, in the end everything worked out okay,

Rigging installed.

At this point I could now clean up the landing gear. I gave up any thought of having a retracting gear and cemented all the components. This would allow me to clean up the struts. In the photo above, you'll notice a large hinge plate on the upper half of the strut. This is completely bogus so I decided to remove it. Carving it up went pretty well and I was able to fashion a landing gear leg the at least approximated the real thing! (See photo below). 

Landing gear cleaned up.

Final assembly now went pretty quickly. One tough job seems simple enough but I found it took a bit of work. The Yellow Wings decals include little tricolors for the propeller tips. I found these impossible to apply! I finally gave up and painted them on, but that was a chore too because I kept removing paint with my masks! (The silver blades had received a coat of future for the decals. The paint wasn't adhering super well to that!).

A few final details included painting the navigation lights using Tamiya Clear Green and Clear Red, (a first for me), over Chrome Silver. Radio aerials were made from EZ Line.

This was a fun build. Even for it's age the Monogram F3F builds into a nice, sturdy little model. While not currently available, I hope Revell of Germany will see fit to re-release it some day.

Finito!

A peak at the cockpit.