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Kit: Roden plus Eduard photoetch-parts (1:32)
Also an excellent Roden kit, especially with the Eduard photoetch parts. This is the machine of Ltd. Gerhard Bassenge from Jasta 2 used in summer 1917. According to drawings in Windsock Datafile Special Albatros D. III in general and photos in Osprey`s Albatros Aces of WWI for Bassenge`s machine in special the following modifications were made: engine improvement as described in various articles (ignition wiring, camshaft, valve springs, cooling lines etc.); cockpit improvement (control cables etc.); side rudder and elevator (wrong contour); undercarriage rubber band suspension; offset radiator (unfortunately the Eduard photo-etch-part is the small radiator with one centre bar, so I couldn`t use it; I had to make it scratch. Today I would use the PART of Poland fret, but when I built the model, I didn`t know anything about it); rectangular access louvre instead of half-round. Building and painting went straight forward and made a lot of fun.
Kit: Eduard (1:48)
The kit is Eduard`s D. V a (Jasta 5) Limited Edition. I built the mount formerly used by Leutnant der Reserve Walter Boening and then passed on to Uffz. Karl Hopf according to infos from Greg VanWyngarden in the aerodrome forum. I share this opinion, because Hopf was born in Wuerzburg and the aircraft shows the coat of arms of this town on the fuselage. Boening was born in Oldenburg, a region far away from Wuerzburg. So he had no reason to paint this coat of arms on his mount.
With the Eduard photoetch additions, you can make a really nice kit. However, I had to do some modifications, such as contour of the fin, gas filler right side, rectangular access panels just behind the cowling and underside, seam line of the fabric covering underside, ring groove on cowling plus rivets, cowling attachment, tailplane, undercarriage-wing, inspection-window on the upper wing and some minor things. Painting of the "LO-Bird" made a lot of fun.
This is the old original Eduard kit with the photo-etch-parts and it was a lot of work to improve it. The complete interior frame was new built with soldered brass and no photo-etch-parts were used, the wing-ribs were revised, the undercarriage was completely new built and the engine and spandau-gun were improved. What a contrast to the quality of today-Eduard-kits.
This aircraft belonged to Jasta 5. With the exception of a vague picture (aircraft parked in a hangar in the background) further information about the pilot etc. unfortunately are not available. Anyway it look like Enzo Ferraris inspiration ;-)
Here we have the Roland C.II kit from Eduard in 1/48 that I bought some years ago. This is the kit with the figure set of maintenance personnel, which is also sold separately. As a template for the model I have chosen the machine of Ltd. d. R. Johann Czermak. From this machine some time ago a number of good photos have surfaced on the Internet. This is an early type Roland, probably taken in mid 1916 in Villers les Cagnicourt, FFA 2b. The Roland was previously flown by Ritter von Schleich (pics can be found in the Windsock Data File) and then passed on to Czermak. The pictures show a fairly flown and accordingly worked-out workhorse. A special attraction for me was the presentation of the roll bar mounted Lewis machine gun and the fish at the top left wing. A lot of changes and additions were required (interior, radiator expansion tank, roll bar, electricity generator on the landing gear), and so it took me almost four months to complete the model. The construction and painting of the figures were new to me. I think the quality of the figures that Eduard created is a little poor (mainly too small heads). All in all the construction and painting of the model and the figures has made a lot of fun til the end.