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Kit: Joystick (1:72)
Albatros C.I. This is the Joystick 1/72nd vac made much as it came, with a few details added from the Windsock datafile. I painted the wings Humbrol CDL first then scuffed them up after applying the camouflage since the photo I saw showed the orginal to be pretty tatty . The latter could well be the wrong colour so far as I know, but I like it anyway.
Kit: Airmo (1:72)
Albatros CV by Airmo. Resin and PE, in 1/72nd
I replaced the wing struts with plastic stock for longevity. Also separated the upper wing panels and rejoined since in my example there was no dihedral. This is a lovely kit, with a well fitting PE interior by Part (supplied with the kit). Some of the fuselage detailing is on the heavy side, and with hindsight I should have replaced the undercarriage legs since they are far too thick. Still, they shouldn't bend.
Wood effect is a base coat of Humbrol satin oak, drawn over with watercolour pencil, smeared a bit, then varnished with Tamiya clear yellow mixed with a bit of orange. Rigging is rolled copper wire, over scale but less likely to warp the wings than monofilament uner tension. Sprue and I don't get on too well except for short runs such as control wires.
Joystick 1/72nd Albatros C.XII.Kit decals used.White metal Spandau jacket replaced with an old Airwaves part. Undercarriage from Strutz, other struts from Aeroclub stock. Decided to leave Parabellum off. Mr Kit and Humbrol paint used. Realised too late that the ailerons were operated by pulleys (same on the Airmo kit),so these are not represented.The last photo shows both Joystick and Airmo models.
Airmo Albatros C.XII using kit decals for a Polish machine. Seems to be a 90% copy of the Joystick kit with added PE interior and different decals, plus better wheels. Kit struts and undercarriage were far too wide, and already warped, so I replaced them with Strutz. I left the elevator and ailerons alone since the resin was very brittle (kit arrived with wing tips snapped off). On completion I noted that the right lower wing has lost a chunk out of the trailing, and can only assume the carpet gnomes have learned how to use Archie.
Kit: HitKit (1:72)
I made this from the Hit-Kit 153 kit before I realised there was already a 253 available. Essentially carved from a solid sheet of plastic. After hollowing out the fuselage there was even room for some of the (very nice) photo-etch. Cunningly posed to hide most of the mistakes I made (including the completely revised gun installation, which you can't see anyway...doh). One of the hardest injection molded kits I've made, but fun in a masochistic sort of way. Anyhow, I like the idea of an aircraft clothed entirely in carpet.
Albatros D.III (Oef) BA153. Godwin Brumowski, Flik 41J. HitKit, 1/72nd.
Albatros D.III (Oef) BA253. 7th Kosciusko Squadrin, Polish Air Force, 1919. HitKit, 1/72nd.
Kit: Eduard (1:72)
Albatros DVa of Jast 46 from the Eduard 1/72nd kit.
Kit: Eduard (1:48)
Albatros Dr1. Eduard 1/48th kit with wings from the HiTech set (meant for use with the older Eduard DV before they made the Dr1). The wings are more accurate than the Eduard ones I think. The plans in the Datafile (Albatros Experimentals) are not too good, contradicting the photograph in many small areas, such as the radiator pipe runs and lower wing attachment (IMHO, of course). Makes a nice change from the usual sort of triplanes anyway.
Painted up as 2225/16, as flown after April 1917 by Ltn Strobel of Jasta V. The kit decals work very well, lacking only in that the fuselage sash looks a bit too wide, and is 5mm too short to meet at the bottom of the fuselage (Citadel paints to the rescue), and it would have been nice to have an indication at least of the fuselage '0' markings that had been scraped away at Strobel's direction. The Bavarian fin/rudder decal is slightly too large for the plastic, so the white outline at the top has become lost. Note that the fuselage crosses called out by Eduard are too large. I've used the smaller ones, which fit as in the Datafile Special profile. The vinyl masks were useless, not having been cleanly perforated when die stamped. Mostly built out of the box, except for cutting the slots in the wings for the aileron actuators (which were added from scrap plastic), deflecting the control surfaces and replacing their hinges, adding firing cables for the guns, and replacing the kit engine with an Aeroclub item I had to hand. The latter required a small amount of filing around the port cowling panels so that the intake manifolds would fit snuggly, and the exhaust needed the attachments spreading a bit to accomadate the larger engine. The wheels and legs I decided to live with.
Kit: Roden (1:32)
For the record, built concurrently with the stripey Battleaxe D.III elsewhere in the gallery, and finished a couple of weeks later. Apart from cramming the inside into the outside, and needing to be ultra careful after assembly due to the scale struts being rather springy, this one was a pleasure to build. The colour scheme is a Bob Pearson profile in the Windsock Albatros D.III Datafile Special, profile on page 29 and the source photo (a tiny image in a line-up) on page 10. The machine was from Jasta 36 in 1917, pilot unknown. I used the Eduard detail set for the gun jackets, control horns, seat belts and some instruments. Yellow paint is Humbrol 69 over a Citadel skull white base, the chequerboard being marked out with the thinnest Xtradecal black stripes then filled in with Citadel chaos black. Sealed with 2 coats of Klear, then after the Roden national marking decals had dried, all was dulled down with some diluted Citadel matt varnish. Wing camo colours are from Mr Kit. All brush painted. The decals worked well, except the white on the fuselage crosses was rather thin and needed overpainting to hide the chequer. Since finishing the axle has come unglued but is still held in place by the elastic thread, only now the wheels rotate.
Kit: Battleaxe (1:32)
This kit is *very* short run. Suffice to say, it wasn't the easiest to do. A good model can be made from it I'm sure, and when I make my other one, the first step towards this will be to replace all struts. I've thinned them to half size here, but they're still too clunky, especially the attachment points. If the Roden kit hadn't come along I'd probably be happy with it. The scheme is from the Windsock Datafile Special on the Albatros D.III and represents an OAW built machine of Jasta 39 in 1917, possibly flown by Obltn. Josef Loeser. The upper and lower wing crosses are from the kit, as is that on the tail, although the proportions are odd, and I had to cut the white outline off the lower ones. The fuselage cross is from an Eduard Roland.
Kit: Roden (1:72)
This is the Roden 1/72nd Albatros W4, an excellent little kit. The only possible pitfalls come from not taking the time to fit and trim things properly, and the brittle nature of the very fine struts. Having said that I managed to screw up one thing after the other, culminating in attatching the floats back to front. That's fixed now, but I notice that one of the incidence wires has started to come loose. But the pictures are ready, so here it is. Interplane and float struts are from Strutz brass stock. The guns are an Eduard set. The control horns are from a Part PE set. Rigging is monofilament painted with steel enamel for the wings, and rolled copper wire for the floats. I made an attempt at translucency using black decal strip and a spare set of crosses for the wings, lightly oversprayed with Humbrol CDL. I'm happy with the result.
Not a very good build, but included for completeness. Alledged to be the first D.III to sport the Brunowski Distribution (mustard sploodges and squiggles over green), I built this to try out the Americal Gryphon sheet that has several variations of this scheme. Being the first, it was painted in a green that was determined to be too light. Subsequent aircraft got a darker shade of green. The Roden kit was very nice. I just added a bit of cockpit detail, which is otherwise a bit sparse. The only bad fit was the front ring of the cowling. It was circulare, the cross section of the fuselage nose where it joined was a square with rounded edges. Filling and sanding were commited. Plenty of paint errors on the metalwork, most of which I only noticed after rigging and can't get close enough to with a brush to fix now. Ho hum. Note to self, don't do it again. The paint on the metal nose panels was a good match to the decal green until I varnished it, then it went a fair bit darker.
Eduard 1/48th Albatros CIII. Finished as C.722/16 of Kampfgeschwader IV, Staffel 20, 1916. There are 2 photos and a Ray Rimell profile in Datafile no. 13. I replaced most of the interior PE with plastic stock, used Roseparts fuel tank and seats, made up most of the instruments using the datafile (the kit was a swap from Bucky Sheftal who'd used the kit film dials, Parabellum, and one wheel),replaced the wheels with some found in the spares box, used a Part PE Parabellum, CAed and sanded the PE cabane struts, flattened, cut and pinned the top wing, added a bunch of springs and wiry bits generally added small details and gunk, you know the sort of thing. Deep Breath. Pre-shaded ribs and sprayed cross shadows under top wing. Paint is Humbrol, Mr Kit and tamiya translucent. Incidence wires are monofilament, the rest is .2 mm wire. The Markings are made up from decal stock, the kit crosses, and modified modeldecal serials. This was a very good early Eduard kit. Thanks to the usual list members for help with invisible details.
Albatros DIII, courtesy of Roden, in 1/72nd
One of the stripey schemes painted on the aircraft flown by Fritz Rumey of Jasta 5. The kit is the first issue D.V by Eduard, with some resin cockpit parts by HiTech replacing some of the PE. There are also a few bits from the Eduard PE set meant for their newer D.V, an Aeroclub engine and a couple of larger wheels I found in the spares bos. The decals are from FCM, and were something of a challenge to work with. The Jasta 5 green bits are done with Aemerical Gryphon decals from one of their Jasta V sheets. One of the V struts was short shot, lacking 5mm in the middle, so I filled it with thick superglue and filed it to shape while still on the sprue. Getting the mauve colour to show up as anything but blue on the Canon digicam has been a problem. Very bright sunlight helped in the end, although it's still bluer than it really is.
Kit: Pegasus (1:72)
This is the Pegasus Albatros DIII in 1/72nd. Some leftover Hit Kit PE was used, and decals from the Roden kit.
Windau Air Station, Baltic Sea, February 1917. (the more interesting of the 3 kit schemes. There's a CDL option but the kit has the wrong floats for this). Built for the Splashbau group build on the Unofficial Airfix forum in July-August 2008. OOB build except I replaced the naval hex decals with a mixtures of CSM and my own, and messed with the colouration a bit. Nice kit except the lower wing needs a lot of sanding to fit. I weathered this more than I usually would bearing in mind the harsh marine environment. In one shot you can see today's loose wire, so no prizes for telling me (it's one of the float cross-braces).