There have been a couple of posts asking about the Eduard Albatros C.III
over the last few days. I was under the impression that Mark Nelson
posted a review in about September 1995 (when I bought mine) and if you
have access to the web it should still be in the mail archive.
FWIW Here is my opinion, (strictly from memory).
The C.III is the best moulded of the Eduard kits to have arrived in
Australia (Though I still don't have the Fokker D.VI :-( to compare with
it and the Pup is a close match in quality terms)
Similar in design and layout to the Hannover kit, major airframe parts in
plastic, most everything else in brass except engine (white metal) and
fuel tank (resin)
The engine is cleanly moulded and probably the best Eduard have produced
in any of these kits. Plastic parts are noticeably more cleanly moulded
than the earlier kits, in particular the surface details are sharper.
Decals are beautifully printed, as usual. Brass is Eduard standard -
'nuff said - though some items would be better replaced with more
substantial items.
The only obvious problem is the excessive upper wing dihedral, which is
NOT moulded in, but a matter of some severe warping. I have 2 copies of
this kit, and have inspected 3 others, the degree of extra dihedral
varies but it's always too much by a significant amount. This is easy to
correct but be aware that the styrene used is quite brittle and don't go
forcing it
The kit represents an aircraft with the upper wing centre section plated
over. This is valid, but if the photo archive is anything like
representative the most common configration should have the plating
removed from the gap revealing the pylon at the top of the cabane struts.
Bomb tubes (racks?) are included but the instructions don't tell you to
drill through the lower fuselage. Have a close look at the way they goes
together and it's reasonably clear what has to be done.
Regards
Shane