Roden's 1/32 scale
Albatros D.III

by Brad Cancian

Roden's 1/32 scale Albatros D.III is available online from Squadron.com

Here is the Roden 1/32 Albatros D.III kit, built with the addition of the Eduard etched fret designed specifically for this kit, as well as decals by Spada.

The kit is painted in the markings of Ltn Werner Voss, Jasta 5, June 1917.

 

Construction was relatively straight forward, although there were a few fit issues - primarily the fit of the upper decking around the cockpit, and the fit of the lower wings to the fuselage – however there is no fit issues that can’t be handled without a little patience.

There was also a large number of sink marks that needed filling. I made a number of scratchbuilt additions to the basic kit, primarily in the interior, cockpit, guns and engine, as well as refining a few of the external details.

The kit represents an early production Albatros D.III with the centrally mounted upper wing radiator, but the markings I wanted to model had the later offset wing radiator – luckily Eduard supplies a radiator in its fret making relocation easy.

The top wing proved trouble free to fit, however care is needed as the struts are a very realistic scale thickness and can be fragile. Rigging was done using EzLine elastic, stretched between twisted wire turnbuckles manufactured by “Bob’s Buckles”.

 

The kit was painted with Gunze acrylics, and oil paints were used to replicate the wood grain fuselage and propeller. The Spada decals are extremely thin but very nice to use.

In summary, this is certainly the best Albatros in 1/32 on the market and was quite an enjoyable build!

Spada decals may be found at: http://www.misterkitusa.com/
Bob’s Buckles may be found at: http://Bobsbuckles.co.uk
 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2007 by Brad Cancian
Page Created 06 November, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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