Roden's 1/72 scale
Zeppelin Staaken R.VI

by James Fahey

 Roden's 1/72 scale Zeppelin Staaken R.VI is available online from Squadron.com

“Last boarding call for the flight to London...”

I have always been fascinated by the Zeppelin Staaken R.VI ever since Ray Rimmell built the Contrail vacform in the Feb 1982 edition of Scale Models. No WWI aircraft collection could be complete without one! A few years later I was fortunate enough to get hold of the Contrail kit, only to find on opening the kit that it was quite beyond my modelling skills. With a heavy heart I sold it off to another hopeful modeller.  

Fast forward many years to the release of the Roden kit.

By the time the Staaken was announced Roden had established a reputation for fine detail and beautiful moulding, but with some question marks around their decals, especially lozenge colours.

On opening the box I was struck by how complete the kit was compared to the Contrail vacform (ie hundreds of parts!). Roden had thoughtfully provided a range of alternative parts allowing a choice of Staakens to be built. The main differences were in the radiators (plain/flat or in 3 sections), nacelle pylons (R.27’s pylons were round section but most other Staakens had fairings on the lower legs) and propeller spinners (allowing the Aviatik-built versions to be made).

Unfortunately the 1000kg bomb had been deleted from the sprue but it indicated Roden were working on another version of the Staaken (how many modellers do they think will buy two of these beasts?) 

Three large sheets of continuous lozenge decal are included with patterns for cutting out the lozenge to fit all the parts. The lozenge shapes look right but according to the Datafile the colours seemed too bright. If you’re fussy you could do a massive paint-by-numbers job using darker colours but I opted for a black undercoat which, combined with the low-opacity of the decals, gave a dark finish I could live with. 

I had been following another modeller’s online build with interest but was dismayed to hear that difficulties with the fit of the nacelles had caused his model to be set aside. On top of that, an article published recently in Scale Aviation Modeller also alluded to difficulties with fit of the nacelles, causing the characteristic backward stagger of the wings to be lost, but the author did say he had not followed the kit instructions for assembly of the nacelles. 

To cut a long story short, building the nacelles with the correct angle on the pylons is critical to getting the top wing on. Make sure the gap between the top of the front & back pylons matches the holes in the top wing (same for bottom legs of the pylons and the lower wing). If you are modelling a Staaken with Mercedes engines (most of them) then you can cut away the nacelle frame which goes over the middle of the engines (only used for Maybach engines).

The usual rules apply for fitting the top wing – don’t try gluing all the struts at once or you’ll go mad. I glued just the four nacelle pylons to the lower wing and when they were solid I turned the aircraft upside down over the top wing. A jig is useful to hold the whole model in the right place. I like Lego blocks for this. When that’s dry the other interplane struts can be slid into place. Sounds easier than it is! 

The lozenge decal is very elastic and sticky. It is much easier to apply with some decal softening solution underneath it. There is enough lozenge decal in the kit to cover the entire airframe if you want to build a different aircraft but you will need to rearrange the patterns to make more room. Start with the wing under-surfaces to get the hang of it before doing the top wing and fuselage where mistakes will be very visible. (Be careful not to stretch the lozenge as it makes matching the pattern more difficult.) 

Other Notes

• The propellers were covered in plywood so do not have laminations. Garuda markings are from the Americal Gryphon sheet (unfortunately no longer in production).

• Be careful gluing the stabilisers to the rear fuselage – it is easy to end up with a wider span than the elevator! I used brass rod to make the stabiliser join strong.

• The wings are more rigid with the addition of brass reinforcing rods. It is most important for the lower wing where a spar can be fitted in the space under the floor and above the bombs.

• The engine assemblies need to be attached low enough in each nacelle so that the prop shafts are in the centre of the end rings.

• The lozenge pattern was hand-painted in the factory (not printed on the fabric) and the pattern wraps around the fuselage and matches between the control surfaces and flying surfaces. It took about three weeks of nights to get all the lozenge on and patched & matched. Do you like wallpapering?

• Although very thin, the undercarriage legs are strong enough to take the weight of the completed model (which is fairly substantial) provided the rigging is incorporated. I replaced the kit axle with a piece of brass rod. In the real aircraft the axle was as thick as a railway wagon axle to take the 12 tonne weight.

Crew Figures 

I wanted to model the scene in the Datafile which has the horse-drawn wagon and bombs being loaded by ground crew. The figures in my diorama come from a variety of sources: 

The staff officer figures are WWII white metal figures from Lamercraft. Some of the ground crew figures are from IT Miniatures figures set GN12 Artillery Team (Feldmutze) and also some of the aircrew figures are from IT Miniatures set P3. Some others are converted from Monty's Model Railways 1/76 white metal figures and from the Orion set. 

The Horses are from the Italeri Napeolonic Baggage Wagon (with the collars removed), the wagon is from Fine Scale Miniatures (Brookhurst Hobbies sell them) set WE11 German Light Field Wagon and the crewman from IT Miniatures. 

In summary, Roden have done a great job and I would recommend the kit, but (obviously) it is not for beginners. A fairly large area is required to display the Staaken (it’s wingspan is nearly the same as a B29).
 

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2007 by James Fahey
Page Created 19 June, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

Back to HyperScale Main Page