Albatros D.III by Chris Wauchop (Roden 1/32)

Roden's 1/32 scale
Albatros D.III

by Chris Wauchop

Albatros D.III

images by Brett Green

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

Construction

This is the 1/32 scale Roden Albatros D.III , Kit no 606, finished in the markings of Leutnant Bruno Löerzer of Jasta 26.

Construction of Roden's 1/32 scale Albatros D.III is pretty straightforward with one or two exceptions.

There are a couple of mistakes in the instructions. In construction step 10, the propeller shaft part 9Z mysteriously appears in place. Part 9Z should be included in Step 6!

Also, placement of part 7B in Step 6 is incorrect. Part 7B is part of the radiator plumbing, and should be glued to the wing radiator instead of the engine block. If glued per instructions it falls short of reaching the radiator by quite a few millimeters.

A few extra details were added, mainly to the engine and cockpit interior. All engine plumbing and electrical was added using various diameter wire and brass rod.

Seat belts were added using lead foil and brass wire.

With no reference on the harness configuration, I wish that I had waited for the beautiful Eduard photo-etched set (item number 32-583). This set was released, according to Murphy’s Law, just after I had finished major construction and most of the painting. I was, however, able to use the machine gun cooling jackets. I am looking forward to using the leftover colour photo-etched parts in the Roden D.V kit when it is released.

I also added the undercarriage suspension by winding fine solder wire around and through the ends of the wheel axles. On the real aircraft I think that these were basically giant rubber bands.

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Rigging was added using smoke coloured invisible mending thread. Firstly, lengths of thread were super glued to the lower wing in the appropriate positions. Before the top wing was installed, holes were drilled through in the indicated positions. The top wing is moulded as full span and is a pretty solid chunk of plastic, subsequently I managed to snap three no.79 drill bits in this process.

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Once the top wing was glued into place (which is surprisingly strong) and the long threads were pulled through the pre-drilled holes, glued and the excess trimmed off with a new scalpel blade.

Painting and Markings

I have always loved the Albatros, especially the black and white fuselage schemes. I therefore chose to finish mine as one flown by Leutnant Bruno Loerzer.

The kit includes the markings and colour scheme for this aircraft. Fortunately I have a photo of this subject standing on its nose after a landing mishap. This is just as well because the kit’s painting instructions are quite inaccurate.

Paints used were mainly Tamiya acrylics, applied with the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush.

Interior Woodwork – Tamiya XF-059 Desert Yellow as the base coat, followed by a wash of Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange heavily thinned with water and applied with a small, flat brush in a streaking motion to replicate woodgrain.

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Wing camouflage colours are Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth with 10% XF-59 Desert Yellow. 50% Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green with 50% Gunze H-32 Dark Green.

The upper wing repair patch is a mix of Gunze H-85 Sail Colour with 10-20% H-34 Cream Yellow. The tape lines and paint chipping are painted with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White with a dash of XF-59 Desert Yellow.

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The bottom of the wings are painted Gunze H-67 RLM 65 Light Blue.

The fuselage is painted with Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black and Tamiya XF-2 Flat White with 5-% Gloss White to achieve a semi-gloss finish.

The propeller is hand painted with striped of XF-54 Red Brown and XF-59 Desert Yellow. When dry, a watery wash of Clear Orange was applied.

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Decals went on perfectly. I did trim the white borders from the fuselage and tail crosses to avoid tonal differences. All the decals settled down perfectly with the use of Gunze Sangyo Mr Mark Setter and Mr Mark Softer. Stupid names but they do work perfectly.