Eduard 1/72 Albatros D.Va

EDUARD 1:72 ALBATROS D.Va

Reviewer: David Solosy (solosycd@primus.com.au)
Kit Review submitted: May 2000

Note this review has also appeared on the website of the Perth Military Modelling Society http://pmms.webace.com.au/ - submitted by David for inclusion on SMAKR with his authority

These Eduard kits just keep on getting better. When they released this Albatros D.Va I must admit to being sceptical. Their 1/48 LTM technology kits were gaining a big reputation, with Eduard being described as the Hasegawa of Europe. I was wondering if this success in 1/48 would translate to 1/72. Well, it most certainly did!

The Albatros D.Va
The Albatros fighter was the backbone of the Imperial German Air Service in World War One. The D.Va was the final incarnation of the type. It differed from the D.V only in minor modifications designed to strengthen the lower wing, which in the D.V had been prone to failure under stress. The small auxiliary strut extending from the front of the main V struts, an extra bracing wire from the fuselage nose to the point of the V strut, extra aileron wires and the absence of the shrouded aileron pulley controls on the top wing, were the visible differences. Other changes included a strengthened airframe, which increased the weight of the D.Va and a more powerful 180hp Mercedes D.III engine.

Over 2,500 D.V/Va aircraft were produced. The D.Va type entered service in October 1917.

Most German aces flew and scored many of their victories on the Albatros. The famed Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, scored significantly more victories in the type than he did in his signature Fokker Triplane.

The Eduard Model
The kit is moulded in light brown plastic on one sprue. Overall, the moulding is clean and crisp. The bottom wing span is about two millimetres short of the plans from the Windsock Datafile, but this is not significant or even worth trying to rectify. All the louvres, inspection panels and cutouts are in the right places and the profile is spot on. However, it is my opinion that the cockpit sill is too deep. It almost touches the lengthwise panel line immediately under the cockpit. Examination of photos shows that the cockpit opening should be shallower. Fortunately, this does not spoil the overall look of the model.

Scanning the parts, one notices an optional headrest. This is curious, as neither scheme offered represents a plane with a headrest. Also, only one type of propeller is provided, although the decal sheet contains manufacturers' trademarks for two types, the Axial and the Garuda. In fact, Albatros D types used at least five different types of props. The kit prop appears to be neither an Axial nor a Garuda, but a hybrid of the two. I suppose that's one way round the problem. However, it is the right length and for the non-purist is quite passable.

The spinner looks well proportioned. Previous manufacturers of models of the Albatros have never got this quite right (with the exception of Pegasus).

The instruction sheet is better than average and gives an excellent rigging diagram, essential for World War One aircraft. It also shows the tailplane control horns that are not provided in the kit.

Two decal options are provided and Eduard has avoided, for this model at least (but not so the ProfiPACK version to follow), schemes with the daunting lozenge pattern wings. The one I chose was the Jasta 61 machine of Vzfw Kurt Jentsch. Eduard have written his name as Jautsch, which, I would say has been taken from the Squadron Signal Fighters In Action book on the Albatros, which has exactly that misspelling of the pilot's name. Jentsch was a seven victory ace who had previously been shot down, while flying a Pfalz D.IIIa, but crashed in German territory and survived to fight again. The other scheme offered is the black aircraft of Lt. Max Näther of Jasta 62.

Assembly
After removing all parts from the sprues, I gently washed them in luke warm water with quite a lot of washing up detergent. The parts were then rinsed in a fine strainer and left to dry for a few hours.

A basic cockpit framework is moulded onto the fuselage. This can be enhanced with the addition of various pumps, throttles and switches made from scrap. I added the prominent instrument bar and a dial (usually a tachometer) from plastic rod, and the half size dashboard from plastic card.

The seat is rather basic. I chose to replace it with a resin one from Gary R Atlee Models. This already has the seatbelts moulded on, so that was one less thing that I had to add.

The engine is reasonable. One tip: make sure is very carefully centrally aligned otherwise the machine guns will not sit right. I made the mistake of supergluing the engine onto the bearer provided in the kit, but let it dry at a slight angle. That was enough for the right-side machine gun to not align properly.

On the subject of machine guns, the Spandaus are probably the worst part of this kit. Neither the stocks nor the cooling jackets are very accurate. I replaced these with stocks cut from Xtraparts resin Spandaus and the characteristic perforated cooling jackets from an Airwaves WW1 photo-etch accessories set. The front ends and the muzzles were also cut from the Xtraparts guns and inserted into the open end of the cooling jackets. It's pleasing to see Eduard provide such often forgotten details as a machine gun spent cartridge chute.

The engine and guns were painted Humbrol gun metal and dry-brushed with matt aluminium.

I drilled out the exhaust opening and painted it black. The rest of it was painted in antique bronze.

No radiator pipe is provided, so this was easily fabricated from appropriately bent steel wire

As has become the norm lately for Eduard, the fit of parts was exceptional. The fuselage halves needed no filler whatsoever; the struts were all an identical size and met the holes in the wings perfectly and the rudder sat nice and flush on the fuselage. The horizontal stabilizer need some light filling, which was achieved using superglue. Perhaps the worst fit, and that was only a very minor aggravation, was the tailskid fairing.

Painting and Weathering
To replicate the plywood-panelled fuselage I first painted it Humbrol German pale yellow. Some individual panels were then picked out and painted with the same colour lightened with a drop of white. The panel lines were then accentuated with a watercolour wash of a darker brown, which is slopped on quite roughly then the excess wiped away with a cotton bud (Q-Tip). Each panel is wiped in a slightly different direction, to give the illusion of differentiating grain from panel to panel. The secret is to not let the water colour paint stay on for more than about ten seconds.

Wing undersurfaces were airbrushed with Gunze Sangyo acrylic H314 blue. Upper surface typical German green/purple scheme was also airbrushed Gunze acrylics. The purple was my own mixture of H42 blue grey and H3 red. The green was H302, simply called green. The engine panels were painted H48 field grey, which has a quite green tinge.

The wing ribs were given a light brush of dark green pastel chalk to add a bit of dimension to the model's appearance. Wheels, axle, tailskid, around the exhaust and a couple of inspection panels were dusted with brown or black pastel chalk, as appropriate, to give the model a used and weathered appearance.

Rigging
Rigging was achieved with invisible thread passed through pre-drilled holes, then the holes are given a drop of thin superglue and the left over thread trimmed off. The only tricks here are to make sure that all the required holes are drilled and everything is done in the right order.

Decaling
Be careful with the decals, while the colours look right and register is spot on, they are thin and don't take very long at all to slide off the backing sheet. Once on the model they can be stubborn to move around. Use plenty of water. For greater effect, the upper wing crosses can be cut along the aileron join. With the relatively smooth surfaces of this aircraft decal solutions should not be necessary.

Conclusion
I am sure, that even if built straight out of the box without any extra cockpit detailing or even without rigging, this is a first rate kit. It looks like an Albatros should look and the parts fit like a dream. My advice is to buy more than one of these. I certainly did.

If you haven't made a model of a plane from the First World War, then this is a good one to start with. For a long time the World War Two 1/72 modellers have had it good. Hasegawa, Revell (lately) and Academy provide them with many excellent kits, and World War One has lagged behind. Now there is some catching up to do. It looks as though Eduard will be the flag bearer for the growing number of WW1 modellers. If Eduard's future 1/72 releases are approaching this one for quality and accuracy, then I'll be collecting the lot with great enthusiasm.

My thanks to JB Wholesalers of Perth, Western Australia, for providing the review sample of this kit and to Terry Ashley for the photography.

web hosting • domain names • video sharing
free online games • photo sharing
free blog • short URLs