http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/models/18835-48-roland-d-ii-haifisch-shark-my-first-post-forum.html
This is a rather obscure type that was derived from a fighter version of the more famous Roland C.II “Whalfisch” (“whale”) reconnaissance aircraft. There were a few modifications required to an otherwise ok kit (not a great kit, but a good basis). Well since 2005, I have had 4 moves of house (part of the joy of being in the military!), and alas, some moves ago, my little Roland took a beating or three (plus at one stage it had a book tip onto it, an accident on my girlfriend’s behalf), to the point where at the end of my most recent move last September, the little Roland looked rather sad:
I have always liked the odd yet sleek lines of the Roland D.II, so I decided to put her out of her misery and do some repair work. Indeed I decided a bit of a facelift was needed as well, given that my skills have improved a little since my first biplane build. So I decided a re-paint and a clean up was in order. First step was to remove the old paint, which I did using methylated spirits, as the model was originally painted mainly using acrylics. The decals and areas painted with white enamels proved a little tough, but otherwise the paint came off easily.
The wing attachments and other details were cleaned up, and in some cases, enhanced / replaced. The cooling louvres on the nose were replaced with sheet styrene. I also decided to replace the kit prop, and use new wheels, as the kits wheels are slightly too small (a spare set from a Pfalz D.III sufficed). Bungee chords were also added to the undercarriage by wrapping elastic around the axles.
I had originally built the model as a Pfalz manufactured D.II, which did not have the tail skid fairing. I decided I wanted a Roland built aircraft this time, so I scratch built a new fairing from scrap plastic.
Then I primed in preparation for painting.
There are essentially two standard schemes for the Roland D.II. The first is the all over green and brown, with light blue undersides, in which my original build was done. This scheme had minor variations between Roland and Pfalz built machines. Though the Windsock datafile on the D.II doesn’t specifically describe the second scheme, it does include the odd picture of some D.IIs with green and brown wings, and overall light blue fuselages and wing undersides. This scheme seems to be restricted to some of the parent company built D.IIs. I thought this would make an interesting scheme, so on my merry way I went. The paints were all custom mixed acrylics, with all shading done after the base colours were down. Decals came from the spares box – I had to be careful which ones I chose as the Roland build machines had very characteristically “fat” fuselage and tail crosses. Roland D.IIs only served at the front for a very short time in early / mid 1917, so there were not many garish or colourful personal markings applied to these aircraft. As I could not find a picture of any personal markings associated with this type of scheme, I left the scheme essentially “stock”.
Anyways, I finished her today, so here are some pictures.
So there she is. It was nice to give this old girl a bit of a touch up! Still, some things I am not happy with, but I think I have done enough rebuilding to put this one back onto the shelf!
Comments and feedback always welcome!
BC
