Though Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke had several of the new D.I types he sought out the improved D.II machines to fully equip his newborn Jasta 2. He liked the overall toughness of the fuselage but also its powerful Mercedes D.III 160hp inline engine.
The kit
Eduard's first Albatros D.II kits (#8080 & # 8081) are trailed by this fine issue #8082. Some of the D.II type had the Windhoff "ear" radiators and some had the Teeves & Braun inset in the top wing type. Since the kit profiles all have the ear radiators there are several parts that Eduard recommends you discard. The only real problems with this kit are the overly thick plastic struts and the vertical panel line on the nose (ahead of the vents) needs to be erased. Also some of the internal structures could be thinned down for a more scaled look.
The instructions are compiled in a 12 page soft paper booklet. The PE is discussed with the appropriate step raather than being in a separate section in the back of the booklet.
A. Represents a machine flown by a former textile engineer, Ltn. des Res. Robert Dycke of Jasta 16(b) in 1917.
B. Was flown by Ltn. Wilhelm Leusch of Jasta 19 in April 1917at Les Mensil. (This pilot's Fokker D.VII of 1918 was modeled by Aeroscale member Mal Mayfield during the Fokker Royal build.)
C. Represents D.504/16 flown by Hauptmann Rudolf von Esebeck in Jasta 8.
D. Another Jasta 16(b) machine and the pilot is unknown. One has to wonder with the inverted horse-shoe, did this pilot's luck run out? (Note A & D were photographed together in the same line up.)
Albatros built 200 airframes and LVG built 75. These profiles all represent early Albatros buit examples.
Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.
Highs: A good kit that has some great potential. A similar kit took First place in the 2006 IPMS Nationals and the coveted Mike Fritz award.Lows: Scribed panel lines could do with some softening and replacement. Struts definately need to be thinned or replaced with extruded brass.Verdict: With minor modifications or out of the box builds Eduard 's kit makes for an enjoyable build for any modeler.
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About Stephen T. Lawson (JackFlash) FROM: COLORADO, UNITED STATES
I was building Off topic jet age kits at the age of 7. I remember building my first WWI kit way back in 1964-5 at the age of 8-9. Hundreds of 1/72 scale Revell and Airfix kits later my eyes started to change and I wanted to do more detail. With the advent of DML / Dragon and Eduard I sold off my ...
Question, Stephen,
Scratch building with brass rod; which portions of the undercarriage are done with brass and do you use solder or CA or some other joining technique? The undercarriage seems to be the weak link in most WWI kits; metal would certainly fix that situation and retain the scale dimensions.
Nice work and pretty to look at for sure.
Cheers,
Lance
Greetings Lance,
I started replacing most 1:48 kit landing gear parts with brass rod or extruded brass many years ago. With the Eduard Albatros kits you can go to my past Feature here at Aeroscale and see the differences it makes. Wish I had done it to all of them. Both the Gavia & Eduard 1:48 Alb. D.I & D.II kits I have worked on here use this technique.
The whole undercarriage is replaced with brass. Vee-strut legs, stabilizer behind the axle and the axle. I include my technique in most of the kit reviews on my site and have mentioned it a few times here in my reviews. I use Cyano & when sitting at the right angle I add some Zip kicker accelerant. When the whole affari is solid I tightly wrap the axle and the undercarriage in upholstery thread and use a small drop of Cyano to permantently bond the threads. Tremendouly strong. I'll include some shots in my next post.
Stephen,
Thanks for the reply, sounds like it's doable given there's no real metal work (soldering) involved. I'll look forward to the photos on your next project & Thanks much.
Cheers,
Lance
Now, lets discuss the German "Death's Head".
"Use of the symbol as a military insignia began with the cavalry of the Prussian army under Frederick the Great. Frederick formed Husaren-Regiment Nr. 5 (von Rüsch), a Hussar regiment commanded by Colonel von Rüsch. These Hussars adopted a black uniform with a Totenkopf emblazoned on the front of their mirlitons and wore it on the field in the War of Austrian Succession and in the Seven Years' War.
In 1808, when the regiment was reformed into Leib-Husaren Regiments Nr.1 and Nr.2, the Totenkopf remained a part of the uniform. During the Napoleonic Wars, when Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was killed in battle, his troops changed the colour of their uniforms to black, with a Totenkopf on their shakos in mourning their dead leader (Other sources claim that the "Black Brunswickers" were so equipped while Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick lived, as a sign of revenge on the French.
The "death's head" continued to be used throughout the Prussian and Brunswick Armed forces until 1918, and some of the stormtroopers that led the last German offensives on the Western Front in 1918 used Death's Head badges . . ."
It is applicable to my builds here as Both the Gavia Alb. D.I kit and the Eduard Alb. D.II offer profiles with the "Deaths head". I chose to build these kits with these profiles.
Here it is folks the Alb. D.II 1782/16 profile "A" from the Eduard kit #8081. Eduard says it is from Sept 1916. But that is when this series (1700/16 -1799/16) was ordered by contract.
This machine was used by Vzfw. (Vizefeldwebel = acting sergeant) Otto Gerbig after he came from Jasta 4 to Jasta 14 on 11 February 1917. He transferred out on15 August 1917 going to Jasta 18. So you can see he could not have flown this machine in Jasta 14 in Sept 1916.
The fuselage band that was part of the kit's profile for this machine was not provided. I did use another band from an Eduard Alb. D.III "Profipack" as a pattern for the needed band cut from a sheet of black decal film.
It is possible that the machine carried the Totenkopf (similar to 17th Brunswick Hussars) insignia before Gerbig was assigned to fly it some time after 11 February 1917.
Eduard says also that the band serving as the background for theTotenkopf was red. I believe it was black in keeping with the Brunswick regimental colours.
Beautiful work Stephen.
On the radiator pluming (upper wing models) there seems to be several different methods for sure, I hadn't seen that config but chhecked what ref I have and see pics that support it. Another seemed favoured by OAW for a while at least was to route the pipe from the front of the engine along the carb side of the block and dogleg over behind the engime... not I imagine good for vision for the pilot. It took some head scratching on my part till the penny dropped Pics 89 92, 94 in the Windsock Albi DI/DII datafie show this arrangement.
Keith
Thanks for your kind words. The last thing I added to this and the other Albatros build was Grandtline bolt heads (series 98) to represent the struts ends and nuts evident on the top wing surfaces. In another thread they were called "doohickies."
see here.
Here is Eduard 1:48 Albatros D.II with the Hecker & Goros standing German officer with a telescopic glass.
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