Albatros D.II (OEF) conversion
Toms Modelworks 1/48

By: Steve Perry

Austro- Hungarian Albatros D.II (OEFFAG 53.01)

I was looking for an Albatros to model for my 1/48 cookup entry and on page 4 of the Profile Publications, (#127 Albatros D.I - D.III), was the prettiest D.II I had ever seen. Clear doped linen wings, varnished ply fuselage, a fully cowled engine done in riffled sheetmetal, and wire spoked wheels. And I had a Tom's Modelworks Albatros D.I-D.II vacuform kit. Well that decision was easy.

Austro-Hungarian Albatri were made in 3 series, the 53, 153 and 253 based primarily on increasing powerplant size. The first 16 examples in the 53 series were D.IIs and the remaining aircraft in the series as well as the 153 and 253 series were the D.III design. I marked my model as the prototype 53.01. The major differences were in the cockpit layout as the single Schwartzloose machine gun was mounted internally and fired through a blast tube that ran under the exhaust pipes. This lower mounting position eliminated the qurter round switch panel characteristic of German built Albatri. The hand grips on the control column were also different from the German species. I believe the tailskid under fin had a different shape on the A-H machines as well. (I forgot if I did anything to the one on my model. I'm sure I'll hear of it if it is incorrect)

After developing and refining the plastic parts, I began construction by scratchbuilding the cockpit detail. I add interior detail in layers, first I added glue tabs out of thin card so the fuselage halves would fit together and then painted a base coat of wood color and drybrushed grain effect with a darker shade. The second layer was the formers and stringers that constituted the basic interior structure, made out of card and strip and added to the interior walls after painting. I used Diego Fernetti's excelllent interior sketches as my guide on shape and placement. The third layer of detail was the sidewall bits & pieces made from rod, card, wire and other such bits. The fourth layer of detail were the items that stick out into the cockpit proper or run all the way across it. Here I add a piece, fit the halves together and trim or replace with a longer piece till it fits and then repeat the process with the next item. When I'm done all the interior detail (except the port sidewall) is in the starboard half. I used an Aeroclub Schwartzloose gun kindly given me by Ernest Thomas, aside from some belt buckles, instrument beezels and dcals, the rest of the interior was scratchbuilt.

No engine to mess with since this one was to be fully cowled, so once the cockpit was done, I closed it up and glued the fuselage together and dealt with the seams. Vac seams take a bit more care due to the thin plastic.

The riffled metal cowl was next. I used Rub & Buff silver paste to lay down a base coat and then a fresh application over a small area. I used a dowel chucked in a dremel tool to make the riffles. Working a little bit at a time, I was able to do the whole cowl.

After the cowl was done it was time to do the rest of the fuselage so I made up a sheet of ply decal. First I painted a light yellow base and then drybrushed a grain effect over the whole sheet. This was followed by a good coat of Microscale clear decal film sprayed on. The fuselage was scribed lightly and the decal cut and applied panel by panel. Several coats of Future sealed it all off.

The inspection hatches were scratched out of card discs and stretched sprue. The louvers were solid white metal kit parts that I hollowed out. Cockpit coambing was built up with white glue and painted. Decals kyped from the Eduard HD D.1 kit finished off the fuselage.

Replicating spar and cross shadows on the lower surfaces of the wings was one of the things I wanted to accomplish. I tried a rather complex and lengthy masking process and achieved marginal success. When I went to mount the wings it was painfully obvious that they were too thick and too warped. So I yanked them off, pouted a few days and began a search for a set of Passchendaele resin D.II wings. Bob Laskodi came to my rescue wirh a set and I was back in business but dreading the intricate masking procedure that lay ahead.

First I modified the wings by adding false ribs out of 5 thou strip and then sanding them to near invisibility. The rib tapes on the full ribs were lightly scribed using the old fashoned plastic label tape for a straight edge. I also added the bumps made by the rear spars at the tip of each panel. After thinning the white metal radiator as much as possible I hacked a hole in the top surface and whittled at it till the radiator sat flush.

I'd modeled myself into a corner and there was a paint brush...it was time to do the shadows again. So I looks at the white resin of the Passchendaele wings and I looks at my watercolor pencils and I looks at the wings and.....

I used a black pencil to draw the spar shadows and cross shadows. A mid brown for the underside ribs and a light brown for the upper surface ribs. I didn't color the false ribs. A slightly moist swab blended the pencil marks and then lightly misted coats of CDL, (I use artists acrylics thinned with Future), until the shadow effect was just to my liking. The same technique will work on darker plastic or resin if a base coat of CDL is laid down and allowed to dry hard.

Landing gear and cabaine struts were white metal kit pieces cleaned up and painted black, the ends drilled and 28 Ga brass wire CAed in and trimmed to an 1/8" long pin. Mounting was easy with little holes drilled thru the Vac shell and adjustment was easy until the joints were solidified with a drop of CA. Mainplane struts were from strut material provided in the kit.

The wire wheels are from two sources, the Eduard Morane Saulnier Type L and the Flashback Fokker E.III. The MoS wheels were salvaged from broken model and were a tad too small. The tire rings included in the Fokker kit were just a bit bigger in outside diameter than the MoS wheels. I sanded off the tire from the MoS wheels and scraped out the ID of the Fokker tires until I could slide them over the wheels. Could have been a hair bigger but they sure beat the MoS wheels.

I tried something new for me when it came to rigging. I'm a confirmed heat stretched sprue riger, but I tried invisible thread on this one. I pre-painted the thread with Metalizer Titanium and rigged. I got it done and can see that it has it's possibilities as a technique... I'll have to check it out some more... I put blobs of acrylic gel on the cable ends to simulate turnbuckles and painted them brass.

That about covers the build. I started it in June of 2000 and finished it in February of 2001. It survived the destruction of all my models by an irate spouse and now sits alongside a Copper State Models Sopwith Swallow as the second 1/48 model in my new 1/48 collection.