Albatros D.III
Revell 1/72

By: Diego fernetti

The Albatros single seater fighters, the D.I, D.II and D.III have several variations that improved its design. However, they shared the same fuselage outlines and dimensions.However, there's many variations amongst the various brands of injection molded kits. Here are a few comments on each kit:

Revell:

Molded in red plastic, quite translucent and brittle in my example. The tail and tailskid fin are molded on a fuselage half. The struts and fuselage sides are thick but decent enough, with little flash overall.The wings are quite thin and well molded, but the dimensions differ from the drawings I consider reliable (from "Albatros Fighters Special", see Bibliography) The wing radiator is crude. The fuselage is not too thick, but care must be taken when removing the pins molded inside to perch the pilot on. The plastic is brittle and if you're heavy handed you can leave a mark in the outside surface. The outside profile is wrong, probably based on the ancient Wylam drawings, since the fuselage sides sould be slab sided and not rounded as provided. Besides, there's prominent protrusions (as "fillets") on the lower wing leading edge area, probably based on the Wylam and the Profile booklet. The cowling outlines are heavily embossed, and the louvers are molded softly, but that's maybe because I have a late generation kit and perhaps the master mold was worn. Those louvers seems a bit chunky, also. The wheels are the regular Revell WW1 wheels, a bit undersized but made in two parts, which helps to the painting process greatly.

Kit Review courtesy of Diego Fernetti of Diego Fernetti's WWI Reference Page.