HISTORY
The month of April 1917 was known as “Bloody April” to
the Allied aircrews who had the misfortune of being alive at the front. Unfortunately
for them, being alive was only a temporary state as the German Jasta’s wreaked
havoc over them in a one-sided battle of unprecedented scale. By far the single
most important aircraft during “Bloody April” was the agile and swift German
Albatros D.III fighter. First posted to the front in January 1917, by April
most of the Jasta’s had been equipped with this superlative fighter that would
erase the overall superiority of numbers that the Allied possessed in the
air.
Some historians argue that the D.III was not so much a
superior aircraft, that the opposition aircraft flown by the Allies were markedly
inferior. This is certainly true when one looks at the kill statistics from
“Bloody April” in that many German victories were over the hapless B.E. 2
“Quirk” and its not so successful replacement the R.E. 8 “Harry Tate”. It
must also be remembered that the leading Allied scouts at the time were the
Nieuport 17, SPAD 7, and the Sopwith Pup which were certainly effective aircraft
when they were first deployed in 1916 but hopelessly outclassed in 1917.
The British suffered tremendous casualties in the air during
the fighting around Arras, starting the conflict with around 365 planes of
which about a third were fighters. By the end of the month, they had lost
around 176 aircraft compared to German losses of around 21 pilots killed and
15 wounded. The devastation in the air was particularly bad around Douai,
where the Nieuport equipped 60 and 29 Squadrons lost 100% of their pilot strength
in action to the fabled warriors of Jasta 11, led by the soon to be famous
Manfred von Richtofen. Consider these accomplishments by the pilots of Jasta
11 during “Bloody April”: Manfred
von Richtofen posted 20 victories, his brother Lothar posted 15, Kurt Wolff
was the “Top Gun” with 22, and Karl Allemroder posted 8.
British pilots during “Bloody
April” had an average life expectancy of 92 combat hours compared to the end
of 1916 when they had 295. The only saving grace for the RFC was that aces such
as Albert Ball and Billy Bishop also posted impressive totals during the month.
However, their rookie squadron mates were little more than cannon fodder for
the aces of Jasta 11 and their potent Albatros D.III
EDUARDS'S 1/48 SCALE ALBATROS DIII KIT
The kit is Eduard’s Albatros D.III Profipack kit (8035). It is a mixed media
kit and consists of injected molded plastic (55 parts), one sheet of photo-etch
detail parts (13 items), finely cast resin Spandau machine gun components
(4 parts), an acetate sheet for the windscreen, and the usual Czech printed
decal sheet with options for four aircraft. A nice addition is an extra top
wing with the radiator located offset from the center that enables the modeler
to build either early or late versions of the D.III. The plastic parts are
high quality injected molded pieces that rivals Tamiya/Hasegawa in quality.
The instruction sheet is the usual six page diagram assembly with marked color
painting guidelines, and a cross reference to Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, Testor,
and Aeromaster paints. In addition, a four-page sheet is provided showing
the final painting and decaling schemes for the four-decal variants.
ASSEMBLY
I started by pre-painting all the parts as indicated in
the instructions, with the exception of the fuselage walls, bulkheads, floors,
and engine mount floor which I covered with Tauro wood grain decal. The stringer
detail on the fuselage sidewalls were then hand painted Testor Model Master
(TMM) French Chestnut and given a light wash of burnt umber.
Assembly of the fuselage components was accomplished using
super-thin superglue. Assembly proceeded as described in the instructions,
with no major problems. I then skipped over the instruction sequence for the
machine guns and started on the engine.
The engine components were next as I painted them, assembled
them together, and then gave the whole assembly a heavy wash of black. I installed
the engine floorboard to the fuselage side, wrapped the top half of the engine
(exhaust stack was not installed yet) in parafilm, and installed the engine
into the fuselage with superglue.
I then closed up the fuselage with liquid cement. Next,
I glued with liquid cement the tail fin, the skid fairing, and lower wing
to the fuselage. All joins were then sanded smooth, and no putty was required
for gap filling. Then I drilled all of the rigging, strut, and landing gear
mounting holes as described in the instructions. Next stop was the paint shop.
The model was painted, decaled, and weathered as described
in the following subsections and then final assembly took place.
I installed the interplane and cabane struts into place
and drilled small holes in the radiator to fit short sections of corresponding
diameter brass wire for the radiator to engine piping. Superglue the wire
to the radiator in the drilled holes and you will get a very sturdy join.
Now it was time to assemble the guns as shown in the instructions.
Make sure you anneal (heat in a flame until red-hot) the jackets and you will
be rewarded with a truly circular jacket. Roll the jackets around the correct
size circular rod (styrene rod works). Place the jacket seam to the bottom
and no one will even see it! I painted the machine guns in Testor Metalizer
Gun Metal and dry brushed with Floquil Gun Metal. The combination of the PE
jackets with the finely cast resin parts results in a beautiful machine gun.
Now onto the fun part, putting on the top wing! Actually,
this task went smoothly with no problems. Since the cabane struts are already
fixed in the correct position on the fuselage (remember using a caliper to
set the actual distance) the top wing snapped into place in the correct position.
I used small rubber bands to help hold both wings in place and then checked
alignment of the top to bottom wing. When all was to my liking, I superglued
the struts to the wing.
Now on to the next challenge, installing the landing gear!
I installed metal pins into the ends to help ease this task. Push the pinned
legs of the landing gear into the fuselage and set the approximate width of
the landing gear axle. Then place the axle into place on the legs and after
carefully aligning everything glue it in place. Let the glue fully cure then
paint the assembly and let dry. Glue one leg into place with superglue, let
set, then glue the remaining legs into place. Lastly install the painted wheels
into place on the axle with superglue, and the tailskid.
Carefully install the exhaust stack, propeller, and propeller
spinner with superglue. I drilled out the exhaust stacks, painted them Testor
Metalizer Burnt Iron and then applied a heavy wash of Rustall. The propeller
was painted by using a base coat of dark yellow, and successive light dry
brushing using a rake brush of TMM raw sienna, raw umber, burnt sienna, and
burnt umber to replicate the wood grain.
Install all the remaining pieces as indicated in the instructions
and rig the model as indicated on the instruction sheet.
PAINT
This version of the Albatros dates this airplane in mid-1917
while Voss was flying for both Jasta 2 and Jasta 5. His aircraft was not repainted
in a Jasta 5 scheme when he transferred. As mentioned above, all painting
was done after completion of the fuselage and attachment of the lower wing
fairly early in the construction process. I started first by airbrushing the
entire fuselage and tail section Polly Scale (PS) Acrylic White (RLM21). The
white also served as the base color for my wood grain finish discussed later.
I then shot the underside of the wings with PS RLM65 Light Blue for the underside
blue. The top wings were sprayed freehand with PS British Interior Gray Green
(I should have chose a different color), Tamiya J.N. Green (XF-11) and Humbrol
German Red/Brown (#160).
Next I replicated the wood grain finish on the fuselage.
Previously, I had good success using a dry brushing technique with a rake
brush that I used for smaller pieces. Starting with the white finish, I lightly
dry brushed successive colors of TMM Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna,
and Burnt Umber atop each other in a random pattern. I then dry brushed with
a rake brush Humbrol Oak (#71) to randomly cover and let peek through the
underlying dry brushed colors in an approximate wood grain pattern. After
letting this cure overnight I shot many coats of Gunze Sangyo (GS) Clear Yellow
(H91) to get that Albatros wood grain yellow look. A word of caution, you
must apply many, many, many coats of clear yellow (I probably did about 10-12)
to get that nice rich honey amber hue. After letting the yellow coat cure
for a day I then masked the forward fuselage and shot GS RLM Gray 02 (H70).
After a day of drying time, I sprayed a light coat of Future in preparation
for decaling.
The decals supplied with the kit are typical Czech/Propagteam
decals. Super thin and super fragile. After a short drying period of about
an hour, I applied MicroSol setting solution to get the decals to melt into
the surface and the control surfaces. I repeated with a second coat of setting
solution to get all the decals fully down. After drying overnight, I wiped
the decals off with a moist cloth with a bit of soap to remove any residue
and after drying I shot a very light coat of Future thinned with rubbing alcohol
(50-50 mix) over the decals to seal them. For weathering, I chose to accentuate
the engraved panel lines and surface detail with a light burnt umber oil wash.
I then sealed everything with a light coat of PS Flat Finish
to provide a surface for pastel application. I then used a pastel pencil to
lightly highlight the rib detail on the wings/tail surfaces. I then randomly
applied some ground up burnt umber pastels with a soft brush to simulate dirt
staining on the lower surfaces. Lastly, I applied a heavy burnt umber oil
wash to the wheels and control surface joins.
I then finished final assembly
of the models as described above. Finally, several coats of straight Future
was shot to achieve the final glossy finish common to most WWI aircraft.
CONCLUSION
This is an excellent model of an important WW I aircraft.
Overall the quality and accuracy are exceptional. The level of detail engraved
in the kit is a great improvement over previous generation Eduard models,
and no after-market sets are really needed for a beautiful build. I highly
recommend this kit for all levels of builders including beginners. For those
modelers that have built Eduard kits in the past and swore them off due to
the poor fit and construction problems, this model will definitely change
your opinion. If you were reluctant to try this model due to the small photo-etch
parts, I would recommend the Red Baron version of the D.III (Kit #8017) as
it is basically the same kit minus the photo-etch. That would be an excellent
kit for beginners or first time WW I modelers.
I would like to take this
time to give a heartfelt thanks to Tom Cleaver for his kind words of encouragement
and more importantly for MM readers, the photography tips he has given me. This
model and its pictures show the results of his wonderful suggestions.
REFERENCES
Squadron/Signal Publications, Albatros Fighters In Action,
SS1046, $8.95
Grub Street, Under The Guns Of The German Aces, $35.00
Albatros Productions LTD, Windsock Datafile, Albatros Fighters,
$25.00
Model, Article and Scans courtesy of Bob Laskodi.
