Ardpol 1/72 resin Hannover Cl.V By Grzegorz Mazurowski

History

The Cl-class of German WWI airplanes was designed as a fast, small and agile two-seaters equipped with strong engines. These airplanes were originally intended to be used as escort fighters but finally ended mostly as ground attack and fast reconnaissance planes. The most famous Cl planes are the Halberstadt Cl.II and IV, and Hannover Cl. II and III. The Hannover Cl.V is final and most advanced airplane of that line produced during the WWI - up to 50 were finished before the Armistice. After the war many of them were used in Norway, and one was bought in Germany by Polish aviation in 1919.

The kit

Typically for Ardpol, the kit is packed in colourful box which contains resin parts, detailed instruction of assembly and sheet of decals. All the resin parts are packed in zip-bags.

All parts are moulded in light yellow resin. Moulding quality is excellent - all, small and big, parts are flawless, and there is only one small air-bubble (in the bottom part of the rudder).

Fuselage halves have realistically thin walls and detailed internal structures are present (see the picture). Wings have beautiful ribs imitation and very sharp, realistic trailing edges.

Smaller parts are similar - many parts for interior and exterior are provided and very good other details, especially machine guns are impressive.

Kit includes detailed instruction of assembly, showing step-by-step how to build the model, and also contains painting scheme and good three-view scale drawings of the airplane.

Presented painting scheme is basic - lozenge-covered wings and varnished wood fuselage. Decal sheet contains eight late-war straight crosses with white outlines. Lozenge decals are not provided, so there is a need to get some aftermarket set. More ambitious modeller can paint the fuselage with colourful irregular polygons, as some of the German Hannovers CL.V were finished in that difficult, but interesting scheme. If you want to build Polish airplane, Ardpol produces separate kit with Polish markings.

Conclusion:

This kit is a real gem! Excellent quality of resin parts and very interesting, aggressive-looking airplane can attract not only WWI-maniac - especially that this kit isn't extremely difficult to build for a biplane - wing cellule is simple, with only single thick wing struts, also rigging is very basic. Absolute beginner will still have some problems, but it is a good starter for more experienced modellers who want to try resin.

Thanks to Ardpol for the review kit!