Luedemann 1/72 Lohner L By Grzegorz Mazurowski

The Plane

The famous and successful Austro-Hungarian Lohner L flying boat was the main workhorse of the k.u.k. Naval Aviation in the first years of WWI on Adriatic. Used in all possible tasks, from reconnaissance and artillery spotting for the fleet to regular bombing and even as a fighter (one of them even sunk a French submarine!), the design impressed the enemy so much that the Italians decided to copy the design, using a captured example as a "master". The Italian version built by Macchi was designated Macchi L.1 and became first of the long line of Macchi flying boats, produced till the '30s.

The Kit

Typically for Luedemann, kit is packed in plastic bag and the instruction is very simple: includes copy of the factory 3-view drawing of the airplane and simple "exploded view" drawing showing how to assemble the model. No decals are provided.

Parts are very nicely moulded in light green resin. Wings, especially top wing, are thin and wonderfully detailed. Top wing is slightly warped, but hot water and some rest on flat surface should help make it flat. Wingspan is very correct - should be 225mm and is 225mm. Other dimensions aren't easy to be checked in unassembled state. Fuselage is made of two main parts, front and tail, which are solid blocks of resin, hollowed only for the cockpit (it looks a little like bathtub - some thinning of the fuselage sides won't hurt, also more detail-oriented modeller would like to add some internal construction details), and two alternative front fuselage deck covers, one for the open cockpit version, and one for the closed canopy version, shown on the boxart.

The rest of the parts are engine-radiator complex, moulded as one part (which is amazingly useful and rather doesn't affects level of detail) fin and tailplane with separate control surfaces, somewhat "generic" control panel (I don't know if any photo of original one is available?) two seats (one small for pilot and one "sofa" type for version with closed canopy), auxiliary floats and all that struts, for the wings and engine assembly. There is also machine gun, used on some Lohners. I wonder if the struts are usable - this is problem of almost all the resin kits - often it is easier to make new ones from plastic, bamboo or wires than to use resin ones which are fragile and not easy to glue. But as I wrote, this is problem of almost all the resin kits, doesn't matter who is the manufacturer.

Conclusion

This is very nice kit with very well detailed main surfaces and less detailed small parts - some of them should be scratchbuilt, but this is resin kit of the rare airplane, so you should have expected that. Also some warp on the top wing can be a nuisance, but I hope that this kind of resin doesn't have shape-memory and after correcting in hot water problem will be fixed forever. So not for beginner (as all resin kits), and not an week-end build, but I'm saying it again - main parts are correct and have very good, detailed surfaces. Decals for this kit you'll find in the excellent Americal/Gryphon set no. 167.

Thanks to Mr. Thomas Luedemann for free kit for review!