CMR 1/72nd Hansa Brandenburg W12 Types III and V
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History
The Hansa Brandeburg W-12 was on its day, a pretty important aircraft
and it should be noted that even if much heavier and generally larger,
in terms of pure speed, it equalled that little aircraft that would forever
be associated to the legend of the Red Baron, the Fokker Dr.1, in spite
of the added burden of a pair of floats supported by an intricate strut
structure, that I’m sure would exert their toll on the airspeed
indicator.
With the first sketches hitting the drawing board in 1916, what would
eventually lead to a prototype in the course of that same year, it would
be manufactured until the last year of the ‘war to end all wars’
and several sub types would be produced, to a final production total of
145, embodying a number modifications, the most apparent of which being
the extended fuselage, the addition of ailerons to the lower wing and
the different cabane arrangement of later series.
The type classification of H-B W-12 aircraft is, in itself, involved,
at least to this writer, in some nebulosity since of all the references
I consulted I could only find a mention to a ‘III’ and a ‘V’
in Luftfhart Document 20, a German book, sort of a photo album of WW1
german aircraft. The book’s assumptions for the type V would not
hold their ground against CMR’s proposal since the photos of the
aircraft identified as HB-12V are of a short fuselage specimen. In fact
all types are quoted has having the same length, the difference being
in the span of the lower wing so this puts this book definitely in the
“keep the photos, forget the captions” category.
The Kits
Anyway, all confusion with weights and measures set aside, CMR’s
1/72ns resin scale kits of the Hansa Brandenburg W-12 type III and V build
on this prolific Czech manufacturer policy of re-issuing old kits in revamp
mode with the addition of decals and both look to be able to result in
excellent representations of the original aircraft.
Dimensionally both kits fare pretty well (give or take the odd mm) against
the 3 view plans that are part of the package, which in turn seem to respect
published dimensions for the type, the only point of concern being a somewhat
narrow rear section for the Type V floats, if we are to believe the aforementioned
GAs. But this could well be the drawings fault, since probably both types
used the same floats and those on the type III fir perfectly the kit supplied
parts.
 Type
III
 Type
V
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Moving on to the decals, these are, as was the norm in the other products
of this manufacturer I’ve actually tried, on par with the excellent
overall level of detail and quality of the well cast and bubble free parts,
being well printed, perfectly registered, and if other CMR issues are
to be used as comparison standard, should go on easily and respond to
the usual setting solutions, although if used on a gloss surface this
might not be necessary since, being quite thin, they should conform pretty
well to the surface under them.
Type V provides decals for 2 schemes while Type III can be build into
3 options., including the mount of probably the most famous of W-12 pilots,
OberLt. Friedrich Christiansen.
Still in the decal department, it should be noted that both kits include
decals for the ‘blue’ marine hexagon scheme, that look quite
ok to my eye, in terms of colours, but, as all marine hexagon decals I
came across to date, fail to translate, in scale terms, the quoted size
of the sides of the polygons for this particular type of printed fabric,
which was, it seems, 15 cm, that is, approximately 2 mm in 1/72 (although
I’ve seen photographic evidence of larger hexagons in a shot of
a ditched Albatros W4), while the sides of those on the decal sheet are
about 1,5 mm wide.
 Type
III
 Type
V
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The kits come packed in CMR’s traditional ‘ziplock’
plastic bag and further to the already mentioned decal sheets, you’ll
get an assembly diagram of the exploded view type, a set of 1/72nd general
arrangement drawings (which I used to base my dimensional assessment of
the kit) and detailed painting instructions for all the options supported
by the decal sheets.
Type V comprises 49 well cast parts, the sole warped element on my sample
being one of the float N struts, while type III has 38 parts.
Both kits supply enough detail parts to make both cockpits look busy
enough, although there’s always space for the extra bit, if you
are the superdetailling type. The engines, a Mercedes DIII for the type
V and a Benz III for the type III, being as usual quite well detailed,
cry out for careful painting, which will add to the overall look of the
finished model given the fact that a good deal of them will be in the
open.
The struts look quite useable, and before I resort to substitute Contrail
extruded stock for the some of the kit struts, as I generally do with
resin kits, I will probably try to actually use them, given the presence
of quite a few N struts, which, if replaced, will need careful manufacture….
And so that’s about it for a first impression. Type V will find
it’s way to my workbench pretty soon, so expect to see a build up
follow up to this in box review in he future.
For references, CMR indicates:
Luftfahrt Dokumente LD20,
Putnam: German aircraft of the 1st Wold War
Harleyford: Fighter aircraft of the 14-18 War
Windsock datafile 61
Given the rather complicated float strut arrangement, it might help
if you have some experience with multi wing and floatplanes, but aside
from that I don’t see why this kits should not be thoroughly recommended,
the more so since the other existing options, to the best of my knowledge,
are vac proposals from one or two manufactuers.
My thanks To CMR for the review samples
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