Roden 1/72 Zeppelin Staaken R.VI 27/16
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Overview
If you think that the 18-wheeler I want to tell you about is something
along lines of a Mack truck, you’ve got another thing coming…
The Zeppelin Staaken Riesenflugzeug was in many ways the harbinger of
technology to come; the biggest aircraft to enter service during the Great
War and biggest heavier-than-air object to ever invade British skies,
one of the first airplanes with closed cockpit and world first supercharged
aircraft (R.30/16), with 5 months construction time and cost of 600.000
Deutsch Marks per piece! With wingspan of 42,2m it dwarfed Gotha bombers,
let alone fighter planes of the period, insect-like in comparison.
The main Staaken variant was the R.VI. Eighteen of these leviathans
were built during 1917-1918 period in four different factories. Due to
the shear size of the aircraft building contracts were distributed to
Schütte-Lanz, Aviatik, and Albatros, in addition to Zeppelins own
production capacities.
Four Maybach, or alternatively Mercedes-Benz inline-6 engines drove
R.VI, clustered in push-pull pairs and arranged in two suspended nacelles
between large wings. Each nacelle was manned by dedicated in flight mechanic!
To paraphrase a photographic caption from Datafile book, this was a solitary
occupation but the view from the office was incomparable… These
in-flight mechanics often played important role in bringing Staakens home
from long-range night bombing missions, on occasion scooping motor oil
with their bare hands. Out of 18 produced machines only one R.VI was ever
lost to enemy fighters. Night landings were apparently much more hazardous
for Staaken than British aces.
The Kit
Roden is already well-established name among WWI aviation enthusiasts.
Now this Ukrainian company adds the flagship to their ever-growing line
of 1/72 kits: Zeppelin Staaken R.VI 27/16 (Schütte-Lanz built). This
is clearly the most ambitious and complex kit by Roden yet. ICM’s
Tupolev TB-3 comes to mind, as a comparison for size and difficulty. Staaken
however strikes me as more rationally engineered kit of the two. There
are still some awkward assembly sequences (mentioned later), but at least
no unnecessary multiplication of parts exists. And it well better not,
as the complexity of this subject alone is enough to make it one of the
most challenging modeling projects right from the box.
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So what is actually in the box? Before I answer this question, let me
point out that anyone attempting to build this kit is well advised to
pick up Windsock Datafile # 95. This is the single best reference for
Zeppelin Staaken, and contains great collection of photographs (inside
and out), individual history of all eighteen R.VI aircraft, 1/72 line
drawings, and to top the cake a nice study on lozenge camouflage and colors
(most probable) used on the Staaken.
On to the kit… Upon opening the box I was surprised to see that
there is actually considerable space left among neatly packaged parts.
This is nice to see, because if a manufacturer has trouble fitting everything
in the box, how am I supposed to do it once the sprue cutting starts?
Two big bags contain all the plastic parts of the kit, with additional
bag for the huge decals; instructions and color poster of featured a/c.
Clear parts have their own mini-bag for protection.
It is when one opens up these bags and starts taking out sprue after
sprue of numerous parts that idea about the size and complexity of this
beast starts to take hold. There are eleven frames tightly packed with
parts, large and small, to build one detailed Zeppelin Staaken. Despite
the fact that all these sprues were packed together in only two bags,
I have found no evidence of damage due to transportation.
The actual part count is in excess of 450. They are produced in light
gray styrene. Surfaces are not “Tamiya-smooth”, and there
is couple of sink marks and some flash apparent on bigger parts, but I
would say that overall quality is very good. Some additional parts are
alternative components and should not to be used for building 27/16 model.
Roden obviously plans to release other variants of R.VI in the future,
however one could easily use what is already in the box to create another
R.VI. Four complete Maybachs and four Mercedes-Benz power plants are included,
as well as alternative glazing and the third vertical fin, used on later
Staakens. Gentlemen, the choice is yours…
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And then, there are decals… Three larger-than life sheets of continuous
irregular 5-color lozenge pattern are included, with their corresponding
protective sheets that double as cutting templates. I have doubts in both
authenticity and practicality of these decals (to be discussed later),
but one has to commend Roden for such an ambitious undertaking. There
is an additional small sheet of decals containing white national crosses,
to be applied on wings, fuselage and vertical fins.
Pic06
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Wings are the most impressive parts in this kit. Upper and lower, left
and right half wings are made as separate castings. Ailerons for the upper
wing are also separate. All trailing edges are remarkably thin and straight.
Canvas-over-structure detail is very pleasing to my eye. When compared
to Datafile scale drawings, wings pass the test with flying colors. Upper
wing should have 0° dihedral, and one can simply put down and join
two halves on a table surface to see that these appear indeed flat. Correct
dihedral for the lower wing is present as well, but Roden goes further
and gives information on exact wingtip elevation in scale for an accurate
alignment. Very well done, indeed!
Pic07
Only problem with the wing is that it is HEAVY! I would encourage modelers
to reinforce all strut-wing joints with steel pins, and use some strong
c/a glue here. But I can see even bigger problem than that, namely the
spider-legs-like main landing gear supports. They simply have no chance
of surviving great weight of the finished model. To be fair, Roden supplies
a number of auxiliary supports and ladders to distribute the load (see
attached picture), but have no illusions of your Staaken standing on her
own 16 (+2) wheels, unless you want to do some metallurgical work with
the landing gear struts.
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Fuselage is relatively complex assembly of parts consisting of two sides,
cockpit roof, front turret fairing, belly element, front and side glazing,
and of course cockpit floor / bomb-bay ceiling. All these parts look quite
wobbly when examined individually, but I assure you that once cockpit
interior is installed, with the floor element and entire framework, this
will become the most rigid fuselage you’ve ever built (this was
my experience with aforementioned TB-3 kit).
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Bomb bay can be displayed in open position with 18 bombs in three rows,
armed and ready. However, Datafile book contradicts this arrangement in
text and pictures. Yes, there were three racks of bombs, but each rack
carried 7 bombs, not 6, like represented in the kit. Further, each bomb
had its own slot door, whereas in the kit there are only three compartments
in each row, so that a pair of bombs is dropped from each compartment.
A bit complicated to explain, but when one compares kit instruction with
photographs and text description from the book the difference is very
clear. Anyhow, one can opt to build this “approximation” of
the bomb bay as given in the kit, or close it altogether. Another option,
of course, is to scratch-build a proper bomb bay. There are extra bombs
provided in the kit (20 altogether), the question is if the kit’s
fuselage will allow for 7 bombs to be stacked laterally …
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There is a myriad of small parts in the box and it is beyond the scope
of this review to describe all of them, but after careful examination
of sprues and instructions I can say that this kit is very well detailed
throughout. Noteworthy are the power plant assemblies. Each engine is
a separate little kit. Combined with oil coolers, gearboxes, exhaust pipes,
etc. the nacelle can be built into a real jewel. One just needs to add
some wiring and oil stains. This said, final assembly step for engine
nacelles is quite convoluted. Kit instruction proposes that engine wooden
bearers should be attached to the inverted “V” struts, while
sandwiching the assembly between two halves of the nacelle, and aligning
four oil cooler pipes to the engines and oil tanks at the same time. Did
I mention that the “V” struts penetrate through the nacelle
skin in four places? It looks to me that to perform this feat one just
needs a second pair of hands and a clever tool that can fold time-space
continuum. Some careful planning will be required to solve this conundrum.
I’ll leave it at that…
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Rigging scheme is provided in the instructions, which is actually valuable
help for this big job. Whatever your rigging method of choice may be,
you better be really comfortable with it before you start this kit. There’s
not much else to say except, good luck!
The usual manufacturing process for German WWI airplanes was to cover
the airframe with pre-printed camouflaged canvas. Staakens were atypical
in this respect, as the camouflage was in most cases hand painted. Lozenge
pattern was therefore continuous and non-repeating.
Subject of Roden’s kit, Staaken 27/16 was almost completely camouflaged
in such manually applied night lozenge, except on the front part of the
fuselage that was painted dark blue (mix of Dark Prussian Blue and Ultramarine),
and engine nacelles, which were left in bare metal. As already mentioned,
Roden provides extensive decals to cut and fit over your whole model,
however in my humble opinion the colors that Roden offers are quite inaccurate.
I have scanned kit’s decal and then tried to use Datafile information
to replace colors with the standards given in the book. The difference
is striking to say the least. Please refer to the attached image for this
comparison. Datafile gives standards for following five colors to be used
on Staaken:
· Cactus Green
· Dark Ruby
· Dark Purple
· Dark Prussian Blue
· Black
„AMERICAL/GRYPHON“
sells decal sheet “Nachtbombengeschwader Camouflage 1917-18 (II)“,
irregular 5-color lozenge pattern in 1/72 scale that is reputedly accurate.
One can opt to use this on Roden’s R.VI, as an alternative to kit
decals. Another option is to mix your own hues and paint the whole thing
by doing reverse masking. This last option may sound like madness, but
after a lot of thought it actually makes the most sense for me, and it
can undoubtedly produce best results (disclaimer: consult your psychiatrist
and try at your own risk). [NOTE: Americal is going out of business at
the end of the year - RNP]
Conclusion
If I say that good amount of skill, greater amount of dedication, and
even more patience is needed to successfully complete the kit, this shouldn’t
be taken as a negative. Simply, to have a detailed model of Zeppelin Staaken
one has to answer to this challenge, regardless of what’s in the
box. And Roden does provide excellent content in this big box!
I have seen the kit offered online for ~55€ and this is already
a good price, considering the amount of modeling fun it will provide.
I am a slow builder, so your mileage may vary, but my estimate is one
full year of workbench bliss with this kit.
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Roden’s Staaken is highly recommended for modelers with discriminating
taste and healthy appetite. I would like to forward big thanks to Internet
Modeler and Matt Bittner for sending me this kit.
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