Roden 1/32nd Albatros D.III
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A Little History
It’s 1916 and the Allies are just obtaining air superiority over
the Fokker Eindecker and Halberstadt D-II single seat fighters fielded
by the Germans in 1915. The allies did this with a combination of lightweight
maneuverable fighters of their own, in the form of the DeHavilland DH-2
and Nieuport 11/17 single seat scouts. In response to this new threat
the Idflieg directed the German aviation community to evaluate and field
an aircraft that would best the little Nieuports. Some manufacturers,
like Siemens-Schuckert simply copied the Nieuport design right down to
the lightweight rotary engine. Another manufacturer, up to that time know
only for its two seat trainers and observation planes, allowed its lead
designer Robert Thelen to take a new approach of high power, high speed
and heavy firepower in a single seat scout/fighter based on the design
principles of their line of observation planes. Thus the Albatros D-I,
D-II and D-III were born. Thelen chose to stay with the company’s
preference for 150-180 Hp inline water-cooled engines. To compensate for
this weight, he wrapped it in a streamlined monocoque wooden fuselage.
The D-I and D-II were classic biplanes with squared tipped wings of equal
chord and span. The D-III however went back to the  Idflieg’s
request and installed the now familiar pointed tipped sesquiplane wings,
based on the format of the Nieuports this plane was meant to defeat. So
beginning in December of 1916, this new benchmark in combat aircraft began
its short career of regaining air superiority for the Central powers.
This career cumulated in what the Allies called “Bloody April”
of 1917, where their air forces were nearly annihilated by the effectiveness
of the D-III. But this superiority was not with out a chink in the armor.
The single spar lower wing of the Albatros D-III was prone to twisting
and break up in flight if the aircraft was flown too fast, such as done
in a combat dive. Records indicate that around 450 D-IIIs were in frontline
service in the fall of 1917, when they were being replaced by the supposedly
improved D-V and D-Va. However, this did not mean the D-IIIs all left
the field. Records also show that around 50 were still in frontline service
when the armistice was signed.
The Kit
 Roden
Kit #606 is their fourth venture in to 1/32 aircraft, and their first
non-Fokker model in this scale. My first impression of the kit when I
opened the mail and took out the very large box was “why is there
a chunk of lead in this box?” No lead, but I found a lot of beautifully
molded sprues. A good image of all of the sprues and decals may be found
at Rodens’ website.
A closer look at the detail on each of the parts in this kit I would
venture to proffer that Roden has reached a level of detail that can compete
head to head against anything of Tamigawa quality and complexity. So the
sticker shock on this kit with MSRP of $64.99 US is well worth EVERY PENNY!
The good news is that street price is floating downward to under $60.00.
 But
there are some interesting surprises. These start with the no less than
10 page A-4 sized instruction booklet. The instructions starts with Roden
directing you in steps 1 thru 5 to apply all of the external details to
the engine, THEN step 6, glue the two halves of the block together. I
also notice that they forgot to tell you to trap the propeller shaft between
the cases when you do this. This same odd method is followed suggesting
that in step 15 you glue the main landing gear assembly together, and
hope it mates up with the wing and fuselage that are completed in step
22.
 Hints
of the future. Things to note that the kit comes with machine guns molded
to accept a PE cooling jacket, and there is a choice of two propellers
and two different types of wheels.
There are excellent rigging illustrations.
Markings are for no less than SEVEN aircraft, including two of the three
von Richthofen brothers, Manfred and Lothar. Each of these paint schemes
is detailed in its own two-view drawing (left profile and top down) Callouts
are for Humbrol brand paints. If you like captured aircraft, the “Vera”
marked aircraft was captured by the French and flown with French markings
on the wings and tail. (NOTE these French decals ARE NOT in this kit;
I’m jus suggesting a  possible
8th display possibility). A problem facing all of us is how much or how
little do we attempt to replicate wood grain in this scale? Another painting
challenge exists on the aircraft for Manfred von Richthofen and Karl Allmenroeder.
Both have solid red fuselages. The paint diagram implies that one is to
paint red over the applied fuselage decals thus giving a red tint to the
white areas surrounding the Iron Crosses.
Conclusion
Looking forward to knocking this one out during the 78th anniversary
of the final cease-fire of the war to end all wars. Advanced modelers
should look to this kit and the three Fokker kits from Roden as excellent
starting points for a cut away display model, the details to do this are
already on the insides of the kits!
As always I thank Roden for
the review kit, IM and Matt Bittner for the opportunity to enjoy it.
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