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Roden 1/32 Albatros D.I

By Rick Geisler

A Brief History

The Albatros D1 was the sire of a series of fighters that was to become numerically the most important German fighters of the First World War. Introduced in 1916 the Streamlined airframe was mated to the powerful, as compared to rotaries, Mercedes inline engine. The introduction to combat by Pilots such as Oswalde Boelke and his fledglings in Jasta 2 put an end to the dominance of the DH2 and other allied pushers.

With few alterations this aircraft was produced as the DII variant, and a wing change to the sesquiplane arrangement created the DIII series which served into 1918.

The Kit

Roden has followed their excellent Albatros DIII with the DI. Most of the major components are interchangeable, the exceptions being the early squared wings, the pylon center section struts, ear type radiators, and interplane struts. Assembly is straight forward and with care provides a fairly easy build for a bird of this era and scale.

Construction

Construction begins with the Engine and engine bearer assembly. Out of the box this is a pretty impressive area of the kit. I chose to add some plug wires and piping as the result is visible even in a closed cowled version. A word of caution, when assembling the formers be careful that the shorter squared off sides are to the engines right side. Also watch the alignment of these parts carefully. Most fit problems associated with this kit result from not being careful in the beginning! I matched the fit constantly during this process with the locating tabs molded on the fuselage side. The engine was painted with Citadel acrylics, Aluminum and Boltgun Metal. A wash of burnt sienna and black was eventually applied to pick out details.

The next step was preparing the interior parts with polyscale CDL prior to applying Raw Sienna artists oils to simulate the wood grain. A second wash of oils was applied using burnt sienna. My vision of scale wood grain is giving impressions of light and dark areas rather than trying to paint grain which always seems out of scale to me. So I apply the oils, then use a flat brush to remove most of the pigment. This leaves just a hint of grain and shows lighter and darker areas. Others methods differ but I like the results.

Once the oils had dried I began the basic interior construction. Again Rodens Out of the Box version is pretty good. I added a few PE parts left over from my previous Albatros DIII build from both Eduard and Toms Model Works. I also utilized Eduards Pre Painted German WWI PE seatbelt set to male the seatbelts. This set offers a variety of belt styles from early Fokkers to 2 seaters.

The belts were easy to use and I secured them using wire as the anchors to the bulkhead and seat supports. Non wood interior parts were painted with a mix of Polyscale British interior green and German RLM 02. Once the interior parts were painted and weathered with a wash I assembled the kit as per the instructions. By the way, don’t forget to drill the holes for the ear radiators at this time. I believe that if Rodens assembly sequence is followed one will have far less in the way of misalignment and fit problems than if one changes the assembly order.

Now I took the opportunity to plan out my rigging sequence and location points.

Once this was determined I drilled all of the necessary holes using a # 77 drill bit in a pin vise. I then assembled the fuselage and lower wings. This process presented an almost perfect fit and alignment, with just a little sanding necessary on the lower wing join. Next came the cowling panel. This was a source of some problems in all DIII builds that I have followed on the net. With the DI you remove the tab cutouts for the DIII cabanes and this greatly enhances the fit of the cowl. I had far less filling and sanding on the DI versus my DIII build even though I used the entire cowl piece in the closed position. As can be seen there is still a problem at the rear where the cockpit area meets the rear fuselage. My filling and sanding technique probably makes this appear worse than it is. Another thing to remember is that the front portions of the cowl did not fit tightly on the original aircraft.

Painting

Once all was filled and sanded to my satisfaction I began the painting process. The cowling forward of the cockpit and cowl ring was painted grey. The rest of the fuselage was given a base coat of Polyscale CDL. Again Raw Sienna was used as the source for the wood grain, brushed on a little wet and wiped off leaving the impression of grain. The overall scheme for the wings and tail plane was painted with Misterkit Acrylics utilizing German Albatros Dark Green, Red Brown, and Light Blue. Also of note is that one must mask off and paint the white square backgrounds for the wing crosses. I utilized Tamiya tape and Testors Modelmaster enamel for this process. I chose to model Ltn. O. Hohns’ Jasta 2 bird as the header tank supplied in the kit was right for this aircraft. A note here,if choosing the crown Princes’version one must scratch build a header tank in front of the engine.

More Construction

Now was the time for mounting the upper wing. Again I had NO Problem with the assembly. As a matter of fact, the Pylon made things quite simple. Just glue the upper wing to the pylon, insert the interplane struts and let dry. An easy and SOLID assembly once done! The pylon tends to allow the wing to balance while installing the struts. At this juncture I did replace the only kit part I chose not to use The axle in the kit is nice but tends to bow under the weight of the kit. Ever so slightly but noticeable in some builds. I replaced the axle with steel rod, added some detail and attached with CA to the struts. I then glued the assembly to the fuselage. Finally for the FIRST time I added simulated bungees with string. Not perfect but they give the right impression. They also did their job when a rough landing held the axle in place after the superglue bond broke. I was able to just re-glue and go on!

All struts were painted with my grey mix.

Rigging was done using 4lb. Test fishing monofilament colored with a silver sharpie. All went well with the exception of the cabane rigging. I manged to somehow pull the line too tight causing the glue join to let go. This resulted in a closed hole with no easy method of re-drilling! So I just used silver stretched sprue on the wires that I couldn’t re -do with fishing line.

Decal Application

The decals were now applied in the usual manner. Although much improved over previous offerings, they still have trouble going over complex surfaces. I also felt that the tail cross and background square were too large for my chosen scheme. I found a replacement by using an old Blue Max Fokker DR1 wing decal trimmed to the edges of the cross. This fit quite well and looks convincing. A little weathering( very Little), and my DI was complete.

Conclusion

All in all this is probably the easiest of the Roden 1/32nd scale kits to build. With a little care in alignment of interior parts many of the fit problems encountered by others can be avoided. The pylon cabanes as stated make wing construction a much easier affair. Rigging is not as complicated as the DIII so this too lends to the build ability of the kit.

I highly recommend this kit as a first WW1 build for relatively experienced modelers.

Thanks to Roden, Squadron, and Matt for the review sample.