Eduard 1/48 Albatros D.IIIReviewed and built by Brad Cancian
Item: 8114
Scale: 1/48
Contents: 57 plastic parts, 1 fret of photoetch, wheel masks, decals, instructions
Price: $29.95USD, direct from EduardReview kit kindly provided by Eduard at
https://www.eduard.com/eduard/albatros-d-iii-1-48-1-5.htmlVirtues and Vices – the Albatros D.III Much has been written about the Albatros D.III, that it doesn’t bear repeating here in detail. In short, the Albatros D.III was the successor to the earlier D.I and D.II models. These earlier models utilised equal span and chord wings, whereas the D.III had taken inspiration from the Nieuport sesquiplane (i.e. “one and a half wing”) designs. This was done in an effort to combine the power of the inline Mercedes D.III engine, the hitting power of twin Spandau armament, and the agility, rate of climb, and downwards view of the Nieuport. In these regards, the Albatros D.III was a stunning success.
Introduced into front line service at the very end of 1916, the D.III soon dominated its opposition. It’s pilots instantly grew fond of its handling characteristics, speed, turn, and climb rates. The ‘perfect storm’ then ensued in early 1917, as the German pilots quickly learned to master the D.IIIs strengths and exploit the weaknesses of their now technically inferior opposition. The pinnacle of this dominance was in April 1917, commonly known as “Bloody April”, where pilots such as Manfred Von Richthofen, Lother Von Richthofen, Kurt Wolf, Werner Voss, Karl Allmenröder, and many others, rose to meteoric fame. It was not until mid-1917, when the British introduced better fighters such as the SE5a and Sopwith Camel, that the Allies wrestled back command of the skies over the Western Front.
These virtues came at a price, however. In adopting the Nieuport wing design approach, the aircraft also adopted the vice of the French fighter. At high speeds, and in certain flight regimes, the lower wing was prone to flutter and wing twist, a phenomenon not well understood in aeronautical design at that time. This could lead to a twist of the lower wing around its main spar, potentially leading to structural failure. This led to temporary grounding of the D.III in late January 1917, which led the wing to have internal reinforcements added. None the less, this problem was never fully solved during the war, and also plagued the subsequent D.V and D.Va models of the Albatros (it is of note however, that the Austrian liscened Albatros D.III derivatives largely solved this problem with a completely redesigned internal structure in their lower wings; a change which oddly was not adopted by the Germans).
The machine was manufactured by the parent Albatros plant in Johannisthal, Berlin, and at the Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke (OAW) subsidiary, in Schneidemuhl.
Irrespective of its vices, the heady days of early 1917, the aircraft’s association with “Bloody April”, and the famous pilots who dominated in this period whilst flying all manner of colourfully painted D.IIIs, have cemented the type’s place in aerial history.
The Albatros D.III in 1/48There have been a number of kits of the D.III over the years. The early decades of modelling in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, were served mainly by the Aurora kit, and its various reboxes. Glencoe released a D.III in 1989. Both of these kits were eclipsed in 1998 by the release of Eduard’s Albatros D.III, kit 8017. This kit has formed the basis of all subsequent Eduard releases in the intervening 26 years, which is testament to the overall quality and accuracy of the basic kit. It has seen numerous reboxings during that time, including early, late, and OAW variant boxings. The last re-release of this kit was in 2016 as a weekend edition kit, so the re-issue of this one in a profipack boxing in 2024 is a very welcome re-release of this stalwart kit.
The Bits and BobsWe get the same core 57 plastic parts on two sprues that we have seen in the past. The moulds have held up surprisingly well over the intervening 26 years; mouldings are crisp and without flaws.
The first sprue consists of the earlier style upper wing (with central radiator), lower wings, both the standard an OAW variant of verticical stabiliser / rudder, the horizontal stabiliser, wheels, engine, spinner, propeller, guns, and interior engine shelf.
The representation of cloth on fabric is nicely restrained but still crisp and consistent. All of the control surfaces are moulded with their respective surfaces, so some cutting will be needed if you wish to reposition the flight control surfaces. There is a very small amount of flash, but this is easily able to be dealt with.
The second sprue contains the later upper wing with the offset radiator, the two fuselage halves, struts, and all of the bits and bobs for the cockpit.
Fuselage panel lines are very crisp, as are all of the louvers and hatches. The interior fuselage framing is integrally moulded on the interior of the fuselage halves. Again, a little bit of flash in the form of mould seam lines are present, which is not unusual; some careful clean up will be required in particular on the struts to tidy up those lines, but this shouldn’t pose too many troubles. Mould release pins on the interior of the fuselage are in hidden positions, so again, this should cause no troubles.
As this is a profipack boxing, we get a small sheet of masks for the wheels, and a lovely colour etched fret, which contains seatbelts, Spandau jackets (which will need to be rolled), control horns, radiator components, hatches, louvers, and various other details.
These will enhance the model no end once installed.
InstructionsThe instructions are printed on Eduard’s usual full colour glossy instruction manual. We get an extensive history of the D.III, a parts layout, paint call outs in Gunze / Mr Colour, very easily readable instructions (with alternate parts for each colour scheme clearly labelled), a rigging diagram, and full page 4 view colour drawings for each marking scheme, which includes a history of each pilot and the aircraft. Lovely.
Colour schemes for no less than 6 machines are provided. Unsurprisingly, we get some rather colourful and well known machines included:
• Albatros D.III (OAW), Oblt Rudolf Berthold, Jasta 18, Harelbeke, Belgium, September 1917.
• Albatros D.III D.2006/16, Lt Lother and Rittm Manfred von Richthofen, Jasta 11, La Brayelle, France, March-May 1917.
• Albatros D.III D.2049/16, Oblt Hermann Goring, CO of Jasta 27, Ghistelles, Belgium, May 1917.
• Albatros D.III, Lt Emil Schafer, CO Jasta 28, Wasquehal, France, May 1917. Eduard depict an overpainted dark red fuselage; there is good evidence to suggest that this fuselage should have been painted black, which was Schafer’s personal colour whilst he was posted to Jasta 11. Eduard also show the wings as being purple and green, which is also incorrect. As an Albatros built machine, this would have had the brown and light/dark green wings.
• Albatros D.III D.1996/16, Lt Hans-Georg Edward Lubbert, Jasta 11, La Brayelle, France, March 1917. Eduard have correctly depicted the quartered colouring of the fuselage of this machine.
• Albatros D.III, Ltn Franz Ray, Jasta 28, Varsenare, Belgium, autumn 1917. Eduard have you paint the horizontal stabiliser dark blue; this was more likely to have been yellow with two black stripes, which was the unit markings of Jasta 28.
Note that on all colour schemes, Eduard seem to have represented the under-wing crosses as being too far outboard; check your references here.
DecalsThe decals are produced by Eduard, and are up to their usual excellent standard. Registration and density are very good. These decals also have the removeable film that has been a feature of Eduard decals in the last few years. There are those that will love or hate these; if the latter, then there are plenty of after-market options available for the D.III.
Accuracy and BuildabilityIn considering accuracy and buildability, I will compare to my recent build of the weekend edition of this kit.
In terms of general outline, the kit scales very nicely to the windsock datafile drawings, which look to have been used as the main data reference for this kit. The kit spinner is slightly too bulbous, and should be slightly more pointed, but this is not a big deal. One strange inaccuracy is in regards to the forward fuselage panels; Eduard has not captured the fore to aft running panels on the nose between the nose ring cowl and the leading edge of the wing. They have an erroneous vertical panel line here instead. On my build, I filled this panel, and scribed the fore to aft panel lines. I also added nail head details to the wood panels using a small rotary riveting hand tool.
Eduard do offer alternate parts for the OAW built machine, including the square nose panel, circular foot step, and rounded rudder. This gives the modeller the option to do the OAW variant out of the box.
With the interior, we do get a reasonably comprehensive interior straight out of the box. The rear bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat is moulded as a solid piece, which the modeller is instructed to paint a wood colour. On the real aircraft, this was not a wooden bulkhead, but a fuselage frame; if one wanted to be more accurate, the centre of this piece should be drilled out so that we end up with something resembling a fuselage frame and not a solid bulkhead. This won’t be a big deal for most folks. Otherwise we get pretty much all of what we need; a seat, frames/bulkheads, compass, ammo cans, the switch panel on the forward starboard cockpit, pumps, and a rudder bar. The modeller can add various pipes / wires and rigging wire if they so wish. Note also that the spent cartridge chute for the starboard gun is not part of the ammo can pieces (A5 and A21), and will need to be added from rectangular strip styrene bent to shape. In my build, I added some of these details, and added a replacement Barracuda resin seat with the seat belts moulded in, and left the rest pretty much as is.
The engine and engine bay are a little light on in terms of detail. We get a generic Mercedes D.III 160hp engine, which lacks the detailed valve springs, rocker arms, ignition wires, and other details of the engine. It is also undersized. The modeller will need to add the various details, or look to aftermarket replacement for the engine, which is what I did for my build.
Note that if one does look to use an aftermarket replacement, the exhaust piece may not fit a replacement part. Note also that the kit doesn’t provide the prominent piping from the engine to the wing mounted radiator; the modeller will have to add this once the wing is mounted.
The other issue with the engine bay is the empty space behind the engine but ahead of the cockpit bulkhead. On the real aircraft, this is where the fuel tanks sat. It can be ok to leave this area empty as it will be hard to see on the completed model, unless you know it’s there and go looking for it. Accordingly, I added a scratch built tank to sit on top of the engine shelf (part B9). If you wanted to be more accurate, you’d want to cut the rear of Part B29 off and have a full fuselage - depth fuel tank. Likewise, the oil tank (which sat on the forward starboard section of the engine shelf) could also be added, but again, this is hard to see on the finished model.
For the guns, we get some nice etched jackets and handles in the kit. These are ok as is, but I replaced the Spandau jackets and barrels with Master metal items, just because I am lazy.
The fuselage goes together without any hassle. Some light fettling is needed to get the horizontal stabiliser to fit properly. The lower wings are single pieces with only small alignment stubs. I drilled these out and replaced them with stiff fuse wire, to help add some structural strength. Care must be taken to ensure proper dihedral as well as span-wise alignment; I got mine slightly off and had a couple of minor troubles with the mounting of the upper wing later on.
Unlike their D.V and D.Va kits, Eduard got the length of the undercarriage legs right with this kit. Note also that the wheels are rather undersized; this gives the finished model a bit of an odd look. I replaced mine with Barracura resin items.
Note that Eduard’s upper wing parts lack the cut outs and lever arms for the ailerons; I drilled out the cutouts and added the lever arms from wire.
The rest of the build was straight forward; I did have a small amount of trouble with the mounting of the upper wing, but I think this was more of my own fault than the kit.
I painted my Albatros in the markings of Ltn Gustav Nernst, Jasta 30, April 1917.
More shots of the completed build, and the build log, are at the following links, for those interested:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14143.0https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13996.0ConclusionsThis is an excellent rerelease of this very solid stalwart from Eduard. We get a kit that is accurate in outline and overall detail, which builds up without any significant difficulty. The kit’s vices are few, and easily dealt with. We get an excellent representation straight out of the box, with only a few small modifications needed here and there to correct the kit’s minor deficiencies. The fact that this kit is still the premier 1/48 kit of this type in the market some 26 years after its first release is testament to the quality of the end product. The colourful range of marking options gives the modeller plenty of reasons to build several of these attractive looking icons of the First World War.
Highly recommended!
Our very sincere thanks to Eduard for the review sample!
