1/72 Roden Albatros D.I

[Rip Van Winkle]

Lt. O. Hone Albatros D.I  Mister kit acrylics for the wings and Abteilung 502 oils for the fuselage.

[Rip Van Winkle]

I had read that the struts were too long and sure enough they were.  I used drawings by ian Stair as a guide. Cabane struts are scratch built. Outer struts were shortened by at least 1mm.

[Rip Van Winkle]

Overall a good experience.  Rigging is with .005 Nitinol wire.

[Rip Van Winkle]

I gave the fuselage a reddish hue since I see a lot of variations for Albatros fighters.  There were dimples in the side radiators. I am not sure that is accurate but that is how the kit was produced.  i  have a D.II almost ready.  That was not as challenging.

[RAGIII]

Lovely little Albatros DI. The wood fuselage and camo are well done. excellent work overall!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Hey Rip ,

I really like how your D.1 turned out from the wood to the camo , nice work 


Alexis

[WS_972]

Hi!
Really well done!
My greatest compliments for the rigging too!

I'm in the finishing days of my Albatros collection project and I'm finishing their weathering before final assembly....

Can I ask you how did you attached the lower wings to the fuselage?

I have done some dry fittings and I believe that some self made pins are needed....otherwise all the gluing 'll be done over the plywood varnish and could result in a fragile joints over time....

My best regards , congratulations for the little masterpiece and thanks in advance for your reply!

[Rip Van Winkle]

Pins would definitely help but I usually remove paint where the wing joints are before I apply cement.  The trick is the lower wing dihedral.  Even though it may not be much it affects how closely all the struts and top wing will fit.  Take a look at the appropriate scale drawings if you can.  I am always a little nervous about that Albatros wing joint.

[WS_972]

Thanks for your reply!

I'm in the final stages of the weathering and I plan to start the final assembly within few days....and I'm thinking about the purchase of a Vertigo Miniatures Jigs....maybe I'll open a tread here about his functionality....

About gluing them I'm thinking to rely on a bit of superglue on scraped plastic areas and a couple of little holes for glue better strongholds....

This evening I was looking at the drawings from Windsock Datafile....but seem no dihedral on D.I wings.....

[Rip Van Winkle]

You are correct. This particular plane has no dihedral. I am working on a Sopwith Camel that has a large lower wing dihedral.

[WS_972]

Ohhhhh....a great amount of dihedral on the Camel lower wings....I read that this was due a decision of the developers to speedup production and lower the save manhours....so they produce a straight and quick building upper wing and put all the dihedral on the lowers....

Thanks for the help and i wish you to enjoy the Camel building!