Oeffag Albatros 153 Roden 1:72

[Bluesfan]

Quite timely, the new Lukgraph 1:32 kit being announced while I was working on this.
I have some more of this Roden series and intend eventually to put them together in a little group, showing off a few of the variety of schemes they sported.
This is one of Franz Gräser's aircraft, displaying his owl motif. It's one of the many early 153 machines which had their spinners removed - I think because of some detaching themselves in flight.

Mark

[Bluesfan]

1:72 scale but actually not too bad to rig. I've found Albatroses more straightforward in that regard than many other types. Just one pair of wires to watch out for, the ones going back from the nose, they can make handling the model awkward in the later stages. I used monofilament except for wire for the tailplane control wires.
I added some detail to the cockpit; guns, a few crude dials, seat belts. And a windscreen, which the kit doesn't provide.

Mark

[Bluesfan]

Painted by hand as is all too obvious in this shot. Lots of little metal details to contrast with the monochrome scheme. Apparently Oeffag delivered their aircraft unpainted, despite official requests to paint them, which led to many of the squadrons doing their own thing. Hopefully this model will look less dull next to some of the others 
The decals by the way are courtesy of Printscale, they offer a nice range on their sheet. I was inspired to do this one by the excellent artwork in Osprey's Austro-Hungarian Albatros Aces book.

Mark

[DaddyO]

Nice Mark - Right up my street (Currently working on a D1 as it happens and quite like the Roden Albies apart from the bloomin' 3 piece top wing which is a right PITA) 

Paul

[Borsos]

Very nice model! Those Roden Albatrosses in 1:72 can definitely be built into pretty little gems.
If I would build a 153, I‘d go with Brumowski‘s or also with Gräsers markings. This owl is just too pretty.
Andreas

[lone modeller]

Super model and as far as I can see the finish is good at the very least. New markings to me - as you write the schemes were really colourful.

Stephen.

[DaveB]

Great work, Mark -

I've built some of these myself in the past so can appreciate the work you have put into this to make it look right.

Regards

Dave

[KiwiZac]

I like it a lot - the owl and lack of spinner really add interest, to my eye at least.

[RAGIII]

Awesome results on a fairly good kit that has some difficult areas of construction! Your Albatros looks Beautiful!
RAGIII

[Rip Van Winkle]

Nicely done.  I enjoyed my series 153 build and will someday build more.

[WD]

I've never had the guts to try any of my Roden Albatri, so bravo sir!  A very nice build, and you surely cannot go wrong with those markings.

Warren

[FAf]

👍👍👍
/Fredrik

[Bluesfan]

Many thanks for all of your comments, really much appreciated 

The three piece top wing! - Thank goodness there's no dihedral to complicate it. Spent some time lining the pieces up against a metal ruler.

Interesting, about the Brumowski scheme. I don't think I'll be doing any of my planned set in it, mainly because of the difficulty of rendering the little yellow curlicues in this scale. I think someone did produce a decal sheet of them a while ago, but, never mind.
I eventually want to do a 253 (as seen in the Osprey book) with its wings covered in that psychedelic sworl fabric, I've picked up a nice sheet of it from Aviattic.

Thanks again
Mark