Something green or yellow: Albatros D. I 1:32 (Roden)

[Borsos]

Hello all,

I really like the early Albatrosses from Roden. I built one in 2015/16 and thought, it would be the time now, almost ten years later, to get my hands on another. In fact I had started this kit some years ago before I lost my mojo to do ww1 stuff almost entirely and got lost to the dark side (I built even ww2 tanks in the meantime). Thats, however, not intended as a premature entry for the >>shelf queen<< GB.

Roden kits receive much bad press out there on the internet. At least speaking for their Albatros D. I/III series, I cannot understand this.

I am using a PART PE-set and some plastic rod. But the only things I had to scratch-build were the pulleys for the rudder control bar, the throddle handle and the seat belts. I replaced these as usual with strips of masking tape where I attached the PE details that I had cut off the PE belts.
At the moment I have no idea where to get the compass which is not existent, neither on the PE fret nor as a plastic part. Besides of that the cockpit is quite complete and quite well detailed. The Fuel pressure gauge and the fuel quantity gauge came from the PART set.
The prominent mounting bar that holds the machine guns is still lacking as are some other details that I intend to add later, when the fuselage halves are closed.















It really enjoyed this project until now. Next steps: Closing the fuselage halves and building the engine.
The problem is: Building the engine means finally deciding what color scheme I want to choose. And I have huge problems to decide, which Albatros D. I I really want to build. More on this later.
Best regards,

Andreas

[Umlaufmotor]

Really very nice.

A funny thing Andreas, - I'm currently working on my Roden D.I myself.
Started in spring 2009.
Then a long break until about 2020 or 2021, then a break again and now for about 5 days I have really enjoyed building the model again.
It is in a row with several Wingnut D.V/D.Va.

Some of the things I built on the model in 2009 are not correct - I didn't know any better back then.
Well, I can't change it now, but anyway - I'm trying to make the best of it.

I just noticed on your model Andreas (it's painted in aluminum there) - the nose of the Albatros fighters - no matter which series - had no metal panel under the engine from the nose towards the landing gear.
From the first D.I to the D.V D.2065 they had wooden longitudinal panels.
At some point between the D.2065/17 and the D.2078/17 this was changed to transverse panels.
Roden unfortunately neglected to engrave some of the panels here - even on their two D.III kits.

Btw:
Beautiful drawings of the captured Albatros D.I  D.391/16  in the Flight magazine of June 28, 1917

Servus
Bertl

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Brad Cancian]

Great work Andreas, I love the subtle shading and shadowing, nicely done. The pulleys are also excellent, how did you fabricate these?

I built the Roden D.III myself back in 2007 and found it a nice build, save for the upper decking fit, but that could have been self-induced. Looking forward to seeing more on this one!

Really very nice.

A funny thing Andreas, - I'm currently working on my Roden D.I myself.
Started in spring 2009.
Then a long break until about 2020 or 2021, then a break again and now for about 5 days I have really enjoyed building the model again.

Bertl - your D.I would be a great candidate for our "Shelf Queen" 2025 group build, if you'd consider it?

Cheers!

Brad C

[gedmundson]

Such beautiful work, Andreas. Nice to see your progress on the kit, with all of your modifications and paintwork. Well done so far and I look forward to see your next updates.
Cheers,
Gary

[NigelR]

Lovely work Andreas, and I agree, many of the Roden kits are much better than the "internet" gives them credit for. I have a DII and two DIIIs in the stash and will definitely build them (I have plans for one later in 2025). In the mean time this build will be inspirational and helpful I am sure, so I will follow with interest.

[Borsos]

Thank you very much Bertl, Brad, Gary and Nigel

Bertl, Thank you also for reminding me of the Flight Magazine. There are nice drawings indeed. Regarding the cockpit I kept with the Osprey book ><<DH 2 vs Albatros D I/D II: Western Front 1916 (Duel, Band 42)>> and the Windsock datafile 100. In 2016 I had used many pictures from Koloman Mayrhofers site, but craftlab seems to have changed the homepage a little bit and there are fewer photographs of the interior.

I also would really like to see your Albatros D. I growing 

There are some WNW Albatros D. V builds out there where the lower part of the engine compartment is painted Albatros green or Aluminium, so I did this on my model, too. I doubted its authenticity from the beginning, because Koloman Mayrhofers D. II has no Aluminum. Thank you for clarifying this point. But I honestly do not care as once the engine is in place and the engine covers the Aluminum wont be visible at all.

Brad, thanks for asking, for the pulleys I used some plastic discs of several different diameter (the bigger ones are about 3mm in diameter) that I had cut with my circular cutter. I sandwiched them putting a smaller one in the middle. The rest is just some plastic strips. They are far from being perfect, but hardly visible once everything is in place.

Gary, your Albatros D. II is a great inspiration for me!

Nigel, I am keen on seeing your Albatros comming to life! I still admire your great Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter!

Best regards,
Andreas

[Umlaufmotor]

Hi Andreas,

Jamo has posted excellent pictures of Koloman's D.II here in the forum - the Albatros built by Koloman Mayrhofer went to New Zealand.

https://jamesfahey.smugmug.com/Albatros-DII

The Albatros D.I was built in exactly the same way as the D.II in terms of cockpit equipment and arrangement of controls and components.
Maybe it's not too late for your model to add the compass on the right in front of the seat, which Roden forgot.

I know that with the engine installed you can no longer see the area underneath the engine - but by missing engraving I meant the panels on the underside of the nose from the outside.
There you would have to re-engrave these panels arranged lengthwise.
Ronny Bar also forgot to draw these panels on the views from below, in his profile book "German Fighters of the Great War" (Vol.1), he unfortunately only shows a single wide panel in front of the front landing gear legs and that is wrong.
These panels are also missing in the profile pictures (views from below) of the Albatros D.III and the Albatros D.V (up to approx. D.2065/17)

Servus
Bertl

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Umlaufmotor]

Great work Andreas, I love the subtle shading and shadowing, nicely done. The pulleys are also excellent, how did you fabricate these?

I built the Roden D.III myself back in 2007 and found it a nice build, save for the upper decking fit, but that could have been self-induced. Looking forward to seeing more on this one!

Really very nice.

A funny thing Andreas, - I'm currently working on my Roden D.I myself.
Started in spring 2009.
Then a long break until about 2020 or 2021, then a break again and now for about 5 days I have really enjoyed building the model again.

Bertl - your D.I would be a great candidate for our "Shelf Queen" 2025 group build, if you'd consider it?

Cheers!

Brad C

Hi Brad,

I'm afraid I'm already too far advanced for the "Shelf Queen" - group build with the Roden Albatros D.I.
I'm actually about to paint the fuselage, apply the wood grain and then complete the rest of the bird - although I still have to paint the propeller as well.
But I will think about it again.

Servus
Bertl

@Borsos
Please excuse me Andreas for my digression in your construction report. It wasn't planned that way.
Servus
Bertl

[AngryJazz]

The interior is very lovely - the wood tones and variation just look great. I will be following with great interest 

[Allan31]

Amazing work Andreas, great stuff.

[Borsos]

Hi Andreas,

Jamo has posted excellent pictures of Koloman's D.II here in the forum - the Albatros built by Koloman Mayrhofer went to New Zealand.

https://jamesfahey.smugmug.com/Albatros-DII

The Albatros D.I was built in exactly the same way as the D.II in terms of cockpit equipment and arrangement of controls and components.
Maybe it's not too late for your model to add the compass on the right in front of the seat, which Roden forgot.

I know that with the engine installed you can no longer see the area underneath the engine - but by missing engraving I meant the panels on the underside of the nose from the outside.
There you would have to re-engrave these panels arranged lengthwise.
Ronny Bar also forgot to draw these panels on the views from below, in his profile book "German Fighters of the Great War" (Vol.1), he unfortunately only shows a single wide panel in front of the front landing gear legs and that is wrong.
These panels are also missing in the profile pictures (views from below) of the Albatros D.III and the Albatros D.V (up to approx. D.2065/17)

Servus
Bertl

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Thanks a lot for these hints, Bertl. I will care for these panel lines when detailing the exterior. You truely have a sharp eye for the detail.

And thanks a lot AngryJazz and Alan for your kind words.

I finally got the fuselage halves closed and added the lower wings which are connected by a small part of the underside of the fuselage; an usual approach that keeps the wing dihedral and gives sturdiness. I however acted so stupidly this time adding the lower wing that I almost surrendered. I cannot remember having such fit issues on my last Albatros from 2016 and I never read of such problems in any build report so I need to explain this only with my own clumsiness. It fit quite well in the end with much patience and some bad words.

One needs to fill the two holes on the fuselage right over the wingroot. They are meant as anchor points for rigging wires, but they sit too high. These rigging wires need to enter the fuselage directly at the border between fuselage and wing where I sanded and scrapped a little recess.


I sanded away the inspection hatches to replace them later with PE parts. These sanding scars look terrible in the photos. They are way less prominent in real life ? promised.


I spent an evening just slicing sprue bits into tiny flakes and putting them into an almost empty bottle of Tamiya glue.
Letting this react overnight one gets some great filler that I prefer over all these custom putties when it comes to putty fuselage gaps.



That is the almost finished working place of the pilot now. Some cables are still missing.




Last time I plundered a Roden Fokker Dr. 1 kit for the compass. I did not want to do this again, so I scratch build one with some plastic waste, a PE part from airscale and a spare decal from WNW.

I have seen many better compasses than that, as it is a little primitive and does not reflect the actual construction if this device, but that is not really visible once installed, so it is fine for me.

Compass installed:



And with this last picture showing the upper decking of the fuselage dryfitted, I am calling the cockpit done.

And I need to call this build on pause.I simply could not keep myself off and cut the first parts of the new CSM Nieuport 11 from the sprues tonight. . .

[Brad Cancian]

Looking great!

Your pictures gave me bad flash backs to my build back in ~2007. I remember the fit of those lower wings being quite bad.

The combined cockpit decking / upper cowl panel piece fit was also bad, as you can now see (too narrow at the rear then quickly becoming too wide). I'd suggest perhaps you might want to split this part along the natural panel lines between the metal cowl and wooden fuselage area around the cockpit opening and deal with the fit that way. I left the cowl panels off of my D.III when I built it as a result (it also helps to show off the engine bay )



Cheers,

Brad C

[Gene K]

And I need to call this build on pause.I simply could not keep myself off and cut the first parts of the new CSM Nieuport 11 from the sprues tonight. . .

I know I'll enjoy your N11 thread as much as I have been  this one.

Gene K

[NigelR]

That cockpit looks great and this build will be very helpful when I get around to my Roden Albatroses.

And I need to call this build on pause.I simply could not keep myself off and cut the first parts of the new CSM Nieuport 11 from the sprues tonight. . .

Me too! I have the engine assembled and am prepping other N11 parts as we speak. It's such a nice kit.

[KiwiZac]

The cockpit is exquisite. Beautiful work!!