Hello everyone,
This is my latest build – the Encore Albatros D.III (Oeffag Series 153) in 1/72 scale. The Encore kit uses the Roden plastic with some resin and etched extras thrown in. The kit is designed by Roden for maximum sales flexibility in that the upper forward decking and cowls are all separate, as well as the upper wing being split into three sections, all to facilitate the different German and Austrian models of the Albatros. Whilst great, this makes construction a little trickier. The plastic is soft and has a rough texture to it, as well as a bit of flash, so some care is needed in the clean up. I found ut the hard way that the kit interplane struts were too long, and when the wing was mounted to the cabane struts, the interplane struts ended up bowing and pushing the bottom wings downwards…. so I ended up having to trim the struts and re-mount the wing. Sigh. The lower wings still don’t have quite enough dihedral even now, but I’m not mounting that wing for a third time….
Otherwise, this build was straight out of the box, painted in the marking of a Polish D.III of the 7 Eskadra "Kosciuszko" flown by American volunteers during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920. The decals were a mixture of Techmod (for the Austrian ‘sworl’ printed fabric), the kit decals and some from the spares box. I found out the hard way that the Techmod decals don't stick too well and are brittle when dry - I found it very difficult to remove the rib tape masking without pulling up the decal, and the top wing needed to have sections re-decalled and re-weathered. Very frustrating.
Build log can be found here:
http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=3936.0
The kit is not for beginners, but still builds up nicely in the end. Feedback, comments and criticisms always welcome!
Cheers,
BC
