I followed your build with interest and must say your results are excellent! Your smooth join at the cowling panels makes me envious as I was beaten into submission by mine and left the covers off 
Really nice work all around!
RAGIII
Thank you!
Last night I read your build thread for your two Albatrosen with great interest and enjoyment. I can see reason for leaving the panels off because your engine looks quite awesome.
Before I started the Roden I checked out a couple of build reviews and learned that inner parts for the front end don't mate up properly. I think one review said that the builder, after joining the fuselage halves, had to pry the front end apart to fit the engine panels. So, I decided to make the fitment of the engine panels the priority before I even started.
I only glued the right side of the cockpit area to the fuselage wall, and held the rest in place with blutack. This allowed me to not have to fight the engine covers when it came time to attach them. I still had to use a little putty and sandpaper to get the engine panel join area smooth.
In the end, my effort produced an interior that was too far to the right in the cockpit and Spandau area (necessitating some modification to fit the guns), whilst the engine alignment was determined by the engine and panels. I saw a recent build here where the builder centered his fuselage parts by placing stringers along the sides of his fuselage inner parts. I'll be trying that on any future Roden Albatrosen.
I'm hoping that my LHS still has the D.I and D.II on their shelf when I go today.
Gaz
