by George Grasse

 

 

GAVIA GM0907 BOX ART

 

 

 

MODEL TO BE BUILT

Albatros D.I D.390/16 was flown by Ltn d R Otto Walter Hohne of Jagdstaffel 2 based at Lagnicourt, France, Fall 1916.  This aircraft is from the first or pre-production batch serials D.380/16 to D.391/16 not all of which were D.I types: two were early D.II types (D.386/16 D.387/16) and two were prototype D.III types (D.388/16 and D.389/16).  The peculiar mottled finish to the rudder has been seen in photographs and apparently a Jasta 2 attribute found on other machines.  The rudder was clear doped at the factory but some sort of brown paint was dappled over it in the field.  Image credit is artist Ronny Bar.

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #1

FUSELAGE INTERIOR AT THE START:  Once I got going on the fuselage interior, I couldn't stop.  All of the above is one sitting worth of work.  The PE seat belts were an especially nice surprise insofar as detail goes.  The fit of parts was quite good.  I used Vallejo 824 German Camouflage Orange Ochre for wood parts and inside paneling, Vallejo 864 Natural Steel for unpainted metal parts, my mix of German Light Grey-Green for painted metal parts, and my mix of semi-gloss black (1/2 flat and 1/2 gloss black) for instrument parts.  I was tempted to do the interior wood finish in various shades to represent wood grain but when I test fitted the two halves together, not much could be seen.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #2

FUSELAGE INTERIOR CLOSEUP:  The model has a great deal of detail and this photo shows off the PE seat belts.  of which have now been painted.  I sprayed all of the parts with Tamiya Gloss Aluminum.  The engine was painted an overall semi-gloss black to be detailed a bit later depending on what can be viewed after the fuselage halves are joined.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #3

FUSELAGE WOOD PANEL STAINING:  The wood panel area was painted with one coast of Vallejo VC0012 Tan Yellow and allowed to dry thoroughly overnight.  It was stained with burnt sienna oil paint.  To do this, I placed a small amount of the paint on my palette.  I mixed in a liberal amount of gum turpentine and simply brushed is on keeping the strokes length-wise, front to back.  The stains tends to dry fairly quickly so it's import to start "stroking" the finish to create the wood grain effect and remove some of the stain.  On a 1:48 scale model, I did a little specific stroking within each plywood panel to make them each somewhat unique.  On a larger scale model, making each panel unique is critical and requires much more time than I allotted to this project.

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #4

LOWER WING AND TAIL UNIT:  The lower wing fuselage locating were cut off and replaced by brass pins fitted into pre-drilled holes.  They were carefully glued in place so as not to get glue on the fuselage wood grain finish. The horizontal stabilizer was glued carefully and adjusted into position.  The vertical tail was carefully glued and monitored to maintain alignment.  The two-bladed propeller was glued to its spinner and will be painted later.

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #5

LANDING GEAR AND FUSELAGE DETAILS:  The ends of the landing gear legs that affix to the fuselage had the smallest of lugs and I feared they wouldn't hold.  I drilled out each end and inserted short lengths of steel piano wire.  The holes in the fuselage were drilled out.  The landing gear legs wee then glued into place with super glue. The landing gear supporting bar which runs parallel and behind the axle was made from brass rod as was the axle.  I used fine soldering wire to wrap around the ends of the axle to represent the rubber cord 'shock absorbers'.   The two-bladed propeller was glued to its spinner and will be painted later.  The Windhof radiators were simply glued to the sides of the fuselage though their position was marked on the fuselage.  The engine radiator tank was glued in place followed by the Maxim machine guns.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #6

CAMOUFLAGE AND DECALS:  I applied the German two-color scheme adopted earlier in 1916 for the first 10 Albatros fighters variously known as the 'pre-production' series (see 'Model to be Built' above).  About this time, the two-color scheme of 'red brown and dark green' was being phased and replaced by the newer three-color scheme of 'red brown, dark green, and light green' to avoid confusion in the air with French aircraft using a similar green and brown four-color scheme.  The underside was my own mix to approximate Albatros Sky Blue.  See the color table below for paints used.  Decals for 'D.390/16' and 'Ho' had to be made from clear decal paper printed from my laser printer.   All of the other decals were supplied from the kit.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #7

RIGGING:  The top wing had all of the rigging holes drilled out into which were glued .005 monofilament thread.  Kit-supplied struts were discarded and substitute struts were made using brass tube with brass rod inserts.  The rigging lines were taped down out of the way.  The op wing was carefully balanced and glued to the center trestle struts and allowed to dry.  The wing struts were carefully glued in place all the while checking for proper alignment.  The wing struts were then primed and painted in place.  Rigging was straight forward starting the main wires, then the strut wires, and the aileron wires.  After all of these were secured, the drift wires from the cowling to the top of the rear wing strut and the landing gear wires were added to complete the rigging.  One more sitting is required for touch up, adding the windscreen, and some detailing.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #8

LEFT FRONT VIEW

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #9

RIGHT FRONT VIEW

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #10

RIGHT SIDE VIEW

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #11

RIGHT REAR VIEW

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #12

LEFT REAR VIEW

 

 

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #13

LEFT SIDE VIEW

 

COLOR TABLE

Dark Green	Misterkit MKGC05	Upper Wing Surface Camouflage
Red Brown	Misterkit MKGC01	Upper Wing Surface Camouflage
Pale Blue	Vallejo Mix 3	Under Wing Surface Camouflage
Wood	Vallejo VC0874 Tan Earth	Pump Handle, Rudder Bar
Gray-Green	Vallejo Mix 1	Metal Components (interior and exterior)
Wood Exterior	Vallejo VC0912 Tan Yellow	Base color
Wood Exterior	Burnt Sienna Artist Oils	Final Finish (streaked)
Pink Gray	Vallejo VC0995 German Grey  2	Landing Gear Tires
1 VC0907 Pale Grey Blue, VC0866 Grey Green. VC0967 Olive Green, VC0885 Pastel Green
2 Mixed with Vallejo VC992 Neutral Grey (3 parts) and VC0944 Old Rose (1 part)
3 Mixed with Vallejo 901 Pastel Blue, 989 Sky Grey, and White

   

------------------------------------------------  C'EST FINIS   -------------------------------------------

Bibliography:

Abbott, Dan-San.  The Camouflage and Markings of the Albatros D.II Aircraft.  Taken from "The Aerodrome" Internet website, dated 1995.  This treatise sets forth the theory that early Albatros D series aircraft had specific camouflage painting schemes depending on the builder, e.g., Albatros-built, LVG-built.  

Conners, John F.  Albatros Fighters in Action.  Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1981.

Gray, Peter L.  The Albatros DI-DIII, Number 127.  Surrey, England: Profile Publications, Ltd.

Kowalski, Tomasz.  Albatros D.I - D.V.  Lublin, Poland:  Kagero Publications, 2006.

Miller, James F.  Alabatros D.I-D.II, Air Vangraurd Series No.5.  New York: Osprey Publications, 2012.

Rimmel, Ray, Editor.  Albatros Fighters, a Windsock Datafile Special, Collector's Edition.  Albatros Publications Ltd, Berkhamsted, UK, 3rd Edition 1998.

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26 May 2024