Eduard

1/48 Albatros D.V ProfiPACK

Kit Number: 8112

Reviewed by  Scott Hollingshead, IPMS# 34786

MSRP: $24.95 Website: www.eduard.cz Catalog Entry The Albatros D.V was ordered in April of 1917 as an improved version of the D.III model in service with the German Air Service at that time, and the first copy flew that same month. The D.V was powered by the same Mercedes D.IIIa engine as the Albatros D.III, but was some seventy pounds lighter. Other differences in the D.V as compared to the D.III were a larger rudder, ventral fin, and spinner. In addition, the first planes had a headrest installed on them (a part is provided in the kit to replicate this), but these were quickly removed due to the interference they caused with the pilot's vision. Like the D.III, the D.V suffered from structural failures of the lower wing, as well as the outer portions of the upper wings. This made the plane even less favored than the D.III that it was designed to replace. Some of the issues were corrected when the D.Va variant was released, but the approximately 900 Albatros D.V's still saw survivors flying until as late as May of 1918. The Albatros D.V carried two synchronized Spandau LMG 08/15 7.92mm machine guns for its armament, and the aforementioned 180 Hp Mercedes D.IIIa six-cylinder engine could move the aircraft at speeds of up to 116 mph. The plane was twenty-four feet, one inch long; eight feet, ten inches tall, and had a wingspan of twenty-nine feet, eight inches. The D.V had a takeoff weight of 2066 pounds (the empty weight was 1515 pounds), and took just over four and a half minutes to reach 1000 meters (3281 feet), with a ceiling of 3000 meters (just under 10,000 feet). This new release by Eduard as a ProfiPACK kit contains two sprues of Eduard's standard tan plastic with a total of sixty parts, a pre-painted photoetch fret with eight parts, and an unpainted photoetch fret with fifty-seven parts on it. Also included are a mask set (for the radiator top and bottom, wheels, tail, rudder, and forward fuselage {if the plane is going to be given a wooden finish}), and decals for four aircraft. The twelve page instructions have the typical black and blue drawings for the assembly, and full color drawings on the first page as well as pages nine through twelve. The first page gives a nice introduction on the Albatros D.V, and pages nine through twelve include a brief history of each pilot represented, along with the colors and markings for their aircraft. As is also typical with Eduard kits, color references are for Gunze paints. The markings included in this kit that I chose to use were for Leutnant Wilhelm Lehman of Jasta 5 in 1918. According to the information provided in the directions, he began his career with the Jasta in August of 1917, and in September, he recorded his first kill, but took until April of the following year to record his second. He was promoted to the position of Commanding Officer on May 12, 1918, and gained two additional victories within a month, but was killed in combat on June 26 (likely caused by American pilot F.E. Kindley). Other pilots whose aircraft are represented in this kit are Leutnants Kurt Monnington, Walter Boning, and Hans Adam. Although Eduard has previously released the Albatros D.V kit, this is their ProfiPACK rendition with two photoetched frets, masks, and markings for four different planes. The moldings are crisp, and minimal cleanup was required throughout the construction process. Markings for three of the aircraft are ones that featured unpainted wood fuselages, but as Christmas was approaching as I was building this, I opted for the all painted plane that featured red, green, and aluminum for the colors. The pre-painted photoetch parts are a great aid to the builder, and the gauges and seatbelts/harnesses look very nice when installed. The cockpit went together without issue, and the PE seatbelts and harnesses formed easily to the seat, but take your time when connecting the harness portion to the attachment points (parts PE 16 and 17), as well as the seatbelts to the tubing that the seat rests upon. There are no options required in order to replicate any one of the four planes provided in the markings, but the builder has parts available to build an early D.V with a headrest, and two propellers and spinners are included. I did use the PE parts (PE 6, 7, and 15 {four are required}) for the panel on the right side of the fuselage rather than the plastic one (B11), and I used the plastic part B23 on the left side instead of PE 20. To obtain the wood appearance of my planes interior, I started with a base coat of Testors Model Master Wood, followed by dry brushing some Burnt Siena oil paint. My only issues during construction occurred on page 4 where part B20 (a gauge mounted on tubing) is shown in the wrong location, and part B18 (the actuating portion of the control column) was not long enough. The lower connection points on B20 go in the openings shown in the directions instead of the upper points shown in the directions, and it was easy to add a small length of plastic rod to remedy the short part (B18). I completed painting the entire exterior of the plane prior to adding the tail items and upper wing. I did make use of pre-shading before painting the wings and rudder, but the effect is not as visible on the upper surfaces and the rudder as I was hoping. I did some research on the green and purple colors for the tops of the wings, and found nothing conclusive to help me. I wound up using Model Master Acryl Napoleonic Violet and Pactra IW52 Green (from an old WWI finishing set that I found), which looked close to colors that I found on one web site. I also utilized Model Master Metalizer Aluminum, Gunze Red (H86), and Humbrol Green (#3) on the fuselage and Model Master Acryl RLM 78 Hellblau for the undersides of the wings. I did veer away from the directions in that I painted the wheels red as I found two references showing them red rather than green (as shown in the directions), and I opted for gray tires instead of pink. I sealed the paint with Model Master Metalizer Sealer prior to decaling, except that the top of the upper wing and underside of the lower wing which received a coat of future. When I built up the machine guns, I did want to add the PE jackets, and after carefully rolling the first one, I proceeded to lose it until the day before I wrote this review (much too late to put it to use on this plane). Luckily, I had jackets made by Tom's Modelworks available to me, so those are installed on my kit. In addition, I added stainless steel tubing for the gun barrels, and then drilled out the ends of the plastic barrel ends prior to adding them onto my barrels.

After having some decal issues on the last few Eduard kits that I have built, I do want to mention how well the ones included in this kit went on. The decals snuggled down to the surface details using only Micro-Set, and the white areas were opaque, and did not show spots later on. I only had to touch the areas around the upper wing flap actuators with a drop of Micro-Sol to get them to settle around those details. As far as my hits of this kit are concerned, I think that once again, Eduard has done a fantastic job with their level of detail on this plane, and the photoetched parts for items like the radiator vent louvers and controls, and the pre-painted photoetch parts were a joy to work with. The markings and histories of the four pilots are also a nice touch, and although I did not use them, the masks for the wheels and tail surfaces may have benefitted me, as I painted these items by hand. I was also pleasantly surprised in having no issues with aligning the upper wing during assembly. I have read of some individuals having issues with newer Eduard PE parts, but they presented no issues for me with this kit. As far as my misses with this kit are concerned, I previously mentioned the wrong location being provided for part B20, and part B18 not being long enough. Not as much of a miss as a suggestion on my part, but the decals for the markings on Ltn. Kurt Monnington and Ltn. Hans Adam would have been better to include the fuselage band rather than requiring the builder to paint them. It also would have been nice to have decals for the wooden fuselage panels, but again this is a suggestion, not a miss on the part of Eduard. Overall, I would highly recommend this kit to fans of World War I aircraft looking to add an Albatros D.V to their collection. This kit builds well, and the installation of the upper wing was relatively easy as compared to some of my previous biplane builds. I would like to thank the folks at Eduard for providing this review kit to the IPMS, to the review corps for allowing me to perform this evaluation, and to you for taking the time to read it.