Eduard Albatros D.III ProfiPACK kit - comments?
 

Hi, all -
I finally picked up the eduard 1/48 Alb D.III ProfiPACK kit. I've heard this is supposed to be a great kit; are there any particular hints or tips that I should keep in mind before I start spilling glue all over it?

TIA for any help!

Important:

Get bigger wheels for it! The kits wheels are too small, so small that they almost look funny! I did my first buil with the original wheels and IMHO they are the only fault that really make the general habitus of the plane look wrong.

Less important:

Plywood panel details of the nose are not right, the cockpit opening is not quite right in shape and the aileron levers are missing

Mikko

Familyman is right about the cowling panels needing minor work. There is the forward most (not the cowling ring) vertical panel line that needs erasing. Also there are some D.III types that have three individual horizontal panels in this same area. As to the wheels the D.III types were photographed with various sized versions, but we are talking about scaling down milimeters.

Images courtesy of Rod Filan's Rosebud site.

While the first three Are standard note this set of wheels

Okay!

'Get bigger wheels!' sounds like some besserwisser stuff. I should have written: Check the wheels, you may want to change them to bigger ones. But I still think it is an important thing to point out, since I noticed it just by looking at the model with no references handy at all. Here's some photos of my first build of the Eduard kit with the original kit wheels:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/saarela.mikko/wheels1.jpg

http://www.kolumbus.fi/saarela.mikko...aarit/oef1.jpg

Mikko

Big feet for an Albatros...
 

Cooper details do these in both 72nd and 48th...
http://www.cooperdetails.com/html/about.html

http://www.cooperdetails.com/images/items/CD4820.jpg

http://www.cooperdetails.com/images/items/CD7222.jpg

Oh my goodness!

What did I start here! "Important! Get bigger wheels for it!' Now what kind of stupid way is that to start commenting a kit! All too typical way to scare potential new modelers off ! I don't know if you are new with the hobby rfield, but even if you are not, there might be someone else recently interested in ww1 modeling reading this thread. What would she or he think? That the Eduard Albatros kit is all wrong, because the wheels are terrible and you really have to buy expensive resin wheels for it? Shame on me! Please ignore everything I've written above. Now let me try again:

You have heard right, rfield, it is a great kit! Easy to assembly and very accurate. It's great out of the box, but if you want to make it even more accurate, it might be a good idea to check the wheels. In my opinion they are too small and affect a bit to the general appearance of the model. Some other details worth to check, tho not so important in my opinion, are the nose plywood details and the aileron levers.

Now how's that?

Yours Mikko

refinement
 

Two possibly silly questions, if I may:

-Will D.V wheels do just as well for D.II, D.III?

I note on site that he recommends as well for Pfalz and other Albatros marks but does not specify D.II/III series. Is this to mean anything from a D.Va, backwards or is it Other?

-Has anyone also gone for the seats with belts he lists?
Comments?


That said, I think the new Eduard Albie kits are wonderful.
So is much else they do, speaking of DH-2s (we weren't speaking of DH-2s)(well, we are now)
:)