Roden Albatros DIII fuselage problems ...

Hi, gang -
I'm working on a Roden 1/72 Albatros DIII, and having some challenges with the fuselage. I've heard so many good things about these kits, I can't help but think I've done something wrong.

I've now joined the fuselage halves. My references show the lower fuselage as a smooth contour in cross-section, but mine has a shallow valley down the seam. Additionally, for the nosepiece (part #3a) to fit smoothly to the front of the fuselage, the sides of the forward end of the fuselage will have to be sanded down in places to match.

SO:
1) Am I correct that I will have to do some putty work to fill in the valley on the lower seam? It IS supposed to be a smooth curve, right?

2) I've had to trim the shelves on which the engine rests to get it to settle down on them; is this related to the other fit problems? have other modellers had to cut-and-fit the engine to these shelves?

3) Has anyone else had problems like this with this kit? Will I experience the same issues with the other Albatros kits in this series (of which I've bought three!)?

I really like the in-the-box look of this kit, but am becoming a bit frustrated. Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

[GrzeM]

You are probably right, and the kit is probably wrong in some things. I haven't build one, but I too have three or even four.
But some guys from the WWI Models mailing list have built them, and I remember that they reported problems similar to yours.
So: putty and sandpaper!
If you want, you can ask them on the list - check
www.wwi-models.org
for details. The list is really excellent place for the WWI modeler. Also don't forget to see the gallery.
G.

[JoernL]

Russ,

there are, unfortunately, numerous problems with Roden«s D.III. The one I recently finished has become a true putty queen. Basically, their idea to put out that many variations into the kit is a great one, but the way it«s executed leaves a lot to be desired.

The fit of the fuselage, which is broken up into way too many parts anyway, is poor, and requires a lot of Êtrimming and filling. Part 4D overlaps the fuselage halves and needs to be trimmed, especially in the area right behind the cockpit. In my case, I needed to fill and sand the fuselage seams several times and still didn«t get perfectly smooth contours.

Worst of all, I forgot to trim the part of the engine in front of the first cylinder, thus once all fuselage parts were assembled, the engine had moved backwards into the fuselage by about 1 mmjavascript:tongue().

The upper wing is another potential problem area. It takes a lot of careful sanding to achieve a smooth mating surface for the three parts, and the centre-section is just a touch thinner than the outer wing panels, and some careful filling and sanding is required here once again.

If only Roden had decided to include various two-part fuselages with these kits as they did with their D.VIIs this would have been much more fun to build. The way it is, I«m hoping for Eduard to come to our rescue with Êtheir version of a D.III, PLEASE!!!! (Karel Padar, are you listeningjavascript:wink()?)

My finished D.III is nice enough, and it looks "right", but in my humble opinion it takes way too much work to get there. I«ve build resin kits that were easier to put together than this. Anybody out there who«s done their SE5A yet? I«d be curious to hear of any problems with that one!

I have fifteen kits of the various Roden Albatrosse, and I can assure you I will not touch them again any time soon.
Eduard«s D.V was a weekend build, with no problems worth mentioning, while Roden«s D.III was so bad that I switched over to other, less labour-intensive subjects several times over.

Best regards,

Joern

[fcm]

Oh boy... Do you think you have a hard job? try to build a 1/48 Glencoe Alb D.III... :
The guilty of that is Hasegawa, Tamyia, Eduard...

Hey All,

I have now built 4 albatross kits, and have the following points.
1. you will need to fill the lower fuselage seam

2. the engine mounts on my models did not need trimming as the engine when fitted forces the front section to fit the nose cone/engine plate /spinner and no re profiling was needed
3. If you stick the fuselage halves together first the whole assembly is easier to build and detail

4. I built a simple jig to construct the upper wings and on two of the kits built barely required the use of filler

These kits are IMHO excellent and with some forethought and planning make excellent replicas I prefer the roden kits to most other manufacturers and will continue to buy and build them.

Hope these points help out.

Cheers