Albatros D.V

[Mike]

Albatros D.V

1:48 Revell of Germany

Revell give us beautifully presented artwork, on their standard end-opening box. Inside are just two sprues of light grey plastic, but that shouldn't put you off. The parts count for this kit is a healthy 60, but also note that there is NO windshield for the pilot. That is quite odd, and you’ll have to make up a this from a piece of thin acetate sheet if you're building for accuracy.

This kit is beautifully detailed, both inside and out. A fully furnished cockpit is supplied and the detail in there is both delicate and intricate and is certainly very good for an injection moulded 1:48 kit. Instrument dials are also represented by individual decals, which makes application slightly more fiddly, but the results better. The fuselage also carries very good representations of the ammunition storage boxes and the tubular structure supporting the pilot's seat etc. A pilot figure is included with a separate poseable arm. He's suffering from a very nasty sink mark in the middle of his chest though, so would need some work to be useable.

The engine is supplied as an upper half only and is well represented, although necessarily simplified for injection moulding. The detail levels though are again very good and produce an accurate looking replica, given the limitations of injection moulding.

Wing and flying surfaces are very delicately rendered and finely reproduced. There is no subtle texture to the fabric areas, but this really doesn’t matter in this scale. Both upper and lower wings are produced as full width single parts and the subtle scalloping of the fabric at the trailing edge looks very good, and finishes with a fine edge. The flying surfaces are moulded integral to the wing, so mobilising them will require some surgery to the kit parts. There is a finely rendered radiator inlaid into the upper wing, and the aileron hinges are nicely detailed.

Two propellers are supplied for the two schemes, together two different spinners. As for the machine guns, these are more than adequate for injection moulded examples, but you may wish to replace these with aftermarket parts with photo etched cooling jackets to compliment this excellent kit.

This model is entirely flash free and ejector pin marks simply aren’t an issue anywhere as they are intelligently placed.

As stated, two decal options are available for this kit, and these are:

• Lt. Otto Kissenberth, Jasta 16b, June 1917
  
• Lt. Ernst Udet, Jasta 37, Summer 1917
  

A single decal sheet is provided and this is beautifully printed (in Italy) and in perfect register. The decal colours look authentic and not too vivid on the Edelweiss motifs. The stripes for the tailplane of Udets machine are supplied as decals also. Again, you really should use a setting solution to get these to bed down properly over the rib structures, but I would be more inclined to mask these off and paint them on instead of using the decals. Still, if that is a little daunting, Revell have supplied them anyway.

Instructions are typically ‘Revell’, being presented in black and white line drawings, in a 10 page A4 manual, covering a total of 38 constructional and painting stages.

Conclusion

This is a fabulous little kit and represents excellent value for money at around the £10 mark. The kit is beautifully made and despite the small amount rigging required to complete (a detailed pictorial is given), this should present no issues to a modeller with average skills. Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Terry McGrady]

Hi Mike

I've had the kit 3 weeks now Its just Revell re-boxing of the Eduard Kits , like they did with the Fokker Triplane. Cheaper than the Eduard W/E boxings and more readily available. Another plus is that there are 2 decal options rather than the 1 supplied with the W/E kits .

Hopefully there will b e more in this range.

Cheers

Terry McGrady

[Antoine]

Thanks, Mike.

Does someone know how many eduard's kit revell will rebox?

Edited August 21, 2010 by Antoine

[Gary Adams]

Nice kit except.....just wish that the landing gear were of the correct length.....way short and noticible if you've seen the kit built up.

Like the decal options.

Cheers,

[Mike]

Nice kit except.....just wish that the landing gear were of the correct length.....way short and noticible if you've seen the kit built up.

If that's the case, it's fixable using some of Aeroclub's Brass Struts, n'est pas? How short is "way short" anyway? It'd be helpful for builders of the kit to know, so they could choose to correct it or not

[Gary Adams]

If that's the case, it's fixable using some of Aeroclub's Brass Struts, n'est pas? How short is "way short" anyway? It'd be helpful for builders of the kit to know, so they could choose to correct it or not

Hi Mike,

They are 3mm short per leg. A couple months back Rowan Broadbent announced he would be producing replacement legs very soon under the Pheon Models banner. They will either be in white metal or "reinforced" resin.

Good news indeed!

Cheers,

[Mike]

Thanks Gary... I shall bear that in mind when I build it