ASSEMBLY

I started with my usual warm, dish soap water wash of the plastic, metal, and photo-etch
components and followed with a cold water rinse. Pat dry with a paper towel and let dry
overnight. The wash does really help on Eduard kits, especially on the photo-etch parts. I
then pre-painted all the parts as indicated in the instructions, with the exception of the
fuselage walls, bulkheads, floors, and engine mount floor which I covered with Tauro wood
grain decal (the only wood grain decal still in production). The stringer detail on the
fuselage sidewalls were then hand painted Testors Model Master (TMM) French Chestnut
and given a light wash of burnt umber.
Assembly of the fuselage components was accomplished using super-thin superglue.
Assembly proceeded as described in the instructions, however two problems are noted.
First, the pilot yoke/stick assembly as indicated in the instructions is incorrect as it is
reversed. Further on in the instructions is the view, which shows the assembly of the subassemblies into the fuselage, that view is correct. The second problem involves the
installation of the bulkheads. Early Eduard models are not known for good engineering and
fit problems arise. Mine was no exception, and since I built the cockpit as sub-assemblies
the bulkheads would not fit correctly. It is very difficult to get a good fit of the magazine to
its bulkhead and then to its correct opening in the fuselage. A lot of grinding with a Dremel
erased these fit problems. I then skipped over the instruction sequence for the machine guns
and feed belts and started on the engine.
The white metal engine components are very nicely cast, with little clean-up work needed. I
painted them, assembled them together, and then gave the whole assembly a heavy wash of
black. I installed the engine floorboard to the fuselage side, wrapped the top half of the
engine (exhaust stack was not installed yet) in parafilm, and installed the engine into the
fuselage with superglue.
I then closed up the fuselage, said bad words about the bulkhead fit problem, fixed them as
described, and used liquid cement to glue the fuselage halves together. I then separated
(cut) the control surfaces from the upper wing, horizontal stabilizer, and tail fin as I was
going to position these in accordance with the way the controls were glued into the cockpit
(left turn). Next, I glued with liquid cement the headrest fairing, the tail fin, the skid fairing,
and lower wing to the fuselage. When I removed the stabilizer control surfaces, I was left
with a right and left hand part for the stabilizer. In order to insure a correct join to the
fuselage, I installed small pieces of hard music wire into the stabilizers and carefully drilled
corresponding mounting holes into the fuselage. This worked perfectly and with a little bit
of tweaking I cemented the stabilizers to the fuselage in perfect alignment that did not
require any putty. I then cleaned up the separated control surfaces with sanding sticks and
used liquid cement to rejoin them to their correct position and locations. All joins were then
sanded smooth, and putty was used to fill some minor gaps in the lower wing to fuselage
join. Then I drilled all of the rigging, strut, and landing gear mounting holes as described in
the instructions. Next stop was the paint shop.

The model was painted, decaled, and weathered as described in the following subsections
and then final assembly took place.
I installed the interplane and cabane struts into place using relatively large amounts of
super-thin superglue. This is done to insure a relatively fragile model does not explode in
later life! The cabane struts were glued to the fuselage body in correct spacing for the upper
wing using a caliper to exactly set the distance and the interplane struts were glued to the
bottom of the top wing. Basically, by applying small drops of super-thin superglue carefully
around the strut to form a small bead around the strut base you can make the model much
stronger. Do not use an excessive amount, just enough for a thin bead. If you use super-thin
superglue carefully applied, you can form a perfect bead around the strut base.
I then installed the radiator assembly to the lower portion of the upper wing and the aileron
actuators (parts PE 18 & 24) as described in the instructions. Next I drilled small holes in
the radiator to fit short sections of corresponding diameter brass wire for the radiator to
engine piping.
Now it was time to return to the machine guns. Assemble the guns as shown in the
instructions. A tip to ease assembly is to use a correct length of hypo tubing (not a little
piece as shown) superglued to a drilled hole into the gun breech opening. By carefully
aligning this rod, mounting and aligning of the cooling jackets will be much easier, just
superglue them to the bottom of the rod. Make sure you anneal (heat in a flame until red
hot) the jackets and you will be rewarded with a truly circular jacket. Roll the jackets
around the correct size circular rod (styrene rod works) to get a perfect jacket. Place the
jacket seam to the bottom and no one will even see it! I painted the machine guns in Testors
Metallizer Gun Metal and dry brushed with Floquil Gun Metal. Good luck in mounting the
photo-etch ammo feeds, even more luck is required to get them in the proper shape shown
into the magazine!
Now onto the fun part, putting on the top wing! Actually, this task went smoothly with no
problems. Since the cabane struts are made of metal and already fixed in the correct
position on the fuselage, the top wing snapped into place in the correct position. I placed
the upper wing on the work bench and turned the fuselage upside down to mount it. First
set the interplane struts into place in their correct holes (remember to drill them out), then
flex the metal cabane struts into their respective holes and bingo, the wing is in place. I
used small rubber bands to help hold both wings in place and then checked alignment of the
top to bottom wing. When all was to my liking, superglue the struts to wing using the bead
technique described above. A word of caution, let the glue cure fully before moving the
model and you will be rewarded with a relatively strong top wing join.
Now on to the next challenge, installing the landing gear! Installing landing gear on early
Eduard models is a challenge at best and extremely frustrating at worst. Since there are
really no locating pins and holes to speak of, many people install metal pins into the ends to
help ease this task. I use a simpler method in that I build a simple jig. My jig is nothing but
a small block of styrofoam packing material that comes in protective packaging of
electronics goods. One TV and you are set for life! Take a small block of styrofoam and
mark the width of the landing gear on it. Carefully measure all dimensions and mark them

on the block to maintain the correct angles. Push the legs of the landing gear into the block
and set the approximate width of the landing gear axle. Then place the axle into place on
the legs (you did remember to drill those holes?) and after carefully aligning everything
glue it in place. Let the glue fully cure then paint the assembly, let dry, and remove it from
the block. Glue one leg into place with superglue, let set, then glue the remaining legs into
place. Use the superglue bead technique described for the struts and you will be rewarded
with a relatively strong set of landing gear. Lastly install the painted wheels into place on
the axle with superglue, and the tail skid.
Carefully install the exhaust stack, propeller, and propeller spinner with superglue. I drilled
out the exhaust stacks, painted them Testors Metallizer Burnt Iron and then applied a heavy
wash of Rustall. The propeller was painted by using a base coat of dark yellow, and
successive light dry brushing using a rake brush of TMM raw sienna, raw umber, burnt
sienna, and burnt umber to replicate the wood grain. The rake brush does a fairly good job
of replicating wood grain without resorting to decals, which are a pain on a small part like a
prop.
Install all the remaining pieces (but not the top wing radiator and aileron actuators) as
indicated in the instructions to prepare for the next fun job of rigging a WWI biplane!
Truthfully, rigging an airplane is not difficult. It is time consuming and tedious. First you
need a plan. You should have a rigging plan in place before you even start construction of
the model so you can pre-drill holes and plan for obstruction problems. Study the
instructions carefully and figure out where every rigging wire needs to go. Each kit will be
different and will have a different plan. For example, the Eduard Albatros has photo-etch
cabane struts that are a pain to drill holes in since the metal deforms easily. In this case, I
saw that six rigging wires pass through each cabane. I drilled a small hole with my smallest
bit (#80, .0135 in) through the lower wing and attached four long rigging wires through it
with extra thin superglue. The nice thing about the Albatros is it has a small metal plate (PE
6) to cover this hole from the bottom of the wing. I then ran a wire to the forward upper
interplane strut, one to the rear upper interplane strut, one wire through the forward upper
cabane strut around the wing attachment piece then down to the bottom of the interplane
strut, and lastly one wire through the rear upper cabane strut around the wing attachment
piece then down to the bottom of the interplane strut. I no longer drill holes through struts
for rigging as it may pull out in time. I wrap the end of the wire completely around the strut
and secure it with a tiny drop of extra thin superglue using the bead technique described for
struts. Rig the rest of the model as indicated on the instruction sheet.
For rigging wire I use a product sold in sewing shops called invisible thread (which is the
same as monofilament fishing line) that is .005 inches in diameter. It is easy to use, just
paint it whatever color you like (I finally found a use for those Testors paint markers that I
bought! Flat black is best for appearance, silver is the more realistic color but doesn't show
up as well in pictures), is easy to pull taut (use a hemostat as that vital third hand to keep
the wire taut), is easy to thread around/through stuff, and more importantly, you can trim it
flush easily with a new XACTO blade. No more metal wire or stretched sprue for me!
Finally, the model is almost done. The last step is to install the remaining parts to the upper
wing (top wing radiator and aileron actuators).

PAINT
As mentioned above, all painting was done after completion of the fuselage and attachment
of the lower wing fairly early in the construction process. I started first by airbrushing the
entire fuselage and tail section Polly Scale (PS) Acrylic White (RLM21). The white also
served as the base color for my wood grain finish discussed later. I then shot the underside
of the wings with Gunze Sangyo Blue (H314) for the underside blue. The top wings were
sprayed freehand with PS German Mauve and TMM French Khaki.
Next I replicated the wood grain finish on the fuselage. Previously, I had good success
using a dry brushing technique with a rake brush that I used for smaller pieces. Starting
with the white finish, I lightly dry brushed successive colors of TMM Raw Umber, Raw
Sienna, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber atop each other in a random pattern. I then dry
brushed with a rake brush Humbrol Oak (#71) to randomly cover and let peek through the
underlying dry brushed colors in an approximate wood grain pattern. After letting this cure
overnight I shot many coats of Gunze Sangyo (GS) Clear Yellow (H91) to get that Albatros
wood grain yellow look. A word of caution, you must apply many, many, many coats of
clear yellow (I probably did about 10-12) to get that nice rich honey amber hue. After
letting the yellow coat cure for a day I then masked the forward fuselage and shot TMM
French Khaki. After a day of drying time, I sprayed a light coat of Future in preparation for
decaling and applied the decals. For the decals I used Aeromaster decal sheet 48-181,
Albatros Fighters Part 1.
I then sealed everything with a light coat of PS Flat Finish to provide a surface for pastel
application. I then used a pastel pencil to lightly highlight the rib detail on the wings/tail
surfaces. I then randomly applied some ground up burnt umber pastels with a soft brush to
simulate dirt staining on the lower surfaces. Lastly, I applied a heavy burnt umber oil wash
to the wheels and control surface joins.
I then finished final assembly of the models as described above. Lastly, I lightly touched up
by hand painting with the appropriate colored paints all flaws and the areas that were
covered in superglue including strut/rigging attachment points. Next was a technique that
helps hide minor flaws in a model finish caused by superglue and painting successive coats.
It is very simple, just spray the entire model with several coats of a mix of equal parts
Future, Tamiya Flat Base (X21), and rubbing alcohol. This will hide almost all minor flaws
in the finish, but will not cover major flaws so it is not a substitute for poor modeling
technique. Finally, several coats of straight Future was shot to achieve the final glossy
finish common to most WWI aircraft.
CONCLUSION
I highly recommend this kit for experienced builders, as it is a very accurate and good
representation of the important Albatros DV/DVa airplane. Less experienced modelers
could have a successful build with some care but the size of some of the photo-etch parts
(less than 1 mm!) coupled with fit problems discussed earlier will make it a challenge.
Since the model has been discontinued it may be tough to find, but the price on it is likely
to be very attractive. This was undoubtedly the best and most accurate $10 (USD) model I

have ever built and I returned to the hobby shop and purchased his entire remaining stock
so look for more gallery entries in the future!