Military Model Scene

Title:  Albatros D.III/D.V Aces Fighters

Author: Tomasz J. Kowalski, Wojciech Fajga, Vitor Costa, Damian Majsak

Publisher:  Kagero

ISBN:  978-83-65437-95-2

​

Volume 10 in their Famous Airplanes series from Kagero this new 93-page softcover book takes on a classic WW1 aircraft, the German Albatros.  An aircraft flown by a good number of Ace pilots it is not surprisingly a popular subject for aircraft modellers and this is sure to be a popular one for anyone building one of the excellent kits that are available on the market these days.  While I still remember building the old Airfix 1/72 many years ago, the larger scale options available to the modellers today, this one is just the job.

The book is split into 4 chapters.  The first is the story of the real thing.  This tells the development story, a description of how they were built, service history plus colours and markings.  This section in itself will interest the aviation historian and the archive photos used to illustrate it all are very well chosen and plenty of them.  I should also add that throughout the book the text and the captions are provided in both English and Polish languages.  Chapter 2 takes us into the first of three first class model builds, and in this case we start off with the Eduard 1/48 kit of the D.III, which is a very well detailed model.  Modeller Vitor Costa explains his build of the Eduard kit, how he painted the engine and interior as well as an interesting external scheme,  I especially liked his natural wood finish on the fuselage panels.  It also has a black tail and 3-colour camouflage on the wings.

In chapters 3 & 4 we get two different though equally excellent builds of the larger 1/32 model by Wingnut Wings.  The two modellers are Wojciech Fajga and Damian Majsak.  These are very detailed models and have quite different colour schemes.  On the first one we get the plain wood finish for the fuselage, this time done using panel transfers, painting the wood propellors while using rigging wire and turnbuckles for the bracing of the wings.  The tail and upper wings are a bright red.  Lovely detail.  On the second build we see a fuselage painted in bright blue and white stripes, this time with the wings in white.  The extra element to this second build is the addition of an appropriate base to display it on as well.

A final element to the book is 12 pages of fine colour profiles to round things off, an element which offers lots more ideas for the modeller to select for their own models.

​

Distributed by Casemate Books, who kindly provided my review copy.

​

Robin