Albatros D.II - a Roden 1/72 kit.

The second of the Albatros scouts was ordered by Idflieg (Inspectorate of Flying Troops) in August of 1916. The D.II was a response to the bad visibility in the Albatros D.I, with the upper wing being located closer to the fuselage and staggered slightly forward. The Albatros factory and LVG (Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft completed 748 D.IIs. Oeffag, the Oesterreichische Flugzeugfabrik AG built another 16 D.IIs to Austro-Hungarian specifications, which included a 185HP Austro-Daimler engine and a different radiator. The initial D.IIs had radiators mounted on the side of the fuselage, although this model is a late-production D.II with the radiator on the top wing.

The D.II served in the Luftstreitkraefte up to the end of 1917, and in November that year eleven D.IIs remained in service. Flown by German aces such as Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen, the D.II together with the later D.III contributed to the German air superiority up to the advent of the Sopwith Camel and the SE.5 in mid-1917.

The kit is the Roden Albatros D.II built with some minor additions such as seat belts in the cockpit, rigging and a windshield. It is painted in the markings of a generic D.II during the winter of 1916-17, with the "K" being the last initial of the pilot flying the aircraft. The kit came together without any significant complications and with the help of Windsock Datafiles Albatros D.II. 
 

 

Early production D.II with fuselage-mounted Windhoff radiators.