Eduard 1:48 LFG Roland C-II

[Shar2]

LFG Roland C-II

Eduard 1:48

The LFG Roland C.II was an advanced reconnaissance aircraft which had much lower drag than comparable aircraft of its time. Known as the whale, it featured a monocoque fuselage built with an outer skin of two layers of thin plywood strips at an angle to each other. This had both lower drag and better strength per weight than typical of the time, but it was relatively slow and expensive to build. The deep fuselage completely filled the gap between the mainplane and gave the aircraft its nickname. Struts and wires were reduced, short of suffering the weight penalty of cantilever wings. There was even some attempt to fair the wings into the fuselage, to eliminate dead air space, a feature prominently missing from the Schneider Trophy contestants of the following decade. The C.II was powered by a single 160 hp (120 kW) Mercedes D III, providing a top speed of 165 km/h, a ceiling of 4000m, and an endurance of four hours. Entering service in the spring of 1916, although operationally, handling was reported as difficult but performance was relatively good. Due to the crew positions with eyes above the upper wing, upward visibility was excellent, but downward visibility was poor. It was also used in a fighter escort role and had a crew of two, pilot and observer/gunner. Because of its speed, when it was first introduced, it could be intercepted only from above but because of the lack of downward visibility, it was best attacked by diving below and coming up at it

The Model

Inside the standard Eduard Weekend Edition box with a stylised picture of the Roland on the front. On opening, all the parts are well protected in a poly bag. The three sprues of parts in light brown styrene are really well moulded with no flash and only one or two pips on the larger parts. There is also a small sprue of clear parts. The build starts with the fitting of the windows in each fuselage half, along with miscellaneous parts such as ammunition drum holders, throttle, priming pump, and camera. In the cockpits, which are very well detailed in the form of separate parts for the bulkheads and floors for each area, in addition to the seats, seat supports, pilots instrument panel, control stick and wheel. There are decals for the instrument panel and, (rather surprisingly), for the fuselage window curtains. Moving forward there is a nicely reproduced engine, consisting of left and right halves, cylinder heads, ignition leads, carburettor and crankcase end. The completed engine is then fitted to one half of the fuselage on the provided engine mountings. Once all these parts are fitted, the fuselage can be closed up. Next is the gunners position surround, one piece lower wing, the port and starboards horizontal tail, rudder, upper wings, aileron and rudder control horns, plus the two struts. The engine exhaust is then fitted, radiator, the tail skid and horizontal tail struts. The next steps are to build up the undercarriage assembly and fitted along with the support for the rear view mirror, forward firing machine gun and ammunition chutes, the rear pintle mounted machine gun and ammunition drum. Finally the propeller and boss are added then the rigging can be carried out, (the instructions of which could be a little clearer), but with some careful interpretation should be ok.

Decals

Being a Weekend Edition there is only one option on the decal sheet, that of a Roland C-II operational on the Western Front in the Summer of 1917. As mentioned above there are also decals provided for the window curtains and instruments. They are all very well printed in good register and slightly glossy. The white squares on which the wing crosses are applied will need to be painted beforehand. The fuselage and tail crosses are provided with the white panel which seems to be fairly opaque, but it may be advisable to paint the squares anyway.

Conclusion

This is another lovely kit from Eduard. Whilst it is a weekend edition there is plenty of detail and doesn’t really need the addition of any etch or resin. The colour scheme is quite attractive in its purple, green and light grey colours. Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of