Artur 1/72 Resin Phönix D.III

VAMP Price: $9.00 USD

By Bob Pearson

History

The first fighter aircraft built by the Austro-Hungarian Fliegertruppe was the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I, the most apparent feature of which was the distinctive struts which gave the 'KD' its other name – Starstrutter. Rather than a conventionally braced wing with its lift and landing wires, designer Ernest heinkel chose to go with an arrangement of struts which did away with the need for wires. The KD was also blessed with a deep wooden fuselage which tapered to form a vertical knife edge along almost all of the rudder height. The KD was fast for its time, but was afflicted with a poor climb and maneuverability, and the small rudder lead to its being a handful to fly and when the Albatros D.III(OEF) became available in numbers it was withdrawn from the front.

The A-H aircraft industry was a deeply entwined conglomeration of companies, and the KD was to have a new lease on life through the auspices of the Phönix company which was also owned by the Castiglioni group – owner of the Hansa-Brandenburg Company. The basic KD fuselage was lengthened to accept a new engine, a new, conventionally braced wing added and the Phönix D.I was born. This developed into the D.II, D.IIa and ultimately the subject of this review - the D.III.

Each successive design of the Phönix fighter was given a newer, more powerful engine as well as design improvements, and were acknowledged to be among the best fighters in the LFT - stronger than the Aviatik D.I and faster than the Albatros D.III scouts which also equipped the front-line FLIKs of fliegertruppe.

The D.III was fitted with ailerons on all four wings - its predecessors having them on the top wing only, a revised wing layout and the machine guns were now accessible to the pilot at eye level within arms reach. On September 18 1918 a production order of 100 D.IIIs was placed, with delivery scheduled to begin in October and end in March 1918, however none were to see combat with the LFT. 50 D.IIIs did later see service with the A-H Navy as J.31-70. Later J.31, J.32 and J.41 were sold to Sweden postwar.

Phönix D.III J.41 was demonstrated in Sweden, and purchased in April 1920 as a/c No.935. The Swedes liked the D.III so much, that in July 1920 they ordered a further 20 aircraft to be powered by the Hiero 200hp engine. When the Hiero wore out they were replaced by the BMW D.IIIa 185hp engine. In 1925, ten additional D.IIIs were built in Sweden and this variant forms the basis of the kit under review - the difference from the basic D.III is enough to preclude an OOB build of anything but the ten Swedish examples.

The Kit

The Artur Phönix D.III kit consists of 44 parts in two resin wafers plus the separate top wing and fuselage halves. All are in the usual segmented envelope bag for protection. All parts are very well molded - of the three Artur kits received this is the best molded of them - with the wings having thin trailing edges and just a hint of the ribs in evidence. It is in the detailing of the wings that the limiting factor of which kit can be built comes into play. The Swedish-built D.IIIs had two very prominent overwing fuel tanks, and these are molded in-situ on the kit, and will require major work if a non-Swedish example is desired.

The bottom wings and tail surfaces are on a separate wafer and exhibit the same detail as the top wings. The distinctive curve at the rear of the rudder is a nice touch.

The fuselage has the forward structure molded in and is also commendably thin to allow cockpit detailing.

The final wafer is of all the detail parts, and includes: struts, wheels, propellor, overwing leading edge radiator, seat, tailskid. The BMW engine appears to be a decent starting point for the AMS afflicted.

No instructions are provided, but once again two xeroxed pages are included. These consist of a 3-view drawing of the Austrian built type (sans upperwing fuel tank); a photo of Oblt Frank Linke-Crawford of Flik 60 in his D.II; a sideview profile of Swedish D.III 935 (ex J.41) on skis with really cool scorpion insignia; and a final sheet showing markings placement on another A-H built D.III - a/c 947 (see heading illustration). No decals are provided so aftermarket decals or leftover kit ones will be required. The Phönix D.I-D.II Datafile has a photo of the Swedish built 3137, but other than this single shot I am unaware any others.

Summary

Out-of-box, the Artur Phönix D.III is a nice little kit which will build into just one of ten Swedish examples, however, if one is willing to do a little surgery, the options open up immensely to include the colourful A-H Naval aircraft with red/white/red wings. Available from VAMP Online Webstore, who supplied this sample.