Revell 1:28 Fokker Triplane

[Pauls9cb]

As a teenager, I made of of these Revell Fokker Triplane kits in 1:28 scale which I suspect ended up a bit cobbled together. I continue to be fascinated by the men and the aircraft that developed military aviation during WW1 from the tentative, flimsy structures used mainly for reconnaisance during the early war years, until the end of the Great War when technology had advanced in great strides, frequently making new designs outdated within a few months. 1917 was particularly important with Allied efforts being overtaken by the increasing number of German Albatros scouts on the Western Front, with tactical supremacy switching back to the Allies as the new SE 5, Sopwith Camel and Spad fighters became available in increasing numbers. My own fascination during this period was with the young German pilot from Krefeld, Werner Voss who, as a contemporary of Manfred von Richthofen, rivalled his mentor in terms of his victory tally until his death in the early evening of 23rd September 1917 at the hands of a multitude of SE 5s from James McCudden's 56 Squadron.

 

 

I suspect when I tried this kit 50-odd years ago, I was drawn to it for a number of reasons, not least of which was the absence of rigging wires which made it an easier option than going for the Sopwith Camel that was also produced in this scale, as was the French Spad fighter of the same period. With more patience and some increased modelling competence, I decided I ought to be able to upgrade this old and relatively rudimentary moulding. A Copper State upgrade and decal set sorted out many of the external details but I focussed, perhaps too much, on the internal cockpit structure. I thought that around the cockpit, the absence of a realistic scale reproduction of Fokker/Platz' tubular metal framework would be more apparent. So before joining the fuselage halves, I enjoyed myself sanding the redundant moulded detail, such as it was, and replacing it with styrene rod and various other bits in an effort to make the cabin more realistic. It all looked fine before the fuselage halves were joined, but in reality, none of it is particularly visible.

 

   

 

There's been much speculation over the actual finish to Voss' F103/17 since various eye witness reports talk of finishes that weer different from those that came off the production line after Voss' death. I've tended to follow the line of Paul Leaman's very useful book on the Triplane, where there are abundant b&w pics of the 2 pre-production a/c (F102/17 and F103/17) that were delivered for combat evaluation to von Richthofen and Voss. These show the random, hand-painted olive green streak effect over the lighter pale blue under-coat that I've assumed was the same shade as on the undersurfaces. On Voss' a/c, the olive green looks solid over the cowling and the metal panels in front of the cockpit, and more dense on the fueslage sides between the cowling and the cockpit. The wings and tailplane were streaked with the olive lines running at different angles comoared to the streaks applied on top of the fuselage behind the cockpit. I decided, perhaps controversially, that the cowling with its facial image was the same olive green as the fuselage and wing streaking, rather than the Jasta 10 colour of yellow and that the background colour on the rudder was white rather than yellow. Contemporary b&w pics of Jasta 10 Pfalz a/cwhere the engine areas were yellow look much more dense than contemporary b&w pics of both F102 and F103.

 

   

 

The detail work was all a bit fiddly as it always tends to be, even in this large scale. The Spandaus got the Copper State treatment, some turnbuckles were fashioned for the rigging wires, a  fuel gauge and windscreen were added, as was the data plate on the right side of the cowling, the cowling itself being modified to reflect the slight design difference between the 2 pre-production machines and those that followed. The cowling retaining wire holding the cowling in place over the Oberursel radial engine was added and the propeller was given the two-tone laminated effect typical of Fokker's a/c. Some oil staining around the engine, forward fuselage and the u/c fairing was added, as well as some burnt castor oil marks on the engine cooling fins.

Like with all models, I suspect I could do a better job if I had another go today, but I'm pleased that it's a pretty accurate version of the a/c in which Werner Voss perished in his last epic fight against 56 Squadron SE 5s on the 23rd of September 1917. I wonder who'll spot what I think is a fairly glaring error. I know of one and maybe others may see more. The build served as a great introduction to the Hachette 1:8 scale Triplane I completed for an old friend, which is the subject of a separate post on the Britmodeller Forum.

 

 

[Steve27752]

Beautiful work.

[thorfinn]

Lovely job on this favorite old kit! Your attention to detail and paintwork are excellent.

[russ c]

Really nice Triplane there, love the paintjob esp`

[Epeeman]

Great work on this old ancient Revell kit - having built this one myself I can really appreciate the work that you would have put into this one.   Excellent paint job too especially the streaky camo effect.

 

As regards the glaring error, not sure - is it the wing leading edge joins not filled ?

 

Regards

 

Dave

 

 

[BerndM]

Good work on this rather old but still nice kit.

[Pauls9cb]

Dave - Nope. That may be another one, but I think all 3 sets of wings weren't filleted into the fuselage since all the Jasta units at this time were transported up and down the line to deal with assaults in strategic locations. Most a/c would fly but others would be transported by road or rail with the wings de-mounted for ease of transport. I took the view that there would be some gaps for this reason, although you've looked very closely, but in the wring area.

Paul

[Gerrardandrews]

Brilliant model and great historical background 😊