Search the Community

Having recently battled my way through an Eduard P-400 which took a looong time since I was not very motivated, I chose something that hopefully should keep my mojo tank from getting emptied this time. Even though there's lot's of colourful DR.I's schemes to choose from and quite a few comes with the Eduard Profipack, I have always liked Fritz Kempf's. There's just something about the "Kennscht mi noch?" statement on his plane, which should be "Don't you know me?", but I think it was meant as "Don't you know who you're up against?". Pretty bold stuff. It will also learn me to deal with the dreaded Fokker streaked finish, or have me fail my attempt. We'll see. This will also be the last time my workbench looks somewhat tidy. The Eduard kit is getting on in years now, but other than some slight flash here and there, it is still a very good model. But I will try to improve it where I can, and the first thing I did was to take a file to the rudder pedals and carefully thin them to look more to scale as there are no replacements among the photo etched parts. The right one is finished: Guess I could make it thinner, but it will have to do. It's not like it easy to see anything in the cramped cockpit anyway. Took a sandpaper to it and smoothed them out after the picture was taken. Next thing up was to add the missing frame part. Eduard chose for some reason to mould the rest of the interior steel frame with the fuselage half's, which I think is a bad decision given they are very prominent. Perhaps there's a reason for this and I will regret it later on, but in that case it is very easy to remove. Work has also started on the seat and cushion, which I'm quite excited about since I'm trying out a new technique for painting leather using oil colours. Mojo meter still at 100%

Hi, guys... This is my latest build and it's Roden's 1/32 scale Fokker triplane. This is quite a good kit but certainly challenging in places. The fit of the bottom wing was difficult, and I decided to remove the central tab between the wings and add it separately into the lower fuselage, then add in a strengthening spar so that the wings could be re-attached. However, I first had to get over the issue with the parts for the bottom wing's uppersurfaces missing from the box. I thought I could use balsa wood to build up the top surfaces and this worked well. I used some wood filler to smooth out the wood grain on one wing, and standard Humbrol model filler on the other, just as an experiment. Both appear to have worked equally well. Some additional detail was added to the wing leading edges using plastic card, as this detail was evident on the surfaces of the other wings. So, in these images below, you can see the progress of the build. Scrap plastic was carefully heated over a candle and stretched thin, and this was then added into the fuselage interior, after which wood-effect transfers were aded in between the upper and lower areas as they were prominent in the real aircraft. The engine was also put together at this time and along with the various cockpit pieces, all parts were blackwashed prior to installation. Next up, a general 'pale linen' shade was applied to the upper and side surfaces, over which was 'drybrush streaked' pale medium green, then dark green to create the well-known streak camouflage effect on this aircraft. It was applied vertically on the fuselage sides, but diagonally on the wings and upper fuselage. Both shades required two thin coats in order to create some depth. The kit's cowling was replaced using an item from the Aviattic range. And here, the model is now at an advanced stage. The pale blue rear fuselage and tail, and the red cowling, struts and wheel hubs have all been attended to and the markings are now being applied. The aircraft carried the pilot's personal emblem, a swastika with narrow arms, and these were created using items from my spare transfers box. At this time, the swastika was a good luck emblem used by pilots of various nations during the conflict. Additional stencils and various dials were culled from spare WnW transfer sheets. Coming towards the end of the build now, the central and top wings are in place and linked to the wing struts, although the cabane struts have still to be inserted under the centre of the top wing. The guns and propellor are all from the kit and look good after careful painting and blackwashing. Below, this is a good image to show the cockpit detail. The pilot's seat was given a cushion made from a small piece of tissue, wrapped in masking tape which has a slight texture to it, and then trimmed to the shape of the seat. Prior to painting, the 'cushion' was creased and then painted with a thin red and black mix, carefully appying two coats and allowing the black in particular to gather in the creases, thus making it look more authentic. Seat belts were provided from the spares box. The dial for the compass was another item from a WnW transfer sheet. Here on the undersides, the access panel behind the engine and the very thin 'deflector' shield with notches to accommodate the undercarriage struts were ietms not supplied in the kit, therefore were made using thin plastic card. The undersides of the undercarriage aerofoil were not correct for this version, so the detail was filled in and two small rectangles, again from plastic card, were added. Some minimal blackwashing was applied here and on the tailplane hinges, as well as on the added panels behind the engine, where oil often heavily stained this area as a result of escaping from the rotary engine. Some minimal rigging is required between the undercarriage struts and the cabane struts, and I used GasPatch turnbuckles for this task. I especiialy like this photo, as it shows the detail of the replacement cowling very well, and also the leading edge detail on the lower wing which largely compliments the same detail in plastic on the other two wings. An additional fuel tank filler point was opened on the forward fuselage close behind the turnbuckles as only one is provided for in the model All looks good, but... shhh, don't tell anyone the 'Axial' propellor logo is on the wrong way round... if the propellor is vertical, the logo should be readable when standing in front of it, and not upside down... oops! I will do better next time... ;-). And so, the end result. A nice colourful addition to my collection, and thankfully, one that doesn't require too much in the way of rigging. I hope you like the model, and thanks for looking in. If you want to see a short video of the build, you can find it here on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61biLArsDU There as also a couple of other videos there of recent builds. Until the next time, keep safe. Regards, Paul

Hello guys, here is my latest finished kit - Eduard´s nice Fokker Dr.I 1/48. The kit was built as a birthday gift As usualy there was at least a bit of scratchbuilding, even though most of it is not visible on the finished kit - removed internal structure on the cockpit sides, made new one from evergreen stripss - added details to the cockpit floor - completely reworked bulk behind the seat - the seat holders were left from the original part, rest is home made from evergreen strips and tabs - created new fuel tank to the front section - thinned the front fuselage top part - added padding around the cockpit from lead wire and rubber band from cable - added details to the machine guns - added details and wires to the engine Sadly one of the machine guns got broken before the photos were taken and carpet monster swallowed the tail struts and there was no time to make new one.. And finished model here I m not happy with the propeller both back and front side were made by same process, but on the front side, the differences between dark and light wood almost disapeared Well, thats it for now thanks a lot for looking and have a great day guys

I built this Revell Triplane a couple of years ago. It was in a bargain dogfight double boxing with the Camel at Hobbyzone. So far its the only kit I've built larger than 1/72 since returning to the hobby.I haven't started the Camel yet... The build was fairly straightforward, the parts all fitted together well considering the moulds date from 1957 so are 6 years older than me. The only mod was to provide symmetrical ailerons as the kit replicates the one that was captured and well publicised (with drawings in Flight) during WW1 that had different each side. The different ailerons were due to a change over in the factory, or more likely Fokker just didn't care as their quality control probably killed more Fokker pilots than the RFC! Cheers Will

As a Fokker Dr.I popped up last week on RFI, I thought I'd add a couple more, together with an E.V and a Sopwith Pup ... Fokker Dr.I (serial unknown) flown by Staffelfuhrer August Raben, Jasta 18, 1918. Revell 1/48th scale. Brush painted acrylics, home-made decals. Fokker Dr.I, 546/17, Jasta 11, early 1918. Eduard 1/48th scale weekend edition, OOB build with kit decals. Brush painted acrylics. Fokker E.V (aka D.VIII) flown by Theodor Osterkamp, Eduard Weekend Edition, 1/48th scale. Brush painted acrylics. Sopwith "Navy" Pup, Flashback Limited Edition, 1/48th scale. Brushed acrylics, kit / home-made decals. B2192, attributed to Capt Foote and Capt. H. H. Balfour at the Gosport School of Special Flying, 1917. For more photos (gluttons for punishment) and details of builds, follow links in signature to web site / club site respectively. All feedback welcome, as ever.

Fokker Dr.I set. 1:48 Eduard This set is designed for the Revell kit, this was a reboxing of the Eduard Kit so it should fit both! The set provides a few colour parts for the cockpit as well as a set of seat belts. Also included are parts for the control column, rudder pedals, compass, engine wiring harness, Engine under part, engine cowling strip, propeller boss; and jackets for the machine guns. A clear acetate film provides replacement for the kit screens. Review sample courtesy of