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Eduard Fokker DVII...1/72nd scale...!!!!!


John Masters

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The kit is out now and my first impressions are:
this is the most comprehensive and most finely molded WWI injection kit in this scale so far. I test fitted a couple of parts and fit seems to be quite good, as could be expected (though the lower wing is a bit too tight fitting with the fuselage). The wing trailing edges, the tailplane and the interplane struts are all commendably thin. There are two sets of fuselages included, one for a mid production OAW-built D.VII with the characteristic small bubble-like air vents and one for a late production OAW-built D.VII with oblong air vents. All five decal options are only relevant for the latter version, decals for the OAW mid-production version are apparently reserved for the Royal Class package which is scheduled for december according to Eduard's May 2019 newsletter.

Propellers, radiators, engines, wheels, dashboards and even guns are included in multiple styles and are welcome additions to the spares box and could even be used to enhance Roden-, MAC- or Revell-kits that are left in your stash.

As this is a Profipack edition there is also a small PE-sheet and masks for painting the wheel discs.

 

When comparing the dimensions with the scale drawings in Windsock's D.VII Anthology it appears that both wingspans are just a bit overscale. The tailplane is spot on. Regarding the wings' upper surfaces I could do with less pronounced ribs as the Fokker's wing surfaces look smoother to me in photographs than Eduard's interpretation, but that's just my personal view.

Eduard's newsletter also shows pictures of the built kit which suggest that the undercarriage struts are a tad too long. I'll have a look into that when I'm building the model.

The often seen type of radiator with the two rectangular openings (cooling ducts for the ammunition) is only represented in a version with both openings located on the same level. More often than not these were on different levels.

 

There is a large decal sheet with 5-colour lozenge material including lozenge rib tapes for the wings (only the wings because all of the decal options in the kit have their fuselages and tailplanes overpainted). The lozenge stuff looks a bit too lively in hue to my eyes but ask 10 people on this topic and you'll hear as many different opinions. I prefer Aviattic when it comes to lozenge but what Eduard provides will be adequate for many modellers nevertheless. What I'm missing though is a little bit of paler reverse lozenge for the cockpit sides.

Eduard cleverly provides two versions of the dragon for Wilhelm Leusch's aircraft of Jasta 19 as all available photographs only show this aircraft from the left side and nobody knows whether the dragon was facing forward or backward on the right fuselage side. This aircraft requires light rib tapes (either blue or plain linen) which you will have to do yourself.

Light rib tapes also apply for Franz Büchner's Jasta 13 aircraft. The lozenge rib tapes provided in the kit will be correct for Max Näther's Jasta 62 D.VII.

The aircraft of Alfred Greven of Jasta 12 is a Fokker-built D.VII which can be built from this kit with a few minor corrections (sand away some access hatches that were unique to OAW-built aircraft).

I don't know of any photograph showing one of August Raben's Jasta 19 D.VII's to be a late OAW-built specimen. He flew an Albatros-built machine (different pattern of air vents) at one time but I think this decoration option is not viable for this version of the Eduard kit. The instructions state that this aircraft was initially painted in red and dark blue (Berthold squadron) which I think is highly unlikely. It seems Eduard hasn't fully understood the personnel and materiel swap between Jasta 15 and Jasta 18 (actually an exchange of squadron names and diaries) when Berthold took command of Jagdgeschwader II. This took place weeks before the first D.VII's reached the front. There's no reason to believe that this aircraft was handed down from Jasta 15 to 18.

By the way, Leusch's dragon and Büchner's lion (no longer thought to be a werewolf) of this kit are inferior to Lifelike's renditions.

 

Finally we have a kit that builds into a nice representation of the D.VII out of the box, as all previous model kits had some shape or dimensional issues. It's certainly the best 1/72nd scale D.VII on the market by far, but still not quite perfect.

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I have to correct the statement I made in my previous post about the Eduard wings being overscale - they match the known figures really well! They didn't match some of the scale drawings in the Windsock Anthology series but it is not the Eduard wing that is overscale, rather some Windsock drawings are underscale!

 

I gathered the dimensions of an original D.VII given in the L'Aérophile report of 1918 vintage for OAW-built D.VII 2009/18 (see Windsock Anthology 2) and compared them to the model's dimensions. I'm glad to say that both Eduard wings have the right dimensions! Even the MAC- , Revell- and ESCI-kits are very close, only the Roden wings are too short, they match the underscale Windsock drawing. 

I used a caliper -not a ruler- to measure the span on the kits.

 

Paul's suggestion in post #5 of this thread "It takes about 2 minutes to file enough plastic away from the wing  ends and fuselage sides, then it's fine" is actually not the proper remedy to cure the tight fit of Roden's lower wing. Better would be to cut the lower wing in half and insert a small strip of plastic to match the width of the fuselage. This way it's possible to get a little closer to the lower wing's proper span.

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Not having much to contribute to that discussion due to lack of knowledge, I’ll just thank you for taking the time to share.

 

Happy to read the last paragraph: that is the remedy I just took with the Roden lower wings (although the reason is that I found that to be the easiest solution rather than anything else). For the N-shaped outer struts I just merely nibbled away a good part of a mm of the lower end of the aft strut: that changes the angle to conform with Roden’s drawing in the instructions (they are 1/72, I wish other manufacturers did that too). 

 

How does the Eduard engine look? Roden’s is beautiful («are» to be specific, I see both a little BMW and Merc here); better than the one Eduard supplied with the D.V kits at least.

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On 10/05/2019 at 09:30, Torbjorn said:

How does the Eduard engine look? Roden’s is beautiful («are» to be specific, I see both a little BMW and Merc here); better than the one Eduard supplied with the D.V kits at least.

Eduard did a much better job with the engine for the D.VII than they did with the Albatros D.V engine. But Mercedes- and BMW-engines only differ in the carburettor part, the crankcase and the cylinders are generic parts for both engines. The second engine that is included in the Eduard kit is the Austro-Daimler that is intended for the MAG-built version of the D.VII, release slated for December 2019.

I consider the Roden engines nicer and more detailed than Eduard's, added to this Roden provides two complete engines with each kit. You can only build the Mercedes or the BMW from the Eduard kit (no spare for upgrading other kits).

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Ah, pitty. Especially that they have not included that pesky little water pump the Roden engines have up front on top. I found it a pain in the backside to scratchbuild. Can’t have everything I guess :)

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  • 2 months later...

To anyone who got the Eduard: I checked the instructions and there seems to be plenty superfluous bits, including an extra fuselage. Is it possible to build another version (eg. Fokker or Albatros-built) directly from the available pieces? I recently built their D.V, which had all the pieces necessary for a D.Va as well.

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Thought so. Can you tell if the other fuselage is supposed to be a plane built by Fokker or at Johannistal?

 

 

oh, and I did finish than Roden by the way (made a post in Ready for inspection). Will likely not buy a new when there is a better alternative, but enjoyed it nonetheless. I also got a double set of decals, it’s like they didn’t trust the quality themselves... (decals were ok, except for the lozenge).

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23 minutes ago, Torbjorn said:

except for the lozenge

Yes, well...that goes without saying.  They are also inaccurate.  

 

The remaining fuselage is a late OAW fuselage with the dimpled cooling vents.  You'll have to check with the Datafile regarding he correct wheels and prop for that fuselage but I think they are all in there.  

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

A new release, an Albatros-built D.VII is available on backorder from Hannants. Tentative release end of April/early May, although with the current situation I would expect delays. 

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On 5/4/2019 at 10:37 PM, e8n2 said:

I am waiting for the Royal Class kit myself

Well as far as I can tell, Eduard has decided to no longer do Royal Class kits, at least in 72nd.  They don't even list any Royal Class kits AT ALL for 72nd any more.  The original schedule had the Royal Class version for the D.VII being released this past December and we already know that didn't happen.  I did by two sets of overtrees each for the OAW and Mag D.VIIs from Sprue Brothers a while back.  Turned out that all four were the Mag overtrees even though two of the boxes said OAW.  Turns out that ALL of the OAW boxes that Sprue Brothers received from Eduard were Mags.  They are trying to work something out with Eduard to get this fixed.  Quality Control, you got to love it when it works and demand or fix it if it doesn't work or doesn't exist!

Later,

Dave

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A Royal class 1/72 Fokker D.VII is in the 2020 Eduard catalogue. Of course, no guarantee that we will see it, but it can’t have been totally abandoned yet.


edit: just saw that Eduard has a 20% sale until tomorrow by the way. Ordered myself some MAG overtrees. If they send me OAWs we can make a swap ;)

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20 hours ago, Torbjorn said:

A Royal class 1/72 Fokker D.VII is in the 2020 Eduard catalogue. Of course, no guarantee that we will see it, but it can’t have been totally abandoned yet.


edit: just saw that Eduard has a 20% sale until tomorrow by the way. Ordered myself some MAG overtrees. If they send me OAWs we can make a swap ;)

Well if they do come out with it then I will have a hell of a lot of Fokker D.VIIs!  Would be nice to know what the decals will be for.

Later,

Dave

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The catalogue only states Royal class 1/72 in a list of available WWI kits (this and the Alb profipack are the only new items),  there is no further info. 

 

The Alb kit has 5 markings shown in the last news update, one is Degelow’s machine, the others I’ve forgot.

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53 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

 

Courtesy of the Eduard pdf catalogue...

 

49723788217_175664938e_c_d.jpg

 

It would be good if overtrees were available for this kit. There are some nice looking machines.  

Thanks.

Probably will be, but you’d still need lozenge decals, so it’s possibly cheaper to buy the entire kit rather than overtrees and aftermarket lozenge anyway. Or maybe there is both 4- and 5-colour included?

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It all depends on how realistic you want to get and how much money you are willing to spend.

Eduard's lozenge in last year's OAW ProfiPack didn't floor me at all. It's much better than Superscale's back in the day but not remotely as good as Aviattic, which is my personal preference.

I would use Eduard lozenge as a basic layer for overspraying with a thin or slightly translucent coat of colour, so that the lozenge shows through just a bit. On the original aircraft the paint did not always cover the camouflage 100%.

 

If you intend to make several D.VII's it might pay off to buy the plastic in the shape of cheap overtrees and then invest the saved money into some good lozenge stuff.

Unfortunately shipping is quite high when ordering from Eduard directly. I know 'cause I did it.

 

With the OAW ProfiPack Eduard avoided schemes that needed lozenge material for the fuselage and tail, this time some lozenge for the fuselage should be included.

 

The choice of decals for the Albatros-built D.VII is not very surprising. Eduard chose to stay on safe ground and picked only well known aircraft.

Degelow's "white stag" has been covered by Roden and Pheon before and I bet the Eduard decal does not match the Pheon decals quality-wise.

Raesch's trident or pitchfork was done by Superscale decades ago.

Noltenius' "Hertha" can also be had from Printscale. By the way, I think that the light coloured tail unit (which I take to be light blue or sky blue rather than white) was applied after Noltenius left the Squadron and the plane was inherited by some other pilot. Noltenius probably had just a yellow painted tailplane (no overpainting of the rear fuselage) and he cannot have flown this plane for more than a week or two.

Beckmann's "wavy line" wouldn't be THAT difficult to paint by hand.

Blumenthal's "Nickchen IV" is the one scheme that has never been done as decals before and it would be next impossible to DIY these decals or hand paint them.

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