Hi

I am fairly new to modelling, and have made 4 1/72 plane kits. I want to move to 1/48.

What do you think is the best basic WWI 1/48 kit?

i want a straightforward kit.

I've never attempted any WW1 planes myself, because I haven't worked up the nerve to try my hand at rigging. But I would imagine one of the monoplanes would make a good first start. There's the Fokker Eindecker and E.V,the Junkers D.I by Eduard, the construction of which appears to be relatively simple. On the other hand, Testors has kits of the Nieuport 17 and Spad XIII in 1/48th scale; while these are biplanes, they're very inexpensive; Scalehobbyist has them for just six dollars apiece, so if you want to give WW1 planes a try, to see if they're for you, these will allow you to do so, without investing much money.
The only rigging I've ever done was on the wing float struts of a 1/48th Grumman Widgeon. I did it with extra thin "music wire" from Ace Hardware.
Good luck with your project.

Jake,
How about Eduard's Pfalz D.III or their Fokker D.VIII/E.V.Both are excellent kits and the D.VIII/E.v requires minimal rigging to boot.
Regards,
Gregory Jouette

Eduard has some fantastic kit's for the beginner to the more advance . Their weekend line has a few Roland C.II , Pfalz D.IIIa , N-17 , N-16 Albatros D.III and the D.V fokker E.V and the D.VII , DH-2 , F2B , Spad , Camel , Hanroit HD-1 ,Fokker Dr.1, Fokker E.III , MS -n/L . Some of their older release are also worth a look at , sopwith triplane , Hanroit float plane HD-2 , Albatros Dr.1

Roden also have great kit's as well , Fokker D.VII , Junkers D.1 , N-28 , SE5a , DH-4 and 9 , BE2c

Karaya's Halberstadt CI.IV is worth a look at , beautiful kit !

Speacil Hobby have a few as well . Based at limited run stlye moulds , they are very well done They have the Spad Fokker B.II Pfalz D.XII , Albatros C.III , MS-A1


Hope this helps out .

It almost has to be a later fokker Product. Triplane, DVII, DVIII/EV. The reason, Eduard has done exceptional work on their molds so very little in the way of problems in assembly. The rigging is minimal on all of the above!!
RAGIII

Revell are just releasing their DRi.....its eduards moulds I heard so it will be a VERY good place to whet your skills on

:)

I'm gonna grab a few even if its just for spares

Keith

Oh and welcome aboard too

I would go with the Eduard Roland C.II, or the Fokker DVIII/EV. They are great for Neophytes. The Roland has minimal rigging and the wings are really easy to set in place. The Fokker D.VIII/E.V has minimal rigging and only one wing, which would be good practice for future builds. Either of these kits would meet your requirement for a straight forward build, and I think they would be enjoyable for you as such.

Eduard also has a Fokker D.VII, which is one of the best 48th scale kits out there. Minimal rigging, but you might need some experience to get that top wing in place. You also need some experience to get all those colorful decals in place properly. Great for a third kit build in the early aviation department. Roden also makes a fantastic D.VII, which is a little bit more involved than the Eduard rendition.

The Eduard Fokker Dr.I is another great kit. Three wings to set in place but again, minimal rigging. It might take a little extra skill to apply the very colorful paint schemes, but I would reccomend it for a 3rd or 4th build.

The Albatross, Pfalz, and Nieuport kits from Eduard require some rigging skill, but they build up like a charm. They offer some really beautiful schemes.

The Fokker Eindecker, Sopwith Camel, DH-4 and 9 , BE2c, and S.P.A.D. kits available are pretty involved when it comes to rigging. If you don't like doing all that rigging, you might want to avoid them until you are more experienced.If your are fearless when it comes to rigging, they are good kits.

Thanks for your advice, i am going to choose between:

Eduard Weekend Edition Fokker E.V
and
Eduard Weekend Edition Pfalz D.iiia

thanks again

Jake

Jake,

When it comes to something a bit more complicated with regards to rigging you might want to try one of the Testers kits like their Nieuport 17 and move onto their SPAD Xlll for a little more complexity. You can try out various techniques found right here on Aeroscale or on other websites. These kits wont set your wallet back too far and are perfect for learning on.

When you're ready you can tear into some of Eduards Weekend Editions.
Most of all, have fun. Read up on the history and have a blast, there's lots of cool titles from Osprey to get you started.

Dwayne

I tend to agree with Dwayne. Testors 1:48 Nieuort 17.

I think either of those two weekend kits would be a great choice.

Be sure to start a blog here and we will get you through it. If you do the Pfalz, Terri might even make us some cookies.

Like Lawson and Dwayne, for minimal complexity and ease of build as well as on the wallet, I would also go for either a Niueport 11, 16 or a 17 in 48th.

SMER handles the 11 and 16 nicely (they can be built from the same kit), where as Dwayne mentioned Testors has the 17.

SMER improved the old Aurora kit by adding an optional headrest for the 16 varient, as well as a nice boss so the rotaty engine actually rotates!

The reason we recommend this series is that with the sesquiplane Nieuport series, the rear cabane strut is triangular, and thus esentially self-aligning as are the "V" shaped interplane struts.

So you start out building it as a lower-winged monoplane, and go from there.

As for rigging, for something that small at that scale, I would say it is optional, since in fact if you look at WWI photos, usually the rigging is invisible from any distance.

Now the SPAD, again you should have inverted "V" cabane struts as well as the one-piece "H" shaped interplane cable supports (often mis-labeled as inner interplane struts) that help in aligning the upper and lower wings correctly.

Personally, unlike their Nieuport 17, I don't care for Testors SPAD 13, with their toothpick machine guns, etc, so you might look at the Glencoe release, as it is basically a resurrection of the old Aurora kit and goes together nicely.

Now for the SPAD, I definately wold consider rigging, especially since the main wing span-wise cross-bracing cables are distinctly heavier then the rest of the aircraft's rigging.

Eddie

The more responses you get, the more confusing it can become. So I will add to the confusion. If you only have 4 kits under your belt and you want to do a WWI kit, for ease of assembly, fit and price, I would highly recommend the Aurora White box Fokker D.VII or Monogram Fokker D.VII as it is a refined Aurora mold. It fits quite well, assembly is straightforward, it doesn't have a lot or a little of fiddly pieces, requires minimum or no rigging, and builds into a respectable representative of the actual airplane. You can find them on ebay for reasonable prices as well.

Good Luck

Mark