"...Better the devell you know, than the one you don’t..."
There was a time when‘Revell’ was always the innovator. Back in the1950's they designed three kits that became the hallmark of the company. In 1957 the Spad XIII, the Fokker Dr.I and the Sopwith F.1 ‘Camel’ were released in the ‘Revell’ box scale (generally speaking 1/27.) Having been released multiple times over the years most of us interested in World War One aviation subjects have had the experience of building one or all of these and are familiar with some of their ‘devellishly’ inherent quirks. The mechanical drawings for the Fokker Dr.I kit were done from the British inspection drawings of the captured original airframe, 144/17 flown by Ltn Eberhard Stapenhorst of Jasta 11. He was brought down by anti-aircraft fire and captured on 13 January 1918 and the airframe was given the British capture number G.125. It was thoroughly documented and later displayed with other captured aircraft in the “Agriculture Hall” in Islington. All of which had half of their coverings removed to display internal structures to the public for the price of 1 penny. Proceeds went to the RAF Hospital Fund. This build is aimed at ‘cleaning up’ today’s issue of the ‘Revell’ 1/27 Fokker Dr.I kit. Now depending on which issue you have to build from, you will be faced with an instruction sheet of seven to nine steps of exploded views. Due to the age of the mold, moderate clean up of all parts is needed. Also decide here what type of rigging material your going to use. If monofilament then think about using 15 mil and above. Five lbs test fishing line or fine wire are other options. As you get started remember this is an older kit. Ejector pin foot prints and sink holes should be dealt with. Now with every build I try to recommend tools that are helpful to me. Because of this kit’s mold and union seams here let me encourage you to pick up one or two ‘Flex Files.’ These are ‘U’ shaped metal rods that have differing grits of sanding film that you can add or remove from the two tension ends. Contour sanding is a snap with these.
Step 1. First the motor. The Oberursel Ur.II was a licensed copy of the LeRhône rotary. The old story about the Thulin rotaries is not accurate and should be disregarded. This assembly was designed from measurements taken from the Ur.II from Manfred von Richthofen’s Fokker Dr.I 425/17 in the Imperial War Museum in about 1953. Mis-molded bolt heads could be replaced with items from Grandtline. The main modification is in erasing the union seam between the front (PP 1) and rear (PP 2) face of the engine. Next add the blackened brass wire to represent sparkplug wires (paint these a dull red or black) to the sparkplug ends on the side of each cylinder and run them back to the hole for the air intake manifold hub. Then add the air intake and ignition manifold (PP 3.) Painting the engine is pretty straight forward. First, ignore the kit recommendations. Next paint the united faces and the hub of the air intake manifold with ‘Testors’ buffable aluminum ‘Metalizer’ lacquer. The intake tube themselves can be a dull copper color.. Then over-spray everything with a translucent dirty tan / field drab color to give it the patina of burned castor oil. Do not forget to give the fuselage and lower left wing root to mid length a spray of this same color to look like burned castor oil exhaust.
Step 2. First problem with the fuselage halves (PP 11R & 12L) is that the details on their interiors are reversed in their placements. The throttle air quadrant should be on the pilot’s left interior side (PP 12L) and the fuel tank pressure, hand pump should be on the pilot’s right (PP 11R.) While not difficult to fix it is a mistake that ‘Revell’ perpetrated in their 2003 pre-production mold of the 1/72 scale Fokker Dr.I. Even just casually checking your references will make this misplacement abundantly clear. Next the seat (PP 8 ) is too shallow and needs to be deeper to accommodate a chute pack that also served as a seat cushion. It also needs the texture on its surfaces removed. The locator sockets are misaligned for the rear portion of the floor (PP 6) which doubles here as a seat support. The compass (PP 7) pedestal is way too thick and tall. Additional fine detail parts are available through ‘Copper State Models’ or ‘Toms Modelworks.’ Essentially for the cockpit you will need plastic rod for internal / skeletal structure, lap & shoulder harness, rigging and cable material, bezels and new instrument gauges. The bracing bar (PP 10) shouldn’t have any gauges on it. It was also served as the rear brace for the machine guns. I also scratchbuilt an ammunition box and simulated the Bowden cables that run from the synchronizer under the machine gun breeches to the ‘triggers’ (Tom’s Modelworks brass) on the control column. On the rear of the fuselage halves there is are locator holes for the horizontal tail surface stabilizer braces /struts (PP 34 X2) to be added in Step 6. These holes are too high and too far forward. Fill and relocate. There are several sink holes in the fuselage halves that will need your attention.
Step 3. The top wing (PP 15 & 16) has the left aileron as a late type and the right aileron as the early version. Concerning the odd ailerons, it is believed that about ten to fifteen consecutive machines in the factory production batch were so fitted for whatever reason. The method of casting the wings provides the builder with a very light, rigid and straight structures. One concern should be that you open the strut locator holes to accept the interplane and cabane struts for the next step. Dry fitting here helps tremendously. I relocated the faired over fuel gauge from the fuselage to the centerline of the middle wing (PP 17 & 18) cowling. One curious factor here it looks like recent pressings of mold has under gone some type of bad attempt at restoration. This is keenly evident on the top wing near the base of the left aileron. Dry fit the completed lower wing (PP 19 & 20) into the fuselage cutout.
Step 4. Start with the Spandau machine gun assembly. There are aftermarket photoetch sets for the kit items. In this scale this kit begs to be detailed. When satisfied go ahead with uniting the wings, fuselage and rigging. In the ‘Werner Voss H292' issue the cabane struts (PP 25R & 26L) are mis-marked as landing gear struts. The fit of the interplane struts (PP 21 X 4) should appear to be a straight continuous run from lower wing to underside of top wing. Concerning the interplane struts (PP 21 X 4) these need to be thinned down flat where the brackets are at the ends.
Step 5. Firewall (PP 28) and rigging. Turnbuckles can easily be replicated using soft wire looped at one end and twist the wire ends together tightly similar to a hangman’s noose. Anchor the twisted ends into a pre-drilled hole and run your rigging between the eyelets.
Step 6. Undercarriage and rigging. Note after the airfoil halves are united, erase seams. Normally today I would replace the landing gear legs on most of my builds with cut and shaped brass. The kit provided landing gear legs are stout enough to use as is. But the mold seams must be sanded down smooth. If you filled the locator holes in the fuselage for the horizontal tail braces (PP 34 X2)back in step 2, then you will need to fabricate longer items.
Step 7. Next noting the propeller (PP 41), cowling (PP 40), engine assembly and tail rigging, check your photographs and references concerning the cowling shape. The pre-production types F.101/17-103/17 all seem to have the additional support strap at the bottom of the cowling cylinder opening that spans its lower edges at the bottom edge of the firewall. There are also other differences like the early type ailerons with larger balances and the curved leading edge to the horizontal tailplane. Also there were the Axial and the Heine types of propellers that were used on the Dr.I types. I chose an Axial profiled propeller built by Martin Digmayer and available through ‘Copper State Models.’ Nuts and bolt heads are from ‘Grandt Line.’
Decals: This mold from Revell has only ever been issued with the iron cross and stenciling of pre-production airframes F. I 102/17 in red plastic or F. I 103/17 in light blue plastic.
References:
Cross & Cockade Int. (GB) Vol. 3 #3, 1973
Cross & Cockade Int. (GB) Vol. 6 #3 Fold out Cutaway diagram. 1975.
Cross & Cockade Int. (GB) Vol 34 #4 Pp.1- ? 2003.
Cross & Cockade USA Vol. 1 #1 p.36 1960
Cross & Cockade USA Vol. 5 #1 Pp.1-29, 1964
Cross & Cockade USA Vol.18 #2 Pp.164-176, 1977
Cross & Cockade USA. Vol.21 #1 Pp. 81-90. Jasta 14, 1980.
Cross & Cockade USA Vol.23 #4 Pp.318-334 Baumer & Dr.1 204/17, 1982.
Fighting Triplanes by E. Hadingham, Macmillian Pub. 1968.
Fokker Dr.I, by J.M.Bruce, Profile Pub. #55, 1965
Fokker Dr.I Aces of WW1, by Van Wyngarden/Franks, Osprey Pub. Aircraft of the Aces series #40, 2001.
Fokker Dr.I ...A Reappraisal by A.Ferko & P.Grosz, Air Enthusiast Eight. Pp. 9-26,
Fokker Dr.I Datafile # 5 by R.Rimell, Albatros Pub. Ltd. 1987.
Fokker Dr.I Drawings by Dan San Abbott, WW1 Aero #122, 1988
Fokker Fighters by A. Imrie, Vintage Warbird Series #6, Arms & Armour Press.1989.
Fokker Dr.I, Flugzeuge die Geschichte Machten by J. Kranzhoff, Motorbuch Verlag, 1994. Fokker Dr.I Special Datafile by R.Rimell, Albatros Pub. Ltd. 1991.
Fokker Triplane-ology by A. Imrie, C&C Int. Vol.23 #4, Pp.57-64, 1995.
Fokker Triplanes in Service by Dan San Abbott, Over The Front Vol 5.#4 Pp.326-339. 1990.
Fokker Triplane by A. Imrie. Arms & Armour Press. 1992.
German Fighter Units - June 1917-1918 by A. Imrie, Osprey Pub. 1978.
Pictorial History of the German Army Air Service by A.Imrie, Ian Allen Pub., 1971.
WWI in Plastic by Brad K. Hansen, Great Auk pub. 1972.
Comments: While I love to do modern multi media kits, its good sometimes to go back to square one and try your talents out on an ‘old friend.’ You can do as much or as little as you want. With the bounty of great references, aftermarket decals and photoetch metal frets available, you can dress up the old gal in ways that previously you hadn’t dreamed of. With your painting skills improved you can finally get it to look the way you envisioned those many years ago. Many of us have those old kits on the shelf still unbuilt. Even just done ‘out of the box’ you may surprise yourself and renew an old acquaintance. I am indebted to the master modeler Ed Boll for his views on this manuscript.
‘...Generally you'll need 2 right hand ailerons for #'s below 144/17 and two lefts for above that #, but be sure to check pics. ( if you have just one kit, easiest is sand the left , if the later #s then use plastic card to build up the right) The interior needs to be sanded off and a new one built up with the components on the proper sides (throttle on left etc) Sand off the "wicker pattern" from the seat, as they were alum. , add a blanking section of the fabric behind the seat as there was one there( so you cannot see anything to the rear of the seat inside the fuselage) and the flat cowl lip needs to be extended about 1/8 " and bent under a bit. Thin down the outer struts, remove the "saw tooth" engraving from the underside of the 3 wings; that is really all that needs to be done as far as "corrections". she actually is a great dame despite her age
1. Depending on how much time you want to spend, you can shave off the molded push rods, recut the cylinders all round, redefine the rocker mechanism, add spark plug wires, new rods , carburator for the engine , intake tubes, photo etch cooling barrels for MG's, add throttle linkage & gun triggers to control column, aileron, elevator, & rudder wires, seat belts, crave a prop ( the kit is too flat) add an "engine turned" alum firewall etc. etc. Like anything in this hobby you can take it as far as you want...’
