Fokker Dr.I

by Mark D Smith

Kit: Eduard (1:48)

Eduard's 1/48 Dr.I is a joy to build. I had some fun with shading the doped linen air-brushing multiple translucent layers. The reds on the upper surfaces are a little more subtle than the undersides, but if you look closely you can see traces of the olive streaking beneath the red upper surfaces. These things are turning into little 3-dimensional Maxfield Parish projects.

My only complaint was that I had to re-build the cockpits...both of the Dr.I and the D.Va. Not that it was really necessary or even visible, but, unfortunately for me, I happened upon some detailed plans of the control mechanisms in the cockpits that I couldn't resist scratch building. In any event, I have the great luck of having a brother in law who is the head designer/photographer at Consumer Reports and he helped with the photography. That Dr.I cockpit shot is actually several different exposures morphed together in Photoshop.