Fokker aircraft
by Paul Thompson

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Baumer's Fokker DrI

Kit: Dragon (1:48)

Fokker DrI 204/17 w/n 1923, flown by Paul Baumer of Jasta Boelke in 1918. This aircraft had many mods to the paintwork over it's lifetime. I've depicted it early on. Later it had iron crosses on white fields added to the tops of the other 2 wings and the middle front of the tailplane, according to the Windsock Datafile special, plus a black border to the rudder. They were all later painted out, the latter in white, the crosses with olive. The remaining crosses were converted to Balkenkreuz by fattening them up. The kit was built OOB except I left off the Aldis sight and mirror, and modified the elevators to match the Datafile plans. Decals are from Blue Rider and although working very well are slightly too large for the kit. Note that although you can see into the induction pipes in the sunlit photos, in normal indoor light they have hidden murky depths and appear okay. All the other (many) glitches are my own fault.


Magic Flight DrI

Kit: Revell (1:72)

I found this package going for 15 Euros last year, so thought "why not?" No room for internal detail, and it's the older Revell mold, so I restricted the not-OOBness to changing the early aileron to the later variety, and adding control horns. Some of these got bent while positioning the model above the base magnet (3 power dives before success), and the smaller bits like handling hoops and pilots step fell off, or would have if I'd have bothered to make them. Didn't even reposition the control surfaces. Markings are from Blue Rider, paint is Humbrol and Mr Kit, and this was about 4 hours pleasant distraction from normal modelling. Today's 'oh, I just noticed' goes likje this. Oh, I just noticed that I got the turquoise/streaky olive demarcation too far back on the fuselage, which explains why the decals seemed a bit too large. I may be slow, but I get there in the end. The decals, BTW, worked very well.


Fokker E.III

Kit: Eduard (1:72)

Eduard's exceellent 1/72nd Fokker E.III, Profipack version, OOB except I replaced the m/g with another Eduard item. The markings are for LF 196, flown by Leutnant zur See Gotthard Sazchsenburg, German Navy, Spring of 1916. I chose that one because I wanted to try out the PE spoked wheels. Last build of 2008.


Phönix D.I and Fokker Dr.1

Kit: Roden (1:72)

The Fokker Dr.1 is the Roden kit, and my first attempt at a streaky finish. The Phoenix is the Sierra vac, finished as a D.I. Rigging is nylon monofilament.


Fokker D.VII early Fokker built

Kit: Roden (1:48)

One of Bruno Loerzer's mounts, more or less OOB. Getting the engine fitted and lined up required some care, as with fettling the struts, but on the whole this went a lot better than I'd been lead to expect. For once I used the kit lozenge. The top surface aren't so bad, the lower a little lurid, but with the rest being so stripey this offset it a bit. These decals were fragile and somewhat unresponsive to setting solutions, but eventually gave up and settled in okay.


Fokker D.VII OAW built

Kit: Eduard (1:48)

So, Eduard's effort. Nice pre-painted PE instrument panel, unfortunately for an Albatros built example I think, but OTOH there was a nice plastic one that I used instead. Done up OOB as Franz Buchner's machine from Jasta 13, the kit built up very quickly and without trouble, except it lacks a lot of the detail the Roden kit has. OTOH there's more finesse. I used the lozenge supplied for the inside but IMHO it's not useful for much else. The big bits I covered with Blue Max lozenge, carefully applied in the wrong pattern. Not sure what I was thinking at the time. I forgot to add a strap for the annemometer on the interplane strut so it looks like it's glued on. Which it is. Oh well, I'll add it later. I've heard that the tail of this machine should be the same uncertain shade of blue as the fuselage, but since Buchner used several I've chosen to beleive Eduard.


Fokker Funfdecker.

Kit: Revell (1:?)

After the Armistice, the occupying forces found several interesting secret projects they had not suspected. One of these was the Fokker Funfdecker, one example of which was built and tested, but apparantly never flown in combat. It was discovered by chance in a pile of leaves by Major 'Mad' Harrold Harrald while looking for hibernating hedgehogs, something of a hobby of his. Before he was relieved of his command, he had gained quite a reputation for dressing up and flying around the local villages, shouting "Imperial German Air Service 1919" at the top of his lungs, 2 hours before daybreak, every day. Sundays included. The model represents the Major and his mount just a few seconds after strenuous aerobatics caused the loss of the squadron mascot, Snotgurgle the aardvark, while flying over Mons. The ultimate fate of the Funfdecker is not known.


Fokker DVII

Kit: Revell/Monogram/Aurora (1:48)

This is the Fokker DVII of Rudolf Stark, commander of Jasta 35b. It's meant to represent the final form of the paint job as profiled by Ray Rimell in the 2nd Datafile special. I used an Eagle Strike decal set for the main markings, and Pegasus lozenge. This was supposed to be a quick build, started 18 months ago, to fill the DVII shaped gap on my 1/48th shelf. But. I used the Revell reissue of the Monogram reissue of the ancient Aurora kit. Since the 'plane was a mid-production OAW built machine, a lot of resculpting and plasticarding was needed. I used a Tom's modelworks seat and belt set, a couple of resin Spandau stocks found in the spares box, some Eduard fretted jackets,a spare Eduard Mercedes engine, and a lot of fiddly bits of wire, plastic, and mesh. I should have replaced the struts and wheels, but ..... The top wing was reprofiled according to the recipe on the Jager website. Fun! The lavender colour I used is too purple, I guess. Rats.


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