Eduard 1/48 Fokker DR.1 ProfiPACK
By Jacob Russell
The Plane
The Fokker Dr.1 triplane is one of the most famous aircraft of World War One. It was a very maneuverable aircraft and it was flown by Manfred von Richtofen, the legendary "Red Baron". The Dr.1 prototypes entered service trials in June of 1917, after which the first batch of 20 aircraft was ordered. Fokker produced a grand total of 230 of this legendary aircraft.
The Kit
The kit consists of 106 parts. This includes 80 grey plastic parts on 3 sprues, a 24 piece photo etch fret, a sheet of clear acetate plus a sheet of rice paper masks.
The plastic parts are up to Eduard's customary standards. They are finely molded, with subtle fabric detail on the control surfaces. These control surfaces feature very thin trailing edges, and all of these parts have well located sprue attachment points that will make it easy to remove the parts without damage.
The photo etch fret is a mix of pre-painted and unpainted parts. The pre-painted parts include the seat harness, machine gun cooling jackets, throttle quadrant, and several instruments. The unpainted parts include the ignition harness, gun sights, compass, etc.
The rice paper masks includes masks for the wheels, the cowling front, and stripes for the tail planes.
The decal sheet includes marking options for 6 colorful and exciting aircraft:
"425/17", flown by Rittmeister M. Freiherr von Richtofen, CO of JG 1, Cappy, France, April 1918. This plane was painted red overall with a white rudder.
"577/17", flown by Lt. R. Klimke, Jasta 27, Halluin-Ost, May 1918. This plane was originally overall light blue, which was over painted with olive streaking. The cowling, wing struts and rear fuselage were in turn over painted with yellow. The rudder was white. The upper wings were streaked olive and the lower surfaces were light blue.
"479/17", flown by Lt. A. Raben, Jasta 18, Montingen (today Montoy-Flanville), France, October 1918. This plane had a red forward fuselage and upper wings. The cowling, rear fuselage, and empennage were white. The cowl had a black band. The wing struts and lower surfaces were light blue. The upper wings originally had white underneath the national insignias and these areas were subsequently over painted with red.
"213/17", flown by Lt. Friedrich Kempf, Jasta 2, 1917. The upper surfaces were streaked olive green with light blue lower surfaces and wing struts. The cowl was black, the rudder was white. White bands were underneath the national insignias on the fuselage, upper and lower wings.
"425/17". flown by Rittmeister M. Freiherr von Richtofen, CO of JG 1, Lechelle, France, March 1918. This plane was overall red. The national insignias on the fuselage sides and rudder had thicker white outlines than those of the upper wings.
"Unknown number", flown by Lt. W. Steinhäuser, Jasta 11, Avesnes-le-Sec, France, February 1918. This plane was over painted with olive streaking with light blue lower surfaces. The cowling and wing struts were red. The rudder was white. The upper wings were also streaked olive. The horizontal stabilizers were yellow with red stripes. There was also a red band around the fuselage with a superimposed yellow 'X'.
The decal sheet is up to Eduard's usual high standards. The printing is crisp, legible, in register and the colors are bright.
Conclusion
I am a real fan of World War One aircraft and the Fokker Triplane is one of my favorite planes from that distant era. This is a first class kit. It is accurate and well detailed, the decal options are interesting, and the photo etch parts add another level of accuracy. I recommend this kit and I would like to thank Eduard for the review sample.