Feature Article with Dai Williams
A note from Geoff C…
I thought that you’d like to take a quick look at how Dai’s completed D.VII F turned out – very nicely as it happens!
Over to you Dai to see how you got on…
The Fokker D.VII appeared on the Western Front in May 1918 and proved itself to be a very capable fighter. Its status was such that the D.VII was specifically mentioned in the Armistice agreement which stated that all of these aircraft were to be handed over to the allies.
The prototype (designated V11) was flown by Manfred Von Richthofen during the fighter competition held at Aldershof in January 1918. He was originally critical of the aircraft, but after modification he praised it as the best aircraft in the competition.
Richthofen was killed before the D.VII entered front-line service and so never flew it in combat.
Following the death of Richthofen’s successor Wilhelm Reinhard, Hermann Göring took over as commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (where he was apparently highly unpopular). He was provided with a Fokker D.VII F which he flew in combat. This aircraft, the subject of this model, was painted overall in white – presumably to distinguish it from Richthofen’s famous red Fokker Dr.I.
The Kit
Eduard’s Fokker D.VII kit first appeared in 2005 and has been released in several forms over the years with parts and markings covering the different types aircraft built by Fokker, Albatros and O.A.W. I had the pleasure of building the original ‘Profipack’ release some years ago.
This kit represented a benchmark for WW1 aircraft kits at the time of its release with several sets of markings and a set of faded, weathered lozenge transfers which looked excellent. I found the kit somewhat easier to assemble than the earlier Roden offering which had transfers that needed some rather vigorous setting solutions to get them to conform to anything other than a completely flat surface.
The Eduard kits have complete fuselages for the different versions of the D.VII, rather than the different nose panels provided in the Roden kits which in my opinion made the Eduard kit slightly easier to assemble.
One of the releases in Eduard’s ‘Weekend’ series was Göring’s all-white D.VII F. Despite already having built the ‘Profipack’ version I couldn’t resist building this. I think that this was because it took me back to my mis-spent youth and the old Revell 1:72 kits with the frameable box tops which also offered the all-white DVII in its WW1 series.
The kit is actually very simple with only 101 parts (some of which are not for use being intended for other versions of the D.VII). There is only one set of markings in the kit, these being for Göring’s aircraft, but the transfer sheet is very comprehensive with stencils, instrument faces and datum lines etc. as well as the national markings.
The instructions are not the glossy colour productions seen in the ‘Profipack’ kits, but they are clear and get the job done.
