A friend from
Austria visited us here in Abu Dhabi recently. She brought me two
Revell kits her husband had picked out, knowing that my hobby was building
model airplanes. He also generously included the appropriate Revell
paint tins described on the boxes. His only concern was that the
boxes said they were skill levels 4 and 5 and he was not sure what level I
was.
My main modeling
interest recently has been World War I, and one of the kits was the Revell
reboxing of the superb Eduard 1/48 Fokker Dr.I triplane. This kit is
molded in red plastic making it look great, even without painting, to
represent the Baron von Richtofen’s red triplane. As it happens, I
had already built the Eduard kit and decorated it for the Baron’s
aircraft. However, the other marking option in the Revell kit was
for Ludwig Beckmann, whose Jasta 6 triplane had the more normal streaked
camouflage fabric covering. I had never tried the streaked
camouflage before and thought this might be an opportunity to attempt it.
Revell skill level 4? Why not ... I’ll go for it!
Ludwig “Lutz”
Beckmann briefly served with Jasta 6 where he added the red and white
colors of his native Westphalia on top of a previous white lightning bolt
on the fuselage of this Dr.I triplane. He also served in Jasta
48 before joining Jasta 56 where he scored his eight victories of World
War I. He eventually became the commander of this unit and also
served in the Luftwaffe in World War II.
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images below to see larger images
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I have been told
there is nothing more difficult than building a model from red plastic if
you don’t want to decorate it red. This was almost 60 years ago
and at that time the modeler was referring to the colorful early Aurora
kits: yellow Zero, light blue P-38, and red Messerschmitt. I
found this to still be very true … red keeps peeking through any
scratch, chip, or thin paint. Well, I wanted a challenge.
After considering various ways to represent the streaked canvas, I instead
ordered a set of streaked camouflage factory markings for the Dr.I made by
MicroSculpt and Hannants got them to me in about a week.
I started by
spraying everything with a light grey for undercoat. I mostly used
the Revell paints, applied in several very light coats by airbrush,
allowing for drying in between coats. Whenever I would glue a part I
needed to scrape the paint, exposing the bright red plastic.
I added a few
details to the cockpit similar to my previous Eduard Profipack version of
the triplane such as seatbelts and instruments, but I used the kit guns as
is, painting them gun metal, applying a thin black wash, and then dry
brushing with steel. They turned out great. I finished the
engine in a similar fashion. The propeller and other parts
representing wood were painted tan with acrylic and then streaked with a
thin mixture of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and raw umber oil paints and
left to dry for over a week before being covered with Future floor wax.
I mixed the pale
blue for the underside and painted the upper areas with a light khaki.
This was with the intention that any chipped striped decals would simply
show the khaki. Wrong! After applying Micro Sol decal setting
solution, the striped decals dried like paint, incredibly thin and
completely opaque, and any chipping went all the way to red. The
tail section was painted white, and then rather than using the kit decals,
I masked for the black stripes. I seldom use black because of scale
effect (except for repairing decals) and opted for a very dark grey
instead for the Jasta 6 cowling and striped tail section.
The MicroSculpt
streaked decals are simply amazing. There are generous spare amounts
included which were very helpful as I was mastering them. I started with
the three upper wing surfaces and ailerons, then did the top of the
fuselage, and finally the fuselage sides, matching the streaked directions
with documentation photos from various reference books.
For the rigging,
which on the Fokker Dr.I is mainly just the control wires, I use 8X tippet
(monofilament plastic thread used by fishermen for tying flies).
I first clean the thread with alcohol and then paint with thin coats of
flat aluminum enamel, giving it a subtle texture. Painted, the
“wires” are about 0.08 mm (.003 inches) thick, which for 1/48
represents well less than a quarter inch full size. They easily fit
into holes drilled with a No. 80 bit in a pin vise. A tiny drop of
thin superglue will then keep them fast.
After applying the
excellent kit decals, letting them dry overnight before washing the film
off with water, I went over the entire model as carefully as possible
finding the places that red plastic showed through to touch up with paint.
I may not have gotten all of them yet, but I'm getting there. I
finally sprayed a light coat of Micro Flat clear acrylic finish. I
had finished the red triplane with a satin finish, but I think it looks
too shiny. The flat finish makes all the markings look as if they
are painted on.
I created and printed a card
similar to the rest of my growing World War I collection and am quite
pleased with how it turned out.
Now, to see if I’m up for
the skill level 5 Revell PV-1 Ventura …
Corbett Legg
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images below to see larger images
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