1/72 Revell Fokker Dr.I ‘425/17’

Gallery Article by Orlando Sucre Rosales on Apr 21 2013

Red Baron Manfred von Richtofen shot down on Apr 21 1918)

 

 

Hello, fellow modelers!

Another Red Baron’s Fokker triplane scale model? Well, this April the 21st is the 95th anniversary of the death of Manfred von Richthofen, the top scoring ace of the first world war, and I thought it’s a good date to remember both the man and his last airplane. The man needs no introduction, with 80 confirmed kills he earned fame and glory on Earth but also surely won a VIP pass right to a place God has specially reserved for the souls of those who failed to obey the fifth commandment. 

Speaking of the machine, the Fokker Dr.I wasn’t the best fighter of its days, but in the hands of skilled pilots it was a formidable fighter.  The old tooled 1-72 scale Revell kit, with its exaggerated “fabric” surfaces, a sparse cockpit and many fit and assembly problems, isn’t the best representation of this famous fighter either, but at least the decals had good quality (although the tail crosses were oversized,) and the plastic exhibited very little flash, taking into account the age of the molds.  I bought the kit simply because it was cheap and had decals for Richthofen’s last machine.

 

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During its duty under Richthofen’s hands, Fokker Dr.I ‘425/17’ had two paint schemes (obviously the “Red Baron” found his death while flying with the second scheme.)  The first scheme was overall red, with early style malta crosses, and is one of the subjects of the newly tooled Revell kit in 1-72 scale.  Regarding to the second scheme, the references agree in that the rudder was white and that the airplane had the late style simplified crosses.  However, some references state that the undersurfaces were turquoise blue while others leave them red, and some references (including Revell old kit’s instructions) state that the wheel rims were white while others leave them red. Some profiles even show the cowling in what seems to be a dark metallic color.  There is also controversy around what red was used in both paint schemes.

I decided to leave the undersurfaces, the wheel rims and the cowling red, as on one hand many of the profiles I could find agree at this point, and on the other hand it seems very unlikely (IMHO) that the already red undersurfaces were overpainted with light blue. With regard to which red to use, instead of using Scarlet Red as many modelers have done, I used some sort of Blood Red (a mix of 11 parts Hu 19 Bright Red + 1 part Hu 177 Hull Red, topped with a coat of semi-matt varnish) in order to reproduce the red from a colorized photograph of the Fokker Dr.I ‘425/17’ in the earlier paint scheme that I found in the Internet.  This color seems also to match very well the one suggested as “the true color” in a forum on www.theaerodrome.com.

I finished the model and this article the same day, the Easter Sunday of 2013. It was an “out of the box” build, I just cut the pin-head-like ends of the wheel axes, as they made the aircraft look more like a toy than a scale model, and also made the wheels rotate as if the airplane was like a drunk man! 

I hope you’ve enjoyed the model, which I built for my daughter Estefanía.  She likes the Fokker triplane very much, as other WW1 fighters as well, specially the German colorful ones.  Greetings from Caracas, home of the beautiful and colorful Church of La Virgen de Coromoto, Holy Patroness of Venezuela. 

Orlando Sucre Rosales

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Photos and text © by Orlando Sucre Rosales