Eduard

1/72 Fokker Dr.I "Weekend Edition"

Kit Number: 7405

Reviewed by  Mike Hinderliter, IPMS# 45124

MSRP: $14.95 Website: www.eduard.cz Catalog listing: History When the Sopwith Triplane came out in February 1917 it was found to be superior to the Albatros fighters Germany was using at that time. Germany's answer to this was the Fokker Dr.I. It was exceptionally maneuverable due to its directional instability making it able to turn rapidly. The Kit This is one of Eduard's Weekend Edition kits. I really enjoy these kits because they don't have all of the extras such as PE and masks. It's just an overall basic kit that is a good representation of the subject at a very reasonable price. This box contains one sprue of tan colored parts consisting of 38 parts. The parts are nicely molded with very little flash. There is only one color option, which is another mark of the weekend kit, but you can make it into another machine using decals from another kit or after market decals. I built mine using the included markings. They are for Lothar von Richthofen ( Jasta 11, 1918 ) the younger brother of Manfred. The instructions are very well done, complete, and easy to understand. The front page shows the sprue layout. Then there are 2 pages for the assembly and a painting diagram in black and white on the back page. It only has call outs for the Mr. Color line of paints but it's easy to compare with other brands. The Build As normal with most airplane kits you start out with the cockpit. It's rather simple and because of the scale you really can't see into it very easily. I painted the seat in Tamiya red brown and the walls of the fuselage in wood brown and tan. The ring around the cockpit was painted in Model Master ® leather. On most of my other Dr.I models I found that I like to paint most of the parts on the sprues. The only ones I painted after assembly were the fuselage, which needed only a very fine line of Squadron putty. The only problem I had was when I went to cut the struts from the sprue trees. After I cut two of them out they seemed to just snap in half. I was able to put them back together again, but this can be rather annoying. I also had the same problem on an older version of the Eduard Dr.I. Others I have built didn't seem to have this problem, but their struts were thicker. Sometimes it seems that for more accurate parts they do become thinner, so be careful. I painted the fuselage, upper wings, and tail with Model Master Insignia Yellow and added a wash of "The Detailer" brown. The factory painted finish that the Dr.I came to the units with was described as dark olive streaks over a light olive or light blue surface. There is an example of this on the color chart on the side of the kit box. To do this I used a surface color of Model Master Olivgrun streaked with "Mister Kit" Fokker olive green. The underside was painted with "Mister Kit" "Fokker Torquoise". I really like to use the Mister Kit WW1 paints from Italy because they represent the colors as closely as possible and are divided up by Nation and plane type if possible. The decals went on nicely with Micro Set and I didn't need to add any Micro Sol because of how smoothly they went on. The register was right on and the National Markings fit without any hang over. Conclusion I really do enjoy these weekend kits and their build is always very straightforward. It is a great change from a complicated build; of course Eduard can help you attain that complexity with their other kits, but it is nice that they can box the same kits without all the extras. I am very happy to add this plane with my other 3 DR 1s. I highly recommend this kit. Thanks to Eduard and IPMS USA for the chance to build this model.