Airfix 1/72 Fokker Dr.I

  As a recent newcomer to the DR1 stage, I was surprised how quickly my interests were awakened by this lovely little plane. In truth I’d always been bored by the bright red commonality of the Barons machine. So when I did finally come to make one of these, a small image search revealed a wealth of colourful versions.

 I still don’t know enough about them to pen a history as such, I’ll leave that to the experts. But I do hope to show how this tiny little kit can be adapted to become a wealth of fascinating versions, using only the kit and decals provided.

 OK, as I said this particular moulding is from the “90 years of fighters” box set. This is a good value set including 7 kits, and 11 enamel paints, which  with a price of £15 - £25 is a bargain!

 The large box has a big picture of the Barons Dr1 in its all red scheme. It’s a good start for reference material, well painted and detailed.

The kit comes with just 24 pieces and is moulded in grey plastic. Moulding Is reasonable, and it can build into a tidy looking model.

 A simple kit with clear instructions, which include paint numbers for small parts, (although no colour names are used, which isn’t so helpful).

 Assembly starts with the fuselge, this comes in two halves . There is no interior detailing apart from the pilot, and you can use him to cover this shortfall. On later reviews I hope to do some detailing to bring this kit up to scratch. On this kit I have left the pilot out. The two halves go together well, and need just a little sanding to smooth out the join mark.

 Wings are next up, and the plans include the correct degree of forward slope. However the wings fit reasonably well, and there is no give anyway. The only part to watch is where the bottom wing attaches to the fuselage, as it always seems to be at an off angle, and not the 45 degrees it should be. This may require the fuselage gap to be widened, and  then filled and sanded over.

 The engine cowing comes with the rotary engine moulded in. The propeller is a little flimsy but it all slots into  place reasonably well. You may need to remove part of the fuselage guide to attain the correct position for the engine assembly.  A dry run on these parts is recommended. The tailplane comes in a single piece, and again care must be taken to attain correct alignment in relation to the fuselage. Lastly the wheels are added with minimal fuss, although care again must be taken as it is easy to place the struts the wrong way round, or on the wrong sides. Resting the model on its back will allow setting of these delicate parts.

 Confusingly this kit comes with artwork depicting a red plane, with black crosses on a white square. But the instructions depict a version  with black crosses in white outline only, and no white square? Possibly both of these are correct, and the only difference is the time period for these versions.

 For this kit I have depicted a green and red version of the Barons plane, using only the given decals, and using web images as a guide. The colours are Humbrol enamels, red (174) and green (117) for the upper fuselage and light blue (65) for the undersides. I have used the dark green mixed with a light brown for the fuselage streaking, which was heavily thinned. The upper wing has been dry brushed with a little beige, as have some of the raised parts and edges of the fuselage.  

In this package it is a cheap kit, and with a little research the versions that can be built are many. The kit is reasonable and a good starting point, especially if you want to experiment with different schemes.

No bluffing here,  just use a google image search, the resulting images and links are superb.

David Carley

November 2007

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