Revell 1/28 Fokker D.VII, previewed by Spiros Pendedekas

HISTORY

The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the Luftstreitkräfte, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft. The Armistice ending the war specifically required, as the fourth clause of the "Clauses Relating to the Western Front", that Germany was required to surrender all D.VIIs to the Allies, with surviving aircraft seeing much service with many countries in the years after World War I.

THE KIT

Revell came in the mid 90s with a brand new mold D.VII in the unusual scale of 1/28 (possibly as a “match” to their old mold Fokker Dr.I). The specific copy was discovered back in the early 00s, collecting dust in a toy/hobby shop and carrying an attractive price. It comes at the usual Revell side opening blue box, with a very attractive boxart of Lt. Franz Büchner being engaged in a dogfight with his lavishly painted Fokker.

Inside the box are 70 beige parts, arranged in four sprues bagged together. Molding is made in Korea and looks good with just a bit of flash here and there. External surface detail and texture looks realistic with good fabric representation. The main wings are two-piece upper/lower affairs, whereas the horizontal stabilizers and fin are one-piece.

Cockpit is quite well appointed, containing an instrument panel with raised detail, a seat with rear frame and molded on seat belts, stick, rudder pedals and a compass bracket. An amount of details are also molded onto the sidewalls.

A sufficient representation of the Mercedes D.III inline engine is provided, with the fuselage side panels given separately, should you decide to display it. The two Spandau machine guns are also relatively detailed and the same can be said for the landing gear.

Instructions come in the typical Revell style mini booklet form, containing a parts list, with the construction spread in 28 clear steps. Color callouts are provided in Revell codes, but also with generic names.

Only one scheme option is provided, of Lt. Franz Büchner’s D.VII, carrying a very attractive scheme of blue fuselage with green front, white fin and light blue undersides, featuring a checkered mid fuselage band and a lion’s head just aft. The wing tops carry the famous Lozenge pattern with colored straight lines following the rib configuration. The decal sheet is massive and the decals, though matt, are very well printed, including the Lozenge areas, however the sheet has yellowed due to aging and my feeling is that it might be unuseable, with the decals possibly disintegrating upon submerging to water (as it has occurred to me with many Revell decals of that era). Interestingly, the top wing straight lines are provided in blue, whereas in the box art are painted white. By netting, it came out that blue seems to be the correct color.

Instructions unusually (but, in this case, correctly), start by pre-inserting pieces of (not provided) thin thread through various holes of the fuselage and wing parts, in order to rig the model at later stages. The next 10 steps deal with cockpit and engine assembly, which are then trapped between the fuselage halves. Next is tail assembly and installation, followed by the radiator and side engine covers. The two Spandaus are subsequently assembled and attached, followed by the tail struts and rudder/elevator linkage. Next is wings assembly and attachment, followed by the landing gear and prop, concluding a construction of average complexity.

CONCLUSIONS

The kit has developed a justified reputation of having a number of inaccuracies, including the key areas of the aft fuselage area, which is too deep and wide (it is stated that the fuselage issue was due to Revell taking measures from a restored machine that had emerged from a twin seater modification) and the wing shape that has too much downward curve. Fixing the above issues might require some effort from the modeler.

Leaving inaccuracies aside, the kit is well molded and looks definitely buildable. Instructions are nice and clear, construction seems straightforward, whereas decals, though very impressive, might be unusable due to aging. The fact that no aftermarket decals seem to exist might mean that custom decals have to be sourced, or the insignia will have to be painted. Out of the box a big (if not too accurate at places) D.VII might emerge.

The kit has not been reissued since 1995, presumably due to the criticism that received, but can still be found today, though not too easily. Your other “big scale” D.VII option would be the excellent Wingnut Wings offering, which, sadly, is extremely difficult to find, due to the company’s shut down.

Happy modeling!

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KIT #:	04761
PRICE:	€22 when new
DECALS:	One option
REVIEWER:	Spiros Pendedekas
NOTES: