Manufacturer: Eduard Model Accessories, Obrince 170, 435 21 Czech Republic.
Kit: No. 7015
Scale: 1/72
Price: $14.99
Comments: Injection molded, 55 parts (20 photoetched), decals.
Pros: Excellent plastic moldings and photoetched parts, good decals, good general accuracy.
Cons: Struts too long, tailplane misshapen, decals thin and difficult to handle.
Eduard’s Fokker F.I features light beige plastic parts, a fret of beautiful photoetched details, decals, and a sheet of Eduard’s new masks for airbrush painting of the model’s national insignia.
Overall, the quality is first-rate. The plastic parts have good overall detail and no flash. The seven-step instructions are good and a trio of three-view drawings shows the color and markings choices.
The interior is mostly photoetched and it folds and fits perfectly inside the assembled fuselage. When I attached the lower and mid wings along with the interplane wing ties, the fit was good, but I needed to fill and sand around the holes for the wing ties in the middle wing.
Also, after checking my references, I found that all the struts were too long by at least .040″, so I shortened the struts on my model for a more accurate appearance.
I attached the tailplane with its braces, the tailskid, and the undercarriage (but not the wheels) before painting. Next I assembled the very well done machine guns, using the plastic receivers with the photoetched jackets and cocking handles. I found the engine shaft to be about 1/16″ too long, which didn’t allow the cowl to fit flush; a little filing fixed it in less than a minute.
Eduard’s decals are opaque and well printed, but they are very thin and tend to fold over on themselves. When they do, they are nearly impossible to fix, so be careful.
The finished model is tiny (less than 4″ in span) and once the struts were shortened, it looks right. My references include Datafile No. 5 Fokker Triplanes and Von Richtofen’s Flying Circus, both by Albatros Productions.
This is the best injection-molded rendition of the classic Fokker Triplane in 1/72 scale. I spent about 30 hours on the diminutive project, much of that on painting and decaling. The photoetched parts and tricky decals will need the attention of experienced hands.
Kevin Taylor