The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

My first completed model for 2018 is Eduard's Fokker F.I.

The markings are for an aircraft flown by commander of Jasta 10, Werner Voss in the summer of 1917. Voss, who had rapidly acquired 48 victories in the previous months, was shot down by James McCudden, while flying this particular Fokker F.I.

There is a good deal of debate on whether Voss had a yellow or green cowl. It looks yellow to me on historic photos I've seen, so thats what I went with. Plus I like having color on my display shelves.

The kit was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law, and it was a great one. Lots of fun to build and paint. There is plenty of detail in the box (this was the Weekend Edition), and the kit is generally well engineered. The only things I added were wine bottle foil seat belts, Gaspatch turnbuckles, and EZ-line rigging wires. I had a few problems with struts popping out of their locations, but I can't help but wonder if it was something I did wrong.

Painting was done with Tamiya (the light blue) and Vallejo earth green and Russian green primers. The chrome nose and wheels are Tamiya yellow and orange mixed about 7:3.

Thanks for looking.

Not that I was there to see the original, but it looks like you have the streaky green down just right.
That's a super finish, ribs and all !!

That's spot on.

Love it! Absolutely fabulous work!

Beautiful work Ralph.

That is a gorgeous Fokker, Ralph, terrific work!

That is a very nice and more than reasonably realistic washed out finish. Congrats.

Beautiful, love the stressed look on the skin.

Chris

Thanks, guys.

That is a superb model - the green streaking is fantastic and worthy of a medal as it is not at all easy to get right. Looking forward to more aeroplanes with spares wings and windmills from your worktop - especially if they look like this one.

Just a minor historical point: Voss was not shot down by J. McCudden - he was credited to A. P. I. Rhys-Davids, also of 56 Squadron. McCudden was leading the British patrol: it is thought that someone, it is not known who, may have hit Voss before Rhys-Davids put in the final burst because Voss' triplane suddenly started to fly straight and level which suggests that he had been struck already. In any event Voss had hit every one of the other 6 aircraft in 56 Squadron who were involved in the dogfight that day - he was truly a tremendous pilot. Rhys-Davids was extremely upset by the fact that he had shot Voss down and seems to have suffered some form of depression afterwards. Sadly he too was shot down and killed later in 1917.

Two thumbs up.

Very well done, Ralph!
Most convincing!

Cheers,

David

I concur with all previous comments. Excellent.

Nigel

Thank you, all.

LM. Thanks for clearing that up
Interesting bit of history.

I'm blown away with that one softscience. What a fantastic piece of model making.