My thanks to Juanita Franzi for her patient and diligent efforts and to my son, Will, who has been designing the illustrative elements of Aviattic decals with me. We have quite a few "in the bag" - so stay tuned!
With the exception of its fiddly undercarriage the Eduard 1/48 kit is excellent - though not designed from the same plans as the Wingnut/Meng kits..hence many alterations have been made so that these fit perfectly.
I will not be giving repeated descriptions of each scheme - for those please search the relevant scheme's 1/24 or 1/32 cousins on the site.
Two superb builds, same scheme, same streaking decals with two approaches to the underlying gloss base colour..the decals are a starting point, the rest is up to you!
ATT48067 A (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 454/17 Ltn. Lothar von Richthofen (option A)
ATT48067 B (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 454/17 Ltn. Lothar von Richthofen (option B)
ATT48067 C (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 454/17 Ltn. Lothar von Richthofen (option C)
ATT48068 (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 470/17 Ltn. Josef Jacobs "Red Devil"
ATT48070 (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 574/17 pilot unknown, Jasta 14
Late production DR.I with smaller axle wing. The unusually proportioned national marking alterations show that not all ground crew fully understood the confusing directives from Idflieg when re-painting!
ATT48071 (Eduard) Fokker DR.I 160/17 (unconfirmed) Ltn. der Reserve Josef Schulte, Jasta 14
Ltn. der Reserve Schulte had two Dr.I's similarly painted with a wound stripe over the units vertical black and white vertical fuselage band. He crashed both and no known photographs can confirm their serial numbers.
As with many Jasta 14 triplanes, ground crew do not appear to have been in a hurry to alter the wing crosses to the straight-armed 'Balkenkreuz' style which were altered on the (easier to reach!) fuselage and rudder.
This early machine appears to have had the cowling cooling holes enlarged.
ATT48072 (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 588/17 Ltn. Hans Werner, Jasta 14
The second of two similarly painted DR.I's of Ltn. Werner. whilst under his ownership it retained the original 'Eisernes Kreuz' (Iron Cross) national markings and he had added red to the vertical fuselage bands.
Confusion over serial numbers in British capture reports has meant that positive identification is difficult - 583/17 is another possibility.
This machine was passed on to new pilot Ltn. Reinhold Preiß, who was brought down eleven days later on the 9th August 1918. By then it had the fuselage and rudder national insignia updated(partially), in line with Idflieg orders.
ATT48073 (Eduard kit) Fokker DR.I 588/17 Gefreiter Reinhold Preiß, Jasta 14
This machine was passed on to new pilot Ltn. Reinhold Preiß, who was brought down eleven days later on the 9th August 1918. he was captured alive and made a P.O.W.
By then it had the fuselage and rudder national insignia updated in line with Idflieg orders but not the wings. Ground crew had more pressing concerns in the Summer of 1918..
This late production machine appears to have had the cowling cooling holes enlarged.