Roden 1/32nd Fokker D.VI
|
 |
Following on the heels of its first WW-I model in 1:32nd scale, Roden
has released a bit of an unknown, the Fokker D.VI stopgap fighter between
the Dr.I and the D.VII.
The Fokker D.VI
Boy this is going to be short!
The German Imperial Military held an open competition in January 1918
for new fighters to equip the frontline forces. We all know the main winner
of that competition was the Fokker D.VII (IM reviews: here
and here)
However, there was also a backup winner,the little Fokker D.VI, something
that is clearly the combination of the Dr.I triplane and the D.VII biplane.
 Because
of the heavy emphasis on D.VII production, only 59 of the D.VI airframes
were ever finished. Eight of them went to Austrian forces for testing,
and the remainder served in home defense Jastas. The quick starting rotary
engines were an advantage when the goal was to get in the air quickly
and intercept the incoming enemy. By the end of the war most of them were
found in fighter training schools.
The Kit
Roden kit number 603, Roden continues its road to producing high quality
WW-I model airplanes. The box art represents the most famous of the 60
D.VI aircraft built “Fratz” flown by Ltn. Kurt Seit while
flying in Jasta 80b in the summer of 1918. Other markings are for relatively
stock airplanes. All three sets of markings have enough lozenge to cover
the outside of the plane and late-war 'Balken Crosses'.
Please note that the two separate lozenge sheets are shown split and
combined to compare top and bottom colors.
Parts and Pieces
Since the D.VI was a derivative of the Dr.I, it was only logical that
Roden should put the tooling of the Dr.I to a little more use. (see IM
here
and here)
The kit comes with six light brown/khaki, very nicely done sprues, five
of which are virtually identical to Roden Kit number 601 the Dr.I. This
includes the holdover of the alternate horizontal stabilizer and elevator
for the F.I aircraft. Other options are a pair of machine guns that are
molded to accept a PE cooling jacket, but this version of the kit omits
PE entirely. There is also a choice of two different propellers. The engine
alone consists of 16 parts, featuring each cylinder head molded as a separate
part.
Again, like the Dr.I, there is an extensive amount of detail for the
interior representing the fuselage structural tubing and all of its visible
parts. My first personal disappointment is that the inside f uselage
has two huge ejector towers on each side, one of which is exactly in line
with the cockpit opening. There has been some rework of the other kit,
because the fuselage now has locators indicating were to drill the new
holes to receive the cabane struts for the D.VI upper wing.
The two smaller sprues that contained the struts for the Dr.I have been
reworked and now hold the N struts for the biplane.
A completely new sprue is provided with both halves of the upper wing
and the top half of the lower wing. The rest of the lower wing is found
on the sprue that held the corresponding part for the Dr.I.
One of the complaints against the Dr.I kit was that there was only one
feeder pipe into the fuel tank, and you had to work at getting it to match
up with a hole in the upper cowling. Roden has corrected this and both
filler caps are now simply molded into the top of the cowling.
Some Concerns
 Because
I don’t have the ability to design and produce an injected molded
model kit, I refrain from making negative comments about any product,
unless, of course, the kit just can’t be assembled. And since this
isn’t the build thread, that’s not the problem here. My discomfort
stems from Roden taking a short cut in producing this kit. Specifically,
the Fokker D.VI was a new design incorporating many of the features of
the Dr.I and the D.VII, but it was not a simple Dr.I biplane. Most of
my published references, including an online source, indicate that the
D.VI was around 18 inches (0.48 meter) longer than the Dr.I. In this case
Roden has just used the Dr.I fuselage, and their instructions reflect
that they believe the two airplanes are the same length. Then, again I
have no idea what they were using for a source of data. My sources also
indicate that the landing gear fairing was wider, giving the D.VI a little
more stability on the ground. But if you’re the type of modeler
that only needs the kit to be a good representation of the full scale
subject, this won’t be a problem for you.
Since there are complete new wing assemblies, the misnumbered wingtips
of the Dr.I are not a problem here.
Roden also doesn’t address the issue that the lozenge fabric should
be showing in mirror image in the fuselage.
And the mysterious depression in the top of the horizontal stabilizer
from the Dr.I is also present on this kit.
Again all of these complaints are extremely minor and can be easily
rectified.
And the Good News!
We have another good looking 1:32 Fokker subject for the WW-I kit collection.
It's a good kit, looking to be much easier to build than most WW-I topics.
The details are great and there are no starving cows on the fabric wings.
There has been much, too much, controversy on exactly how doped fabric
should look like on open framed wooden wing. Once again, in this case,
I think Roden got it just right!
Again I'd like to thank Roden,
I.M. and Matt Bittner for the opportunity to do this review and build. |
|
