Eduard Flyboys 1:72 Fokker Dr.I
Kit number 2103
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Introduction
It is a little awkward attempting a review of a re-issued kit. The main
problem is whether I cover old ground and do what others have done or
just cover the new ground? Well, since the deadline is short, we’ll
just look at the new ground.
Reason for the re-issue
For those of us who have a fascination with the Great War, World War
One, the war to end all wars, there was great rejoicing and excitement
over an announcement a couple of years ago that there’d be a new,
big-budget movie about WW-I aircraft, featuring real replica aircraft
and it would be directed by a major industry director. That movie became
“FLYBOYS,” a story
based on the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, American airmen who volunteered
to fly with the French air forces. Then the movie premiered with great
fan fare at the EAA AirVenture in July of 2006…(sound of crickets
chirping followed by unending silence..)
This silence was shattered by the cacophony of complaints that resounded
as loudly as an offensive artillery barrage on the Western Front in 1917.
Far too many all-knowing self proclaimed critics (each a card-carrying
founding life-member of the colo(u)r police) blasted each and every scene
and event with intense nit picking detail specifying just how far the
film deviated from historical accuracy.
Some, but not all of the complaints addressed: The Americans never fought
against Germans who were equipped with Fokker Dr.Is. There was no such
thing as a Black American pilot (just to show you how much these critics
knew, this character WAS the most accurately portrayed individual in the
whole film). The CGI airplanes had F-16-like unlimited high-speed vertical
performance. French pilots flying English airplanes, and the most egregious
complaint all of the Germans were flying RED TRIPLANES! The producers
did try to defend that decision, stating that it would be easier for most
film goers to follow the action if the good guys flew only silver biplanes
and the bad guys only flew red triplanes, and the REALLY bad guy flew
a BLACK triplane.
In the final analysis FLYBOYS is what it is, just like the benchmark
movies that came before it; WINGS, HELL’S ANGELS, THE BLUE MAX,
VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN, FLYBOYS is a MOVIE that dramatizes the lives
and loves of the pilots in the Great War. Instead of nitpicking, GO and
have FUN watching it, and like the good old days, root for the good guys!
FLYBOYS also learned the lessons of Hollywood and there is an entire
line of aftermarket items for sale. Fortunately for model builders, Eduard
of Czechoslovakia has boxed up a series of models representing the planes
in the movie. First out is a NEW 1:72 scale Nieuport-17, details of which
maybe found elsewhere here on IM and at Eduard’s
home web page. The second product is the subject of this review, a
re-issue of their 1:72 Fokker Dr-I as kit number 2103 with markings of
the Dr.Is in FLYBOYS. My first surprise with this kit was its size. For
the last couple of years I’ve been doing only 1:48, and more recently
1:32 scale WW-I aircraft for IM reviews. When I opened the 12-inch by
8-inch box, my first thought was that Eduard had sent an empty box! After
a closer look I found it, sealed in a zip lock bag, a single petite Fokker
Dr.I hiding in the corner of a box that’s big enough to easily hold
eight of these kits. A look at the plans and moldings lead me to the same
conclusions Bob Pearson made in the October
2000 IM.
The ‘”NEW” features of this kit are the decals and
painting instructions for the two principle versions of the German airplanes
in FLYBOYS. Virtually all of the German Jasta members flew identically
marked RED Dr.Is.
Their EVIL (evil in the true HOLLYWOOD tradition of shoot the good guy
in the back when he’s down kinda evil) Jasta Leader flew the sole
all BLACK triplane:
So we have a choice of one of the bad guys or the baddest of the bad guys.
Ironically the one Dr-I replica used in filming the flying sequence
for the movie routinely changed color from red to black and back again
with the application and removal of water soluble paint. In a way the
kit comes close to representing this real plane.
I’m looking forward to a quick fun build with this little jewel.
Thanks to Eduard, Flyboys, IM and Matt Bittner for the opportunity to
do this review.
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