Roden 1/32 Fokker F.I
The First of the Multi-winged Fokkers
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Introduction
Last year, Roden filled a long too empty void in the plastic modeling
world with the release of an absolutely beautiful Fokker
Dr-I in 1:32 scale. This was followed by a rather rare subject, the
Fokker
D-VI, also in 1:32 scale. This year, they resume this tradition by
issuing the three Fokker F-I prototypes in 1:32.
The Fokker F.I
A compressed history: in 1917, the German pilots had started to encounter
a new 3-winged English Sopwith Pup. This triplane was out turning the
best of the German Albatros fighters, and subsequently shooting more of
them down! A call went out to the German aviation manufacturers to develop
their own Triplane to counter this new English threat. (The famous “let’s
build one to counter theirs” military plan that continues to this
day.) Several of the designers followed Sopwith’s lead and simply
slapped 3 wings on an existing biplane fuselage. But Fokker and his company
went in a different direction and started with a clean sheet of paper.
(Sound of a foot stomping on the floor, as in, pay attention -- this is
important!) He chose a radically new approach for the new wing, a very
fat, relatively short span, internally braced wing that eliminated the
need for drag-producing flying wires. This was the cantilevered wing --
the wing design we consider “normal” to this day. The driver
behind the concept was that if you keep the wingspan short enough, you
keep the bending loads low, and you no longer need flying wires. But with
a short wing, you still have to have enough surface area to fly on, so
add more wings! The result was a stubby little 3-winged prototype called
the Fokker V.4. Fokker had so much faith in the cantilever design that
there weren’t even struts between the wings. That quickly changed
because the wings flexing in opposite directions actually did cause too
much stress….ON THE TEST PILOTS! In the end, the little fighter
went through several identifiers before it was accepted. First it was
a production version prototype, the V.5. Then for a short while, the Fokker
VI. Lastly it was accepted as the Fokker F.I. BUT there were only three
of these pre-production aircraft; F.I 101/17, F.I 102/17 and F.I 103/17.
These are the subject of this kit. F101/17 was retained by Fokker for
testing at the factory. The latter two aircraft went off to the front
for combat evaluation. F. I 103/17 went to Jasta 10 on 21 August 1917,
and became the personal mount of Werner Voss. He lost his life on 23 September
1917 (just 33 days later), while single-handedly taking on no fewer than
seven RAF SE-5 aircraft in this same aircraft. F. I 102/17 went to Jasta
11 on 21 August 1917, and became the personal mount of Hauptman Manfred
Freiherr von Richthofen. Fortunately for the Baron, the aircraft was being
flown by Ltn Kurt Wolff, who was shot down on 15 September 1917 (just
25 days later). Not a very auspicious start.
Several minor changes in the production line again changed the official
designation to Dr-I, the obvious contraction for the German Dreidecker,
or three-winged aircraft. The noticeable changes on the Dr-I was the elimination
of a gentle curve in the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, enlarging
of the counter balances on the elevator, and adding axe handles to the
bottom of the lower wings to act as skids, minimizing damage to the wing
in the event of dragging a wingtip.
A Google search for Fokker F-I/Dr-I will give dozens of excellent sites
dedicated to the history and preservation of this aircraft. One of my
favorites is here.
The Kit
 In
Roden kit number 605, Roden continues its road to producing high quality
WW-I model airplanes. As shown above, the box art represents Werner Voss’
F. I 103/17, an aircraft that is mostly streaked olive green, with the
well known “face” on the front of the engine cowl. The decals
are for the markings of this airplane and the other two F.I’s; F.
I 101/17 in Fokker factory finish with white cowling and wheel discs,
and F. I 102/17 bears the well known red trim and marking of the first
triplane flown by Hauptman Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen.
Parts and Pieces
 In
what may not be much of a surprise, this kit is virtually identical to
the Fokker Dr-I kit, but there is one minor change that I can see. Like
the Dr-I, the kit comes with seven light brown/khaki, very nicely done
sprues holding a total of 100 (my count on the sprue) parts. Included
in this parts count are the alternate horizontal stabilizer and elevator
for the F.I versions of the aircraft. These stabs also have the mysterious
depression in the center bay as found on the previous two Fokker 1:32
kits.
 Other
options are a pair of machine guns that are molded to accept a PE cooling
jacket, but as with the previous Fokker kits, this 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.
 There
is an extensive amount of detail for the interior representing the fuselage
structural tubing and all of visible parts. Again like the Dr-I kit, the
inside fuselage has two huge ejector towers on each side, one of which,
is exactly in line with the cockpit opening.
And like the Dr-I kit, the side fairing from the firewall back to the
cockpit opening in the fuselage were fairly large, very prominent, triangular
shaped plywood skins trapped between the steel framing and the fabric
skin. Roden has chosen not to mold these into the fuselage.
Corrected Problems
 In
the Dr-I kit, there was some mis-numbering between the parts and the plans
with respect to the upper-wing tips, and the mid-and lower-wing tips.
This has been corrected in this kit. Also many folks were very vocal about
the lack of detail on the engine cowling in the Dr-I and D-VI kits. Roden
has reworked the cowl to show the two-piece built up look of the original
aircraft.
Continuing Problems
I
still disagree with some of the color callouts that Roden specifies in
the instructions. In this case, they call for OD green on the sides and
upper surface in the interior of the fuselage, and wood for the bottom
panels. In my opinion, the whole should be a linen color. The bottom of
the F.I was just fabric covering over the tube frame. All of the fabric
received several coats of clear dope to taughten it to a drum-tight finish.
Then the OD streaky paint was applied. The clear dope would have prevented
the colored dope from staining the inside surface so it would have remained
linen colored.
  And
as I first noticed on the D-VI kit, there are a couple of rather deep
sinkholes at the hub end of both of the propellers.
A new issue unique to this kit is that Roden shows using the correct
rounded F.I horizontal stabilizer and smaller elevator for two of the
three airplanes. However, they call out the later straight edged Dr-I
stabilizer assembly for Voss’ F.I 103/17. My photo references tend
to indicate (in other words, I’m not absolutely sure) that the rounded
unit should be used on all three airplanes. Also those same photo’s
indicate Voss’ machine should have virtually no green streaking
aft of the cockpit. But check your own references.
Again all of these complaints are extremely minor and can be easily
rectified.
The COWL Issue!
One last thing, if you are new to WW-I modeling, you may not be familiar
with the controversy over the color of the cowl on Werner Voss’
aircraft. Many folks follow their impressions from the photographs taken
nearly on the last day of the aircrafts’ existence and paint the
cowl a dark OD green to match the rest of the Fokker factory finish. This
also lets the white painted “face” stand out clearly. Other
folks follow an interview from Voss’ crew chief, a Mr. Timm, who
stated that before that last fateful flight, the airplane had been painted
in Jasta 10 colors of bright yellow. So the cowling, wheel covers and
tail plane could have been yellow. The controversy stems from the nature
of the B&W film at the time makes the yellow have the same gray tone
shade as the green. Hmm…one more reason to buy more of these to
paint them up in both versions!
And the Good News Continues!
Now we have a 1:32 Fokker F.I to fill in the beginning of the Fokker
triplane history. And, if you cannot find the Dr-I version of this kit
to use those aftermarket decals on, then this kit will build a nice Dr-I
too. Like its two older brother kits, it's a good kit, which should 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 just how doped fabric should look like on open framed
wooden wing. In this case, I think Roden got it just right!
Conclusion
Again I'd like to thank Roden,
I.M. and Matt Bittner for the opportunity to do this review and build.
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