It all started back in October’20 when I built the (newer) Revell Dr.1 as a change of pace. (I had just finished a BIG project- a 1/144 scale Escort Carrier (RC) with Avengers and Wildcats on deck.) The Revell kit was a nice build, but it is molded in bright red plastic. I didn’t want to fight painting over the red, so I finished it in Jacobs’ all black scheme, using the decals from the Eduard Profipack kit.
After I finished, a club mate said “Nice to see something besides the all red MvR Dr.1 - there was such a variety of colorful schemes.” That got me thinking, and now, a couple of months later, I have a total of seven Triplanes. All but the one are Eduard kits, a mix of WE and Profipack kits.
The models are build essentially OOB, with pilots added. (They will all end up in a mobile over my desk- a “Flying Circus”.). After building six of the Eduard kits, I am pretty sure I have found most of the mistakes you can make when building this kit. (I have two left to finish, so I may find a new error to make!)
Markings are a mix of Eduard and scrapbox decals, plus some were painted using masks.
One thing I am pleased with is the Fokker Streaking- it came out a lot better than it did on other builds in the past…
Some things I learned the hard way:
-
The wing struts have a top and bottom. If you put them in upside down, they fit OK on the bottom wing, but the top wing’s angle of attack will be way off (trailing edge way too low) and the cabanes won’t fit.
-
Make sure the wing struts are parallel when installed when viewed from the side. There’s a little bit of wiggle room in the middle wing’s slot- any misalignment will be magnified by a top wing that is skewed, with a leading edge that is not parallel to the other two.
-
It is easy to put the stab on upside down (twice!). It is too easy to overlook the little dimples that are for the strut braces on the bottom - that is the only difference between top and bottom. (No key or tab to align the stab with the opening in the fuselage.)
-
Pay close attention to part numbers for the landing gear struts- it is very easy to mix them up. I learned to not remove the second one from the sprue until I had glued the first one in place, on the correct side. Ditto for the cabanes.
-
I found it best to install the cabanes on the top wing first, let them set for a bit, then attach the wing to the model.
-
The stab braces are very flimsy- I broke about half of them while trying to clean up the sprue attachment. A similarly sized piece of Evergreen styrene is less brittle, and easier to handle.
-
The guns won’t fit properly unless you sand the fuselage opening part to make it a little wider.
-
If you are adding a pilot (I used the nice PJ Productions resin figures) don’t bother to install the seat.
Cool collection you have there. Post a pic when you get them all hung up.
Those came out great.
I recently picked up one of Eduard’s WE kits. I will definately reference your hard earned lessons when I get started on mine.
How did you do the streaking effect?
The markings are:
Yellow: Lothar von Richtofen, Jasta 11
Black: Josef Jacobs, Jasta 7
White: Hans Weiss, Jasta 11
Blue: Wilhelm Schwartz, Jasta 13
Lilac: Rudolf Stark, Jasta 34b
Green: Friedrich Kempf, Jasta 2 Boelcke
Red/white: August Raben, Jasta 18
I built Lothar’s plane about 4 years ago-as a testbed. I tried to do the Fokker streaking using an acrylic- it didn’t come out very well, as it dried too fast. I also had the wing markings wrong, so I fixed them while building the others. (It doesn’t look too bad if I park it in the back row!)
The streaking on the others was done by first painting an acrylic base coat (linen color). After it was dry, I brushed a MM enamel olive color over it, using a brush with short, stiff bristles. I airbrushed the color on some scrap styrene, so I could practice a. bit before doing the model(s).
The PJ Productions pilots are very nice…
Very nice collection! And thanks for posting the build tips.
Found a photo showing how I did the streaking with the enamel over an acrylic undercoat- my best results to date for 1/72 scale!
That is a really nice looking collection! Would love to see a photo of the mobile when you get them hung.
I would have a really hard time not making lots of engine and machine gun noises once that mobile was in place[:D]
Back when I used to work in an office, I had a mobile over my desk. It was 36 WW1 planes, occupying a space about 5 feet long, 3.5 feet wide, and 2.5 feet high. I loved the way the moved in the HVAC air currents. Here’s a photo 15 years ago, with about 36 aircraft. It was hard to photograph with my crappy phone camera, but you get the idea. The camera compressed the depth, so it looks more crowded thanit really was- but I later extended the main arms to spread the planes out even more…
