Santa dropped this 1/32 oddity on me last week, and I’m going to do a quick and (hopefully not too) dirty, mostly OOB, on it. But the revelation for me, not being familiar with this type, is that it is merely another example of Roden’s ongoing tendency to stretch their molds until the poor things cry out for mercy (we now have a THIRD version of their OV-10, a D model, which is virtually the same as the last one, the OV-10B variant). As I’ve just learned, in 1:1, as in the kit, the D.VI was basically a Dr.I with two wings instead of three, or a D.VIII with two wings instead of one.
Tom’s Modelworks, who kindly supplied me with their two newest PE frets, including one for the Dr.I, hurriedly added “For Roden Dr.I/D.VI” on the Dr.I package label, but obviously didn’t get around to putting it on the fret itself before Roden sprung this oddball on us. And it’s good they told us it fits the D.VI. It fits it so well that even the part numbers the Tom’s PE parts replace on the Dr. I are the same part and sprue numbers for the D.VI kit. Why? Because both kits share all parts but the wing sprues. That’s also why the wing tips are molded separately, because they are different for both planes.
(The other new PE fret from Tom’s, which reopens on 9/10 BTW, is a generic fret with very nice parts for most single-engine WW II US Navy types. There’s even a 1/32 pair of pilot’s sunglasses included on the fret!)
This is not the complaint it sounds like. I’m looking forward to doing something straightforward and am in no way under pressure for a change. I think the toughest , or maybe the easiest, aspect of building this D.VI is that all of the 60 machines built (none is ever recorded as having fired a shot in anger) were delivered in 100 percent lozenge fabric, and very few had much paint on them beyond the wheels and cowling. The schemes, three of them, are two plain lozenge machines and one with some decoration and the moustachioed face on the cowling, a la the Dr. I’s.
The kit a also includes about 100 square inches of lozenge decal. The bad part? You are expected to cut your own rib tapes from a big square of lozenge decal. I think that’s a bit much to ask on a $40 all-injection kit (and I don’t know if it’s accurate, either).
For those who like the big bipes, at least the D.VI is a departure from the Neiuports, Spads and Camels. And the Fokker Tripes,
TOM