I saw Revell has a few WW1 aircraft kits in 1/72 or 1/48, also my LHS has a pretty extensive collection on display from a local builder. I’ve been interested in building some aircraft of this era for awhile and infact designed and built a couple of wooden planes (SE5 & DR1) for my son a few years ago. Seeing that a large company is doing some kits it got me in the mood to build some that were a little more accurate than these.
So I have a couple of questions, besides Revell are there other kit makers I might try searching for? Is there a prefered scale as far as availablity? 1/72 is nice for the storage angle but as these aircraft are pretty small anyway 1/48 shouldn’t be a problem there either. Basically I’m more interested in having a wide selection of aircraft in the same or at least similar scale.
At a minimum I’d like to do the basic fighters Fokker DVII, DR1, Albatros D-III, D-Va, Sopwith Camel, Triplane, S.E.5, Spad VII, XIII, Nieuport 11 etc
I’m not well schoolled (sp?) in WW1 planes but I have built a couple because I, too, had the itch to build some not too long ago. Check out Roden’s offering. They make a whole slew of them in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. Their quality is wonderful in terms of detailing. The engines, even in 1/72 scale, are real jewels. They are NOT shake and bake kits but they still go together nicely. I think many people (including myself) have run into the issue of poor decal quality. On the sheet, they look great. But when I cut mine out and dipped them in water several things became apparent: 1) I was lucky if the decal came off the sheet. 2) Their decals, for me anyway, were more like the old onion paper used for typing. Remember that stuff? It did not react AT ALL to MicroSol. If there was a tiny bump of some sort (eg, a hinge or some other such item) that the decal had to go over, rather than snuggling down over it, it more like formed a tent over it. I ended up getting aftermarket decals. Other than that, I would not hesitate to go with a Roden kit again. I’d just make sure I had aftermarket decals for it.
Eduard had some nice 1/72 WWI aircraft of several types; I have their Fokker triplane partially built, and it went together nicely. Revell Germany released a newly tooled DR I a while back that is a great improvement over the old 1960’s kit. I think I got it from Internet Hobbies, because Squadron never carried it.
Aaron,
I’ve heard Roden makes huge range of WWI planes…and I’ve heard they’re often a “challenge” to build…some Roden kits were pretty good, but some were just awful.
If you want extremely well made kits of WWII subjects, have a look for Eduard kits…mate, they’re fantastic.
Beautiful molds (puts Tamiya to shame - and I think Tamiya is about the best of the best) - excellent detail, stunningly printed decals, great options…have a look at:
Roden & Eduard do WW1 a/c kits covering most if not all of what you listed - & pretty much identical in subject matter between the 2. The Roden kits are a good, cheaper entry level to bi/tri-planes. If you want to go the whole hog, look around for Eduard’s ProfiPack kits. You get all the p/e goodies, like etched jackets for the mg’s.
go to hobbylinc.com they have some 1/32 scale WWI aircraft and 1/72 scale for under $4.00 and try oldmodelkits i saw them is 1/72 scale and up happy hunting
For WWI aviation kit subjects in common scales , along with Roden and Eduard there is Special Hobby, Aerobase, Hobby Planet Aeroclub, Hi-Tech, Gavia, Sierra, Lone Star, Copper State Models, Tom’s Modelworks, Airfix and Revell GmbH (Germany.)
For wood based kit (that are pretty sophisticated) try Model Expo. They advertise with Finescale at times. There are websites for most of the manufacturers listed here.
