This pair is finally finished.
I'm not sure I'd want to do them again so a D.III & D.IV will probably not be added to my collection! Although they started as Merlin kits, only the fuselages (very heavily modified!), the D.II cowling, and some of the white metal parts, were used, the rest is all scratchbuilt. A spare Roden engine went into the D.I, the Spandaus are Miniworld, the wheels are my own design, 3d printed by Shapeways, and the nose decals on the D.II were custom ordered from Melius Manu in Poland.
As far as the history of these aircraft goes, they were both in service at the same time, the D.II having been developed due to a shortage of the inline Mercedes engines. Both were subject to structural failures, as was the contemporary E.III, (weak welds, wing attachment bolt failure, and metal tubing that had too thin a section were the usual culprits, basically a lack of quality control in the Fokker factory) and all Fokkers were banned from front line service in December 1916. The D.I and D.II both saw service on the home front and as training aircraft, as did the D.III and D.IV (basically a D.II and D.I respectively, with more powerful engines, ailerons instead of wing-warping, and twin Spandaus).
The D.I represents 151/16, of Jagdstaffel 1, Bertincourt, France in early September 1916
The D.II represents an aircraft of Kampfeinsitzer Kommando (KEK) Ensheim, (later Jagdstaffel 16), based in Ensheim, Germany, in September 1916, flown by Ltn Fritz Grünzweig. (although some have speculated that he was not a pilot and merely painted the nose art...)
I hope you like them..
Ian
