Okay: It looks like Rick Geisler and I have the same thought patterns when it comes to the latest Fokker DR.I builds. For the Meng kit I chose Steinhausers 564/17, which I believe is a later DR.I than the one that Rick did.
I have seen artwork for three variations of this aircraft, one, the Hobby craft kit, has a Red patch behind the cockpit with a yellow "X" and a streaked tail section with the Iron Cross Markings. Then there is the one with a the red patch, yellow "X" and red and yellow striped tail with the Iron Cross Markings, and the lastly the one that I did with a yellow patch, red "X" and the Balkan Cross markings.
The Meng kit goes together fairly well. There is the warped wing issue that I used a hair drier to correct, the broken piece of the Turtle deck, easy fix, and the directions that are unclear in a few areas, but overall a nice kit.
I used the Aviattic Streaking decals that Richard designed for the Meng kit. They went on quite well with little trimming around the control cable fair leads and that is about it. I used a mix of Testors MM Leather and Classic for the under coat for a nice glossy finish. The Yellow was Testors MM Insiginia Yellow and the red is Tamiya X-2 with a little Brown thrown in to tone down the red.
I used the kit photo etch for the Machine gun jackets and for the seat belts I used Kitsworld Decals. An interesting concept and not the easiest to work with and they turned green for some reason. Rigging of the undercarriage is monofilament and Gaspatch Turnbuckles for strength, the cross bracing for the upper wing and all control lines are Modelkasten.
Getting the yellow patch and the red stipes on the tail took quite some time as I wanted to get it as close to the drawings as possible so calipers and ruller were used, took quite a bit time masking and measuring the tail, but worth the effort. I reverse masked it, painting the red, masking, a shot of Tamiya White Primer, and then painted the yellow. The national markings and eyeballs are masks, first time I used them, not sure I would use them again, but if the markings were something I was chasing I would. The markings on the rudder and the fuselage went on nice but I couldn't get a good seal of the markings on the upper wing due to the rib taping detail, so had some "holidays" to touch up.
Our club is doing a triplane group build and I have chosen the Udet Triplane, using the Roden Kit and the Meng using Steinhausers.
I am looking forward to more markings being released for this kit as it is a pretty decent kit. I suspect it was the Wingnut Wings prototype that Meng put into production as there are a few areas I think Wingnut Wings would have changed, but that being aside, it still a good kit and builds into a nicely detailed model.
