I've finished the Wingnut Wings 1/32 Fokker DVIIF which I built as Lothar von Richthofen's "lovely red bird". This is a very speculative scheme because we don't know how much of this plane was painted red. This scheme uses a lovely set of Aviattic decals based on a profile by Ronny Bar, who said he had evidence that it was all painted red. This profile created a bit of controversy on the Aerodrome, you can read about here if you wish:
https://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69546So I have taken a bit of artistic license with this one as it is almost a "what if" scheme. I left off the upper cowling panels to show the lovely BMW engine, as these planes were often flown without these. Also, I left off the MG flash guards as again, these were often not fitted and the kit parts are IMO not WNW's finest hour. They are a bit cumbersome and don't fit well.
The machine is not heavily weathered because it was only in service for a very short period of time - Lothar crashed it into a tent on landing and broke its wing.
Finally, I made a cockup of the serial number. The serial number isn't known, so Richard left ot off the decals. I decided that based on the time that the machine was in use and the photo that might be this machine in an Osprey book that it was in the 4250/18 to 4299/18 range. I meant to do 4255/18, which I had to create by cutting up other serial; numbers and hand painting the "4". I got lazy when doing all the cutting and forgot to reverse the "52" after the 4 and make it "25". It was only after I had done one side that I realised my error as I had created 4525/18 instead of 4255/18. But I got lazy and thought what the heck, it's going to be oversprayed and no-one will ever notice. However, eagle-eyed Stephen Lawson did spot it, so he wins the star prize!
The decals are very clever, the showthrough of the fabric and markings under the red paint is expertly handled.
