Best 1:72 Fokker Dr.I?

[Fokker boy]

Of the three kits that I'm aware of (Revell, Roden and Eduard), which is considered to be the best? Space considerations have become a major issue in the last few months, so I'll mostly only build 1:72 and 1:48 WWI kits for the foreseeable future.

[WarrenD]

Kevin,
         My space considerations also resulted in my gravitation or commitment to 1/72nd. I've not built the Roden or Revell offerings, but I have built the Eduard kit. I really enjoyed it, and found it went together wonderfully. The profi-pack version gets you p/e for Spandau's, seatbelts, etc. as well. The weakest spot on the Eduard kit is the engine. The next one I build will definitely get one of the new rotaries from Small Stuff.

HTH, FWIW, YMMV

Warren
nd: coffee
nr: Exploding Fuel Tanks by Dunn & The Fokker Triplane by Imrie

[Squiffy]

There's also the Airfix kit but, to be honest, it's probably the worst of the bunch. I have a  new Revell Dr.1 in the stash and having looked at the sprues it appears to be new tooling and better than the older Revell kit, which I've already built.

However, I've built a couple of the Eduard kits and they are very good. Although I've not build the Roden kit experience of other Roden kits tells me that it's not going to be as good as the Eduard.

I hope that helps. 

[Fokker boy]

Yep, your answers help a lot. Looks like I'll shoot for an Eduard kit then.

[CMcLeod2012]

I'd also vote for the Eduard kit. A very nice and solid kit.

The new tooled  Revell version is also very good, but I found the struts to be VERY fragile. After breaking a bunch of the wing struts on assembly I replaced them with struts from their older kit.

The Roden kit is a bit soft on detail and a bit hard to put together without 'three hands' or an assembly jig.

Cliff

[RAGIII]

I tend to agree with the others that the Eduard kit is more or less the best although all have their merits. That being said the NEW TOOL Revelle kit builds up nicely. Unlike Cliff I had no issues with the struts, even after dropping and disassembling the whole thing the struts were fine. Funny thing though, I broke one of the interplane struts on my Eduard 1/48th kit 
RAGIII

[Fokker boy]

Thanks again for the input, guys. I'll probably snatch a couple of the Eduard kits. I assume the same is true for the 1:72 D.VII?

[WarrenD]

Kevin,
          Your choices for the D.VII are more limited in 1/72nd: either Roden or MAC. See my question posted earlier this weekend here on this forum. As for me and my house, for my planned "batch build", I'll be going with the Roden kit combined with the Loon Models wing & landing gear correction set.

HTH, YMMV,

Warren

nw: a position paper for an education course

[Fokker boy]

Kevin,
          Your choices for the D.VII are more limited in 1/72nd: either Roden or MAC. See my question posted earlier this weekend here on this forum. As for me and my house, for my planned "batch build", I'll be going with the Roden kit combined with the Loon Models wing & landing gear correction set.

HTH, YMMV,

Warren

nw: a position paper for an education course

OK, thanks. I must have been thinking 1:48 scale, as I know Eduard did/does those.

[WarrenD]

Yeah, I would have LOVED to have seen them do a 1/72nd D.VII, but I guess it's not to be. I and a lot of other folks bemoaned the lack of a good Nie.17 for years, the Revell offering from the 1960's was our only choice. In 2005 my family and I got to attend the IPMS Nats in Hot-lanta, and I stopped by the Eduard booth and met Vladimir Sulc. Really, really nice, friendly guy. I pleaded my case for the Noop to him. He told me that, in truth, 1/72nd was and is his first love in scale modeling. (He did reach in his pocket and said "Let me show you something", and he handed me the resin master for the SPAD XIII upper wing.)  He said he'd think about what I said, and BAM!, lo and behold we got not only a Nie.17 but another boxing as Nie.23 too.     
    I freely admit to not being as huge a fan of the D.VII as I am of other a/c of the period, Entente' and Central Powers alike, but I really do like it. The Roden kit has definite problems, notably with the lower wing and landing gear. Loon models has a correction set to the tune of approx. $16.00 or thereabouts. Add that to the Roden kit and you've got a $20-$25.00 kit. The MAC kit runs anywhere from $18-$22.00 in price, give or take, but suffers from thick trailing edges (their trademark is seems) and an engine that isn't as nice as the Roden kit. Choose yer poison! 

Warren

[Fokker boy]

I did one Roden D.VII so far, and it turned out OK I think, not great, but certainly good enough for me. The decals were a total nightmare though.

[WarrenD]

How did you cope with the fit of the lower wing to the fuselage?

Warren

[Fokker boy]

I cut and removed a piece from the center section (under the fuselage), allowing the lower wings to move outboard ever so slightly, then filled in the resultant gap with card stock, superglue  and putty; worked just great.

[WarrenD]

Did you have to relocate the holes on the lower wing for the interplane struts as a result of cutting the wing and moving it outward? 

Warren

[Fokker boy]

Nope, we're only talking maybe 1/64 of an inch movement outboard, it doesn't show at all.