The cockpit was cramped and
furnished with materials of
inferior quality. Furthermore, the
proximity of the gun butts to the
cockpit, combined with inadequate
crash padding, left the pilot
vulnerable to serious head injury
in the event of a crash landing.WING FAILURES
On 29 October 1917, Leutnant
Heinrich Gontermann,
Staffelführer of Jasta 15, was
performing aerobatics when his
triplane broke up. Gontermann
was fatally injured in the ensuing
crash landing. Leutnant Günther
of Jasta 11 was killed two days
later when his triplane broke up
in level flight. Inspection of the
wrecked aircraft showed that the
wings had been poorly constructed.
Examination of other high-time
triplanes confirmed these findings.
On 2nd November, all remaining
triplanes were grounded
pending an inquiry. A crash
commission was convened,
which concluded that
poor construction and lack
of waterproofing had allowed
moisture to damage the wing
structure. This caused the wing
ribs to disintegrate and the
ailerons to break away in flight.
In response to the crash
investigation, Fokker improved
quality control on the production
line, particularly varnishing
of the wing spars and ribs, tocombat moisture. Fokker also
strengthened the rib structures
and the attachment of the
auxiliary spars to the ribs.
Despite corrective measures,
the Dr.1 continued to suffer from
wing failures. On 3 February 1918,
Leutnant Hans Joachim Wolff of
Jasta 11 successfully landed after
suffering a failure of the upper
wing leading edge and ribs. On 18
March 1918, Lothar von Richthofen,
Staffelführer of Jasta 11, suffered a
failure of the upper wing leading
edge during combat with Sopwith
Camels of No. 73 Squadron and
Bristol F.2Bs of No. 62 Squadron.
Richthofen was seriously injured
in the ensuing crash landing.INITIAL THOUGHTS
The drawback to the kit is, although
it’s been re-issued, it’s still a 1957moulding (it says so inside the
fuselage), and on initially opening
the box it looks every day of its
sixty years. Garish red plastic, a
fair amount of flash, hideous pilot
and ground crew figures, little to no
cockpit detailing, clunky propeller,
and the cherry on top was the solid,
toy-like machine guns. Awful –
although the kit did provide a reel
of hairy, black thread, which would
come in useful if I had to sew on
some buttons during the build.
I deliberately wanted to make
this a quick, relaxing build, having
recently finished a Wingnuts
Bristol Fighter which, although fun,
was fairly intense. But that said,
I was going to have to put at least
some work in on this and maybe
dip into the aftermarket to make
her a little more 21st century.
Initially, I wasn’t expecting a
lot from the aftermarket world,
as it was such an old kit, but I was
pleasantly surprised to see that a
fair amount is available. Copper
State Models had a photo-etch sheet
and a resin engine. There was also a
replacement propeller listed; none
were currently available, though,
but I had a leftover prop from a
Wingnut Wings 1/32 Scale DFW C.V
two-seater that looked spot-on for
a replacement (despite the scale
difference), so that went in the mix.
Replacing the jacketed machine
guns was a must (as this was
certainly something beyond
my capabilities to recreate),
and I managed to track down
a set from Tom’s Modelworks
(PE German Gun set #400).
As I wanted to keep it simple, Iresisted the lure of the resin engine,
because the moulded kit engine,
surprisingly, didn’t look half
bad once it had been de-flashed.
Suddenly, the whole kit looked
half decent once I’d dispensed
with the aforementioned offensive
items. In fact, the mouldings of
the major parts were actually
very nice if you looked through
the bright red glare. Could this
actually be a nice kit after all?
On further inspection and
test-fitting the components. I
was taken aback by the overall
fit – it seemed really rather
good! The mouldings were way
better than I was expecting too.
I thought that with an overall
sanding the slightly overdone
surface detail would look not too
bad at all, and the trailing edges
of the elevators are razor sharp!BUILDING
So onto the build, and that proved
to be pretty good too. The obvious
missing thing internally was
the cockpit framework – that
had to be addressed as the view
into the interior is fairly good,
particularly in this scale.
Although I wanted to keep it
simple, I couldn’t resist detailing
the cockpit further. I started off
by sanding off all the moulded-
on detail, which I replaced with a
mix of wood veneer, plastic strip,
rod, and brass tubing (which was
not nearly as bad as it looks).
Once the main framework was
done I added some details, including
the engine control quadrant and74 • JUNE 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
072-77-VintagePlastic-Dr1-0618.indd 74 11/05/2018 16:03