The Red Baron’s Triplane
First look at Artesania Latina 1/16 Fokker DRI by Tim Upson-Smith
Ref. 20350
Laser cut wood, metal castings
Photo-etch brass and photo-etch steel
Acrylic display stand
Instructional CD with video tutorialsT
his kit was announced at
the 2017 Nuremberg Toy
Fair, and is an all-new
1/16 scale multi-media kit of the
Fokker DRI (not to be confused
with the 1/16 scale Model Airways
kit, announced at the Toy Fair
in 2015!) Artesania Latina are
perhaps more well known for
their wooden model boat kits;
growing up I watched my Dad
build quite a few of these!
This is the company’s first foray
into aircraft, and we have been
lucky enough to receive this review
sample. So what is inside the box?
The top-opening box has
a large colour picture of the
finished model, along with
some smaller detail views,
and a photo of a replica Fokker
DRI with a colourised Manfred
von Richthofen and his dog.
Inside the box we find three
clear-lidded, moulded trays that
contain the cast metal parts,
and four sheets of photo-etch,
three steel and one brass. There
are two sheets of laser-cut ply
containing the parts for the three
wings, and two sheets of laser-
cut wood, with four dark and four
light laminations, which will
need to be glued together and
shaped to form the propeller.There is also a bundle of thin
veneer strips, dowels, and wire;
the parts for a rather smart acrylic
display stand; and a glossy poster
giving full-size plan and profile
views of the finished model. A
small decal sheet supplies the
instrument dials and data plates.
The instructions are supplied
on a CD, which also includes a
parts list, 11 tutorial videos on
building the model, and a gift
coupon for your next purchase.
On opening the box, my first
impressions were good. Closer
inspection, however, shows that
every metal part has a seam line
that needs cleaning up, but infairness, no worse than the seam
lines on most plastic kits. The
instructions mention this, as do the
tutorial videos. I think I will need
to buy some new needle files for
this one, as my small ones are more
suited to 1/48 scale plastic and resin!
The laser-cut wooden parts
look good and will require minimal
clean up. The etched steel parts
are mostly for the tailplane,
rudder, ailerons, and wing trailing
edge. Bending the brass leading
edges will certainly be tricky,
but one of the video tutorials
shows you how to do this.
The instructions, with the
addition of the build tutorials,
make the assembly seem
relatively simple, though it will
be time consuming (but definitely
rewarding). Some elements of
the kit have been simplified to
aid construction, such as the
rudder and tailplane. These are54 • JANUARY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
FIRST LOOK!
052-57-FirstLooks-0118.indd 54 08/12/2017 17:00