von Richthofen's Mount

Fokker Dr-1

in 1:14 scale
by Casalta

by Matthias Harbers

Model photographs by the author

HISTORY

In 1917 the German air force was in need of a modern airplane to cope with the challenge posed by the British Sopwith Triplanes. In response, Reinhold Platz at Fokker developed a new airplane that became known as the Dr-1 triplane. Although in production for less than a year, about 320 airplanes where made. The airplane was most popular for its excellent climbing rate and great maneuverability, making it an equal match to any other plane of those days. However, despite its success, the Dr-1 had only a limited top speed, and some planes were reported to have broken up in the air due to wing failures. Without doubt, the red Fokker Dr-1 flown by the Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen is one of the most famous airplanes ever, and became the subject of this model.

THE MODEL

The kit from Martinez Casalta provides a model of the Fokker Dr-1 in the unusually big scale of 1:14. Thus this kit in the first place is about "being big" with a length of 43.5 cm (some 17") and a wingspan of 54 cm (some 21"). The detailing is similar to models in smaller scales, and many models in 1:50 can match the Fokker Dr-1 from Casalta. Due to the size, the kit contains parts printed on paper and cardboard of different thicknesses. Out of the 10 pages, some structural parts are provided as precut cardboard. The outer parts of the model are printed on glossy paper. The paper and printing quality is overall good, although on some of the glossy pages there was some smearing of the ink. The instructions are given in the form of 21 diagrams, which are very clear and easy to follow. The assembly went smoothly and steadily forward without any problems; and due to its inner structure, the final model is quite stable for its size.

CONSTRUCTION

As I have few comments to make about building this impressive model, please follow the photos to get an impression of the work involved.

Cockpit and internal fuselage

Assembling the fuselage structure

Assembling the tail unit

Note, "painting" the strings with some glue helps to make them last.

Assembling the landing gear

Just some comments on the use of circle cutters: Nowadays computer designed models often do not indicate the center of circles, which are needed in order to apply circle cutters. The photo below shows the tool I usually apply to find the center. It is a simple arrangement of concentric circles printed on a transparency. One of the circles usually fits, and the centre of the part is marked with a needle.

The wheels made from layers of cardboard were sanded to give them a rounded shape. Afterwards, the tires were painted in black with an acryl color.

Assembling the wings

Assembling weaponry and upper wing

Assembling the engine and propeller

Most of the edges were already colored before assembling the parts, but for some areas it is necessary to do some painting after the model is completely built: e.g., edges of the wings and tail fins, or the landing gear. In such a case you may wish to protect some of the printed areas. For plastic models one would use some kind of tape to mask certain areas of the model, but that does not work for paper models, as normal tape destroys the surface. Therefore, I use "Post-it" notes, as they can be easily removed without damaging the paper.

Because of the glossy paper used for this model, I used felt-tipped pens and acryl colors for all paintwork.

This model was not very difficult to build, and when completed it is impressive to see the size of it. Even with less experience in paper modeling, you can build it into an eye-catching model rather unique for any collection. Thus I would definitely recommend this model. Hopefully, you can still find it somewhere out there; I carried this model with me for quite some time before I decided to build it. It used to be available from S&S; in Hamburg, though I did not find it in their latest catalog.

Summary

Photos of the assembled model