Released last year, I've been
keen to get my hands on one of these - although the price at £39.95 in the UK
put me off. My Scottish genes (having an eye for a bargain! ;-) led me to find
this example in a slightly damaged box at this years Royal International Air
Tattoo at RAF Fairford for a far more reasonable £18.
So - what do you get:
Whilst I can't comment on the
accuracy of the model yet, it certainly looks like a Fokker D.VII! The kit
comprises 76 short run injection moulded parts in grey styrene, a nice pair of
resin machine guns, a photo etch fret and two decal sheets - one large one
with upper and lower surface lozenge camouflage and a second smaller one with
crosses and individual unit markings.
The injection parts appear
crude in places, with a pebbley surface and a number of large ejector pin
marks that will need to be removed (especially on the inside of each mainplane)
before assembly. Alternative cowl sideplates are provided. There is a small
amount of flash - easily removed, but it does look like trailing edges will
need some thinning.
The instructions are relatively
basic and include a number of crude hand drawn diagrams for assembly - it
looks like the location of some components may be a little vague. A good
reference book will be essential.
Having said that, I think the
end result will look very good - I'm just not sure I'd have been happy paying
the full price for this kit, but I am looking forward to their
Fokker
E.III.
