Eduard 1/72 Fokker Dr. I Construction
Having built two Dr. Is and a D.VII, I've come up with a standard operating procedure for their tubular framework cockpits that works for me. After thinning the inside of the fuselage as much as I dare, I then line it with Bare Metal foil to act as a barrier when glueing the framework together from .015" plastic rod. Once each side is complete, the fuselage is taped together and the crossmembers inserted from the opening on top. After the assembly dries, the tape is removed et voilà, out pops the completed framework perfectly sized to fit the fuselage. Detailing and painting can then be easily done outside the confines of the fuselage. Me likey.
Seatbelts, seat, rudder bar, throttle and a few other bits 'n' bobs are from Tom's Modelworks, the rest is scratchbuilt.
Surprisingly, for such a well known and distinctive aircraft, the options for modelling Jacob's aircraft in 1/72 scale are slim to none. Americal Gryphon did a limited run sheet for the IPMS US Nats many years ago but finding a set is well nigh impossible and the markings are apparently underscale anyway, a not uncommon theme with AG decals. The only current commercially available option is Superscale's sheet 72-664. Sadly, they are - to be blunt - awful. The devil (or Wind God, depending on which of Jacobs' accounts you favour) bears no resemblance to the actual marking and in fact wouldn't be out of place in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. What to do, what to do...
I waited. Surely someone would eventually produce an accurate set of decals in the many scale?? Copper State produced an excellent sheet for the 1/28 Revell kit, Roden's are pretty darn good in their 1/32 Dr. I and Dragon's look pretty spiffy in their 1/48 kit. But alas, once again the poor cousin got overlooked. I really wanted this aircraft in my collection so I would have to take matters into my own hands. I traced the markings in the Albatros Datafile Special, reduced them to 1/72 and then printed them out on clear inkjet decal paper above left. These were then cut out and applied to white decal paper (I didn't have any white inkjet paper at the time) above right. The markings were handpainted in the more commonly accepted colours (again, Jacobs' accounts vary. He also stated that the wings were yellow and white with the body and face in red and the hair in grey. Take yer pick...). The result is, I think, somewhat better than Superscale's happy red Swan:
Below left and right: Since I plan to build many more Dr. Is (I have more Fokker Dr. I decals and kits than you can shake a Dreidecker at) I decided to build a jig to make that pesky landing gear easier to install. The kit gear legs are reasonable, but still somewhat overscale so I replaced them with brass Strutz.
Jacobs re-engined his Triplanes with Clerget engines. Legend has it that he offered a case of champagne to any troops that could provide him with captured examples. None of the larger scale kits with his markings have this engine included so this would have to be sourced elsewhere if building Jacobs' aircraft, as is the case with any of the 1/72 scale kits. I have several of the amazing resin engines from Small Stuff Models that I've been hoarding for just such an occasion and their Clerget was used here. They are incredible castings; how they are pulled from the mould without destroying the hair-thin pushrods or grain-of-sand-sized spark plugs (two per cylinder!) I have no idea. They are without a doubt the most nerve wracking thing I have ever assembled (the use of a microscope would be a great advantage) but the results are well worth it. I managed to irreparably bend a couple of the pushrods but by careful placement of the engine these were hidden behind the cowling. I added spark plug leads from the finest copper wire I could find, but only on the cylinders that were visible lest I go mad during the process. The cowling needed to be drastically thinned to get it to fit over the engine but eventually it fit well enough for the engine to rotate if I had wanted it to. For the reasons stated above, I didn't.
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