Roden

Kit Number RO 415

1/48 Fokker D.VII Early

Reviewed By Mike Reeves, #39908

MSRP $19.98 USD ($17.98 from Squadron)

The Fokker D.VII is one of the best looking aircraft ever built in my humble opinion. It has the beginnings of the modern look about it. The boxy airframe and very little rigging for a biplane speak volumes of the “technology” involved in the production of this aircraft.

World War One modelers have been blessed  in the past ten years with new kits in both 1/72 and 1/48. The Fokker D.VII has been kitted by three manufacturers in 1/48 to my knowledge. Aurora/Monogram started the flow with a basic kit with molded in insignia (which Monogram later removed), but the outline was fairly good. Twenty years later Dragon / DML jumped in the WWI mix and produced a gem of a model of the same aircraft. It is a great kit but can be difficult to locate. Well, along comes Roden with their completely new tool D.VII in 1/48 late in 2003. People have speculated that it is a pantograph of the original 1/72 kit by them but that is not the case.

The Roden kit is broken down so that several variants of this model can be made. Included in the box were two complete engines, three propellers, three well inserts and three different landing gear “stiffener bars”.

My sample is cleanly molded with no flash present. The fabric detail is superb and not heavy handed. The wing trailing edges are nice and thin. The engines look superb and a very cool model could be built sans cowl pieces. I have heard of nightmare fit problems if the cowl pieces are installed over the built engines. Cockpit detail is just perfect for the kit. Very little can be seen but the basics are there.

Markings - wise,  you get  four options:

Ltn Hugo Schaefer , Jasta 15

Hptm. Rudolf Berthold , Jasta 15

Oblt. Bruno Loezer, Jasta 26

Oblt. Hermann Goering, Jasta 27

I have heard  from friends who have built the recent Roden kits that the decals are terrible and will not come off the backing very well.  I can verify this as I did try some of the kit markings on a tester aircraft.  They are very difficult to remove from the backing and VERY brittle once off.  I would recommend replacements.

Overall this kit is superb other than the decals.  If you like WWI aircraft this one is right up your alley.  You simply cannot go wrong considering the finesse of detail and the affordable price.  Some replacement decals may be needed but that should not create any issues.  My thanks to Roden for the review sample.  It will join my new Roden Nieuport on the bench soon!!

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