I recently picked up Roden's 1/72 Sopwith F.1 Camel featuring a box top painting of William Barker's #B6313 in the markings of No. 28 Squadron of Grossa airfield, Italy. Roden has released a few versions of the Camel, most of which contain all the common parts plus those for a particular version. Camel Serial number B6313 was flown by Canadian ace William Barker in Squadrons 28, 66 and 139 who scored 46 of his 50 victories in this exact aircraft, making B6313 the single most highest scoring fighter of the war! A large decal sheet provides colorful markings for B6313 in 28 Sqn. and also for aces Capt. Brown, Capt. Woollett, Capt. MacLaren, F/Cdr Collishaw, Lt. Hollington, Lt. Pratt and a Camel flown in 1919 in Southern Russia by Capt. Kinkead. The over 40 year old Revell Sopwith Camel was perhaps the best in 1/72 scale, until Roden came along!

Thanks to the cartoon exploits of Snoopy and the Red Baron, far more people are familiar with the Camel than any other allied WWI fighter. Fact is, the Camel's greatest battle is still being fought as many aviation buffs refuse to believe that Capt. Arthur Roy Brown actually shot down the Baron. Some believe only a Bishop could kill a Baron, not an ill Canadian flight commander or worse, an Australian infantry machine gunner. But such are the fortunes of war that at the very least, Brown brought von Richthofen close to the ground, chased him within his own and a machine gunner's sights, when a lesser man would have chosen flight rather than to fight the Red Baron. Roden's markings for Brown's Camel are spot on, and can be modeled as shown without fuselage roundels as it appeared in photos in the middle of a repainting. Decals for Barker's 28 Sqn. are also accurate but the most famous Camel of all was it's most colorful of all in 139 Sqn. which included multiple black/white fuselage stripes, white kill notches on the outboard port strut (the only British/Commonwealth fighter to display kill markings) a red heart on the vertical stabilizer and a thin tin red devil by his Vickers. To my knowledge, nobody has released decals of these markings.