First completed build of 2025 - a Roden 1/72 Fokker D. VIII. Not an easy kit due to the multiple small struts (12), shallow locating points and horrible lozenge camo decals, which either disintegrate when coming off the backing paper or dissolve if cement goes anywhere near them ..or both. I gather this is par for the course with early Roden stuff. ..kit no. 004!. I did manage to get them on after a fashion but had to do lots of touching-up. The 'tulip petals' on the cowl were simply cobbled together from scrap decals, mostly German crosses as it happens with nicely angled pieces of black and white decal. Really this should have ended up in the bin on a number of occasions ..but I persevered and in the end was determined that I was going to post some pictures here.
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According to the Windsock book on the type, the type had the usual Fokker metal tube frame with canvas stretched over it, except around the engine where it was covered with metal panels. The cockpit area had a varnished plywood floor and sides, with a canvas "rear bulkhead" behind the seat. Apparently the bottom end of the control column actually stuck out of the underside of the fuselage with the control cables attached to it, but Roden do not show that. The build looked tricky enough as it was.
The various locating holes all need drilling out - some were supposed to take two struts! But when the lozenge decals have been applied you then need to find and re-open the locating holes for the struts - try doing that without damaging those super-fragile decals. The decals are unfortunately so poor that just about any cement will attack and dissolve them even with a coat of acrylic varnish over them..
Best way to attach the wing I found, was to turn everything upside down, having cemented the struts into the fuselage. All struts are separate parts. I did not use any superglue, but applied tube cement and waited a bit for it to go tacky before positioning everything.
In 1918 the German authorities changed the way they ordered aircraft and in January (or perhaps February according to some sources) the first of a series of competitive trials took place at the Adlershof airfield at Johannisthal near Berlin. Around 27 aircraft were submitted for testing from 10 manufacturers, the Fokker V11 prototype was chosen and entered service as the D.VII ( though small orders were also placed for the Fokker D.VI). In May/June a second competition was held with perhaps 37 planes from 12 manufacturers, though I should perhaps point out that quite a few were either slightly modified existing types, or the same type with different engines. Of the 10 or so aircraft entered by Fokker, the parasol winged V.26 powered by a 110hp Oberursel engine was adjudged the winner due to a combination of speed, climb and handling, and orders were placed for 100 as the Fokker E.V, followed by a later order for a further 200. Orders were incidentally also placed for the Pfalz D.XII, perhaps as a back up. Deliveries started in late July and Jasta 6 of the Richtofen Geschwader received their first planes by August 5th, but then on August 16th and 19th two of their planes crashed due to wing failure and production was halted pending investigation. Fokker claimed the problem lay with the official insistence on using a strengthened rear spar which was breaking rather than flexing under load, but the enquiry thought that, as with the earlier Dr.I it was actually down to a combination of shoddy manufacture and sub-standard components. Fokker was lucky not to end up in jail, but after agreeing to recall all the E.V and fit them with a redesigned wing he was allowed to start again on September 24th 1918, by which time it had been decided to use a "D" designation for all fighters so it became the D.VIII. It is unclear exactly how many D.VIII were produced, and indeed how many were actually E.V with the new wing. Sources vary and I have seen the figure of 381 quoted, but the Windsock book lists a total of 289 accepted by the air force. though post war pictures of the factory show lots of D.VIII lying around, and it is thought that maybe only between 60 and 80 actually reached front line squadrons. (text by Peter Booth)
After the war a few entered service with the Dutch and Polish air forces whilst others were flown by the US Army Air Corps and for civilian use in Italy. The kit comes with 4 options - one Japanese, one Polish and two German. The box art shows Loewenhardt's machine, supposedly of Jasta 11 but the markings (black and white striped tailplane) are typical of Jasta 6.
I'm getting a bit of a taste for these tiny Roden kits - the sense of accomplishment when/if you manage to complete the kit is certainly enhanced compared to the usual single-seat fighter build and the finished model (smaller than some of Callum's 1:144 stuff) certainly received some nice comments when put on the table at our February model club night which was nice!
