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Teratophoneus — Fooker DrI

Published: 2012-07-21 20:22:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 1153; Favourites: 15; Downloads: 37
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Description In 1917, a new aircraft appeared on the battlefield of wwi, the sopwith triplane: Developed from the sopwith pup, the triplane had excellent maneuvrability and could climb extemely fast. It was also fast, 186 km/h-even faster than the biplane albatros diii! Pilots and Richthofen himself said that the sopwith triplane was a formidable aircraft and so fokker began to design an own aircraft. Instead of just copying the sopwith triplane, they made a complete new design, the fokker Dr. I.The Fokker triplane was not very fast, just 160 km/h, but its maneuvrability was unimagínable, it could climb away from every enemy and even the sopwith camel, probably the best allied fighter could be outturned with the dr. I. The DR.I soon turned out to be a deadly opponent, it was very succesful and von Richthofen foun it better than the sopwith triplane. He said that his plane could turn like the devil and climb like a monkey(wendig wie die teufel und klettern wie die affen).The first two prototypes were called FI 102 and FI 103(my model kit depicts FI 102).
FI 102 was given to von richthofen, while FI 103 was given to werner voß, richthofens best friend and also an ace. Richthofen painted its machine red. With that plane he downed 2 enemy planes in just a few days and more would follow soon. Although the triplane was richthofens most famous aircraft it was not the one with which he killed most of its enemys, in fact only his last 19 of his 80 victories were won with the triplane. The DrI had an Oberurse URII rotary engine and two heavy mg 08/15 "spandau" machine guns. The DrI is probably the most famous aircraft of wwi and one of the most famous aircraft ever. In the following month, Richthofen got a new triplane and in this one he died in 1918. He was credited with 80 victories and was wwi most succesful pilot.But there was a pilot thatwas almost as succesful as Manfredvon richthofen: his brother lothar von richthofen,whos plane you see here.Lothar was evenmore efficient than manfred, downing more enemy planes in the same amount of time. But he didnt flewthatmuch combat missions as manfred, thats why he "only" had 40 airvictories.

The model: Its a crazy small kit-crazy because it isthe smalles plane in my wwi fighter aircraft collection, but also the most expensive! I paid 6.99€ on it. Lets se if its worth its price
Detail: Here we have a surprise as this kit actually has a well detailed cockpit unlikethe other wwi 1:72 kits from revell. The rest is also well detailed
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Fitting: No problems at all, everthing went perfect!
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Functions: we have a movable propeller,but the engine is supposed to run with it as it is a rotary engine. But the engine doesnt spin around. Youcan built it like this very easily but two linkages inside the engine cowl prevent the engine from spinning around.
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Decals: Very good, basically the consist onlyof crosses and some small other decals,but they as always excellent revell quality!
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Extrapoints: Insteasd of building manfreds machine, I choselothars fokker drI because I have already the one of manfred fromichthofen. Lothars machine is even more colourful and an immeadiate eyecatcher despite its small size.
I love this small kit
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Fazit: Allin alla ver nice kit of a famous aircraft. Its easy and fun to built,I like it and can recomment it for anyone who likes wwi aircraft
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Comments: 3

AnAspieInPoland [2012-07-22 16:40:51 +0000 UTC]

And this one was flown by?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Teratophoneus In reply to AnAspieInPoland [2012-07-22 17:25:44 +0000 UTC]

Lothar von richthofen. Just read the description

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

enc86 [2012-07-22 12:42:40 +0000 UTC]

Looks great! very nice details and i love the colors and paints.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0