1:48 Fokker Dr I

A triplane with a thick wing

The Fokker Dr.I came about as an answer to the British Sopwith Triplane and entered the fighting in the autumn of 1917. Three short wings with an unusually thick section gave the machine a steep rate of climb and agility about the longitudinal axis, for which it paid with lower speed in level flight. The cockpit stayed open, so there is no glazing to mask. That is precisely why on this type the whole attention shifts to the insignia and to the color of the covering.

Two masks, no decals

The box contains two masks for the national insignia. Against a decal, a sprayed cross has two advantages: it has no sheen of its own and no rim of carrier film, which on a fabric surface often lifts and creates a shadow. On a taut covering with the ribs showing through, that difference is clearly visible even in a photograph of the finished model.

How to give a sprayed insignia some age

The crosses on First World War machines were brush-painted and aged quickly. A sprayed area takes that better than a decal, because it is of the same material as the paint around it and can therefore be treated in the same way. Over a dried insignia it is enough to go with a very thin coat of the base shade from a greater distance in order to knock the saturation back. The edges are then gently broken up with an abrasive sponge block, which rubs the paint away where service would have rubbed it away, that is on the edges of the ribs and in the places the mechanics' hands touched the covering. Finally a thin layer of dark wash is laid into the corners of the insignia, which brings out the texture of the fabric under the paint. The result is markings that look painted onto the covering rather than stuck onto a finished model.