1:24 WWI Fighter Set - Early Fokker Dr.I Triplane (Pin and Chain)

A triplane of 1917 and its chain adjustment

The Fokker Dr.I entered the general memory as the machine on which the best-known pilots of the German fighter units of the closing First World War flew their last months. Three lifting surfaces one above the other gave the aircraft an exceptional rate of climb and agility in a turn, for which it paid with an indifferent speed in level flight. The cockpit was open, the seat plain, and the only thing holding the pilot inside during a loop was a belt across his lap.

This set captures the older way of adjusting it: the length of the strap could not be changed continuously but was set by moving a pin into one of the links of a chain. The solution was crude, but under field conditions there was nothing in it to fail, because it contained neither a spring nor a catch.

What that means on the model

At 1:24 the open cockpit is visible in its entirety, so the quality of the belt decides the impression the whole build makes. The printed part brings the finished shade of the webbing and of the metal parts and does away with hand painting, which always looks crude on an area wider than a fingernail.

Fit it only after the seat and the floor are finished. Let the end of the strap fall over the side of the cushion into the fuselage, which is where it pointed in reality too; a belt stretched out straight looks unnaturally stiff on an open machine and is the first thing a viewer notices.

Watch out for the surrounding shade. The inside of an open cockpit tends to be finished in a light varnish, and any shadow you add around the strap will stand out on it more strongly than you would expect. Restraint leads to a better result here than bold shading of the whole area.

Remove the surplus margin of the carrier material with a sharp knife before soaking, not after offering the part up. A cut never comes out cleanly on a damp part.