Revell 1/72 Fokker E.III

REVELL 1:72 FOKKER E.III

Reviewer: Steve Hedworth (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 15 April 2009

Aircraft History:

Well known so just a brief summary. These early E types were developments of the M5 of 1913 vintage. Several variants of this type served in small numbers at the start of the war and were flown by both the German Air Service and the Austro-Hungarians. The capture of Roland Garros, in April 1915, and his Morane Saulnier L, with it’s forward firing machine gun and propeller protecting deflector plates, stimulated the High Command to demand an aircraft capable of similar usage. A superior mechanical device had been patented before the war and Fokker responded by fitting the Schneider interrupter mechanism to an M5K which became the E 1. Powered by an 80 hp Oberusal rotary engine, E 1’s were delivered from June 1915. They were followed by the E 11, with 100 hp engines and reduced wingspan, in July. About 65 of these types were built.

The E 111 was the most numerous version. It had extended wingspan and retained the 100 hp engine and single Spandau machine gun. Twin guns were tried but performance was adversely affected by the extra weight. Several hundred were built and it served with the German, Austro- Hungarian and Turkish air forces.

A final version, the E 1V, received an 160 hp two row Oberusal rotary, with twin guns and increased wingspan, in an attempt to wring better performance in the face of better allied opposition such as the FE 2b, DH 2 and Nieuport 11. It was faster but less manoeuvrable and only about 60 were produced.

The E types had been withdrawn from the western front by the end of 1916. Recent research suggests they remained active on the secondary theatres for far longer than I had previously believed. I checked out the Aerodrome WW1 site and discovered that Russian Nieuport’s claimed to have shot down two E111’s in late 1917 in the Bulgarian theatre of operations. This was contradicted when a Bulgarian researcher stated that the E111’s were taken out of service by the previous February but it tallied with the suggestion that refurbished German E types continued in service on the eastern front and with the home defence squadrons after their removal from the western front. However, Turkish E111’s remained active until January 1918 and the last E111’s to remain on active service belonged to the Austro – Hungarian navy. They were part of the air forces defending the naval base at Pola from Italian bombing raids and were put out to grass during March 1918.

The Kit:

This is the Revell Fokker E111, originally issued I believe, in 1965 and reissued in 1981. It is sand coloured plastic, had very little flash but there are several injection marks which are raised and can be filed off. During a bit of research on E types another kit review indicated that the fuselage is 5 mm, or 0.2 ins, short and the wingspan is 5 mm too wide. Unfortunately, this proved to be correct.

Instructions:

Four exploded views plus a rigging and transfer diagram. More recent reissues contain the usual multi lingual info and have eight exploded views, a better colour plan and slightly more detailed history.

Construction:

Fairly straight forward with the proviso that the fuselage should be lengthened but this is not a major problem. Three small sub assemblies are constructed. These are the engine and prop, then the under carriage, followed by the fuselage lower decking to which the pilot and seat are attached. The cockpit is large and there is plenty of scope for extras. Control columns and pedals could be added at this stage. The rest of the fuselage is one piece and I installed an instrument panel from card before continuing.

The wings and forward lower section of fuselage are a single unit and this is joined to the upper part, followed by the floor/pilot assembly. It was at this stage that I decided to lengthen the fuselage. I cut the fuselage clean through with a razor saw level with the wing trailing edge. Two pieces of forty thou plastic card, 0.25 ins high and 0.2 ins wide, were cut. Locating tabs were glued onto the back of these. They were 0.4 ins by 0.1 ins. Once dry they were glued in place and later reinforced with superglue. Another two tabs were glued into place to support the upper and lower decking parts and all the joins later superglued. Later the joints were all filed flush and any gaps treated with filler. I decided that this was to be the limit of my alterations. The wings would require 2.5 mm, or 0.1 ins, reduction each. I had no intention of filing off all the ribs and rescribing them so I’m happy to live with this discrepancy and imagine that a field repair had been carried out.

The engine assembly and under carriage are united with the fuselage. Now all that’s left are the stabilizers, rudder, the engine cowling, machine gun, rigging pylon, footrests and tail skid. All fit together OK and only small amounts of filler were needed where the lower decking meets the wing unit.

Rigging:

Not my favourite task but it has to be done. As usual I contented myself with the wings only and used Aeroclub invisible thread. Guide holes show where the wires need to go and are drilled through. Earlier research had revealed a couple of reviews of Eduard and ICM kits, the Fokker E1V and Pfalz E1V respectively. These reviews had shown that a roller, or pulley, was attached to the rigging pylon and the wing warping wires ran through it. As all the rigging wires on this kit come together at this pylon I had thought it would getting a little crowded and I might have trouble if they interfered with each other. If a roller could be attached, half of the wires could be routed through it. I didn’t fancy the method previously noted so I drilled lengthways a very short distance into a length of Contrail 1.5mm rod. It took a few attempts before I managed to keep the drill straight enough but I ended up with a slice a mille thick. This was superglued to the back of the pylon and left to thoroughly dry. My main worry was that the structure would pull apart when the wires were tightened up. Next day, all went to plan. The monoplane allows itself to a continuous run from the undercarriage, through the wing, to the roller, through and back through the inner hole and back to the under carriage where you started from. To relieve the maximum amount of strain from the pylon structure I CA’d the wires at the wing holes, as well as the starting point, and finally wrapped the thread around the under carriage frame and applied glue while it was held tight in position. It takes longer to tell than to do. The process is repeated another three times to complete the wings. The rear two wires go through the pulley while the front two are wrapped around the pylon itself. If you follow the diagram and refer to the box art I don’t think anyone should come to too much grief.

Colour Schemes:

The most recent reissues are of Ernst Udet’s machine. This is predominately light olive green and section 9 of the instructions is the colour plan. Many E types were natural linen and previous issues were of the E111 that forced landed on the Allied side of the lines in April 1916. My kit was this and I used Humbrol 121, stone, to replicate the bleached linen.

Decals:

Only one version, Ernst Udet’s with his ten crosses. Older kits are 210/16 as mentioned above. As usual, apart from the tail crosses, they stood the test of time pretty well although I lost a small part of the corners on two of the large wing crosses but a touch of white paint will rectify this.

Accuracy:

Wing span and fuselage length. One is simple to remedy, the other less so. The pylon and my pulley are probably overscale but you have to have some strength when tightening rigging. The foot rests look oversized as well.

Conclusions:

For the price, at present in the UK we’re talking three pounds, you can’t go wrong. I haven’t seen the Eduard version but I have their E 1V which scales out OK to me so I’ll assume the E 111 is equally as good and therefore superior to the Revell offering. But you can still make a good representation from this kit. It just depends how far you want to go.

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