Hi troops:
I hit my local plastic emporium this morning and Happy Columbus Day! Roden 1/48 scale S.E.-5 (Viper engine), Bristol F2B, and the third in their Fokker D.VII series (early O.A.W. built). Considering that the only game in town for the SE and Brisfit has been the very expensive "Blue Max" offerings, these are very welcome ($17.95 to $19.95 U.S. as opposed to $40-$50). Taking them in turn: Fokker D.VII, (early O.A.W.). The standard Roden approach with side panels and cowl as appropriate. Still comes with extra landing gear parts and two engines so there are bits for the spares box again. Decals cover Ernst Udet's red fuselage bird in which he was shot down by the rear gunner in a Breguet, Lt. Hans Bessler of Jasta 12, and an unknown pilot/unit bird with a large N on the fuselage side. There are decals for the hex camo and the rib tapes and the colors don't look too bad. I don't think it is wise to get too pedantic about the colors of late war German dyed fabric because they were having serious material shortages, just like late in W.W.II and all sorts of substitutions were being done to maintain production. The only thing that sticks out is that the black/white of some of the crosses is not too well registered. S.E.-5, Wolseley Viper engine. Again, two nice looking light tan colored plastic sprues but on this bird they are obviously looking at marketing at least three different versions and they are going to the trouble of cutting out the extra parts that are not needed for the version called for on the box cover, so no parts (or very few) for the spares box on this one. I wonder if it is worth their while, considering the labor cost as opposed to the plastic saved for recycling? Decals cover one bird flown by Beauchamp-Proctor of 84 Sqdn., one flown by Bishop during his tenure as Commander of 85 Sqdn., and "Mickey" Mannock's aircraft while with 74 Sqdn. One negative with this kit, it appears that the instruction sheet was not properly printed as the ink used on one side has bled through to the other making the sheet rather hard to read. Hopefully this is a local defect and not wide spread. A good point on this one is that it does not appear to be as complicated in it's engineering as the Fokker. D.VII kit. Bristol F2.B, "Brisfit". Back to a somewhat "over engineered" system on this kit. Very detailed engine and cockpit interior, lots of small parts that will be a bitch to get off the sprue intact. You will also have to do some careful cutting/drilling on the fuselage halves to fit them for the correct exhausts and other bits for the particular aircraft you select to build. There are decals for six different birds. A Gotha killer from #141 Home Defense Sqdn.; one of McKeever's birds from #11 Sqdn; "Zanzibar No.18", a presentation ship from #48 Sqdn.; a #139 Sqdn bird from the Italian front in which Major "Billy" Barker took His Royal Highness, Prince Eduard for a joy ride over the front lines; and two birds from #1 Sqdn., Australian Flying Corps, which served in the Middle East. You folks down in Oz will appreciate this kit. Some of these options include two racks of those nasty little 20 lb. Cooper "Daisy Cutters" that were used for attacking German Troops on the ground. If Roden follows their 1/72 scale approach, we will end up with 6 different Fokker D.VII kits before we are done, and probably three SE-5's. Man! I wish Roden would pantograph up their Gotha and Felixsrowe flying boat kits!
Bill Shuey