Eduard and Roden 1/48 Fokker D.VII

Both done about 7-8 years ago when the kits first came out.

The Eduard kit is an OAW-built D.VII in the famous markings of an otherwise-unknown airplane, with the markings of The Seven Swabians, an ancient German folk tale about a bunch of drunken bozos who go off into the forest to chase a giant rabbit. The left side shows them confronting the monster, the right side shows what he did to them. Essentially nothing is known about this airplane other than the fuselage markings - no pilot's name, the unit colors are conjectural. Done with good decals from Aeromaster. The Eduard lozenge has perhaps the most truly craptacular upper colors imaginable. The only decal maker who ever got 1/48 lozenge right was Blue Max, and those sheets are longlonglong gone.

The Roden kit is a Fokker-built D.VIIf flown by Leutnant zur See Gotthard Sachsenberg, commander of Marine Jagdgruppe Flandern, composed of Marine Field Jastas I and II in fall 1918. Sachsenberg scored 31 victories and was considered "The Navy's Richtofen." In 1919, in company with Theo Osterkamp, Sachsenberg founded the Freikorps Sachsenberg, composed of former Marine Field Jasta pilots, to fight in the Baltic Republics' wars of independence from the Bolsheviks. Decals are from an Aeromaster sheet, as are the lozenge; while not exactly right, the Aeromaster lozenge is day-for-night better than Eduard's and to my mind #2 behind Blue Max in 1/48.

17 additional images. Click to enlarge.