COBI Fokker D.VII Set 2994

COBI's Fokker D.VII is a 1:32 model built from 256 blocks, 21.5 cm long with a 27 cm wingspan, with a turning propeller, rotating wheels and movable ailerons. A figure of the German pilot Rudolf Berthold is included, along with a printed nameplate. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

The only aircraft named in the Armistice

When Germany signed the Armistice in November 1918, the terms listed the equipment to be surrendered. Most of it was described by category — so many guns, so many locomotives, so many aircraft. One type was named specifically: all Fokker D.VIIs were to be handed over.

No other aeroplane in the war received that distinction. It is the clearest measure of what the Allies thought of it.

What made it dangerous was not speed. The D.VII could hold its nose up and keep flying at an angle where other fighters of the period would stall and fall out of the sky — which meant a pilot could hang on his propeller and shoot upwards at an enemy above him. It also forgave mistakes, and it reached the front in April 1918, when Germany was running out of experienced pilots and needed an aircraft that made average ones effective.

Rudolf Berthold

The figure in the set is the pilot whose markings the model wears. Berthold finished the war with 44 victories, many of them flown with an arm that had been shattered and never properly healed — he flew with it strapped and worked the controls one-handed.

Specifications

Pieces: 256 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:32 · No stickers
Model dimensions: 21.5 × 27 × 10.5 cm (8.5 × 10.6 × 4.1 in)