MPM 1/72 Fokker D.XXI "Suomi III Sarjan"

MPM 1:72 FOKKER D.XXI "Suomi III Sarjan"
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)

Kit: MPM 1/72^nd scale Fokker D-XXI „Suomi III. Sarjan“ (Kit N° 72520 ). Produced in the Czech Republic.

Aircraft: This aircraft was a breakaway from the traditional designs by Fokker, since it was neither a biplane nor a high-wing monoplane. Also the undercarriage fairings were somewhat new at Fokker.

The Air Division of the Netherlands Army ordered one prototype in 1935 to evaluate it at service in the Far East. Although the proposed engine was the Rolls Royce Kestrel IV delivering 650HP, the prototype flew on May 27th 1936 equipped with a 650HP Bristol Mercury VI-S. At that time, the government's policy was to obtain much more bombers than fighters for the Air Force, but things changed suddenly and an order for 36 D-XXI equipped with Bristol Mercury VII or VIII was placed.

The same year, the Finnish Air Force ordered seven units and an agreement for license production in Finland was signed, resulting in a bit more than 90 planes built in State Factory at Tampere. 50 of the Finnish D-XXI had a 825HP Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp Junior installed. All Finnish planes had four wing-mounted machine guns, instead the two underwing and the two fuselage ones of the original design. The last Finnish-built planes (as late as 1944!) had a Bristol Pegasus engine.

Although clearly outclassed by the contemporary German fighters, they served bravely in the hands of Dutch and Finnish pilots, some even till the end of the war. Their most memorable fight took place on May 10th 1940, when a Dutch squadron could destroy 37 of 55 Junkers Ju-52 which were crossing the Dutch border. A version with retractable landing gear was planed, but it never could be built.

Parts: You get two sprues containing 49 parts in ocean grey, one little sprue with 3 transparencies, a resin propeller hub and a small decals sheet, everything bagged separately (Italeri: take notice!). The styrene parts are nearly flash-free, very well molded, with tiny detail and well defined engraved panel lines. Surface quality is excellent, and the sprue gates are not thicker than those on the big boy's sprues! (These Czech guys are really not sleeping on laurels). No locating pins, as usual.

Construction is conventional, with the fuselage split vertically, wing consisting of one lower half and two upper ones, 1-piece stabilizers and separate rudder. For the cockpit you get a floor with some structure; front blanking plate, separate pedals, control stick, seat, bulkhead, rear blanking plate, radio plate and instruments panel (with engraved dials); the fuselage halves have some detail on their inner side. The fuselage attaches onto the wing assembly and receives the Bristol Mercury on its front end. The engine cowling is 4-piece and assembles onto the engine. The propeller consists of 3 separate blades which have to be glued onto the resin hub; good luck!

The undercarriage spats consists of two halves with the separate wheel trapped in between. After gluing the stabilizers you have to decide which struts to use, depending on the version you want to build. Before you glue the canopy, a cut-out must be done immediately after the cabin on the upper fuselage, in order to receive a small rectangular bowed glazing (presumably not present in the Dutch D-XXI; MPM`s kit 72517). Some external „fittings“ round up the whole thing.

Instructions: A ten-pages A5 booklet. Page 1 brings the usual history / data in Czech, English, German and French. Page 2 brings detailed sprues layouts. Construction is covered in five easy-to-understand steps from pages 3 through 5 (detailed painting instructions given). Pages 6 through 9 show 4-view diagram for colouring / decaling four different planes, all Finnish. Page 10 contains the usual announcements. Paints coded are Humbrol´s.

Versions:

FR-98, 1/LeLv 12, Base Numoila, May 1942; upper green/black, lower light grey.
Fr-100, 1/LeLv 14, Base Tiilsjärvelle, August 1942; colours same as above.
FR-98, LLv 32, Base Siikakangas, May 1941; upper green, lower ight grey.
FR-98, 1/LLv 32, Base Hyvinkäällä, June 1941.
FR-97, 4/LLv 24, Base Uttiin, March-April 1940, same colours as former.

Decals: Printed by MPM (?), contains Finnish „swastikas“ broken in two parts, and series numbers for the different version; no stencilling. Quality seems to be O.K.

Detail: Detail level is high and very well molded. It is possible to build a beautiful model without the use of resin extras.

Options: There are two types of stabiliser's struts, depending on the version built. For FR-100 there's an alternative pitot tube.

Impressions: Normally when you talk to a model builder and you say „a Frog's kit“ all you get is a tauntingly grin. I will admire Frog forever due to their courage at the subject's choice. Finally, after some 4 decades we receive an injection-molded alternative to Frog's elder Fokker D-XXI.

MPM´s kit doesn't look like a short-run at first glance, as is the high molding quality.

Recommendations: Warmly recommended (or do you prefer to wait for Tamigawademy? Then you should be very, very patient!).

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