Steve Trevor's Eindecker (76075 MOD)

[greg3]

HI

Here's my take on the plane Steve Trevor flies in the Wonder Woman movie (and set 76075). I believe it's supposed to be a Fokker Eindecker so I gave the official version a bit of a tweak to make it more accurate. 

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

The main change was the addition of the control cables. The original Eindecker used "wing warping" to control the plane left and right. Moving the joystick caused one wing to be pulled downward and the other to be pulled upwards causing the plane to bank. My version lacks a few cables but I think it still looks the part!!

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

I also replaced the stud shooters with a single, more realistic looking machine gun. In the later half of 1915, the Eindeckers all but ruled the skies over the Western Front as they were the first plane to have the machine gun synchronised to the propellor - meaning it could fire forwards without hitting the blade. The French and British planes had to rely on a second gunner which added weight (or the pilot had to fire guns mounted on the top wing making aiming much harder). This period was known as the Fokker Scourge and lasted until the Allies could capture an intact synchronisation system to copy.

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

I also tried to improve the tail - the actual aircraft should have an almost circular tail so my version's not perfect. I also wanted to add some insignia - I didn't have any German crosses but I did have  a few RAF roundels from an old Adventurer's set so it became a British plane!! (The background to this is that it was captured by Trevor's intelligence unit and is now being used by them to investigate rumours of a new German weapon... project Ares!!) 

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

 

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

Finally a shot with Trevor himself... 

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

As a fan of military history (and superheroes!) I quite enjoyed putting this together and who knows, I may even add the rest of Trevor's unit and send them out on some missions!!

Anyway thanks for looking... comments are always welcome.

Edited January 4, 2018 by greg3

[Littleworlds]

One of the last things I would have expected from TLG was releasing a Fokker Eindecker-inspired set, so pleasant surprise there! It was actually pretty good already, especially for the tricky scale, but your modifications really enhance it. The trussing does a lot in adding detail and the gun and rudder look really good as well.

I would also consider playing a bit with the sides of the fuselage. The eindecker was a very boxy thing beyond the engine section, so maybe using tiles and/or wedge shaped plates would fit better. 

Regardless of that, it is a really cool mod!