I've set aside the BE.12 pending arrival of the engine.
My next project is a bit difficult to describe, so I'll start with the planes themselves.
With the advent of the single-seat version of the Nieuport 10 the Fokker and Pfalz eindekkers had met their match, and when the Nieuport 11 arrived on the scene in January 1916 the Fokker Scourge was over. The Germans had nothing to match the new fighters, and everyone was scrambling to come up with something better.
The Fokker corporation decided their best course was to turn the E.III into a biplane. They first came up with the M.17, a direct conversion, except it was powered by the older Oberusel U.0, an 80-horsepower 7-cylinder engine.
M.17, werke number 433
At the same time they developed the M.18, the same airframe except powered by the 100-hp Mercedes D.I.
M.18, w/n 434
Anthony Fokker himself in the cockpit.
While they were nimble planes with good performance, and had an excellent view above and all around, downward visibility was practically nil, which is bad for a fighter and even worse for landings.
Fokker immediately came up with a second pair of prototypes. Werke numbers 499 and 501 were still called M.17 and M.18 respectively. W/n 499 still carried the 80-hp U.0 engine, but the inline motor in 501 was upgraded to the 120-hp Mercedes D.II. These were tested in April 1916. Idflieg wanted more stability and agreed to purchase both types if the wings were extended to two bays.
The Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppe ordered 22 of the single-bay M.17s and 6 of the two-bay versions, both designated B.II, as well as 16 of the inline-engined two-bay M.18s, designated B.III.
Idflieg purchased the M.18s first, which led to them being designated D.I, with the earlier M.17 being called D.II. They would later build a biplane version of the E.IV, called D.III, and then the D.IV, powered by the 160-hp Mercedes D.III engine.
THE MODELS
Twenty years ago or more I built a vacuform kit of the Fokker D.I, while a couple of my gaming friends built models of the D.II. One of those friends moved away and I ended up in possession of his D.II model. In my recent plans to build a complete set of planes for our game, I purchased a Meikraft kit of the D.I, and HR Models resin kits of the D.II and single-bay Austrian B.II. Normally expensive, the price was right so I grabbed them, planning to pick up the others later. I would build the complete set and then give my older models away. The first stage would be a "three-fer". I planned to build the B.II, D.I and D.II at the same time.
Recently I began looking around for kits of the later D.III and D.IV, only to find there aren't any. Some were made, back in the day, but are now impossible to find.
This of course led me to change my plans. My intent is now to rebuild my old D.I kit, bringing it up to my current standards. I will convert the B.II kit into a D.II, since the only difference is the longer wings of the latter. The D.II kit I own will be converted into a D.III, and the D.I kit will be modified to represent the D.IV.
So, the first stage is to tear apart the old D.I kit and rebuild it. It needed repairs anyway, some of the struts being gone. I took out the rest of the struts, and this is the model at the starting point.
