Special Hobby SH48181 1/48 WWII Netherlands Fokker D.21 "Dutch and Dannish"

The Fokker D.21 fighter was designed for the use by the Dutch East Indies but because of the political situation it saw also some fighting over Europe. The FD-332 prototype took off for the first time in March 1936 and possessed rather high performance. Despite of that, the Dutch military hesitated with their order and waited until Finland and Denmark began to negotiate about possible licence rights for these fighter planes. (Finland produced their licence D.21s with two different powerplants, both of them are in our range of plastic models under catalogue numbers SH48073 and SH48078) In total 36 were eventually built for the Dutch military and these machines were, along with the twin-engined Fokker G.1, the very best which could the Netherlands use for its defence. The Fokkers were usually outperformed by their German counterparts which were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf110 fighters, but the smaller and lighter Dutch planes possessed much higher manoeuvrability which brought them sometimes an advantage in the combat. However, despite their heroic performance, the few Fokkers were not able to avert the occupation of the Netherlands. The story of the Fokker fighter in Denmark was even more sad as the Danish machines were not able to succeed against the German onslaught at all, the Luftwaffe's attack was so sudden and surprising that the Danish pilots failed to take their machines aloft. And yet, the Danish aircraft might have had the most heavy armament of all Fokker D.21 versions as the Denmark's military had been testing 23mm Madsen cannons on their machines.
The kit comes on five sprues with styrene parts and one sprue of clear parts, there are also photo-etched parts, resin parts and a decal sheet. The decals cater for two Dutch and two Danish machines.
In the morning of May 10, 1940, Dutch pilot Tlt. Bram "Bob" van der Stok in the cockpit of his machine with number 234 managed to shot down one Bf 109E and damage another one. Later, he would also become one of only three successful participants of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III prisoner camp. The second of the Dutch machines with no.221 was also rather successful, in its cockpit Tlt. Herman Doppenberg achieved one victory over a Bf 109. The Danish camouflage options offer two machines, a camouflaged J-47 and a silver-doped J-42 with cannon pods under its wings.

This is a plastic model kit, which comes unassembled and unpainted. So glue, model paints and other basic modelling tools are additionally required.