Old Iron Twin Wing Airplane......thing

[CGIMana]

Hello all.
I found this at a garage sale and was hoping anyone would know if it's worth putting on e-bay or bringing to an expert on this sort of collectible, or if it would even be considered a antique/collectible.

This is an iron cast twin wing, single engine, Japanese WWII fighter plane.
The paint is worn and scratched from what seems like years of storage pressed up against another poster or picture.
On the back, as part of the cast, is Japan 1159

Here is a lovely picture!

[ironlord1963]

Nice old plane, sorry don't know much about these kind of items, but looks like a German plane, a Fokkner (Spelling ?), but appears to be a Iron cross on the side of the plane.

[KC]

Doesn't anyone remember the Red Baron of Germany - his era used bi-wing planes.  Even Snoopy did!

This looks like "flat" wall art made in 2 D format?

[ironlord1963]

Yea that is what I thought it is a fokker WW1 german plane, Red baron's later plane, that he really didn't like.  These appeared at the end of the war.

[Kaytbell]

I'm always scrolling through the "want" ads of Craig's List.  This one person is always looking for military items, so I thought he might offer some help with your airplane.  I found his ad and posted it here so you can contact him via his C.L. email.  Good Luck and maybe he will be an expert on this kind of item.

Date: 2009-07-25, 8:42PM EDT
Reply to: sale-amdmt-1289090153@craigslist.org
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Buying Militaria of all Periods and Nationalities. Uniforms, Medals, Flags, Guns, Knives, Swords, Field equipment,ammo, and artillery shells - Just about anything Military- Yes Cannon, Tanks, and Aircraft too! Description and Pictures along with asking price or I'll make an offer. Will travel to look at quantities.

[CGIMana]

Wow, more help then I thought, faster then I thought.
I apparently I don't know how to count, because it is a tri-wing single engine airplane.

Thank you for all your help, but don't stop now!

[CGIMana]

This is 3-d somewhat, it is still flat, but has measurable physical depth.

[Chris_Marshall]

The crosses on the side and ruddder give us the hint that it's supposed to be German and it's made to represent a 1917/1918 Fokker Dr.I, where "Dr.I" is the abbreviation for "Dreidecker" (Triplane) Model 1. You can just make out the cylinder array of the 9-cylinder radial engine however that was never (like shown here) completely surrounded by a round hood with open front; only the lover four cylinders were exposed to the air flow - there are many photographs around that show what I mean. Cooling and engine lubrication problems were one thing but far worse was the bad internal structure which tended to fail even after having only received minimal damage. As ironlord noted, Manfred von Richthofen hated the Dr.I not only for the mentioned problems (it was also instable during certain manoeuvres), his main problem was that the third wing panel drastically decreased field of view, a fatal drawback during combat.

[KC]

Right on Chris Marshall!

By-the-way....I can count...sometimes!    It is a tri wing!!!