Merit 1/24 Fokker Dr. 1

[Out2gtcha]

Wow, that looks neat!   I think as long as the basic outlines are there on a kit like this, you can end up doing as much or little as one chooses.

 

Looking forward to paint! 

[Sparzanza]

Hey folks - I apologise for my inactivity. There's been a lot of stuff going on, some of it not so great.

 

A quick update for yous - the plane is now red. I don't like the weird olive green decals with weird brush strokes over them, so I'm just painting it the way I've seen it look most of the time - all red with a white rudder. I'll take pictures soon. Hopefully tomorrow after a glosscoat.

[Guest Peterpools]

Sparz

Glad you're back in the fold and at the bench again.

Peter

[Sparzanza]

Good to hear from you Sparzanza.  I hope life is treating you a bit better.  I look forward to seeing your progress on the Triplane soon.

 

Dan

 

Hi Dan, thanks for your warm welcome. I'll try to be a bit more active this time around.

 

Sparz

Glad you're back in the fold and at the bench again.

Peter

 

Thank you for stopping by Peter. I've been on the bench a bit on and off, but haven't really had the energy to photograph or show anyone. I think it's about to change.

 

Picking up where I left off, I did find some additional pictures of the construction process as I plugged my phone into my PC, but then it's a big jump to a near finished kit, so I apologise in advance!

 

Some tailplane, rudder, and photoetch work:

 

 

 

Ready for additional assembly and painting:

 

 

And this is how she stands now:

 

 

I'm thinking of doing some rigging on her after the decals, maybe someone can help pointing out where to place the fishing lines?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

[ClumsyDude]

Lookin' good Sparz. Good to see you back at it.

 

Jim

[Sparzanza]

Thank you Jim!

 

Well, er... a little update for yous. I accidentally bumped into the kit while cleaning the apartment, it fell into the floor, and... well the only thing that came off was the rudder, actually! There was that - and I managed to put a couple of fingerprints in the glosscoat of the wings when picking it up. That's it! Talk about lucky. However, since the plane was still curing the gloss coat I had put on it, the rudder will need to be repainted since it gathered quite a lot of dust on its journey underneath the desk. Should be a quick process; I've already soaked it in oven cleaner and given it its first coat for Humbrol 22 gloss white - because why bother going over it with flat white and gloss coat again? The fingerprints on the wings was surprisingly easy to remedy - I thinned some Humbrol 35 gloss varnish with humbrol thinner 50/50 and just kept brushing it over the prints. Impossible to see where I picked it up! Very, very lucky.

 

Again, if anyone knows how the rigging looks on the Dr. 1, please let me know. I have never rigged a triplane before - or biplane for that matter - so I want to do it right!

[Sparzanza]

Figured I'd update yous with the rudder's shiny new paint:

 

[Sparzanza]

Thank you Dan - that is helpful! I am going to use fishing line as I don't really have anything else.

 

There are some lines around the tail I'm trying to get detailed pics of as well, not sure where everything goes:

 

[Martinnfb]

Hey Buddy, I am glad to see you back on it, here are some useful pics.

Cheers

Martin

http://wingsovereurope.com/fokker_dr1_triplane_walkaround.html

http://www.ronsandsreplicas.com/Fokker_DR1_Photo_Gallery.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://memorial.flight.free.fr/indexuk.html

[Martinnfb]

and lastly the vintage aviation webpage it's a must

http://www.vintageaviation.net/dr1_close_ups.htm

[TonyT]

The tail plane did have a panel line where it joins if you look at this

 

http://wingsovereurope.com/ww%201%20fighters%20gallery_3/Fokker%20DR-1%20Triplane%20F-AZAQ%20LFFQ%20(6).JPG

 

http://www.air-and-space.com/20060521%20Chino/DSC_6067%20Fokker%20Dr1%20replica%20right%20side%20in%20flight%20l.jpg

 

http://wingsovereurope.com/fokker_dr1_triplane_walkaround.html

 

Absolutely stunning work and model, you should be proud.

Edited May 28, 2016 by TonyT

[Sparzanza]

Thanks for the links Dan, Martin, and Tony! It will help the rigging for sure.

 

Another setback, however... tried my hand on a quick decaling session; starting with the upper wing crosses - but the decals were ridiculously thin and just fell apart when trying to position them! GAH. Well, the sheet came with another set of crosses, but this means I will have to paint the white fields on the wings myself. Shouldn't be hard, the fields are pretty large and I just need to mask carefully. I'm just afraid of painting them too thick - as white doesn't exactly have a lot of covering power - and creating those steps that nobody wants.

 

I'll keep yous posted.

[Sparzanza]

Surgery went better than expected. Just some sneaky tape liftoff mid-session on the bottom wings which can be seen on the last picture; I'll sort that out in a jiffy. Other than that, happy with the result. This was all done in a single session, so Humbrol's gloss white is better at covering than I expected. I used my fine needle for the Badger and thinned the paint very thin, and simply went over it back and forth lots and lots, waiting a couple of minutes between each round.

 

 

 

 

[Sparzanza]

Ugh. These decals are absolute garbage. They stick to the surface like glue on the first go. You cannot reposition them. Glossy surface does nothing. I obviously tried with MicroSol, MicroSet, and just plain water. No difference. So... it all looks bad at the moment. Several decals broke when trying to just sligthly nudge them into better positions.

 

I might just toss it actually, because there's no way I can mask and spraypaint these crosses.

[cbk57]

It looks like a nice build, check ebay, maybe someone makes some AM 1/24 crosses that will work.  If not someone will in due course I bet.  Anyway you have a nice build even if you end up without crosses on so finish and throw it on the shelf until you can get some.