private_hell

Here I present my build of the Fokker DR.I #425/17 in its early days.
This Meng kit is well detailed and mine presented additional work due to mis-aligned mold halves, in addition to the usual warped wings and broken fuselage panel.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking in!
 

Ok team
I'm back!  My son got his all clear a couple of days ago after 3 months of chemo after his surgery etc...what a road!  He's still really sick but we can plan the next stages.  Apparently 6 months to fully recover.
 
Before I go any further I really do want to say a MASSIVE thank you to all of your emails, PM's, comments and responses here and on BM.  In dark times this was a real comfort to me as we went through with such uncertainty.
 
I've tinkered on the Phantom which as I said before has been nice going to my happy place to tinker.  Of course I have not achieved a lot since completing the outer wings and work has focused on the back end again.
 
I cut the horizontal stabs attach in half to enable better painting of the metal 'hot'area and a nice tight fit.  Here is one just balanced in place

 

 
Time to stop ignoring this as I need to put the stainless strip around the edge so the burner can rebates nicely in and then onto the keel structure the tailhook mounts to

 
So some 0.3 x 0.4 strip (thicker than it needs be so I can sand it into the correct fuse contour) to leave a thin lip

 
Starting to scratch it down here

 
Now here is an interesting Brit Toom shape that needs explaining.  The back flanks have an unusual shape tapering back to the reheat cans, see here....
 
See that ridge/contour change?  You can only see it at certain angles (photo courtesy of Mark Taylor cropped down)

 
Looks like this...roughly

 
Mark Taylor photo again

 
And unknown photographer sorry

 
But the closer/more you look, you will see it on the actual airframe
 
So off I go...

 

 

 

 
Close, I just have to tighten the gap a tiny bit and continue on templating and matching both sides.  Then onto the end of the keel beam where the hook attaches
 
Thanks for your patience and I now gotta get a good look around later on to see what news and builds I have been missing out on!
 
Onwards and upwards Anthony

So the last few day have seen more colour going on, I still have the underside to paint, the preshading is still visible in places. 
 

I'm calling it done!
 
 
Enjoyable

Hi everybody!
Haven't done much lately! Only painted the roundels on the upper wings and filled and sanded the struts on the lower wings.
So no big progress at all.....

 

 

 

 
I used Alclad's Mil Spec Colours because I think they are a close match to the original ones and they are airbrush ready...
 

 

 
And taking care of the struts on the lower wing...

 
 Cheers Guy's

So today was a bit of mucking with the outer wing sections, a little shimming etc, almost finished now, but a realization I REALLY must finish that stbd upper wing surface
 

 
Just looking at this, I realized I have some archer rivets still to add to the top, the circle to represent the wing locking pin and make better fuel vents
 
And a couple of overall shots to remind myself what I am building LOL
 

 

 
Thanks for tuning in...now, back to that upper wing!
Cheers Anthony
 
 
 
 

Thanks Derek, its always nice to hear a more technical explanation to these mods
Yup, @Gene K did us proud!
 
Awwwww thank you!  You are too kind.  I think it is an illness LOL.  Nice to know you have been following along, a man of your calibre....thank you!
 
Hahah sorry mate!
I'm not trying to find them....cos all it dos slow me down!
 
Great to catch up last weekend at the airshow mate!  Thoroughly enjoyed catching up with you...we needed more time though.
 
Thanks!
I use a ''Rosie the riveter'' tool.  There are various ones on the market, but essentially like a cog on the end of a stick.  I have varying ones for different spacing.  Then I go back over with a compass point to make the square indentation into a round dot. Sometimes I also use a 0.2, 0.3 0.4mm etc carbide drill (I buy cheap from China as they break easily when they are as thin as a hair)  for various fasteners or rivets so they will accept a wash where I want later on.
 
Awww thanks buddy, 
Family is struggling with dealing with my 19yo sons cancer.  The Chemo is brutal and it is hard to watch.  I have recently realised that going back to my Phantom model has been a nice distraction and put me in my happy place for short periods of time....quite nice actually this hobby for those reasons.
 
So as many of you now realize my wife and I are dealing with our 19 year old son having cancer in 4 places in his torso area.  we've been through all sorts of scans, tests, then surgery and now about to start week 4 Chemo treatment on Monday (week three has been especially tough, I cant imaging how round 2 /week4 is going to be on the poor bloke.  Anyway we manage somehow.  My concentration span is not very long right now but the big Phantom this week has been nice to work on to ''escape'' for a little while.
 
So as you can imaging not a lot of progress, mostly because I have not been home much.  But progress none the less.
 
Having said that, these outer wing panels have been extremely labor intensive.  Also made the template to set the correct outer wing dihedral 

 
Archer rivets going on....terrible photo sorry

 
Mr Surfacer 1200 on

 
Just got a little tidying and a hinge reinforcing plate to add

 
Now these are practically finished I can get on and finish the upper wing surface details on the stbd wing
 
As always thanks for stopping by and hope it is of some interest
 
Cheers Anthony
 
 
 

Episode 2: Painting
Paint is Gunze Sangyo acrylic RLM78
 

Calling this one done.  Following are a few photos of the Dr.I; I will post better shots in the RFI thread when I finish the base.  This was mostly a fun little build and I am happy with the end result.  
 
Ernest
 
 
 
 
 
 

A double update today as I have finished both the cockpit and the engine.  Both went together well and I think they pretty accurately portray the  actual things.  Meng did a fine job here.
 
The leather effect looks decent now that the oil paint has dried.  It has the satin sheen of actual leather, and that is why I like using oil paint to simulate it.

 
Overall photo of the cockpit looking towards the port side.  The only things I added were an HGW seatbelt, the bracing wires and control lines, as well as the bevel rings on the three gauges that I mentioned previously.  The fit was excellent though care was taken joining the rear part of the cockpit assembly due to the rather fragile nature of the "tubing". 

 
Overall view looking starboard.

 
Overhead view.  The cockpit is very compact and uncomplicated.  I added a light brown wash to the seatbelts as they were pretty bright.  

 
A macro shot of something that will not be seen again after the fuselage is closed up.  A bit of a shame as both the wood grain and runs of the control lines look the part.

 
Macro of the seat and seatbelt.  Getting the seatbelt positioned was fiddly.  I had considered drapping it over the side of the fuselage, but the chest strap would have made draping it realistically problematic, so I chickened out and took the easy solution.

 
A final macro showing some of the control lines.  

 
Following are some photos of the engine which is built oob with the exception of adding ignition wires.
 
A poor photo of the base parts painted.  I decided to airbrush everything so masking took about 4 times as long as painting.  I opted not to paint the two parts at the top of the photo as they will be inserted into the aircraft and I did not want to chance fit issues.

 
The base colors are stainless steel and aluminium by Mr. Color and copper which is Tamiya.

 
I sprayed a base of gloss black and then oversprayed the Mr. Color stainless steel in a downwards manner to keep the gloss black showing in the recesses.  The fit was very good as well.

 
Not the best photo, but here is the completed engine.  The copper pipes took some work to get fit correctly but nothing dramatic.  You can make out the ignition wires that I made by cutting some very tiny copper wire to 11.5mm lengths and attaching them to the spark plugs and ignition ring.  I went ahead  and painted the spark plugs gloss white with a copper tip though you really can't see that unless you use magnifers.

 
Rearview of the completed engine.  I'll weather it later just before it is installed in the fuselage.

 
 

So i finished painting the tail boom, to me looks quite nice so far, had to use a black background for the pictures, never thought helo drab color will be that hard to photograph to show the weathering as it look with the naked eye
 

 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a look, more thanks to those who offered comment and high praise to those who offered information/advise.
The last few pictures have been posted...in RFI
I usually don't post in RFI but this time I took a chance.
Thanks again folks

Work has moved to the oil coolers, other than the engine cowls all the kit parts are now fully involved ('cept those crazy looking wheels) I've shortened and re-profiled the oil cooler housings to better represent images of the real thing's coolers. I've also added vanes to the coolers, boxed them in and added RB Productions cooler matrices (on one side)
the modified one on the left, kit part on the right

work in progress

test fitting

 

and a quick dust off of the bench and stuff it all together for a look at what I've got

Thanks for looking

Day 104 added the Cargo Hook and made sure it could swivel. We rarely used it except during our annual qualification which required us to lift a 55 gallon drum full of cement around an LZ (Landing Zone used for training).

Calling this one done.  The following photos are not the best.  When I finish the ground work I will post better photos of the diorama I am making that will include the two figures I made for this build in the "Ready for Inspection"  section.  Thank you everyone that visited the build and for the many kind comments!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The gun is a very critical part of this build because that's the first thing we will all look at  
 
The gun was stripped of all details earlier. These were IMHO too small and bound to be erased by sanding anyway.

 
The front face of the gun casing was sanded alongside the thin red line.
I initially decided not to mount the gun but I realised that the barrels at least need to be visible through the front vent. So I quickly assembled the barrels and gave them a quick coat of MRP gun colour before attaching them in place.
 

At least now the bottom plate of the fuselage can be glued in place and sanded fit with the rest of the fuselage. That took quite a bit of efforts
 
A strip of aluminium foil was cut to shape to provide the attaching plates of the gun casing to the fuselage. Once in place this was riveted with negative rivets.

 
The two real gun casings (top & bottom) are joined together by screwing  horizontal plates together. 
To model these I cut two strips of 0.5mm plasticard and bore 0.3mm holes every 2mm in the length. I inserted metal rods in the holes to simulate the screws.
These will be cut more flush later on.
 
Rather than gluing directly the strips to the gun casing, I decided for a more sturdy solution. I cut the gun casing in the longitudinal axis with a 0.4mm saw.
that way I can insert the strip into the casing which gives a much more solid assembly.
 

 
I then had the pleasure to apply my first ever strip of Archer rivets (yeah, pretty late to the party)
I now hit myself for not having bought more of these before.
I somehow knew I would need these at some point but I never bought more than just enough to test them out. So I have one sheet and that's it - not quite enough for this beast and unfortunately I even missed the last chance to get these straight from Woody before he closed shop.
I'll console myself by trying GGW rivets on the top fuselage later on and I bought some Quinta rivets to try as well but I know that whatever happens I will miss Archer's rivets in my future builds
 
I cleaned the rivet film with Daco Strong decal solution. I figured the film would be visible after painting, so I wanted to dilute it clean. I initially worked with Mr levelling thinner which worked great as well but might be messy when applied on a coat of paint.
Daco decal solution is my go to decal product since I realised that it works way better than Microsol and Microset. And this seems to dilute the film just as well without destroying the paint under the rivets. 
 
I will know for sure after the coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 which is now drying.
 

The gun front end candidate was chosen.
Master wins ten to one against the resin castings - I didn't even consider the kit's offering which is a joke
both the resin offering are too large and don't fit the gun casing - which was sanded thinner quite a bit already. And that made my decision even more simple.
The Master gun is a gem offering way more finesse than resin casting could ever provide.
The barrels were left out as I need to paint them first before inserting them from behind.
 
Some final picture

 

 
Macro doesn't forgive you much. It's not as bad as it looks
I do need to cut these pin shorter, especially on the bottom plate, where it is basically only the screw head. 
 
Now switching to the top fuselage 
Thanks for looking
 

I add today Zactomodels BD3-60 pylons & APU-60-2, APU-23.
 







 

OK, so I somehow fluked this!  the fuse is wider as illustrated here, especially the front
 
Photo courtesy of @Iain Ogilvie where you can see nicely illustrated the extra width
Brit wing

 
And an American wing...look at the forward section at the wing box.  Sorry I dont know who to credit for this pic

 
After I trimmed the inner wingroot (on upper wing section) to match the fuse side I managed to get a lovely fit (this is just dropped on with no glue)

 
Pretty pleased at how well this came together considering all the work gone into the fuse mods.

 
Then @Derek B provided some actual measurements

 
The real test came when I measured up my model....to my surprise I got it right!  To within even a tenth of a mm!
PHEW
 
Starting to look the part now, for once I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel even though there is still a LOT of work to go

 
I think I will finish all the surface details and panel corrections on the upper wings before I glue them on
 
Thanks for looking in as always team...I love having you all along for the ride and help!
 
Cheers Anthony
 
 
 

yes, Matt, that seems to be the case.
which I am very sorry about, Italeri (formerly Italaerei) has made very beautiful and accurate kits in the past, with a linear progression today one might expect excellent kits, but no.
 
well, I started arguing with the landing gear while I was thinking about how to deal with the forward fuselage issue.
after puttying and sanding as much as possible (and also trying to make the leg rings a little more marked) I took the measurement of the chromed parts of the stems.

 
and went searching through my scrap metal for compatible chrome pipe sections. well, stroke of luck. I would say that we consider less than a tenth of a mm within tolerance.

 
and here it is, with even a little more offal glued together. others are missing, eh, including the forest of pipes and cables that characterize these modern LGs.

 

this simple modification allows me to adjust the compression of the nose gear, playing, once the model is finished, with the attitude of the aircraft on the ground. compressed,

 
and extended.
the wheels are the aftermarket resin ones, the kit includes two options: in vinyl, not too bad, but I don't like that material; and in plastic with a weight effect. nice rims, but tires mh mh. oh hem, even if you want the resins could be improved... then let's see if that's the case.

 
with this modification I could also make the nose gear slightly steered at will. but if in tailwheels it is veryn common to observe the tailwheel to be steered, in tricycles it is less so, and in modern ones it is rather rare, considering that one arrives at the parking stand by following painted lines on the apron which always end with a straight section, precisely so as not to leave the landing gear loaded asymmetrically.

 
unfortunately here ends the luck of the chrome pipes: all the others present (and there are several) have sections that are incompatible with my escort, no way.
while the various parts of the nose gear were drying, I did something else as usual. its compartment is detailed, but in short... it is true that once in the office whoever sees it, however, it could have been done better.

 
oh well, I have the Eduard set... let's go.

 
soon we will also talk about the main landing gear, small steps.
cheers, Paolo
 

And with time to spare...
 
Ready for Inspection
 

Thanks Zac, yes I feel like I have reached a bit of a milestone getting  that bit done
 
I never looked at it that way...thanks buddy!
 
LOL thanks!
 
That's good, because for a long time when I looked at it I could still see the 'J' even after lots of mod's, but for the first time I really felt like I crossed the hurdle and it looks like a 'Spey Phantom' now. Thanks
 
Yes I think so...I have poured over photo's for hours making sure I got this bit right as it is such a feature of the Spey birds.  yes the camera has exaggerated it a little and now the nose section is pulled up into place it looks much better.
 
Which leads me into the last update for the year as I am going away to Queenstown with my sister who is out from the UK with her family.
 
I managed to pull the nose section up to its correct position and am really happy with the way the new modified nose profile looks. Although a couple of panel lines will need shifting a little. 

 
Every possible type of glue, epoxy, bracing and clamps were used to hold the correct profile whilst everything set rock hard
 
It seems to have held out!

LOL what a mess in there....good thing you wont see it!
 
This now leads to a tricky and complex section of the conversion and that is that the radome is too long, but the fwd fuse is the correct length .  I have had lots of awesome info and help from several people and studied multiple drawings.  It's just really hard to figure out once the radome has 3mm removed (as per someone actually physically measuring one) where the deficiency is.  I have come to the conclusion that the forward fuse station 48.28 is slightly too far back.  This corresponds with the air conditioning ducts on the nose sitting incorrectly at that panel line when it should be further back.  I know most sand it back but it measures pretty well spot on.  I have opted to increase the frame station forward 1.5mm at this stage and I reckon I should be pretty close.  Maybe I have it wrong, but it all seems to add up and look correct on test fittings etc.  Thats how I will fix it anyway.  The Flightpath nose is very good but because I now have a slightly deeper profile it wont fit.
 
So.......3mm removed off the rear surface on my belt sander, then a cut along the lower line to open up the dia a touch, then where the tape is I will will make a couple of cuts to help with lowering the and holding a round radome section....well thats the plan!
here is where I am at

I am making it up as I go really, But this is the direction I am heading for now.
 
Well this is my last update for the year
Thanks to you all, your support to me has been amazing through 22.  Largely its because of your encouragement it might otherwise be on the SOD, every comment and 'like' is super appreciated and taken to heart!
I caught up with Kerry last night as he was down and enjoyed a drink together and for you buddy....thanks!!  Your help in CAD'ing up these parts would not have led to such a result so far and in many respects I consider this a joint effort, not just my model or work!
 
I will be on line but not at my bench, keep up all the amazing work chaps, and here's to a much better 2023!!
 
Cheers Anthony (who better go pack the car now as everyone is buzzing around the house LOL)
 
 
 
 

Nose is done.Next is tail rotor.
 

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm not really experienced at this vac thing but really enjoying the plastic carving. Although at some point I guess it's all gotta be glued together, hopefully it all fits at that time! 
 Still tinkering on the gear bays and adding what detail I can, from the images I'm working from.
Here's where the plastic butchery ended tonight;
 

The nice part about adding details to the gear bays, I make one master (card) pattern, flip it and I've got the other wing as well. The other wing may be seen in the bottom right corner of this image
 

 

Thanks for looking

Back to the Aux air doors, they're all finished but as usual I needent have put so much detail and structure in there as most of it wont be seen, but I am pleased I did it.

 

 

 
Cheers team
Anthony

So it is time to move on from the cockpit for now and get the last items in the fuse ready for epoxying the wing on.
 
Sadly I didn't take a pic of the 3 piece engine fronts before I epoxied them into the intake ducts.  These ducts needed a good clean as they were dusty from prev work.  Anyway I have them all sealed up and the Tamiya Canopy kit parts (excl the centre piece) back on and sealed with Tamiya masking tape to mitigate dirt and sanding dust getting in.

 
So back to the 'hot' end again
This is a very uninteresting part to paint but kinda tricky at the same time.  I used a base of Mr Color Titanium, then sprayed various mixes of greys and a touch of green.  Then washes and streaking with Tamiya weathering pigments.  I did my very best to copy photos and as much as I wanted it to look more 'dramatic' and exciting I just couldnt.  I used these as some of my refs
Photo credit Iain Ogilvie

 
Photo credit Dave Gledhill

 

 
Trying to get the streakiness to match

 

 

 
But you know what....once the cans are on and I dont have direct light shining up there you cant really se a lot anyway...oh well

 
Ok now it's back to the upper and lower aux air door interiors then I think I can get the lower wing on??
 
Cheers guys as always thanks and I hope it is of use to anyone wanting to tackle this.
Anthony