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We take a look at a very limited edition set of decals from Aviattic for a Fokker DVII of the Ukrainian Galician Army, September 1919. Blue skies, Iain

Time to break out my little 'on the side project'... (I've been experimenting for some time with parts for this). I've always been fascinated by 'skeleton' models were you are able to see every little detail of the construction. So I have been harboring this idea for a very long time, to do a WWI aircraft as a skeletal version at some point. I did some initial test work on the S.e.5a project but never went with it. The work with the trusses for the 'Portalkran' for the Arado, was a test to see if something like this would be possible. And it made me want to 'Take the Bull by the Horns'... Some time ago I got this wonderful book of the Fokker Dr. I and it's full of detailed renderings of the parts for this iconic aircraft. Together with some scaled up drawings from one of the Windsock Fokker Dr. I Datafiles... It's a strange feeling, not having a kit to begin with. (Got some Roden 1/32 Fokker's in the stash as guide for the build) I've collected some aftermarket parts which could become useful for this build. Aviattic's cowling and stripped rudder. 'Part' and Tom's Modelworks photo etched detail sets. Brassin Spandau machineguns. CMK resin rotary engine. I've seen Eduards Stripped down Fokker in 1/72 scale and some larger scale models done this way, but none in 1/32 scale? I'm sure it will be a challenge and it will most certainly drive me crazy, nevertheless I will give it a shot, lets see how it goes... Cheers: Kent

I have recently finished reading "Winged Victory" by VM Yeates. I highly recommend it and it has inspired me to break out my WNW kits. I was so inspired that I have started all three - an Albatross DV, a Fokker DVII (OAW) and a Camel BR1. I thought I could move these along together but am finding them so difficult that they will follow one after the other. I am concentrating on the Albatros for now. As these are my first WNW, I have a few observations. Anyone who builds these kits and produces a great result is a genius as far as I am concerned. The fitting of the parts is so tight that a coat of paint makes it difficult to slot parts together. I think that is actually quite poor. Surely, it is easy enough to allow a few extra microns to cope with paint? I am sure this has been covered before in this forum, but it is bugging the hell out of me. The quality of moulding is simply amazing. A great deal of research has obviously gone into getting the kits as accurate as possible. Lots of small parts mean that the carpet monster is being fed well and my Albatros cockpit will be minus a few essentials. Obviously, these were stripped out on the real aircraft to save on weight. Honest... The instructions are beautifully produced. It would be nice if they actually showed how things went together. WNW says to read them at least three times. Yeah right. Again, this is bugging me. A decent rigging diagram would be good that actually showed where the attachment points were and that clearly showed where each cable ended. Maybe this will become clearer when I start rigging. Finally, there are errors in the instructions for the Albatros. The compass decal is incorrectly called out and I only spotted it after I have put it on. Fortunately, I could correct it. I decided to try acrylics for the wood grain and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this worked. For a first attempt, I am happy with it and may get better as the Fokker and the Camel come into play. I managed to get all the wood done and varnished inside a day, which is lightning for me. Overall, this build is a bit of a trial for now. I am looking forward to progressing and finding the enjoyment that is surely there. Anyway, enough of me, pics to follow at the weekend.

Hi all, This is my recently finished Fokker Dr.I in the colours of August Raben's bird. The decals are Eagle Editions and the paint is MRP. Some use of Aviattic rib tape and fabric decals, as well as some Uschi wood decal. Guns are MASTER, and the prop is from a WNW Fokker D.VII kit. Used ammo chutes are also from the WNW Fokker D.VII kit. For this build, I used the Roden F.I kit, but used the parts for the production Triplane version. As well as some of the Encore PE extras, I also used stuff from the PART PE set, such as the ammo bins etc. Quite a lot of thinning of the upper cockpit deck and modification to comfortably use the new ammo bins. Watch out for this build in the next issue of Military Illustrated Modeller, available at all good newsagents and the online store!

Built this for one of our club members who supplied the pilot figure you see in the pictures. My first Roden kit, and only my fourth WWI kit. The idea was to build a dirty, worn aircraft, so I've added some mud and some battle damage and overall wear. This is the Roden kit, out of the box with Eagle Cal markings for the most part, Vallejo Model Air acrylics over the White primer. The green/olive was done with acrylic water colors, olive green and titanium white and a tiny spot of burnt umber. The engine was done with the Vallejo metallic acrylics and black and brown washes. Propeller is vallejo wood applied over a coarse scratched propeller to simulate the wood grain, followed by a wash of burnt umber that was allowed to sit for a minute, then wiped off with dry paper towel. That left just a little bit of the dark color in the grooves from the coarse sanding. My approximation of some battle damage: Fun build and always like to show a dirty and worn aircraft. I need to get much better about doing the rigging, EZ line in this case but I need to find a way to attach it in a much neater fashion. Thanks! Chris

Hello, Special hobby is announcing this: http://www.specialhobby.net/2017/03/sh32065-fokker-dii-132-pripravujeme.html Kit is about to produced in similar technology as Bristol M.1.

I'm working on a WWI Roden Fokker Dr I with the olive streaked camouflage. I've exceeded the picture limit for a message so apologies for having to cut some photos. This is my first try at this, and instead of using oils, I'm using acrylic water colors over a base of Model Master Acryl, which is over a primer base of Vallejo white primer. Here is the palette: The fan brush didn't work for me so I substituted a 1/4 flat brush. The Burnt Umber really dominated the Olive so when using to try and get a darker olive, use sparingly... I ended up using the middle and right blobs of paint mostly and upper right is the flat brush. Using the #2 pointy brush I applied alternating lines of the middle green and the darker green: The advantage of oils is they don't dry as fast, but with these watercolors, a wet/damp brush works well. BUT this was the first try: WAAYYY too much burnt umber.... Ok, lesson learned... Better, but not yet what I wanted. Also I'm using the edge of the flat brush not the wide side, to blend. MUCH better control and thinner lines. So wiping all off and trying again... Now we are getting somewhere. I really need to learn how to shoot a video of this, but I use the edge of a slightly damp square brush and just go back and forth along the lines to blend them in. You will need to clean the brush often, but if the brush is too wet, then you will simply wipe the paint off. So Slightly Damp is the mantra. If the paint dries on you, then use a slightly wetter brush. Here I started on the wings: And blended: Left side: And the set: Middle set of wings are the base color. Middle left wing is still wet, but it dries to a very nice flat finish. Now I have since looked at this and thought the stripes were too distinct, so I did a light over spray with the base color (in this case, it is actually RAF interior green). Here is the my paint mule, left side over sprayed, right side with no over spray. And the Fokker wings, with the axle wing over painted with the base color: I'm sure I left a lot of steps out, so please feel free to ask and I'll answer best as I can. Chris

Revell's ancient kit (1957!!) 1:28 scale kit molded in red which I probably should have just left it but I just could not get away without putting a coat (or three) of paint on it. Red was harder to come out with than I imagined and the decals were very fragile (and not as opaque as I had hoped). Did this kit for some local activities that will commemorate WWI in 2017. I've never built a WWI plane before so the rigging was fun (and much easier thanks to EZ Line) and this seemed like an interesting subject. Very basic kit and the decals are who knows how old, but it all worked out in the end. Chris The prop looks nicer than the kind of monotone image in the pics. It has a gentle grain to it as I used a coarse sanding stick on it. There we go! Chris

Hi all, Right in the middle of building the Silver Wings Fokker D.21 kit I reviewed recently. The fit is great. The instructions can be challenging. Instrument panel with Ammo Crystal Clear: Rudder controls, stick and floor boards: Some fitting: The Bristol Mercury engine: More pics here: http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/3688-silver-wings-132-fokker-d21/ Cheers, Jeroen

Here we go, all done.

She's all done and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out - here's the end result of the build, the original thread begins below the photo Well ADHD got me again, so sue me, this makes # 29 in progress. Have started building Wingnut's Fok. D.VII (OAW) with the goal of having it done no later than April 25th. The large local contest on the 26th has the WWI theme and I plan to take all of my completed wingnuts kits to display. This one will be the Sieben Schwabben (7 Swabians), available on this wingnuts decal sheet. Lozenge decals will be Aviattic and I can tell you, boy do they look beautiful on the paper. Progress so far: lots of thin strips of masking tape and preshading of some fuselage parts. Wings are painted now in Tmaiys XF-57 Buff. Ailerons will be a slightly different shade to vary up the finished look of the fabric once the decals are on.

Hello together, Here is my next project...... Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII in red color, pilot Ernst Udet. The legendary Fokker D.VII is widely considered the best German fighter aircraft to emerge from the Great War, it was certainly the most numerous and as such was the only aircraft specifically requested to be surrendered in the Allies armistice terms. In early 1918 the young Jasta pilots were mainly equipped with Albatros D.Va, Pfalz D.IIIa and the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane which were no match for the SE.5a, SPAD 13 and Sopwith Camels that they faced each day. Fokker's prototype D.VII (the V.11) impressed the front line pilots present at the First Fighter Trials in January-February 1918 so much that word soon started to leak out about a new Fokker that would once again return air superiority to the Germans. So great was the need for this promising new fighter that, in addition to production at Fokker, Albatros were ordered to manufacture it under license at their Johannisthal (Alb) and Schneidemühl (OAW - Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke) factories, incidentally building almost twice the number of D.VII as Fokker! In keeping with previous Fokker design practices the D.VII featured a welded steel tube fuselage and tailplane along with thick ‘high lift' wings of conventional wood construction with steel tube frame ailerons. A few early production machines were powered by the 180hp Daimler-Mercedes D.IIIa but most production aircraft were fitted with the 200hp D.IIIaü, although a small number received the new Bayerische Motoren Werke 185ps BMW IIIa (rated at 230hp by the British) ‘altitude' engine. Interestingly, although only shown in a handful of known photos, some late production Fokker D.VII were powered by the long outclassed 160hp Daimler-Mercedes D.III engine. Initially supplied in small number to the most experience pilots of the elite Jagdgeschwader 1 from late April 1918 the Fokker D.VII quickly started to make a name for itself and allied pilots suddenly found that they could no longer count on their superior performance at higher altitudes. Supplies of the BMW IIIa were very limited with almost all available engines being allocated to the Fokker factory who designated D.VII powered by this engine the Fokker D.VII F. A small number of BMW IIIa engines reached the Albatros and OAW factories and were fitted into D.VII airframes but they did not receive any special designation such as Fokker's ‘F'. The exact number of BMW IIIa powered D.VII produced is not known. By the end of the Great War the Fokker D.VII was the main aircraft type equipping the German Jastas and despite the Daimler-Mercedes powered D.VII being very well received, it was the Fokker D.VII F fitted with the coveted BMW IIIa ‘altitude' engine that all Jasta pilots longed to fly. Any history of this important aircraft here is of necessity very brief so we encourage you to seek out any, or all, of the references listed below. (origin: website of wingnut wings) ... and that's it: Origin: www-deutscheluftwaffe-de I will use the gaspatch models rigging parts for the kit. Hope you will like the next project Cheers Michael