Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII (Fok) 'Early' - Finished!

[Dpgsbody55]

Great work so far.  This is starting to look special.  

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Sam_D]

Huge day Sunday, got an enormous amount of progress done.

Kicked off weathering with a panel line wash using Tamiya dark brown panel liners. These are soooo good to use. Still a bit of blending and smooshing work do be done in this shot
 

 

 

The Fokker has some internal rigging, which I tackled using EZ Line 
 

Once rigged in place I used white glue to represent the wrapped linen sections. This is just brushed on and textured as it dries. 
 

Still drying here:
 

While waiting for the PVA to dry, I rigged up the control column trigger and throttle cables and pilots pedals
 

 

 

The Aviattic resin seat and cushion got a coat of AK3G paint, highlighted with orange and rust tones then a wash with Tamiya panel line wash dark brown in preparation for HGW seat belts
 

 

 

Then the floor could be glued in, along with the rear bulkhead
 

 

I ensured everything was sitting nice and square and straight by taping the fuselage halves together with the cockpit inside temporarily
 

Then the fuel tank/ammo can/spent belt can assembly was glued in
 

Once this was in, I used PVA glue again to simulate the wrapped linen around the upper fuselage bars
 

 

This was painted AK3G grimy grey then given a panel line wash with you guessed it, dark brown tamiya panel line wash
 

 

 

The engine mounts were cleaned up and assembled
 

Using the engine to ensure the glue dries with everything square and true
 

The cockpit can now be glued into the fuselage 
 

Rigging for the tail control surfaces was glued into the rear pass throughs
 

Then the fuselage halves were glued together. The tape all over the model is securing rigging lines which will be attached to the wings and control surfaces later in construction. Everything is now set aside for a bit for the glue to harden up.
 

SO yeah, a big Sunday at the bench!

Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RCPlym]

Outstanding! 

[Uncarina]

Exquisite work! I love seeing this coming together.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[crobinsonh]

Wow - great build!

[scvrobeson]

Amazing progress, and it's coming together blindingly quickly!

 

 

 

Matt

[panamadan]

Fine work.

[Martinnfb]

Masterclass work. 

[Troy Molitor]

Most entertaining.  Thank you for sharing this with us.

[Cicchino]

Sam, 

 

You really have a penchant for capturing the essence of these WW1 beauties. After watching your videos of your Dr.1 build, I am looking forward to seeing to seeing what magic you can work with the DVII. 

 

Regards

 

John

[Sam_D]

The fuselage is together, so the engine can go in:
 

 

 

 

Then the lower nose cowling insides can get a lick of paint, using Tamiya LP-11 and weather it with Tamiya Panel line wash stains
 

 

 

 

The cowling gets glued on and really firms up the front end
 

 

Then the lower engine underside panel gets glued on
 

The exhaust was painted up with various MRP metallic shades then stained with MRP Engine Soot. Ill add some more weathering once its all glued to the engine.
 

Thought I'd try my hand at painting a wooden prop whilst waiting for the glue on the fuselage to harden up.

A base coat of MRP light wood, then I made up a jog to hold a mechanical pencil super firmly, then I could spin the propeller around and make marks where to add the different wood layers. By varying the height of the plastic card under the prop raises or lowers the prop, staggering the pencil lines on the paint
 

Darker wood sections were brushed on, a couple of thin coats rather than one heavy one.
 

Then oil paints were brushed on to get the wood grain look
 

 

This was then gloss coated, the kit Axial decals applied, the centre hub painted, and the whole thing flat coated.
 

 

 

 

 

Technically it should have way more layers of wood, but for a first attempt im pretty happy with it!

While I was at it I also painted up a Niendorf propeller - ill save it for a future project
 

 

 

Sam.

 

 

[crobinsonh]

Loving your build!

[Sam_D]

The upper cowling was painted around the openings so they could be masked off. Didn't spray the whole thing as the join where it meets the fuselage sides will need to be attended to (to make it neat)
 

Mr Surfacer 500 was brused on
 

 

When dry It was cleaned up with a Q-tip dipped in AK real colours thinner
 

Which leaves a neat join There should be a panel gap here so the Mr S once cleaned up makes this super neat. 
 

The wing rib tape detail was given some pre-shading, with brown on the bottom and white on top
 

 

This was taped over with Tamiya 1mm tape
 

This was then oversprayed with MRP clear doped linen both bleached and unbleached.
 

 

This is where things took a turn. 

My aircraft is an early Fokker D.VII, and had the lower wing (underside) colour pattern on both upper and lower sides of both wings. I thought I could use Aviattic decals for this, but sadly their underside decal doesn't fit on the upper side of the wing. Boooo. 

So I resorted to the kit decals - which whilst being Cartograph, are super thick and a challenge to use. 
 

I tried a bunch of different setting solutions, including Micro Set/Sol (not shown) to get them to confirm. They either didn't work, or were so strong they stripped the colour of the decal, damaging them
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sam_D]

OOPS, pressed Enter too quickly 

Aviattic decals on the other hand, performed FLAWLESSLY
 

 

I did persevere with the kit markings, and was able to get them to adhere and somewhat behave. In this shot theyre still drying, so theres some lumps and bumps and bubbles still
 

These are Aviattic decals on the wing undersides and theyre just amazing. 
 

Seems a shame to paint over them, but thats what the camouflage calls for
 

The fuselage was masked up using Ammo velvet tape and the fuselage band painted with Gunze lacquers 
 

The kit markings were applied, these cracked and generally misbehaved. I'll need to do some running repairs to these, possibly overpaint.
 

The underside looks fantastic, with the markings, the overpainted lozenge and the replacement ailerons with factory fresh lozenge.
 

I decided to treat the damage to the decals as an opportunity to add some repairs to the linen, using other sections of lozenge decal. Rib tape sections and random square and rectangle shapes were cut from other decals and applied as patches, covering the damaged areas. Its not a bug, its a feature
 

 

 

 

Markings were applied to the fuselage too, using the kit supplied markings
 

 

The underside of the fuselage was painted the same blue as the underside of the wings.
 

I'll leave the decals for several days now to really harden up before doing any more touch ups and then applying a satin coat before kicking off weathering.


Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scvrobeson]

Really enjoying the progress Sam!  Sorry about the decal troubles on the wing, you did a great job to work around them.

 

Your pictures are super clear and informative, very nice!

 

 

Matt