Gazzas Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Hey everyone, It's been a while since I posted a build here. I'm not good enough to be a slow builder, but there has been a lot of armor and other scale stuff that I've spent time on. Once in a while, there is a photo that pops up that just know you must do. Sometimes, I find that other modellers have already beat me to the punch, and I need to find another scheme. I did Wollf's D.Va by WNW a couple years ago, and although I enjoyed every minute of it, I felt like I was just 'assembling' somebody else' fantastic work once finished. This has caused me to give away the remainder of the Green Tail Trilogy decals. Likewise with this Fokker D.VII. This kit is actually the Fokker D.VII (Alb). But I have dressed it up as a Fokker D.VII (OAW). And here is my inspiration photo: I've probably gotten quite a few things wrong... but what else can you do when you have one picture? Guesswork. And a little help from some people who know more. Anyway... here are my results: Thank you for looking! Basta, Greg W, Model_Monkey and 23 others 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Buddee Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Ok Gazzas, We’re gonna need a lot more info on the beauty of a build! What all did you use to build this DVII? We’re did the markings come from? C’mon, inquiring minds (me in particular) need to know these things! Cheers, Wolf Gazzas and BiggTim 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg W Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 I like this a lot! Fantastic job sir. The wood propeller looks great and the decal work is really well done! Greg Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 (edited) Very beautiful and well built Fokker Gaz. You did a great job on the weathering and your hand painted prop is fantastic. I think the camo and the pilots individual marking make for an eye-catching scheme. Your photography is also very well executed! Ernest Edited July 8, 2020 by Greif8 Gazzas and BiggTim 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Turned out great Gary , love the prop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Wolf Buddee said: Ok Gazzas, We’re gonna need a lot more info on the beauty of a build! What all did you use to build this DVII? We’re did the markings come from? C’mon, inquiring minds (me in particular) need to know these things! Cheers, Wolf Wolf, Thank you! You give me too much credit. Except for paint, it's all OOB. The propeller and fuselage bands masks were made with my Silhouette Portrait. The cowling lozenge and tail stripes were all just Tamiya tape. The Lozenge is WNW decal toned down first with a mist of light gray and a second misting of the same light gray mixed with brown. The fuselage bands were painted with MRP lacquers. The rest of the the paint: lavender, dark gray green, light gray green are all hand mixed from Tamiya colors. The leather is by the Vallejo wood and leather set. Finally it's all matte coated with Alclad lacquer thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner. I'll tell you about my research. My research started last year. The first thing I looked for was German heraldry with three black diamonds, because I thought they were black. After a bit of work, I found a German family from the time of knights that had three black diamonds. The Coat of arms I found was granted to the town of Burbach by the West German Gov't a while back. The German word for these coats of arms is called Wappen... and much easier to type so I'll use it from here on out. So, this made the colors black, yellow, and blue... and our pilot would have been from The Rhein-Westfalen area. I was content with this for a while, but found the tones of the B&W image inconsistent with these colors. So, I laid it aside a while. A year later I asked anybody in a thread over at WWIaircraft models...dotcom etcetera etcetera about the photo at the top of this thread. And one of the guys actually got hold of one of those authors who've done a shyteload of those skinny profile books... and he passed one that it was most likely an OAW machine (built at Ostdeustche Albatros Werke) from Jasta 54, a Saxon unit that had a green and white striped tail that had 5 green stripes. The picture being taken most likely after the Armistice when Germany had to surrender all of it's Fokker D.VII's. The photo was likely taken at Saarbrücken. This very much welcomed information, caused me to renew the research. Now I needed a Saxon pilot, though I know there were often Bavarians in Prussian Jastas and vice versa. But the information on Jasta 54 is pretty slim. I looked at probably 1,000 German wappen looking for three Diamonds. I found white diamonds, green diamonds, and red diamonds. The green diamonds were a real possibility, but further research led me to the fact that the coat of arms was granted by the West German Gov't to an entirely new municipality around a convent. No good at all! Researching the Red diamonds, just to be thorough again took me away from Saxony. A couple other examples of black diamonds did appear, but these all took me away from Saxony. With all of my searching going nowhere, and frustration setting in, I hit upon the idea to find a list of Saxon cities. Bear in mind, that Saxony has changed sizes, more than once due to the Napoleonic wars and also that little thing we call WWII. But anyway, I found a list. So, I called up each city, looking up it's Wappen. Eventually, I came to Leisnig. Leisnig is a town first chronicled back in 1046. It hosts Mildenstein Castle with is over 1,000 years old. Here was my winner. I doubted that gold would have been an easy color to find. But the black, yellow, and red with 4 diamonds fit the rest of the puzzle. Gaz Basta, Greif8, AlbertD and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 4 hours ago, GDW said: I like this a lot! Fantastic job sir. The wood propeller looks great and the decal work is really well done! Greg Thank you, Greg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 4 hours ago, Greif8 said: Very beautiful and well built Fokker Gaz. You did a great job on the weathering and your hand painted prop is fantastic. I think the camo and the pilots individual marking make for an eye-catching scheme. Your photography is also very well executed! Ernest Thank you, Ernest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 3 hours ago, MikeMaben said: Turned out great Gary , love the prop Thank you, Mike! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobs Buckles Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 GazzTastic! Well done...Very well done! vB LSP_K2 and Gazzas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 13 hours ago, Bobs Buckles said: GazzTastic! Well done...Very well done! vB Thanks, mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Totally cool. With all of the D.VII references that I have (and I have quite a lot), I'd never seen this particular scheme before. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 For whatever reason, I had to temporarily switch to Chrome to actually see the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Great job on a very unique subject. Love those WNW D.VII’s. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 2 hours ago, LSP_K2 said: Totally cool. With all of the D.VII references that I have (and I have quite a lot), I'd never seen this particular scheme before. Thank you! I've only seen it in the one photo shown. I can't even remember where I DL'd it from. I'm more into Albatros and other sleek bodied fighters, but this was the one D.VII scheme that I had to do. LSP_K2 and BiggTim 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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