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Encore Fokker F.I


csavaglio

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As a mental break from the mind destroying U-2 and half heartily started Sr-71, I decided to go back to my WWI modeling roots. Recently, I mulled through the Encore Albatros and I've had the Encore Triplane in the stash for a while. I built the Roden Dr.I boxing years ago and it was a pleasure of a build. Of course, there were a few sticking points here and there. At the time, I used the Cutting Edge decal sheet, Copper State spandaus, and the Eduard PE. I think the PE is a must, if nothing else, just for the seat belts and the triangular frame for the ply panel in the interior that Roden missed. The Encore kit is great in that it's pretty much a one stop shop. If you find it on sale, sometimes it's cheaper than the basic Roden kit. I think I picked this up when it was in the Squadron flyer on sale, on top of a Squadron 25% off everything sale.


Anyhow, I'm off to a good start so far. I started this over the weekend. I remember the outer struts being a tight fit, so I wanted to get the wings together and get those fitting right at the beginning, instead of sanding on them and wrestling with them after paint. Most of the fitment issue is with the middle wing.

 

I also sanded off the straps on the axle wing. The tripes didn't have these. There were some other access panels I'll have to scribe in though.

 

The engine is a nice little resin setup with slightly tedious separate cylinders. These mount to the resin crankcase. After that, I added the plastic rear mount and intake tubes. The plastic pushrods were a bit on the thick side, so I just used the little ends and made new ones out of .020" rod stock. After it's painted, I'll add copper wire, pulled from some electrical wire, as plug wires.

 

The plan is to do Voss' airplane. The two F.I's were pretty boring paint jobs compared to the colorful Dr.I's, but the face on Voss' plane adds a little interest.

 

Chris

 

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Just a little progress visible. I spent some time cleaning up the various parts. Most WWI planes are relatively simple, so all the parts cleanup, especially the mold lines with Roden kits, can be done early on and the rest of the build goes pretty quickly. I also did some paint work on the various interior parts, like the seat, frames, etc. I used the PE parts as a guide for where the ply sections are. They will cover up the demarcation between the "wood" and "linen" sections. I wanted to get all of the plywood parts painted, since the oils can take some time to dry, even with Japan drier used as a thinner. I used my usual wood painting technique of oils over an acrylic base. The green sections of the floor board will be repainted. I had a brain lapse and painted them before doing the wood sections.

 

Chris

 

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More progress this weekend......

 

Other than a few bits of brass and styrene rod, it's out of the box with the kit's photoetch. Of course, the photos help show mistakes you don't notice with the naked eye, so some stuff has to get touched up.

 

Chris

 

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Taking a break from the spyplane, I've been tinkering with the little Fokker off and on.

And it brings some complaints about the fit of the Encore added bits. The resin parts in general are less than great fitting. The cowl's not bad, but the ailerons don't line up with the kit's hinge points and have about a 1.5mm gap at the inside edge. The corrected forward deck took some hefty sanding and wrestling to get to fit, including with the center wing. The tail plane did too. The resin engine, when combined with the plastic parts, sits too far forward from the firewall for the cowl to go all the way to the airframe. I bored the hole in the firewall a bit and did the same to a lesser extent to the inside of the cowl for the prop shaft. The bit PE part that goes under the chin was completely different in shape from the fuselage, so I just scored along the panel line and kept the access hatch.



The last complaint is with the kit itself. The fit of the fuselage haves leaves a bit to be desired and there's some sink marks to fill just forward of the wing spar on the underside. Really, though, the basic kit parts just need a little filler and filing to be ok. I don't remember much of an issue when I built the basic kit 4 or 5 years ago and I used Eduard's set on that.

The MG's are, of course, fiddly to get together, and still some bending of PE to straighten up, but otherwise done.

However, all that being said, the Encore stuff corrects a lot of issues with the kit and adds some good detail. With the PE stitching pieces, it covers up the big bottom seam and the PE hatch covers most of the sink marks.

Anyhow, it's coming along. Still a lot less work than the U-2.....

Chris

 

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Edited by csavaglio
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Guest Peterpools

Chris

Nice work on the Fokker. Sure is looking as you have all the major issues under control an behind you at this stage.

Looking good

Keep 'em coming

:popcorn: :popcorn:

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