Voss axle wing

brian riedel · 15 April 2007, 08:56 PM

Howdy,

I've been trying to finish a 1/48 model of F.103/17 when I noticed in the text of the Phillips and Weaver article of F.102/17 and F.103/17 in Over the Front Summer 2005 issue that they believe the axle wing was streaked like the wing surfaces. Looking at the photos, I was under the impression it was solid olive and the streaky appearance was due to engine oil splatter.
What would be your thoughts on the subject.

curious,

Brian Riedel

tcrean7828 · 15 April 2007, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian riedel

Howdy,

I've been trying to finish a 1/48 model of F.103/17 when I noticed in the text of the Phillips and Weaver article of F.102/17 and F.103/17 in Over the Front Summer 2005 issue that they believe the axle wing was streaked like the wing surfaces. Looking at the photos, I was under the impression it was solid olive and the streaky appearance was due to engine oil splatter.
What would be your thoughts on the subject.

curious,

Brian Riedel

Brian,

I think that a lot of us have concentrated on the wings, cowling, aircraft, paint, cowling art, rudder, engine, machine-guns, ammo, on my thread " Voss ran out of bullets", but have not even thougt about the color of the axel wing.

I will have a go and look at the pictures I have of Voss and his aircraft and see what I can find out mate.

And then there is my files on Voss: Part 1 is 4.5 Megs of infomation and Part 2 is 5.5 megs of pictures of Voss and his aircraft. If you would like a copy of it, send me your e-mail address and I will send you a copy. Hopefully your e-mail can handle that size of file.

Other than that - hang loose and someone will enlighten you.

cul (see you later)

tcrean7828@yahoo.com

tom

Taz · 15 April 2007, 09:46 PM

Brian- The Dr.I axle wing tops were definitely solid olive and if the streaked language got into the final article, it was corrected in the next issue's letters section. There is a revised version of the article which we are trying to post on the OTF website which corrects a lot of errors in the published version. As soon as you publish, new info becomes available, naturally.

The Dr.I axle wing was covered with two pieces of plywood, one of which covered the top and wrapped around the leading edge to butt up against the bottom piece. The top piece was painted solid olive and the butt joint made the demarcation line for the light blue on the axle wing bottom. This is one reason many axle wings look solid olive, the olive paint wraps around and the light blue starts a ways back and is not visible on many photos. To that add castor oil stains and the light blue does not show up well in most photos.

The Fokker E.V/D.VIII axle wing was covered with only one piece of plywood, but I am not enough of an E.V/D.VIII specialist to know how they were painted. I believe most, if not all, Dr.I axle wings were solid olive on top and light blue on the bottom.

Taz
Terry Phillips

brian riedel · 16 April 2007, 10:40 AM

Howdy,

Thanks for the replys. As I had already painted it olive on top, blue underneath, and assembled the landing gear, I was not looking forward to correcting it if I was wrong.

tcrean7828, I have sent an e-mail requesting the Voss files. Thank you.

Brian Riedel

womenfly2 · 16 April 2007, 10:48 AM

Interesting!
Could someone post were the demarcation line between the olive and blue is on the DR.1 sub wing?

Thanks,
WF2

Taz · 21 April 2007, 09:07 AM

WF2- Here you go. Note jacking pads and joint fastener or axle support of some sort visible on left.

The light reflected off the snow is what allows such a clear view of the axle wing bottom of newly delivered Jasta 14 Dr.I 198/17, Ltn Werner's new aircraft.

Taz
Terry Phillips

Dr.I 198 17 WN 1916 Jasta 14 Ltn Werner Newly Delivered U.II Axle Wing Detail Forum.jpg

gipsymoth236k · 21 April 2007, 09:44 AM

Hi Taz!

Can you please post more information or photos to show the 'lower seam' of the F.I/Dr.I's two-piece plywood landing gear fairing? I would have assumed that it would have been (maybe) located near the bottom center-line of the aluminum box axle housing's wooden attachment stringer for the two-piece plywood seam attachment, and not near the leading edge where the upper solid olive and lower light blue color changes meet. Actually, come to think more about it, I believe (so far) that the meeting seam was probably located along the TOP of the aluminum box axle housing, as per typical Fokker-built fashion (see attached example). Sorry, but I believe that what you see on the left side of your photo as a "joint fastener" is merely some castor oil drippings (note that they do not also repeat on the right side). However, we do see the two jacking pads clearly in this fine photo!

Do you have more on the two-piece plywood meeting seam either way?

Also, here is my email for any more clear photos to send to me directly:

garysewal@aol.com

Thanks in advance Taz, Gary Sewall

Taz · 23 April 2007, 10:30 PM

Gary- I still think I see a fastener of some sort and you cannot see it on the right side because the light is not as good. Note the starboard jacking pad is very distinct, but the port one is barely a blob. I think I can see a butt joint, too. No reason for the olive paint to extend down that far otherwise. The wings all divide color at the middle of the leading edge, more or less. The three lines also look too evenly spaced (mother nature is hardly ever neat) and the same length to be castor oil and there are no matching runs on the olive green. Who knows? But I can definitely tell you where the color break is and now so can everyone else.

Which aircraft is in your photo? Obviously not a Dr.I. Everything is different including struts, shape, strut mounts.

Taz
Terry Phillips

gipsymoth236k · 24 April 2007, 10:05 AM

Taz,

The photo (via Achim) is of the Fokker V.I, a design just before the F.I/Dr.I Triplanes.

I disagree about the plywood upper and lower seam being located along the Dr.I wheel fairing's leading edge. I have a higher res version of this photo showing castor oil drippings ALL ALONG the leading edge in your more faint photo. The drips on the left side of your photo version DO indeed show up more clearly than the others, but look very closely at your photo and you too will see their evidence very faintly all along the leading edge. Also, the hand painted 'boarder' demarking the upper olive from the lower light blue color is seen to be very unevenly applied by the factory painter, and it is not done in a nice straight line, as if it were meeting a seam there. Again, I have NEVER seen any evidence a seam built into any Fokker wheel fairings at their leading edge location (so far!), therefore I would need more proof to see very surprising evidence of a different design for this fairing.

BTW, often we see more castor oil drips toward the 'outer' ends of these wheel fairings in the rotary-powered Fokkers because after engine shut down, the oil drips occur much more heavily from off the outer cowling edges than in the center faining area, but the entire fairing still gets a good spray during the engine's running.

Regards, Gary Sewall

Taz · 24 April 2007, 10:34 AM

Gary- I have an original of the photo so we will just have to disagree on this one. The thumbnail is 720 dpi and 50KB, the scan of my original is 2400 dpi and 375MB. The V.2 and V.3 came between the V.1 and V.4, but not much time.

Taz
Terry Phillips