Jasta 74 Willy Hippert's DVII "Mimmi"

[davecww1]

Ok here's a question about a plane we are all familiar with, but at my current location I cannot find my photos of it. I know that it is an early production aircraft with various louvers added to the side panels & holes cut into the cowl panels for ventilation, and it also had an oxygen bottle mounted to the fuselage side, but does anyone know if it was built by Fokker, OAW or Albatros? Would the wings be in 4 color or 5 color lozenge? I have the Aeromaster decal sheet but it says it was a Fokker D.VII F. So that would be a BMW powered example. But they show salmon pink rib tapes which was used on Albatros built aircraft. So I'm thinking that something is wrong here, but hope that Dan San or some other expert knows more of the details of this checkerboard painted Fokker.
Thanks,
Dave

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Davecww1:
Dave I originally did Mimmi sveral years ago and sent the drawing to Greg. Greg and I collaborated on an article that appeared in Over The Front on Fok.D.VII aircraft. That drawing has been copied, miscopied and all that I seen, the artist have done it wrong.
1. It was built by Fokker Flugzeugwerke.
2. It is from production group of D.500/18 to D.526/18.
3. It is not a Fok.D.VIIF, it is powered with 180 PS Mercedes D.IIIaü engine. It is a Fok.D.VII.
4. The openings on the upper side cowlings were field modifications to reduce the heat build-up to prevent the auto-ignition of the ammunition. This series of Fok.D.VII did not have firewalls. First Fokker built D.VII with a firewall was D.4300/18 and subsequent.
5. The wings were covered with four color printed fabric. The dark pattern on the top surfaces of the wings, and the light pattern on the under of the wings.
6. The tapeing on the wings was cut strips of four color printed fabric, dark strips on top and edge tapeing, the light tapes on the bottom.
7. On the blue wheel covers are two six pointed stars 180º apart, and 90º to the stars were latin crosses.
It is irritating to me when see a drawing screwed up for lack of attention.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[davecww1]

Thanks Dan,
That confirms what I figured, knew that it was an early build and figured that someone in Jasta 74 would not get a BMW powered aircraft since they were hard to come by even for Udet & JG 1 & 2. Although Hippert definately got more than his fair share of blue, white and black paint! Also great to hear that 4 color lozenge & tapes were used. I will be working on my wings for the 1/48 scale Roden kit soon.
Dave

[davecww1]

Hi Dan,
Do you know if this production lot used lozenge over the fuselage or the early painted streaks over the clear doped linen? Just want to know what the interior should look like.
Thanks,
Dave

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Hi Dave:
Production lot that Mimmi came from, the fuselages were covered with four color printed fabric, the dark pattern on the turtle-deck and sides and the light pattern on the bottom of the fuselage.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[davecww1]

Much thanks. I finally found my Fokker D.VII Anthology vol. 1 so I can get the lozenge on correctly, am starting decaling the upper wing and interior fuselage tonight. I decided to use some of the Roden lozenge that has the red brown too light, I will give it a linen wash when dry to look like it is printed on the opposite side of the fabric. (in 1/48 scale I'm not going to bother with reversing the pattern, just want the idea of lozenge inside the fuselage and don't want to waste my Americal Gryphon stuff for the inside that can be barely seen when finished!)
Dave

[StephenLawson]

Greetings all;

Here is an earlier thread on the subject.

Click Here.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Daveww1:
Dave Fokker Anthology Volume 1 has got it wrong on the covering of the upper wing and the seam locations. The base seam is on the wing center-line. All Fokker built D.VII upper wings had the base seam centered between two cnter ribs. Look at OAW and Albatros skectches illustrating the seam location. Dave Roberts erred on the panel locations in Volume 1.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[davecww1]

Thanks Dan...but too late at least for me! I followed Mr. Robert's detail and put the center panel slightly off center, and did the entire upper wing lozenge last night. oh well after the rib tapes are applied it will be hard to see the seams (I hope) and with the Mimmi letters hopefully no one will notice it. It may not be 100% accurate but with the price of the americal 4 color lozenge decals (or if any an still be found!) I think I'll live with it!
Dave

[Dan_San_Abbott]

davecww1:
I was afraid I was too late. The problem is lot of the available information contains errors. Even mine, however, when I find the or are made aware of an error, I correct it, I don't protect it, by denial.
Blue skies,
Dan-San