In Progress

Brad Cancian · 19 February 2006, 03:53 AM

Hi all,

Whilst slowly plodding away at my BE-12b kitbash project, I've been slowly dabbling away at the 1/48 Roden Fokker D.VII (Fok early). I've built the Eduard Fokker D.VII (OAW) so I thought I'd compare and see why the Roden kit is only half the price of the Eduard kit.

So far I have only done the cockpit.

The cockpit seems more basic on the Roden kit. The ammo feed chutes are much more simple than the Eduard kit and appear to be the wrong shape. Roden has adopted a much simpler approach to the seat mounts than Eduard. For some reason, Roden have neglected to include the throttle on the port side of the fuselage. Of course, Roden also does not use flashy etched metal that Eduard does. Negatives aside, Roden included the double handled control stick pt side (unlike Eduard), and overall the cockpit is still quite well executed and looks good to me. The only additions needed are the throttle, instrument and compass gauges, control wires, as well as some seat belts. I also made some cushions for the seat from putty. Being an early Fokker built machine, the sidewalls are CDL and only the fabric behind the seat is lozenge. I am planning on trying my hand at the classic Fokker streaking on this model once it is together. Next step though is the engine compartment - here the Roden kit appears much better than the Eduard kit....

All comments/criticisms welcome!
BC

StephenLawson · 19 February 2006, 10:42 AM

Greetings Brad;

I am sure you have thought of this but this is what I do. I drill holes through in the locations marked on your panel as red spheres. On my build for the sake of clarity I used black patches to show the areas. In the shadows its hard to see well.

Kitboy · 19 February 2006, 11:54 PM

Quote:

here the Roden kit appears much better than the Eduard kit....

Well the Roden kit provides more, but better......? I don't know, it took me a lot of sanding and pré fitting before I got the whole thing acceptable. I choose to leave one side open and put the panels ont the other side.

Greetings, Nico

StephenLawson · 20 February 2006, 09:53 AM

Roden vs Eduard; My personal preference is the Roden kit for detailing and I discussed the differences here and in the reviews I published on my website. It just depends what you are looking for. The Eduard kit is as good but is aimed at the casual builder. Current Eduard kits are all aimed in this direction. The Roden kit even as good as it is, benefits from some modifications. The ammunition feeds and belt collection ports are just two that you can make.

Kit manufacturing is aimed at simplifying the production of the kit...to keep it simple for them (to produce) and easy for the modeler (to build.) Then we modelers try to put the details back. The last thing a model manufacturer needs is for anyone to think their kit(s) can't be built easily or at all.

The reason that manufacturers are supportive of websites like IM or MM is because it helps them. Truth be told If our own field was bigger in interest they would probably be beating down Webmaster's door as well.

Brad Cancian · 26 February 2006, 03:12 AM

A quick update to this build.

The fuselage halves are together, but they suffered some mismatches both vertically and longitudinally. The engine firewall was also mis-aligned - the way Roden break the fuselage down means the part is free to flex around the cockpit area. Nothing a little bit of careful aligning and some sanding couldn't take care of, but again this area poses no problems on the Eduard kit as Eduard doesn't break the fuselage at the engine compartment like Roden does.

The lower wing comes in 4 parts (upper and lower halves, plus tips) as opposed to Eduard's single piece offering - again not the best fit but nothing sanding couldn't fix. The fuselage to wing joint was a little rough, some careful sanding is required to get the correct dihedral and a snug fit. Again not so bad though.

Today I finished the engine compartment (I always intended to have the compartment open, utilising the fine open engine panels from the PART photoetched set for something different) - here the Roden kit outshines Eduard. Roden offer a full engine compartment, including all support and fuselage structure. Unfortunately, the fine structure was hard to get off the sprues without breaking (and a number of the parts were already broken on the sprue), and was difficult to clean up. That said, I found it all went together well, with only some parts needing to be persuaded into alignment. I added some wiring and rocker springs from fuse wire - my reference photos show the engine bay was pretty devoid of much else other than the engine! Here's some pics with the PART side panels in place:

The cowl is painted black as I intend to model Lt Kraut's D.VII of Jasta 4. This is my first stab at the fokker streaky camouflage - the pic I have of this aircraft shows a fairly uniform streak pattern so I tried to replicate this. I used thinned Yellow Ochre and Black oils mixed to varying degrees over a CDL base. It's ok for a first try but I think I will try something different next time...

That's it for this update, all comments welcome!

PS: Stephen - I have also taken your advice and I have hollowed out the solid gun feed chutes - it looks much better now!

Cheers,

BC

aviators6 · 26 February 2006, 09:39 AM

thinking of tackling a Roden DVII myself. just great detail and painting

G. Scott Long · 26 February 2006, 01:43 PM

Nice work, Brad! Tell us more about what you used and how you added the rocker springs to the engine.
best wishes, Scott

StephenLawson · 26 February 2006, 03:10 PM

Brad Cancian: Nicely done!!

John Masters · 26 February 2006, 09:09 PM

Stupendous work on that motor and interior! With all the 1/72nd I have in stock, I may have to invest in a 1/48 from Eduard or Roden.

Hmmm...

From the factory on the hill,
John

Brad Cancian · 27 February 2006, 03:04 AM

Thanks for the good comments guys.

Scott - the engine was detailed with fine fuse wire, my main reference being the Fokker Anthology series. The rocker springs are very easy to make - Just wrap some wire around a needle of the appropriate diameter, slide the wire off, and cut to the length you want - done!

Quick progress report - The horizontal stab and elevator are on - again they didn't fit onto the fuselage and required some trimming at the forward end. Also, the elevator needed some trimming to get a good fit on the stabiliser. The engine is also on, I have painted the rest of the fuselage (again I am not real happy with it

) and I have started the lozenge decals on the wing (currently undergoing multiple baths of Micro-sol!). Lt Kraut's D.VII was overpainted from life in a previous Jasta - as you can see this scheme is rather drab for a D.VII!