Battle Axe Fokker DVII 1/32

[StephenLawson]

Its not the first time WP got a scheme wrong but they relied on the old Profile series for that one. Too many louvres and no streaking. But Hey! Berthold could have had a later version. . .but just how late?

[Kofoed]

FOKKERJ,
Thank you very much for posting this profile. I have seen this, maybe even the same, many years ago, but abandoned it as not exact since I saw this plane in "Fokker Anthology" amongst others. After all, it may be correct, but then it's a later machine. On the photograph in the "Anthology 1" earlier mentioned (possibly the only one in existence of Berthold), the streaking is very clear. Just as clear is the fact that there's no louvres.
The one on your profile seems to be a mid-to-late production Johannisthal Albatros-built DVII. The arrangement of louvres fits good with the "retrospective" drawings of side panels in "Fokker Anthology 3", which deals with Albatros-built DVII's. Please note, that the side panels on later builds also had the rear triangle in metal. Also note, that the red painted nose now commences all the way to the blue paint at the middle of the cockpit. This is probably because the underlaying here was lozenge.

Stephen, thanks for the post. As you see, I agree that he might have had a later build as well. How late? Well, I'm not sure, but von Greim's well-known DVII seems to be from the same mid-to-late production series. Unfortunately the Werk-Nr. is unknown.

Thanks,
Kofoed

[Kofoed]

The wings demand extra care. They’re thick! Lots of grinding is necessary on the inner sides before assembly. After assembly the “scalloping” effect have to be made, there’s nothing of the kind. This in turn makes a thickening in the bottoms of the curves. I dealt with that by hollowing out a bit on the outside between the spars.
I cut the ailerons off. The division lines on the upper and lower halves don’t coincide. I knew that from the earlier mentioned thread. We’ll see how that turns out…..
I wanted to do things right, so I decided to put on the lozenge and rib tapes before I painted the blue upper side, again with a faint hope that the lozenge would show a little bit through. I figured this was how it was done on the real thing. At least the lozenge decals have something that looks like a linen texture, which, hopefully, will show through the paint.

In order to be able to sleep more tightly again, I finally decided to exchange the side panels of the engine department. I cut down the division line (luckily I hadn’t spent too much glue here), leaving the rear triangle and fabricated a pair of new ones from plastic sheet. I cut holes for the openings and made the doors to fit into these openings.
Also the triangular doors on the streaked olive section were made and put on. To quote “Fokker Anthology 1”: “The doors on the metal side panels were flush, while the triangular doors stood proud of the linen” (I just love that expression!).



Much may be said about the poor quality of this kit, but the other manufacturers may learn how to make a DVII undercarriage from BA. It’s geniously made. You put the undercarriage struts down the slots in the upper part of the axle wing, drive the axle through the holes in the struts, glue on the lower half of the axle wing and put the whole thing on the fuselage. It’s really that easy. All symmetric, you don’t even have to glue the axle or struts to the axle wing because of the very tight fit. On with the wheels, and that’s it.

After careful considerations I used the beautifully made resin guns. I know, I should have used the usual jacket, but man, these resins are really beautiful.
The fuel and oil filler caps are in place and so is the petrol gauge. I opted for the streamlined type, there were other variations, but I could find no firm evidence on which type was used for early Fokker build D-VII’s.






The rear leather padding is not yet painted here. And the leads for the ammo belts shouldn’t be this light grey. They will be painted black.

[Kofoed]

On the resin fret is a neat set of blast channels, so I opted to put them on. Pretty hard to find solid evidence on who used these and who didn’t. So I reckon they were put on all machines from factory and some decided to remove them in the field. They probably were in the way for the mechanics. I might be wrong, though.



Finally a view of the underside lozenge with rib tapes in the same material. I know from former threads, that these should have been thinner, appr. 0.8mm, but I didn’t think they looked right.



To be continued…… (it might take a little longer till next time, though. Pretty hard to find a quiet sanatorium with a vacant room in the west wing around here, I’m glad I started the search at this early stage while I’m still relatively sane!)

[StephenLawson]

Nice work! Your in the home stretch once you fix the aileron scribed lines and rework the "N" struts and. . .ok I will stop. Thats just my AMS sounding off.

[Kofoed]

Thank you very much for your most "encouraging" words, Stephen. I really appreciate that. Eh, "AMS"?

It's not that bad. Takes a lot of work with "heavy" tools, though.

Here I have painted the topside of the lower wing blue, and finished off the top fittings:



Now for the top wing. I managed to cut off the ailerons and with some filling and filing they seem to fit quite nicely. The lozenge is on the underside.

Now, for the struts.......?

Thanks,
Kofoed

[StephenLawson]

Looking Good!

[PrzemoL]

Nice to see such a great build, Kofoed. Especially that I am just beginning with its smaller brother. I will be watching this with great interest.

[Kofoed]

Thank you very much for your interest in this, Stephen and PrzemoL.

Stephen, I hope you will tell me what "AMS" stands for.

Well, I managed to get the top wing on. This was not as bad as anticipated. Actually, it’s nice to fear for the worst. It rarely turns out that bad.

The outer “N” struts are the ones from the kit. With a lot of filing and sanding I thought they were just fine. I wouldn’t know how to make these myself.

After test fittings, checking alignments and measurements around a hundred times, I finally pulled myself together after a couple og Lagavulin's, glued the “N” struts to the lower wings and in turn glued the upper wing to these. No big deal, actually.

All other struts are made from round plastic rods, filed and sanded on the sides in an effort to have them “airfoiled”. This is not fully achieved, but they will have to do.





Finally a little picture showing the upperwing strut attachments. In the “Anthology” is a neat photo of the arrangement, the lugs look like these, they look very black, so I decided to try to replicate them. The wires for the ailerons are also visible. This time there are two each side!



From here it’s only downhill, I suppose. Just imagine, next time it will be finished!

[PrzemoL]

Lovely work, Kofoed! I like the details, like the strut mounts. I have them in PE fret, too, and I think I will try them. A question: what have you on the bottom side of horizontal stabilizer? Losenge? With strips on the ribs?