Battle Axe Fokker DVII 1/32

Kofoed · 26 January 2008, 05:35 AM

Hi there,

I finally got this started. I’ve had the box open many times and closed it again. I have been studying earlier threads about it on this forum.
The quality of this kit has been debated intensely. It’s far from Roden or Eduard standards, but it’s the only decent DVII in this scale to my knowledge. And it’s not that bad, provided you prepare yourself to spend lots of hours on it. In fact, I’m quite sure, this will be the most time consuming kit I have ever built.

The kit comes with a couple of flashed plastic frets. The material is very soft compared to other manufacturer’s material. Lots of cleaning-up to do! A nice fret of photo-etched parts and a little bag containing some very nice resin parts. Lots of decals for two early Fokker-built DVII’s. Strangly coloured lozenge for the wings. I learned from the earlier mentioned thread that these are somewhat transparent, so the colours should be manipulatable by painting the underlying surfaces in a suitable colour. Anyway, I have opted for Berthold’s nice scheme with blue topsides of the wings.

The cockpit fitted reasonably well in the fuselage, though I’ve read about major problems to this. I cut and filed a little on the bulkheads, and inside it slipped. The resin engine is a gem, but there’s nothing to fix it to, so I produced a couple of frames for it, calculated the height and fastened them to the inner side of the engine compartment.

More to follow....

Kofoed · 26 January 2008, 05:44 AM

Next, the fuselage halves assembled. The sides of the engine compartment have given me some sleepless nights. Should I use the ones supplied in the kit or make some new ones? After some time I finally chose to use the ones from the kit. I’m still not certain, though.

Lots of filler required, because the material is so soft. Once you have filled and sanded down the assembly lines on the upper and lower fuselage, the filler material will sink. One more treatment. And one more. Also the division on the nose panels to the fuselage sides requires some filling. These panels are made like their smaller counterparts from Roden and Eduard as one large panel, in order to give us a choise of putting the ones from the late built Fokker on. This means, that on this early built there’s a division going from the top corner down to the leading edge of the lower wing. On the early built Fokkers, the resulting rear triangle was linen covered, hence the filling here.

On Berthold’s plane, the area from the red engine compartment to the middle of the cockpit had kept the olive streaking. This I did as I did on my DrI.
This is described on my thread:
Roden 1/32 DrI at last

The back of the fuselage was blue painted on over the streaked olive, so I did it here as well, only just one layer in a faint hope that it would be a little bit visible under the blue.

The engine is seen securely fixed to the two structures on the inner side on the next.

More to follow....

Kofoed · 26 January 2008, 05:50 AM

The top of the engine compartment consisted of one, sharp-cornered rectangular opening. Some additional plating must be made, both in the front and rear ends.

Kofoed · 26 January 2008, 06:10 AM

Next, the rear fuselage was equipped with the underlying decal and painted blue. I have studied the profile of this machine in the “Fokker Anthology 1” intensively, trying to catch a little bit of transparency to the blue. One coat was too little, so two coats it was, making this look quite like the profile. No traces of the streaking, though.

The etched dashboard supplied by Battle Axe is really beautiful. I put a couple of spare instruments on it.

More filler required on the lower part of the engine cowling. The kit has a division at the bottom, which isn’t on the plane.

More to follow in a couple of days.....

SteveS · 26 January 2008, 08:20 AM

It's coming along quite nicely. The key to getting this kit to go together is to constantly check fit and know when to just replace certain parts like the struts. This kit will definitely give you a sense of accomplishment when finished.

Glad our old online build thread is being of some help. Thanks for sharing.

Salute,
Steve

Rob_Owens · 26 January 2008, 02:13 PM

(even better than the finish on your Dr.I) and I think you got just the right ammount of "show through" under the blue. Lozenge can be as easy as applying decals, but the tremulation of slapping on paint with a brush, & ensuring all the strokes are at the correct angle AND parallel. . .
As MvR might say, "Du, Prachtkerl!!"

StephenLawson · 26 January 2008, 03:21 PM

You have my sympathies. The BA D.VII is a tough nut to crack. So many problems. I salute your efforts and can recommend a quiet sanitorium when your finished. Try and get a room west wing.

RAGIII · 26 January 2008, 07:28 PM

Looking good! I have to admit I gave up on mine long before I reached this stage!
RAGIII

Kofoed · 28 January 2008, 11:18 PM

Thank you very much for your nice comments. Most kind of you. And thanks for your sympathies, Stephen. I might follow your advice and book a room in a sanatorium, I'm sure I'm going to need it when this is finished. I'm beginning to look like the one on your stretcher....

Thanks
Kofoed

FOKKERJ · 29 January 2008, 12:10 AM

Hi Kofoed,

As usual, looking good! I know you have your references, but I ran across this and thought that I would share it.

WINGS PALETTE - Fokker D.VII - Germany (WWI)

Fokker D.VII
Unit: JG 2
Serial: unknown
Pilot - CO of JG 2 Capt.Rudolf Berthold.
Name:

Rudolf Berthold; Rank: Hauptmann; Units: FFA 23, Jasta 4, 14, 18, JG 2 Kek Vaux; Victories: 44; Date Of Birth: March 24, 1891; Place of Birth: Near Bamberg; Date Of Death: March 15, 1920; Place of Death: Harburg; Buried: Invalidenfriedhof Berlin.

Keep up the good work.

Best Regards, FOKKERJ