Eindecker E.II and E.III from Eduard

StephenLawson · 10 January 2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sreiko

What happen with his albums, notes and material after his suicide?

You are right Greg!

I has just finished looking at the White D.VII thread and was momentarily confused. The Udet papers, pictures and docs were held in the Nazis Reich archive (as he was a bonafide hero in Propaganda terms) and they didn't want any loose threads on his suicide. These were mostly either burned or detroyed by the end of the war in Europe. Though there are at least two private collectors that have a fine array of his WWI & between the wars docs, drawings & photos. From what I understand there were even a few "manufactured" Reich documents that were meant to validate his succumbing to wounds lie.

Bill McGill · 19 January 2009, 03:30 PM

All this has me wondering...

what are the most accurate published Fokker E.III plans?

josef scott · 19 January 2009, 03:57 PM

Well, I finally laid my mitts on this kit. I don't have the time to build it right now however, but will document it when I do. There are many things I will amend when building, but I thought I'd drop just a few general comments for now.

Firstly, I thought I was having a bit of Aurora déja vu when I first opened it. What's up with all the fuselage frame showing as raised through the fabric? This will ALL have to be sanded off. Same with the ribs/rib-tapes on the rudder and elevators. Eduard didn't treat the D.VII or Dr.I bodies like this, did they?

Overall the dimensions are very good: length, span, etc. The width of the fuselage looks right, but it narrows too much at the tail where it meets tail unit. This also brings up a rather major (for me) flaw. On both the E.II and E.III, the frame, when seen in plan view, begins to taper immediately after the cockpit bulkhead. On the kit, it begins aft of the section which holds the rear gas tank. Major surgery would be required to fix this.

Finally, for now, Eduard has the lMG08 mounted dead center on the forward decking. It should be off-center to the starboard, with the port edge of the gun on the center-line. This applies to the rear gas cap too.

I'll get into fixes for the underside and E.II details soon.

StephenLawson · 19 January 2009, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by josef scott

". . .Firstly, I thought I was having a bit of Aurora déja vu when I first opened it. What's up with all the fuselage frame showing as raised through the fabric? This will ALL have to be sanded off. Same with the ribs/rib-tapes on the rudder and elevators. Eduard didn't treat the D.VII or Dr.I bodies like this, did they? . . ."

Greetings good Josef,

The modeling term we use for this is the "starved cow" look. The loudest we ever discussed this was when a member of the Eduard team came here and talked to us about their newly issued 1/48 Sopwith F.I kit. It is supposed to resemble the extreme profile of the aircraft inflight as the air within the fuselage covering envelope would tend to exit from the rear (tail skid area.) This inturn would cause the fabric to pull in a bit. Or at least that was the rashionale that was discussed. I note the same problems that you have with the Fokker E.II / III kit but the issue with the fuselage taperI may have a good fix for. More later.

The Fokker D.VII and Dr.I types employed the fabric screen at the rear of the cockpit and they (Eduard) assume that this will stop some of the draft flow mentioned with the Sopwith F.I and the Fokker E.II & III. I am still not sure where their designer got the idea that the Fokker E.II & III had fabric wrapped skeletal fuselages. This of course would allow for the ribtapes ontop of the covering but I can't find anything that backs it up. You are the fellow I would ask about the Fokker E. types and the specific characteristics. I look forward to your further comments.

odybvig · 24 January 2009, 04:23 PM

At least one guy have finished this bird

From this forum
ModelForum • Zobrazit tÃ©ma - Fokker E.II 1:48 Eduard

I dont know his name but beatifully build

Best
Olve

dak66 · 25 January 2009, 06:30 AM

A very nice build ! So what is the verdict on this kit ?

Familyman · 26 January 2009, 01:18 AM

Just got the WS datafiles by mail and started to check the kit. I noticed that the wingtips of the kit are different from both Ray Rimel and Marty Digmeyer drawings. The drawings show a bit rounder corners on the leading edge and the very tip of the wing. The last wing rib is a bit shorter than the others. The kit part has the rib full lenght and the corners sharper. I can't find a photo clear enough to find out who to trust.

Then there is the fuel tank behind the cockpit. At least the E.III datafile describes this as the difference between E.II and E.III, but several photos of E.II show a filler cap behind the cockpit. I guess that the extra tank was added to the E.II specimens later, or what?

Mikko

josef scott · 26 January 2009, 05:59 AM

Mikko,

The shape of the wingtip is just about the only thing that is correct in the E.I/E.II Datafile. Almost all other details in this set of drawings are bogus. Look carefully at the photos. The kit wingtips are just a bit off, just as you described.

All E.II's had an auxiliary gas tank behind the pilot. E.III's have the larger main gas tank in the same position. The lack of one is a sure sign that the aircraft is an E.I.

Contact me via PM for further info.

David_Layton · 26 January 2009, 01:22 PM

Looks like he used a sand color for the base of his clear doped linen and then added weathering. I sent Lubos an email asking him this also with a Czech translation of my question.