Airfix Fokker Eindecker

[Will Vale]

Hi all,

I seem to have started yet another thing - this irresistible little Fokker. I was just having a look at the bits, and then I was cleaning them up, and then I seem to have put some together and filled the gaps. No paint yet though:

I was a bit dozy and glued the fuselage halves together before painting the sidewalls. I was thinking "I'll just glue the bulkhead to one side, and then the seam, and then I'll be able to take it apart for painting" - obviously not true... The seam has been filled with CA and I added a strip of thin styrene to the back of the cockpit coaming rather than try and fill and neaten the seam there (it moves the gap to the top where it's easy to deal with). I also filled a sink mark on the fuselage top above one of the alignment pins.

It should be possible to paint it from the inside, at least the cowling panel is just resting on top. I have glued the struts in place, and also removed the thick turnbuckle-looking things and drilled a selection of rigging holes into the apex. It seems solid, let's hope I can thread it properly as it's rather complex.

The wings are one piece, with protruding spars that lock into a box behind the seat. I found this was a bit wobbly (as were the locating pins/sockets at the front) so cut most of that off and added 0.5mm wire pins front and back which should let me set the wings level, and indeed insert them after painting.

I built up the undercarriage on the upturned taped-up fuselage so I could use the locating points as a jig. It worked fine, the UC has much better location pins and holes than the Tiger Moth and the whole thing feels pretty solid.

The engine is one piece and sadly the mould was misaligned, so I'm not sure how much of the fine fin detail remains after fixing that. It's glossy because I cleaned up after sanding with Extra-Thin, but that may have been a mistake - the soft Airfix plastic goes very squishy almost instantly so it's probably been rounded off a bit.

I've also thinned the cowling edges a bit as they were pretty chunky, and made a new MG barrel and drilled out the missing top row of slots on the cooling jacket, but forgot to photograph that bit.

Cheers,

Will

[Andy Moore]

Nice start on the little Fokker Will (and how many times is that joke going to come up in the build)

Andy

[Will Vale]

At least once more

Thanks Andy, I did a little bit more today and filled the big ejector pin mark between the rudder pedals, then disguised my rough filing/sanding with a rudder bar from stretched sprue. The photos are quite scary in macro mode, looks like I need to do more on the seat frame!

I also fitted the cabane struts after trimming off the arms and drilling out (hopefully all) the rigging locations. I taped them up to get a strong bond with the cowling and when it was dry this morning scribed around the ends a little with a dental pick to hopefully separate them from the surface. (The real ones go through the holes, but the soft plastic had welled up a little.)

The Spandau I'd already done a bit of work on - adding the un-mouldable line of slots along the top, giving it a new barrel and a scrap of styrene to hint at a sight.

I need to get the cockpit walls painted next. It's tempting to scrape off the detail and build a more robust frame but I suspect it'd be a bit of a waste of time as you can't see much through the small opening. Even the instruments are basically invisible!

Cheers,

Will

[Brandy]

This looks like another very nice new release from Airfix, it's coming on nicely!

I can't help thinking that something is wrong scalewise with either the Spandau, or the king posts - either the gun is huge or the struts are too short, or maybe a lilttle of each...

here's my Eduard one as a comparison...

Ian

[Will Vale]

I think it's just that mine isn't pressed home in the slot in that picture. I tried again and it looked a lot lower but still with an air gap between the cowl and the cooling jacket. The struts definitely aren't as fine as the Eduard one though!

I had a good priming and painting session today and am almost ready to close up the fuselage - a few bits and bobs to finish first. But the main part of the cockpit interior is done.

I re-did the rudder bar and made the A-frame that supports it, it's a bit closer to reality now although I left out the X-brace on the floor of the curved panel.

I also made a new frame for the seat since the Airfix one was very clunky and maybe a bit too low? Or maybe my one is a bit high!

The wood grain I painted with a brush - it looks better on the rear wall because I built everything up before painting, so it was hard to get clean lines in and around the seat frame. Obviously it's overscale but I think it still reads as what it's supposed to be.

I tried a bit of "Spanish Style" highlighting in the cockpit, I think maybe it'd benefit from a bit of black-lining to separate the shapes more, otherwise I quite like the effect.

While looking for non-painting things to do, I also cleaned up, partly assembled and primed the Airfix Wildcat, which is another lovely little kit. That needs the interior painting too before I can proceed. I haven't taken any pictures because they're a bit boring at the moment.

Cheers,

Will

[Brandy]

That's coming on nicely, you really can't see too much in there when it's all together so that wood will be fine.The rear panel behind the pilot should be linen though, not wood....

Ian

[Will Vale]

Hi Ian,

It's called out as wood in the WnW manual, definitely a different colour to the sidewalls. I couldn't find a photo that made it clear either way though. I assumed it was related to the fuel tank structure in some way.

Will

[Will Vale]

Blocked in the coaming, painted the placard behind the seat and rigged the rudder bar:

I've also added some black lining and tweaked the control column a bit:

These are daylight pictures so the colours should be a lot more accurate (I correct for grey, but the fluorescent tubes have messy emission spectra so it's never quite right...)

I'd like to add the x-bracing on the sidewalls, but I was having trouble getting the EZ-line to stick. Will have another go later.

Will

[Will Vale]

I added the x-bracing. It was tricky to get the lines into the upper rear corners but other than that it wasn't too hard. I found it much better to draw the line taut and apply glue than to try and dip the line in glue and bring it to the joining point. Hopefully this will be a useful lesson for the u/c rigging.

It would have been *much* easier if I'd detailed the sidewalls before assembly, lesson well and truly learned now. I need to varnish and add seatbelts next, then I can close it up.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

I painted up the engine - it's a bit soft because I ended up removing a lot of fin detail while I was fixing the slipped mould halves, but hopefully it'll look good under the cowling:

I also painted the IP (such as it is)/ammo bin and fuel tank and fitted them to the cowl, they won't be super visible when installed but you can just about see them

I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but I did some playing with silver paint to try and create the machined aluminium look. I think I need to use a slightly darker colour than Alclad Aluminium on the cowl to get the swirls to stand out.

Cheers,

Will

[Sgt.Squarehead]

So let me get this straight you are rigging a 1/72 bi-plane.....On the inside!

[Tzulscha]

That's one of the new Airfix tools eh?

Surface details look not entirely awful.

With the efforts you are making it should be a nifty little bird when you are done.

Good show!

Q

[Will Vale]

Heheh It is one of the new ones, I think it's very good and it's nice to see the improvement in fit and finish even over a couple of years.

I do think that the Airfix moulding quality suffers sometimes - slipped halves and warping seem to be the main issues although I didn't see warping in this one. Mind you, lots of manufacturers have trouble with slip, it's just that the detail here is so fine that any amount of slip is enough to kill it.

So let me get this straight you are rigging a 1/72 bi-plane.....On the inside!

It's a monoplane so only half the misery. Although the rigging on the undercarriage is insane and I am not entirely looking forward to that...

W

[Martian]

I think you are right about the swirls on the cowling, otherwise it all seems to be coming along swimmingly!

Martin

[carloscarneiro]

This is the airfix new tool kit right?

[smuts]

Stunner

Andy

[cathasatail]

This is the airfix new tool kit right?

Yup

[Will Vale]

I did the seat harness today, from 0.7mm Aizu tape and aluminium tape for the buckles. I think it's quite good but my efforts to shade around it after installing it deep in the cockpit leave something to be desired. Also I think the cross-piece might be too high, such that it might strangle the pilot. Hopefully there's some slack behind the seat!

I also did a bit more on the engine - I lined around the pushrods to get them to stand out from the crank case more, and sprayed a bit too much Hotmetal Blue on the cylinder heads. Then I retouched the pushrods and valves (?) so they'd be less blue, and I think it ended up being worth doing.

I've glued the floor into the fuselage now, so no more messing around! Got a seam to fill, which is mostly my fault stuffing extra bits into the cockpit I expect. Airfix placed it sensibly so it's on the bottom surface and doesn't go through much detail.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Ye gads, but posting large pics of 1/72 models is humbling...

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Mortifying innit Will.....And it gets worse as you get older!

Totally understand your frustrations about mould misalignment on a detailed kit.....I've got one of those on the go too.

Still, that's some cracking work and you've overcome the problems that Airfix created for you.....Looking forward to the next installment.

[Will Vale]

I've got it all filled and primed and sanded now, except for the cowling which is attached and sorta-filled but not yet primed. The Airfix part breakdown here is pretty close to the real thing and the fit is again good. I ended up with some gaps though - my fault, I think, for thinning the cowling edges - and a rather wider firewall than cowl. These all happen on the real plane, but not to the same degree, so I've run a bit of thin CA into the gaps and done a bit of sanding and I might have to scribe a line as well. I also realised there's a cowling edge I hadn't thinned (the little quarter-circle on the port side is open at the bottom) so I'll have to try and get the knife point in there.

All quite good really! I really like how the bottom seam was arranged too - even with the slight gap created by my cockpit stuff it was easy enough to fill and sand without disturbing any of the detail (e.g. the nice lacing) as far as I can see.

The wings and tail have also had a coat of primer. Pics tomorrow, I expect.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

It's looking Fokker-ey-er:

I added the leather patches and holes for the control cables to the top of the fuselage, made some steps (which are now a bit too fine, but they look better than the plastic ones) and drilled a few more rigging holes in the cowling. I also trimmed the engine peg and that now fits nicely so I can remove it again for painting.

There can't be all that many model planes where you can mount the whole shooting match (almost) on a cocktail stick for painting

Will

[ArmouredSprue]

good build

Any update?

 

[Will Vale]

Thanks! The last thing that happened was my spraying some white primer on the stripe area, and getting a slightly rough finish. I need to rub it down and continue but probably got distracted by something shiny!

 

I do know where it is and will get back to it eventually. I also need to order some fine rigging from Uschi van der Rosten before I get much further.

 

Cheers,

 

Will