Fokker D.VII - 1:32 Wingnut Wings. Finished.

[Viking]

This is the newly released Fokker D.VII from Wingnut Wings, an inbox review of which can be found HERE
It is a beautifully moulded, engineered, and presented kit and I couldn't wait to get started.

Firstly I had to choose which one to do and after a lot of thought decided to go for 286/18 flown by Willi Gabriel of Jasta 11.

Two things helped form this decision,
1) The colour scheme is fabulous, plus it requires the fuselage to be finished in 'Fokker streaky green' which in reality is a rough brush painted multi tone green finish, quite hard to do on a model. The kit provides a nice set of decals for it so I am keen to see how they work.

2) Willi Gabriel was an interesting character, and I always like to learn a little about the guys who flew the aircraft I model.
He joined Jasta 11 in May 1918 and was given 4 weeks to start scoring victories or be kicked out. On his fisrt day he shot down a DH.9 and so confirmed his place. Other victories followed, but in June Herman Goering (yes, the Herman Goering of WW2 Luftwaffe fame) arrived as CO, and he and Gabriel did not get on. On 18 July 1918 when returning from a patrol led by Goering, Gabriel spotted a flight of Spads and broke formation, shooting down two of them, followed a a flight of three Breguet two seaters, which he also attacked and downed one over his home airfield. Goering was furious at Gabriel for having left the formation, and reprimanded him. Later that same day on an afternoon patrol Gabriel did it again, shooting down a two seat Spad. The culmination of all this was that Gabriel was busted off the Jasta, bringing his war to an end. He returned to active service in the Luftwaffe in ww2, flying Ju88's and Me.210's, and died in 1968 aged 75.

The build starts with the interior components, and Wingnuts provide a great deal of them.

The interior framework and engine mounts;

The 'metalwork'. The fuel tank is painted in Revell 94 Gold, which I think gives a better Brass finish than their Brass paint.
The firewall, ammunition tank, and spare link collection tank are all done with Alclad Aluminium.

The seat & etched belts,

Cockpit floor, rudder pedals, and control column;

The wood effect is Tamiya XF-55 Deck tan varnished with Johnsons Kleer. The grain is done with Griffin Alkyd oils mixed to give an appropriate wood shade from Raw Sienna, Light red, and Burnt Umber in various proportions.

The gun mount, Compass, and instrument panel.

All interior components together;

The Mercedes engine is a little beauty. Major components;

I have left the two magnetos on a section of sprue, as I have drilled them to take spark plug wires, and they are easier to handle like this. Metal areas are again Alclad Aluminium, black is Citadel Chaos Black.

I have made 2 props in case of accidents with one of them. Like the cockpit floor they are done with deck tan, but then masked to give a laminted effect. Red brown is sprayed on, leaving a very strong 2 tone look. This is covered with a dark mix of Griffin Alkyd oils, so that the laminated affect only just shows through under the grain;

The top 3 pictures are various stages of the same prop.

All this lot needs to come together now, and the fuselage 'zipped up'.

Cheers

John

[Michaelvk]

That is gorgeous work so far..

[geedubelyer]

Very sharp John. Your paintwork is absolutely top notch.

Have you seen the GasPatch turnbuckles? http://www.gaspatchmodels.com/metal-turnbuckles/

for when you get to the knot tying bit....

[Jennings Heilig]

Looking great! Anxious to get started on mine. I'm going to do "Seven Swabians".

[Mike]

Absolutely lovely work John... Can't wait to see some more

[stringbag]

Superb John.

I'm looking forward to this one progressing through the various stages.

Chris.

[CPNGROATS]

Very nice detailing, great looking build..!!

Regards,

ggc

[woody37]

Gorgeous John,

I think you're 'avin' us on, that's a real prop

[pacificmustang]

yep, following this one too, love your shading on the metal items

Bruce

[Paul A H]

Superb work so far

[Tim T]

Excellent work John. The wood effect is particularly impressive. I have been moved to order one of these, having always sworn I would never do WW1 Aircraft! Watching this with interest.

[smuts]

Hi , superb start the props look real, watching this take shape will be geat.

Andy

[Viking]

Thanks for the comments guys, all I can say is that this is living up to my expectations of Wingnut Wings.

Popped all the cockpit interior together now, it all fits very nicely, but you must take care.

You can see how the D.VII fuselage was made from welded steel tube. Read those instruments!!

There are soem nice 'faded' lozenge decals for the insides of the fuselage sides, but they are not applicable to Gabriels machine. It has the streaky green finish, so I figured that rather than plain clear doped linen on the inside, some of the green would leach through. Looks better I think.

I mentioned in my in box review how good the instuctions are. Well here is an example, a lovely CAD drawing of how it should all look, in colour;

And even some photos of the real thing;

Now I also mentioned in my review that Wingnuts kits have such close tolerances, and are packed with interior components, that you have to be careful getting the fuselage halves together. And so it turns out here. It's nothing serious, a little bit of finger pressure brings it together, but I will fettle it a bit to see if I can ease the fit.

On with the engine, I wired the magenetos;

Just short lengths of jewellry makers wire. The sort of stuff you can but in Hobbycraft stores and the like. They are cyanoed in to pre drilled holes, locked in with zip kicker.

I also fitted short lengths from the wiring 'tube' on each side in to the spark plugs.

Here is one thing not on the engine, spark plugs. I created my own from short lengths of fine rod set on to pre drilled holes. The plug locations are there on the cylinder heads, I just drilled them.

I'm going for a bit of artistic licence here. I suspect that the wires were black, or some other dark colour. However, they don't show up very well in black, and having added all this ignition wiring, I want it to be noticed!. The Instuction book has photos of a restored Mercedes engine, featuring yellow wiring, so I have copied that.

By 'eck this kit is great fun, I just love it.

Cheers

John

[stringbag]

A quality kit backed up with a quality build. Those instructions look excellent as well.

As others have said previously, thats a nice job you have done on the props

Thanks John.

Chris.

[woody37]

Quite stunning John, your skill with the detail is damn impressive

[Radleigh]

I do love this era of aircraft but I don't think I would ever do a kit like this justice. Prefer to see them being built up, especially to this standard.

[Quentin]

That is immaculate paintwork! Very nice.

[Mike]

love that engine work

[fostersdave]

jaw drops,walks off quietly to bang head against wall,cry and quietly give, up-thank you Obi-Wan for showing me the way!

[Rowan Broadbent]

Not only a superb review, but now an excellent quality build to follow it up!

Really well done, John!

Rowan

[Viking]

Have you seen the GasPatch turnbuckles? http://www.gaspatchm...al-turnbuckles/

Thanks geedubelyer, I'd seen those somewhere and could remember where. They look good and I might well get some.

Not only a superb review, but now an excellent quality build to follow it up!

Really well done, John!

Rowan

Thanks Rowan, are you going to produce some more decals for the D.VII?

I'm going to be over run by these things, but I would really like one of Ernst Udets 'LO!'s, and Carlos Meyers 'Bulldog', and Franz Meyers MFJ III white & black sripe, and Von Schliech's one with the Bavarian lion in a circle.. and...and...and,

I've done quite a few Eduard 1/48 ones, any of these please Rowan, the Swan would look very nice in 1/32;

I'm an uncurable D.VII nut.....

[Rowan Broadbent]

Thanks Rowan, are you going to produce some more decals for the D.VII?

I'm going to be over run by these things, but I would really like one of Ernst Udets 'LO!'s, and Carlos Meyers 'Bulldog', and Franz Meyers MFJ III white & black sripe, and Von Schliech's one with the Bavarian lion in a circle.. and...and...and,

Yes, I'm working on a number of decal sets for the D.VII at the moment and one of the first will cover two of Ernie's earlier "Los" plus Meyer's bulldog and another Jasta 4 D.VII. Lots of black and white edging decals on the computer as I type! There are many other sets to come and details of the first ones will be announced soon. I love your 48th models (actually my favourite scale.....I know, I'm a heretic!) and I'm aiming to also do more sets in 48th for the Eduard and Roden kits. Lots to do! Looking forward to seeing your D.VII take shape.

Rowan

[Viking]

Short update.

I have fitted all the control wires in the cockpit, from the rudder pedals & control column, plus the bracing on the fuselage sides. All with stretched sprue.

 

 

And zipped up the fuselage. There is a layer of primer on the top decking behind the cockpit to check the seam. Happily it is perfect, no filler needed!

 

 

The underside has a separate insert for the stitching, which aslo saves cleaning up the seam.

 

 

The rest of this weeks work has been preparing and priming various parts.

 

Tailplanes. The instructions suggest Tamiya X14 blue, which is much too dark for my liking. I mixed my own from X14 with pale grey and a touch of white until I got a shade I liked.

 

 

Undercarriage parts.

 

 

All the front end parts. Painted Citadel Mithril silver inside.

 

 

The wings.

Although they will be covered with lozenge decal, I always prime and paint them, and brush on a couple of coats of Johnsons Kleer to give them something to bite on to. Just in case there are any minor tears in the decals I use a dark green on top and a pale blue underneath.

 

 

Cheers

 

John

[colin]

Absolutely outstanding work so far. Colin

Edited January 12, 2013 by colin

[stringbag]

Wonderful work John.

Chris.