Fokker F.II - Classic Plane 1/72 Vacuum-formed.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The elevators are separated to be posed deflected, they and the rudder are slotted an given metal control horns:

 

The locating holes for various devices are drilled:

 

As explained before, the nose of my intended plane has different details, so it is slightly modified, engraving metal plates panels diagonal and horizontal lines and deleting the upper half of the louvers:

 

The exhaust location is drilled according to photos:

 

Same for the other side of the nose:

 

Location of aileron control horns and control cables is slotted and drilled too:

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

11 hours ago, bristol boy said:

Still have a few in hand, Libra Bristol Fighter with different Radiator options may come out soon and a really obscure Bristol Racer (possibly the ugliest plane ever built)

Hum, do you mean this one?

I built it a long time ago, kind of a struggle, the kit has a few shortcomings and the instructions some mistakes:

 

But if you insist this is an ugly plane, our friendship shall end a my gauntlet shall fly towards your cheek.

 

At the time I built it there were no decals for it, so I managed to print so-so ones. Now Arctic Decals from Finland has a very good set.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Another mark of a so-so vac kit (the good ones are not like this) is the difference in plastic thickness.

This is -to a certain degree- natural, as the heated sheet is pulled on the mold, but never like here, where in same places is gossamer-thin.

In this case it is in a very sensitive area and it is deformed and gave up. I am reconstructing it to be able to work on it, with styrene and eventually some Milliput. Again, don't panic, as I said before I chose on purpose a not so good vac, to show the challenges. Normal vac kits are fine and won't give you unnecessary grief:

[stevehed]

Really enjoying this thread. I've been building vac forms since the early 80's before " retiring " for the usual 25 years. Airframe and Rareplane were the brands then with the latter far superior. Since returning to the fold I've built 14, got two WIP's and a further 28 in the stash, all of which are WW1. The early Classic Plane are very variable in quality  although they do provide a very interesting range of products. Keep up the good work. Always keen to see another vac builder's work as never to old to learn.

 

Regards, Steve

[Brandy]

Looking Good! 

Those control surfaces look very thick though, were they really that industrial?

 

Ian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, stevehed said:

I've been building vac forms since the early 80's

Oh, my, it happens to be that vac fans are legion! Good for us!

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

3 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Looking Good! 

Those control surfaces look very thick though, were they really that industrial?

 

Ian

Well, Ian, only very good kits have to-scale control surfaces, and vacs, given that you usually have to glue two surfaces together, render just an approximation.

Same goes for landing gears in almost all kits. If kits would have to-scale landing gears, we would a general collapse on all shelves.

That being said, consider that these surfaces, if not voluminous, were not paper thin either:

 

There is always the recourse of scratching those tail surfaces, as I am doing as I post this (just for your benefit and taking a little detour), but the general intention of this post is to familiarize some modelers with the media and encourage them to build the kits they may even have in their stashes. Tomorrow I'll post those scratched tail surfaces. By the way, I would credit the image above if I could only remember were in the vast Internet I got it. It was a public image, though.

 

[bristol boy]

9 hours ago, Moa said:

Hum, do you mean this one?

I built it a long time ago, kind of a struggle, the kit has a few shortcomings and the instructions some mistakes:

 

But if you insist this is an ugly plane, our friendship shall end a my gauntlet shall fly towards your cheek.

 

At the time I built it there were no decals for it, so I managed to print so-so ones. Now Arctic Decals from Finland has a very good set.

That’s the one! Come on it’s not quite a swan is it and in reality not successful. I find you build on line a while ago and was impressed by the improvements, my ‘kit’ has a sold resin nacelle. Useful info about the decals will look into that as it is one thing that puts me off making it. What we really need is a GB something like ‘ the more obscure the better’ or simply a vac one

[bristol boy]

Hi Moa,

Just had a quick look on Arctic Decals website, can't find the Racer decals, do you have any more info?

Thanks,

Neil

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Hi Ian

Here the scratched tail surfaces:

 

 

But modelers could go even thinner if the plastic allows it with their kit's tails, or use only one side and sand it to proper airfoil, or just work out the assembly to a thinner leading and trailing edges on the kit's "natural" parts.

The scratched parts, in this case, would have the added benefit of showing the ribs, absent from the kit's parts surfaces.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

7 hours ago, bristol boy said:

Hi Moa,

Just had a quick look on Arctic Decals website, can't find the Racer decals, do you have any more info?

Thanks,

Neil

Hi Neil

Here is the link:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=21443/660621

Needless to say, I have no financial gain on this, I just buy from them, and I am invariably satisfied. You have to cut the individual subjects and handle them with care, but they are not fiddly or fragile.

 

[bristol boy]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

Hi Neil

Here is the link:

https://www.arcticdecals.com/products.html?id=21443/660621

Needless to say, I have no financial gain on this, I just buy from them, and I am invariably satisfied. You have to cut the individual subjects and handle them with care, but they are not fiddly or fragile.

 

Thanks for the link, I emailed him this morning as the Racer was not on the website, he added it straight away. Anyway I have ordered a set so now have no excuse not to build the not quite ugliest plane in the world. Thanks for drawing my attention to the site.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And the new tail. But the kit's is fine for many reasons: if you detail very well an area of the model, but the rest is somewhat lacking, it may only show what is lacking. If the level of detail is consistent, then it may be more harmonious and judged for its inherent tone.

Vacs allow us to have arcane subjects, and can be improved to very high levels (the name of Roger Holden, a Master, comes to mind), but I don't think they can compare to a state-of-the-art resin (like SBS Model), that would be unfair. Although they will beat the dust off any bad resin or injected kit, of which as we all know there are many. In essence, it may boil down to how much time are you willing to invest, and your level of skills.

Regardless all of the above, I just have fun. And it's engaging. And entices me to find solutions and improve a bit. Not to mention the fact -known by all- that there is no New Airfix or Hasegawa Fokker.FII.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

55 minutes ago, bristol boy said:

now have no excuse not to build the not quite ugliest plane in the world.

Hum, well, that's a beginning, I retract my hasty words ;-)

But when you finish it, your post title shall be in the lines of "Frog becomes Prince".

A somewhat fast food-fed frog, admittedly, but beautiful inside.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The interior makes some progress:

[Brandy]

Those tail surfaces are gorgeous, very nicely done!

 

Ian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

While other things dry, more work on the "accessories":

[Courageous]

Looking very good Moa. 

The one thing I've picked-up from your thread is that when I get round to building my biplanes, I'll be fitting the control horns at this early stage and not after I've built and painted it!

 

Stuart

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, Courageous said:

The one thing I've picked-up from your thread is that when I get round to building my biplanes, I'll be fitting the control horns at this early stage and not after I've built and painted it!

 

Stuart

Hi Stuart

I should warn you that doing so could make things easier and more straightforward, defeating the purpose of practicing this hobby.

 

Edited February 8, 2018 by Moa
typo

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The landing gear structure:

 

 

 

One fuselage side is given some tabs to help alignment and augment gluing contact surface:

[Courageous]

Moa, What are you using for cementing your metal undercarriage parts together?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

9 hours ago, Courageous said:

Moa, What are you using for cementing your metal undercarriage parts together?

Hi Courageous

Just cyanoacrylate. But it must be handled with care until it is on the model and the reinforcement rigging installed.

I have very limited experience with soldering, which would be ideal in this case.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The interior is painted a neutral grey:

 

Radiator and wheels are painted:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The fuselage is assembled.

Here work is hindered and delayed by the faults of this kit, in the sense that given the extremely uneven thickness of the plastic you have to be very careful while sanding and puttying. As we all know, excessive application of cement or putty softens and deforms thin plastic.

Caution is the word, and patience to let things dry properly:

 

Meanwhile -and as an example of a good vac- the Sierra Models Friedrichshafen F.F.49c I just purchased, which I will convert into a civil version used as a flying advertisement by a tobacco company in the 20's :

 

Even and decent plastic thickness:

 

Still the detail is soft, a limitation of the media, not the kit maker:

 

But nice where it should:

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And now for something completely different....

And I know that this bit should belong to the "in progress" vehicles section, but this bus will be just a diorama prop for the Fokker, since they were contemporary, and it is in the same scale, and it is so irresistibly cute.

So powers of this site, please allow this humble contributor to post these images here, as both machines will live together happily ever after in harmony when completed.

 

Stairway to Heaven

(or those bizarre British buses)

Diorama accessories category

(workbench digressions as the modeler is forced to wait for putty and glue to set)

 

Keilkraft 1/72nd scale 1920 London Bus type B:

 

Contents:

 

Nice detail:

 

Small bits a tad chunky:

 

Parts off the sprues without any difficulty:

 

Tool fabricated to erase those nasty ejector pin marks on upper deck floor:

 

Assembly begins:

 

Unsightly joint line in the middle:

 

Cover in place:

 

More "panels" attached to hide seams and interior (absent in the kit) provided:

 

Have to thin those mudguards:

 

Windows (absent in the kit) measured and cut:

 

Superbly printed decals (the gold -not really visible in the photo- is impeccable) that many recent and contemporary manufacturers would envy:

Edited February 10, 2018 by Moa
better wording