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Credited with 54 victories, Erich Lowenhardt wad the third highest scoring ace of the Great War behind only Manfred von Richthofen and Ernst Udet.  After service as an officer with ski troops in the Carpathians, Lowenhardt joined the air service in 1916, initially as an observer before becoming a pilot.  Lowenhardt joined Jasta 10 in March 1917 and by May of 1918 had a score in the high teens.  With the arrival of the Fokker D.VII, Lowenhardt, now commanding Jasta 10 increased his score dramatically, reaching 53 by 9 August, only the second German pilot to pass the 50 mark.  At that time Lowenhardt was the leading living German Ace.  He had also on 8 August claimed JG1's 500th victory of the war.  On 10th August 1918 suffering with a sprained ankle and ignoring advice not fly, Lowenhardt led a mixed patrol from Jastas 10 and 11.  Shortly after shooting down an RAF machine for his 54th victory, Lowenhardt collided with the Fokker of Jasta 11's Ltn Alfred Wentz.  Both pilots bailed out with their newly issued parachutes but tragically Lowenhardt's failed to open and he fell to his death.  Oblt Erich Lowenhardt was just 21 years old.

 

For my entry I will be building Roden's 1/72 Fokker D.VII as Lowenhardt's famous yellow fighter.

 

The kit and some lozenge decals for the wings:

 

IMG_0550

 

Some reference material:

IMG_0553

 

Andrew

Edited by Andwil
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Made a start on the DVII today.  First job was to give the parts a good wash and a bit of a clean up.  There is quite a lot of flash:

42843848324_5fc441a45d_b.jpg

 

and some sink holes to fill:

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After some carving out from the flash the major components appeared:

43561754051_7527c441dc_b.jpg

 

I'll give those a bit more cleaning up and sanding.

 

Next the nose was compared with the plans:

43561737431_609a0b51f2_b.jpg

Port side correct. Buts whats this?

29690537478_58347bd4cc_b.jpg

Roden have moulded both sides the same, whereas the arrangement of cooling louvres differs on the Starboard side.  I filed off the moulded louvres and glued on thin strips of plastic card which will be filed to shape once cured:

43561756311_bef7b64749_b.jpg

 

Finally I started to assemble the motor.  I had trouble here as the part on top of the cylinders (rocker covers?) broke into three pieces and had to be reassembled.  The plastic is very brittle, yet strangely soft and it is tricky to remove small parts from the runner, despite care being taken.  Similarly there is a u shaped pipe which also broke into three pieces but as this will not be visible I will leave it off.

42656415005_5a43e733d1_b.jpg

 

That"s all for now.  I hope to get back those cooling louvres tomorrow and maybe have a look at the cockpit.

 

Thanks for looking

 

AW

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Love the Fokker D.VII and great to see one here. Looks like a lot of work. As far as I know, there were many variation in the cowling slots, so best to compare it to pictures if available.

 

Cheers, Peter

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You’re right about it being a lot of work Peter, I spent a couple of hours today dry fitting and trying to work out how to fit the cockpit in.  The intstructions are vague and I suspect very misleading and there are no location points.  Also the fit is very poor, especially the lower wing to fuselage.

 

AW

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Howdy all, an update on progress with the DVII.  I have assembled and painted the motor, nicely detailed but most of it will be invisible once its in the aircraft.  paints used were Tamiya  flat aluminium, gunmetal and steel, Gunze gloss black and  a black wash:

 

41879097150_4a9ae3cdb1_b.jpg

 

Also done some work on the cockpit.  The floor was painted with Lifecolour warm wood with a clear orange over the top.  The seat I painted with Lifecolour brown with a top coat of clear red to simulate leather.  Mig's WW1 German grey green primer was used for the control stick and rudder pedals.  The stalk under the seat will not be visible and has not been painted (on the real thing the seat was attached to the fuselage framework not the floor).  Belts were fashioned from foil and are yet to be painted.  Like the motor not much of this is going to be seen once its in the fuselage so I'm not too concerned with the thickness of some of the parts (which look worse in the photo).

 

43687023851_993d838b5f_b.jpg

 

Finally a task I approached with some trepidation, the decals for the inside of the cockpit.  These are Aviatik's "inside out" lozenge fabric, applied as per their instructions over a base coat of gloss white.  As it transpired the trepidation was misplaced, although very thin, the decals went on beautifully using only warm water and settled nicely over the interior frame detail.  On the port side I cut out the individual sections, but as these went on so well on the starboard side I just put one piece over the framework:

 

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When these have dried overnight I will apply a coat of matt varnish to seal the decals before painting the fuselage framing and giving a light wash to pick out the detail.  I might have a go at scratching a hand fuel pump as well.  The Aviatik decals have behaved so well I am feeling a lot more confident about the lozenge camouflaged wings.

 

Thats all for now, more to follow in a few days.

 

AW

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That looks good AW, with good progress.

It is a pity that, as you say, the engine will be hidden.  The Aviatik decal has worked well too.

 

OT, I was looking for the Mig grey Green paint on their website, but couldn't find it.  Does it have a code number or similar?

 

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2 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

That looks good AW, with good progress.

It is a pity that, as you say, the engine will be hidden.  The Aviatik decal has worked well too.

 

OT, I was looking for the Mig grey Green paint on their website, but couldn't find it.  Does it have a code number or similar?

 

Thanks Robert.  My apologies, the German Grey green primer is not Mig it’s AK Interactive, part of their German WW1 Aircraft set AK2270.

 

AW

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Some progress with the DVII.  My modelling time has been a bit restricted so this is taking longer than I had hoped.  Anyway since the last post I have completed the internals and attached the engine and cockpit to the fuselage:

 

42933945785_ba48098e87_b.jpg43789454882_b2018e23c6_b.jpg

 

Due to the lack of locating pins and the very thin fuselage walls I added some strips of styrene to aid fixing of the fuselage and strengthen the joint (the shoulder straps have since been folded down and glued to the seat):

42933944395_0fcfc9a131_b.jpg

 

Fuselage closed up, taped and extra thin run along the seams:

42933945825_87894edb55_b.jpg

 

The fit is not very good and quite a bit of filling and sanding will be required.  After the fuselage has been tidied up it will be time to tackle the lower wing, which dry fitting has shown to be an appalling fit.

 

AW

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Brief update (no pics).  Managed an hour or so this afternoon down in the "studio" between downpours.  Sanded the seams on the fuselage, took the SIHRSC to the steps on both the top and bottom of the fuselage - it would appear that the port fuselage half is slightly larger than the starboard half and I'm pretty sure Fokker didn't make the DVII that way.  Then started work on the fit of the tailplane and lower wing.  The tailplane needed a little filing as it was marginally narrower than the fuselage.  The wing though was at least 2mm narrower than the fuselage opening.  Both the lower fuselage and the wing roots were thinned and the spars almost eliminated.  I think with just a little more work I can get a semblance of a fit.  I did hit a further problem when during the fettling process the engine came loose inside the nose, but fortunately I was able to maneuver it back into place through the opening in the bottom of the fuselage and get some extra thin around the location point.  In retrospect I should have secured it with epoxy before I closed up the fuselage.  Roden certainly don't make life easy with tiny mating surfaces.  I shudder when I look at the miniscule connection points for the struts.

 

AW

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Well this kit is fighting me and putting my limited skills to the test but I am beating it into submission,  Lower wing and tailplane attached, the wing required a lot of work to make it fit, I ended up by removing the moulded spars entirely and taking a chunk out of the inside face of the wing roots.  The resulting gap and damage from the surgery required a shim behind the rear of the fuselage underside.  I also put a small shim in the join of the tailplane and fuselage.  While in the mood for shimming and filler, I added a piece of plasticard under the nose to improve the profile, Roden had moulded a "step" behind the bottom of the radiator which resulted in it looking like there was a piece missing.  I studied all the photos I have of DVIIs and could only find one that showed this lip and that was of Goering's all white machine (which to be fair to Roden is the subject of the kit), so perhaps it was a mod applied to this aircraft.  Anyway, once the filler etc is sanded down and cleaned up it will be ready for paint.

43895115582_390f23df9d_b.jpg29005633067_541764a6d3_b.jpg

 

AW

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On 8/4/2018 at 11:12 AM, Andwil said:

dry fitting has shown to be an appalling fit.

That's an understatement!  You have solved it the only way possible, short of buying a resin upgrade.  

Have fun with the cabane struts.  The stabilizer doesn't fit well either...just a bit of fyi...

 

For a supremely detailed 1/72nd kit, it seems Roden had a room full of monkeys working out-of-tandem to design the kit.  That is, when they weren't typing up Shakespeare.

 

Nice work!  I'm looking forward to the final result!

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Great work so far AW beating this kit into submission.

 

I recently completed the Roden 1/48 Sea Gladiator, in the words of Holly Johnson it's like "when two tribes go to war".  I got it finished but only after a LOT of frustration.  In response to my RFI @jeaton01 put up I picture of a jig he had made to support the upper wing whilst it was being assembled.  You should take a look it might save you some pain...

 

Also and I'm sure you are going to do this, remember to drill any rigging holes before attaching the upper mainplane.

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15 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

You go ahead and beat that roden into submission ! Im learning how i need to do mine by following this build. 

Thanks Dennis, no pressure then!

 

15 hours ago, John D.C. Masters said:

For a supremely detailed 1/72nd kit, it seems Roden had a room full of monkeys working out-of-tandem to design the kit.  That is, when they weren't typing up Shakespeare.

Its certainly odd, the kit has some nice detail but is very poorly engineered.  I am really not looking forward to the cabane struts and undercarriage, getting them off the sprue intact will be a challenge in itself but I have a cunning plan for that.

 

4 hours ago, John D.C. Masters said:

I didn't catch that you were using the Aviatik decals...first rate stuff, imho.

Yeah, the ones I used on the inside of the cockpit went on like a dream, hopefully the wing ones will as well as they could make or break the build.

 

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

The Roden D.VII is one of the more unpleasant kits I've ever built, but you're fighting it manfully.

Thanks PC.  I have several more in the stash to look forward to!

 

2 hours ago, Grey Beema said:

I recently completed the Roden 1/48 Sea Gladiator, in the words of Holly Johnson it's like "when two tribes go to war".  I got it finished but only after a LOT of frustration.  In response to my RFI @jeaton01 put up I picture of a jig he had made to support the upper wing whilst it was being assembled.  You should take a look it might save you some pain...

 

Also and I'm sure you are going to do this, remember to drill any rigging holes before attaching the upper mainplane.

I will be knocking up some kind of jig to help with the wing.  Luckily the rigging on the D.VII is limited to bracing wires for the tailplane and undercarriage and should be relatively straight forward.

 

Work continued this afternoon with more sanding and micromeshing to polish out scratches in preparation for primer.

 

AW

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Brief update today.  Got the primer on which (predictably) showed up a couple of areas needing more attention, but not as bad as I had feared:

43308321424_f853be3647_b.jpg

 

I used Mig AMMO white primer, which I have never used before.  It is very thin and went on kind of blotchy even though the model was cleaned and wiped over with isopropyl alcohol to remove any grease.  I put a second coat on which improved the coverage.  It has dried very smooth, we'll see how the paint goes on.

 

AW

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Well despite the issues you have been having with the kit :fight: you are making very good progress. Looking forward to see it with the paint on.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Painting started.  The wings got a coat of gloss white as a base for the Aviatik lozenge camouflage decals.  Once that had dried the fuselage and other bits and pieces got a first coat of yellow.  I tested various yellows on some scrap plastic and settled on Lifecolour RLM 04 Yellow as the best representation, to my mind, of the "chrome" yellow used by Jasta 10.  I figure that no one who saw the original is going to see my model!  Looks like several coats are going to be required:

 

43996086212_6a454ee80e_b.jpg

 

AW

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Yes it always best to do multiple light coats with yellow. BTW your Fokker is looking great and im looking forward to seeing the aviatik lozenge decals in use. I ordered a set from the big “H” myself. For use on my two Fokker D.VII’s.

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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