Hello Boys and Girls,

Well like many of you I was very excited by WNWs Christmas release frenzy. – So I guess, very predictable, my chosen subject will be WNWs new Fokker DVII from the Albatros production line.

Work will begin in earnest in a couple of weeks. I first have to finish my two Sopwiths (Finally in their late production stages – a kitchen renovation has played havoc with my building schedule). In the meantime, I will do some more research. Though I doubt very much I'll be able to match Kornbeefs AMS, I will give the engine compartment some extra attention

I've already decided to do Carl Degelows Jasta 40 mount, as shown on the boxart:



Images from WNWs booklet and instrction sheet:





Degelow is the fellow in the middle wearing the light uniform jacket

Helping me along with the engine will be these excellent looking parts from Taurus:



As some might recall I was lucky enough to answer Stephen's film quiz correctly a while back and choose a set of Taurus Models spark plugs as my prize. A few weeks later a mysterious letter arrived from Poland, containing, not only the plugs, but also intake manifold nuts, and a Valve/Timing Gear for the Mercedes DIIIa. Thank You Stephen, and Thank You Lukasz for supplying the most generous prize. I shall put them to good use!

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on progress as and when they occur, I can't wait to clear my desk now!

Best Regards to you all

Mikael

Wow, Mikael! It looks wonderful! Having in mind your previous builds, I can hardly wait to see it rolling!

All the best,
Entoni

Snazzy Coup there Mikael! Welcome to the GB!

Mikael,
Nice choice of subject and colour scheme. Your AMS (not to be underated!) will no doubt lead to another spectacular Build. I'll be following closely to see how you tackle the mainly black fuselage; it's a very "busy" challenge to overcome the monotone effect and I'll be looking closely to learn your technique.
Cheers,
Lance

Thank You for your very encouraging words Entoni! Your beautiful Albatros is still fresh in my memory!

Thank You Stephen

Thank You Lance, did'nt really reflect on the black fuselage until you pointed it out... I usually go for more colourful schemes – but looking back, my last G.B. entry was also very black (the Fe 2b Night bomber). Well, I really like Degelows stag

Anyway I think the secret to get an interesting surface on a black subject, is to use hardly any black at all – I'll keep you posted on my progress

Mikael

That is a very true statement Mikael,
If you paint anything white or black and it looks realistic you seem to find that you have used nearly no white or black Just seems to work that way.................
Julian

Hello Mikael:

I am looking forwward to seeing you work your craftsmanship on this model.

Best

Mark

me to

LarsaQ

Thank You for the encouraging words Julian, Mark and Larsa.

Wou'nt be long before I start the Fokkers, I'm at the rigging stage with the Sopwiths. I'll keep you posted.

Mikael

Grins evilly and makes plans to instigate Mikaels AMS syndrome and push it to frenzy point

Must... try... resist... eyes aching... pouring over blurry photos... ahhrghh... the power of AMS is... strong...

Is it the triplane micke????

LarsaQ

Yup Larsa,

Rodens tripe, with Rowans aftermarket decals. Also doing the WNW Pup, they'll finish at the same time.

I'll post them he at aeroscale whne I'm done.

Mikael,
I'm looking forward to following your work on this one. I have all three of the new DVII however this version will no doubt be the first one attempted. The "RK" or Kraut scheme has a Canadian connection, being one of twenty or so we got as War Prizes and flown in the UK by Andrew McKeever, the F2b top scoring ace. I'll be doing that one and look forward to learning from your Build. In the interim I'll have to order some of those wonderful Taurus Engine bits.
Cheers,
Lance

Looking forward for pics
LarsaQ

Hi all,

Well I'm finally off to the race with this one. Not too much interesting progress as yet – I've mostly spent my evenings cutting off bits from the sprues, and cleaning them up in waiting for a session of painting (Thats when things start to get really interesting for me).

I've also done some work with the excellent Taurus sets of bits for the engine. The castings are truly amazing for such tiny parts. The size does present a bit of a problem to me. I've already tweezerpulted some bits into that dark black hole where lost PE and other tiny modeling parts end up. So if you're tackling these sets, make sure you have a clean desk, and steady hands (and perhaps an optivisor).

Enough said – here are some pics of progress so far:


The stick is a very fine piece of casting. Nevertheless, I'm adding the trigger cables (Bowden?) and the trottle linkage + some control linkage points. The pump is getting a pipe too.


Like Kornbeef noted, the ammo boxes are a bit on the thick side. I did some thinning down. Thinking I might leave upper panel off exposing the gun mounts, gas tank etc...?


Speaking of fine castings – this is about as thin as I think is achievable... I took great care when I clipped them off the trees. Luckily they are a bit bendy.




Fixing the bolts for the inlet manifold, pretty straightforward, and a nice improvement.


I've also drilled the openings on the side of the sump. (Though a bit hard to see here perhaps)

Well, work continues with a bit of more clean up and some engine mods, I think we'll be ready for some paint soon. It does feel like its a very "easy" build so far.

Thank You for looking, any comment or question are most welcome.

Mikael

Very impressive Mikael!

Great start Mikael.

Beautiful work indeed Mikael,
Julian

Thank You so very much, Stephen, Keith and Julian!

Last night I forged ahead a bit with the engine mods – which was a lot of fun. putting in pipes and wires is about the best part of constructing!

I'm also building another Fokker DVII behind the scenes. This will be an early version Fokker built plane. At the moment, I'm wanting to do ex Jasta 6 291/18, at its later life. This is a pretty worn out machine, and also a bit of a Frankenstein's monster, built out of bits from other planes.

My problem is, that I only have one bad image from the Fokker anthology available (the same publication does have a profile of it as well).

Now there is something going on with the tail of the plane (dark painted?) The colour of the swasticas is also not for sure. Profile shows them red.

Does anyone have other/better pics of this plane, or perhaps some opinions or input? Eveerything is of interest and most welcome

Best Regards

Mikael

Vizefeldwebel Meyer of Flieger Abteilung A298. It was assigned Fokker Co. serial number 291/18 and Werke Nummer 2377. As you know the Anthology Vol. contains a photograph on page 44 as well as a colour profile and top view representing the author's interpretation of the photo. It is identified as an ex-Jasta 6 machine.

Hi All,

The engine is progressing slowly, but surely – I do a little most evenings. The Taurus set of valves and timing gear is now in place where it should be.

Like I said in a previous post, they are very small parts, and you need to take it slow on an empty desk, not to loose any bits to the Carpet Monster. Taurus have thoughtfully provided some spares, in case you loose any bits (I did). You also have to take care when assembling to get things to line up straight. The timing gear is very slightly long in comparison to the cylinders (As previously stated by Kornbeef). I don't forsee any big issues with this – but it makes placing the springs and lifters a bit tricky...

It does make a huge difference once in place, and I think will look great under some coats of paint. A little careful dry brushing should bring out the detail in all its glory.

Anyway – here are some pictures:


A before and after if you like... the one to the right will go into my other DVII build.




The side of the sump is rather featureless in its original. I also find it a bit strange that WNW does'nt provide the very prominent pipe (I've actually exchanged this one with a slightly thinner coupling). I also added a scratch built drain valve. Perhaps slightly over scale, but I really can't make it any smaller.


All together now... Only dry fitted – I have a bit more work to do before I'm ready for paint.

Thats all for now – Any and all comments are as usual most welcome.


Best Regards

Mikael

Thanks for sharing your build here Mikael! Very nice.

Fantastic work on the engine Mikael,
looks amazing,
Julian

Coming along great Mikael.

Yes its odd WNW chose to leave some prominant detail off the Merc but I suppose the extra cost of producing an engine out of even more parts than their current offering and maybe as in a lot of aircraft kits that use the merc this are is often totally out of sight.

Mind you Roden picked up the what I imagine is a balance pipe between the upper and lower crank case halfs.

Looking forwards to seeing how you handle other area's too. A fresh mind to the fray.

Keith