1:48 Dragon Fokker D.VIII/Copper State Models Gnome 9N 160 HP Rotary

[Iancshippee]

Hello, all. While battling my bout of shingles, I made the top of my dresser an improvised "workbench" as sitting is quite uncomfortable. I'm going to be doing up this Fokker D.VIII as one of the Jasta 6 machines, specifically to match the one built and flown by Brian Coughlin that can be seen at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It's powered by a Gnome 9N of 160 decibels...I mean horsepower, and I purchased a Copper State Models 9N to add to the kit. (testing out Flikr in this thread as well!)



This is the first time I have built a resin engine, I have used them before but shelled out for the pre-builts as I didn't trust my shaky hands. I was still nervous plunging in with this one, as it's so nicely molded and I don't was to ruin it, but we have to start somewhere!



The cylinders mounted into the crankcase very smoothly, only needing slight cleaning up.



Here they are all mounted! I couldn't believe it took me all of 10 minutes. there is 1 mistake, can you see it?

[KiwiZac]

Good luck! I've just migrated to Flickr as well - do we count as refugees? - and a friend on another forum showed me this:

1. Click the Share arrow
2. Click "BBCode"
3. Copy the highlighted material and paste to your post
4. Cut the bits between, and including,
4. Delete the rest and paste the bit you cut. Voila! It's a bit more convoluted than PB but at least it's free!

[Iancshippee]

Thank you, KiwiZac! I sorted out my first post now, and I think I solved my sizing issue.

anyways, my discovery was that somehow, I accidentally ended up with 8 "9n" cylinders and one "9b" cylinder. initially, I thought I had broken a spark plug, but then I noticed that cylinder had a different rocker arm on the top, that actually was slightly too tall to clear the cowling if I were to be successful in having this engine rotate. No matter, a little sanding, and all is well.



By the way, this is in NO WAY a knock on Copper State Models! This engine is a work of art, and a hack like me is honored to even have the privilege of assembling it. On to the pushrods!



I did not have a length anywhere for the size of the pushrods, so with some luck-infused use of the guess-and-check method, I got 9 respectable pushrods cut and mounted into place.



 next will be paint! I found some Model Master Anthracite Grey Metallic enamel that I feel is a good match for the engine's color. will post again once the paint is dry!
 

[Iancshippee]

After a few days worth of work, I have made some progress! First, the engine is finished for the time being, and though a little dark, I think this is a fitting color for the 9N. Spark plugs gave me some grief, there was either too much paint or not enough.  still managed to not destroy it, so I am happy.



As a side note, this engine kit comes with all of the pieces to build what goes inside the aircraft as well; magnetos, pumps, etc. My intent is to have the engine rotate, so I am leaving them off for the moment, but hanging onto them for the future. Anyways, onto the airframe!





This kit was apparently handled roughly before I purchased it, as there were several breaks to parts that were still on the sprues. both of the side frames of the cockpit were broken in multiple places, and the tachometer was broken off the cross brace. Besides those issues, the interior went together fairly easily. I fashioned a new tach out of a bit of sprue, which will have a black body and white face (though little of this will be visible when the coaming is attached!)
 

[xmald]

Good work on the engine! The CSM products are really great aren`t they?
I think you should repaint the floor and the panel behind the seat. The floor was wooden with metal pads under the rudder bar. The panel behind the seat should either be in lozenge or in CDL finish. The seat was very ofter wrapped in lozenge too. 
Keep up the good work!

[Iancshippee]

Thank you for the kind words! I really do love this CSM engine, I wish I could find a couple more!

As for paint, I was using the call-outs Dragon gave in the instructions, and I agree, they don't quite look right. what I should do is get in touch with the folks at ORA and ask for a few pictures of that aircraft. I did that when building my Morane AI, and they were most helpful with interior shots. here's a picture of the D.VIII I'm attempting to duplicate, sourced from Google Images. I dont have any still photos of my own, only video clips.

[Iancshippee]

No worries Edgar! The engine is a work of art, and a real confidence booster! I never thought I would succeed at assembling one.

[KiwiZac]

The vast majority of models I build are warbirds/replicas rather than wartime examples so I'm 100% behind you on this build! Fine work on the cockpit.

[RAGIII]

Really nice work on the interior. Looking forward to further updates!
RAGIII

[Iancshippee]

Thanks everyone! Edgar, no worries on the pictures, just received the Datafile for the D.VIII, and shot an email to Old Rhinebeck to ask for a couple interior shots and a couple other things. Moving along, the next task on this project is the lozenges. The kit I have is the 2014 release (I also have a 1994 release of the same kit because I needed a full set of instructions, but that's another story!)
and the good news is that the decals are from Cartograf. the bad news is, Dragon was a bit off with their colors. I had picked up a 4-color Microsculpt sheet some time back, so today's project is to cut out the decals from the kit and trace them onto the microsculpt decals.

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr[/img]

you can see how the kit decals are a bit(!) too bright. the lighting makes the Microsculpt sheet look more brown-toned than it actually is. on to the cutting. I was glad to only end up using 1 and a tiny bit of a second line of the lozenge, plenty more for future projects!

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

I decided to fit the turtledeck decal to see how the trimming came out, and how the decals would lay down and adhere. I was pleased because the decal slid into place perfectly, and was slightly oversize. much better to be a little to big and trimming as opposed to coming up too short!

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

The turtledeck ended up smoothing out even more than in the previous shot once I'd worked the water out a bit and trimmed the excess. Didn't get any further pics of today's progress, as my 9-month old son awoke from his nap! A couple of paint touch-ups on the fuselage and then I will add the side lozenges.

[Monty]

Great progress on this one Ian! I really, really like that engine and what you are doing with the decals is quite authentic! Lovely stuff! Marc

[Iancshippee]

Thank you Marc! Had some time today to add on the side lozenges, and all went very smoothly. Very happy with how effortless it was to apply these!

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

my success inspired me to tackle the cowling decal, which was a bit more challenging. I did get it where I wanted it for the most part, but it still needs some encouragement to adhere everywhere. there are a couple of spots where it just would not lay down, and without it mounted to something I was likely to make matters worse by trying to force it. Once it's had a few days (or I have it attached to the fuselage) I'll do something about the high spots.

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

You can see I enlarged the center hole to allow for the Gnome to fit properly. here's a taste of what it will look like once assembled.

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

Next, once the decals have had time to cure, it'll be time to work on the guns and coaming! until next time!

[Iancshippee]

I've done a bit more to the D.VIII in the past week, mostly with decals. I did, however, mount the guns, coaming, and front wing struts. here's a shot of the completed guns, one of which I had to be creative with as half of it was missing from the sprue.

by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

Though still fiddly, it was easier to mount the guns on this than on the Dragon Dr. 1 I completed a few years back.

IMG_0323 by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

Next I worked on the markings on the side. The long white arrow I constructed using some leftover white striping from some old leftover decals, and to make the head of the arrow I cut the ends off a white square. while not perfect, it does look the part for the most part.

IMG_0336 by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

IMG_0337 by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

IMG_0335 by Ian Shippee, on Flickr

My next decal challenge is the serial numbers; the replica has an incorrect serial of E.V 150/18, while the original is E.V 154/18. my kit decals have no serial, and the Aeromaster "Flying Razors" set has E.V 157/18 as the closest. I'm going see if I have anything in my used decal stash to match up, or in any of  my yet-to-be-builts in the stash. from a building standpoint, my next task is going to be adding the tail surfaces and the landing gear. Hoping to button this one up before the end of July!

[RAGIII]

Your Razor is coming along nicely. Keep up the great work!
RAGIII

[Bughunter]

Keep on the good work on this Razor!
Looks like we have the "Razor-Weeks" here, started one too.

Cheers,
Frank