forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
The David Wilson Memorial Group Build 2024 => The David Wilson Memorial Group Build 2024 => Topic started by: Brad Cancian on May 16, 2024, 07:26:03 PM
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Hi everyone,
A bit late to start, but I have decided to throw my hat in the ring as well as a tribute to my good friend. Dave always inspired me to get back to the bench, despite all of life's distractions (and even when he was no longer able to). I find myself in a position this year of being super busy with work, travel, and life, which has resulted in zero completions since about October last year, and a stalled project on the bench which just makes me groan a little knowing how much work I still have to go on it (which, in turn, has further discouraged me from sitting down at the bench). It's all conspired to result in me not having done much actual modelling this year so far, and not being terribly motivated to do any.
In watching all of the awesome responses and progress in this group build, I took inspiration and recollected Dave's words to me many moons ago, to remember the reasons why we find joy in our hobby, and focus on those aspects when we find ourselves not feeling motivated. So, on Sunday I cleared the bench, and decided to start one of the MANY kits I have in my stash, with the aim of simply building for joy, in tribute to Dave. My contribution will be a simple build of a simple yet fun subject, to get the mojo going, and get me back 'in the groove', as Dave would have wanted :)
In this case, I've settled on starting the 1/72 Revell Fokker Dr.1. This is the 2003 release, which is a much nicer release than the Revell kit originating from back in the 1960s. It is a very nice yet simple little kit of this iconic machine from the First World War (indeed it is a competitor for the best kit of this aircraft in 1/72, I think). Of course it complies with Revell's 'tradition' of releasing all of their Fokker Dr.1 kits in bright red plastic! ;D Maybe one day I should actually do a model as one of Richthofen's famous mounts...
(https://i.imgur.com/U7TkdG5.jpg)
The aim is to keep this one pretty simple, with only some minor modifications. In this case, I intend only on replacing the kit engine with an Eduard item, the guns with some Gaspatch guns, and a few minor upgrades here and there to the interior (i.e. seat mounts, seat belts, and so on) and exterior. The rest I will keep pretty much to what comes in the box, to maintain the spirit of this build.
Progress is small so far; I've built up the Eduard resin engine (designed for their kit but it fits the Revell kit fine), cleaned up the major parts, repositioned the control surfaces for some visual interest, and added some very crude seat mounts. For some reason Revell moulded recessed vertical panel lines on the fuselage, which I've filled with Mr Surfacer, to be sanded down later.
(https://i.imgur.com/oBipLEM.jpg)
So far, even these simple small steps have reinvigorated me to getting back to the bench again... it's also reminded me of how small some of these aircraft are in 1/72! :o
Thanks for looking,
BC
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Great to see you again Brad and an excellent idea to get that mojo flowing ;D
(FWIW I sometimes think we get too bogged down in making a model as good as it can be and forget the actual pleasure of creation which building a model up from a kit brings)
I've never seen the new 72nd Revell DR1 in the flesh although chatting to a clubmate at a recent show he said that he preferred this one to the Eduard offering :-\ It'll be good to see it being put together.
Paul
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Great choice Brad, and a neat little Kit it is! I will never forget Dave's enthusiasm for the hobby and particularly his emphasis on keeping the "enjoyment" of the experience paramount. Paul has appropriately commented in that here and he is right on the mark.
...... and certainly if this choice gets your "mojo" flowing again he would be doubly pleased with your decision!
Cheers,
Lance
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Hi Brad
This is a nice kit, I personally cannot remember the panel lines so I will have to go up in the attic and see if either of the ones I built were built without removing them. It is funny you should say one day you will do one of Richthofen's planes, why don't you do this one as his. One thing I regret is the early markings of his Dr 1 (or maybe his first Dr.1) has one of the coolest schemes but of the 5 I have built in 3 different scales none of them were in that scheme (I'm talking about the scheme that is half red half Fokker Streak).
Alan.
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That is a great choice and a Nice kit! Hopefully the build will be your motivation to get your Mojo back on track! One can never have too many triplanes 8)
RAGIII
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Nice start Brad.
I too lost mojo for quite a while and I'm hoping this tribute will get the proverbial juices flowing again!
Ian
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I'm in the midst of a "lost mojo slump" that's lasted several months now, and your post really spoke to me. I'm excited to follow your build of this lovely kit.
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Great choice. The Revell kit is indeed a lovely kit and doesn't need much work to produce a nice representation of the DrI. It is indeed tiny though!
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Good choice of kit! Im sure you will enjoy it.
For the building / modeling mojo - mine also comes and goes. Kinda like waves. Sometime a quick simple build is all you need to get back into it :)
Im looking forward to your progress!
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Thanks all! I am indeed looking forward to this being a simple and relaxing build :) I did get some paint on the interior today, just waiting on the oil paints to dry and then I think progress should speed up. Thanks for the encouragement!
Cheers,
BC
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Built one of these when it came out and found it a fun, nicely fitting kit. I look forward to watching. I have been stalled soooo many times by stopping at the point of a project where I don't to start when I come back to it!
Steve
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It's taken me a little while but I now have an interior.
The kit interior is quite nice as it is, with some errors and omissions, but the general layout is pretty much there. That means the kit cockpit doesn't need too much work, especially given the size of the cockpit opening is smaller than the size of a pea...
In the spirit of only making some minor adjustments to the basic kit, the only tweaks I made were the addition of the single piece of fuselage frame under the cockpit coaming, some rudder pedals and gun triggers from fine wire, the aforementioned basic seat mounts, some seatbelts from tape, and a small amount of rigging.
(https://i.imgur.com/He1xL3W.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/s0Oshlf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZdSp6c2.jpg)
It all looks a bit chunky in the close up photos, sadly... but it's all rather small to my old eyes...!
I also have an engine... though the kit engine is fine enough as it is, I replaced it with the Eduard Brassin replacement engine designed for their 1/72 kit. It will do just fine, me thinks.
(https://i.imgur.com/D2ppnUg.jpg)
Anyways, next, onto joining up the fuselage. I expect things to progress a bit more speedily from there...!
Cheers,
Brad C
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Great progress Brad, if not MvR scheme then who?
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Beautifully painted interior and Engine Brad!
RAGIII
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The interior looks great Brad! The 'new' Revell kit looks much better than the 60' one which was the last Dr.I that I've built.
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Wow, that all looks lovely! Great work so far.
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Very sharp! Your painting detail really makes the simple parts pop along with your addeddetails.
Steve
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Typically clean and beautiful work, Brad, this is going to be another gem.
I feel bad that my schedule with the Eindecker project isn't allowing me to participate in the group build, but I’m certainly enjoying following along with everyone else's contributions.
Dutch
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A very neat work. As usual, I have to add ;)
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Thank you everyone!
I must say this is quite a tiny little bird in this scale... which makes me wonder why my progress is so slow... oh well! There has been some progress this weekend, which is nice.
Firstly, I had a crack at painting the propeller. It's no thing of beauty but by Jove it will do!
(https://i.imgur.com/TZOtAVP.jpg)
I painted up some gaspatch guns - these things are beautifully done, though I did my best to hash up the paint job...!
(https://i.imgur.com/GPRIqwy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LfNXSvG.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TAzzhBN.jpg)
Thankfully they are a good fit for the kit ammunition chutes / ammo box piece.
I also got the fuselage together; the fit was quite nice with no filler being needed on the seams (in fact, from dry fitting, there should be no need for any filler at all on the kit. Phenomenal!). You can see where I did have to fill those errant panel lines on the fuselage.
(https://i.imgur.com/ERnWSbg.jpg)
I added the cowling ring from foil:
(https://i.imgur.com/mEtXHWX.jpg)
The underside of the fuselage is bare, so I added the chin panel and some stitching.
(https://i.imgur.com/ox4zm4F.jpg)
Lastly, one of my favourite steps - priming. I did my best to 'de-red' this little beastie...!
(https://i.imgur.com/BC5RoFW.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mBxulk7.jpg)
So far, I have been quite impressed by the level of engineering and ease of build of this kit.
Now, to decide on a colour scheme... (and before anyone suggests it, I won't be doing Richthofen's all red machine, haha! ::) )
Cheers and thanks for looking!
BC
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I would laugh if you did do it red after painting it grey.
Alan.
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Looking great Brad! I think the stitching and access panel really came out great and add realism to the basic kit!
RAGIII
PS: Your prop is Awesome!
PPS: Do Jasta 11 502/17. Not as overdone as Richthofen or Jacobs ::)
(https://i.postimg.cc/pLBzR83T/eduarddr1andspadvii-020.jpg)
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Great progress! The prop looks amazing ;D
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Nice, Brad.
And if you organised a poll I would cast my vote for black Jacobs plane, the most successful Dr.I pilot.
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Looks very very promising. Me too am very pleased with the new Revell moulding of Dr.1 and it builds very well. You are doing absolutely fantastic work of it.
Cheers, Skyhook
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Looking good Brad, very nice details in this tiny scale!
I agree with Prez, Jacobs plane would be a nice choice :)
Cheers Willem
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That's amazing Brad. I can't believe it's 1/72 scale - what I grew up with. Nice progress.
Cheers,
Gary
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Great progress!
Steve
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Thanks all!
Very nice work on your 'tripe Rick! Very inspirational!
Alas I don't have the Jacobs fire breathing demon as a decal in this scale... I am contemplating the stripy Kirschstein / Udet triplane... though that masking might make me cross eyed (but I guess that's the 'aim'... pardon the poor pun... :o ;D)...
(https://i.imgur.com/yE02LwU.jpg)
Thoughts?
Cheers,
BC
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Thanks all!
Very nice work on your 'tripe Rick! Very inspirational!
Alas I don't have the Jacobs fire breathing demon as a decal in this scale...
Thoughts?
Cheers,
BC
Jacobs used at least two black Dr.Is. One of them has simple markings, no devil, white crosses... I know it is not a striking schem but then, you want a simple one, don't you?
https://przemyslaw.litewka.pracownik.put.poznan.pl/modele_pliki/fokdr1.html
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That is beautiful work all round! The prop looks great and those guns are amazing. I haven't seen the GasPatch 1/72 ones, very impressive. Coming together very well, I'm looking forward to seeing which scheme you use.
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Thanks all!
Very nice work on your 'tripe Rick! Very inspirational!
Alas I don't have the Jacobs fire breathing demon as a decal in this scale... I am contemplating the stripy Kirschstein / Udet triplane... though that masking might make me cross eyed (but I guess that's the 'aim'... pardon the poor pun... :o ;D)...
(https://i.imgur.com/yE02LwU.jpg)
Thoughts?
Cheers,
BC
Awesome choice Brad! You can't go wrong with Stripes 8)
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That's a great choice. If I was doing it I probably wouldn't mask it, I would cut black decal strips and do it that way (I'm not intending to tell you how to suck eggs, I did Udet's Fokker D.VII that way and it worked well).
Alan.
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Americal Gryphon did decals for that bird in 1/72nd a Long time ago 8) One thing to note is that profile shows the Old thought on the fuselage striping. 8)More modern interpretations show a vertical line at the cockpit!
RAGIII
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Hi all,
I've been grappling with the streaked Fokker finish today... I wanted to use oils this time (last time I used Aviattic decals) due to the masking that i'll need to apply for the striped scheme. Last time I tried to use oils for Fokker streaking was back in around 2007 on the 1/32 Roden kit (and I wasn't happy with it then)... I wanted a stylised look with plenty of variation, but one that was plausibly 'to scale', given that in 1/72 the brush strokes would be very thin.
After several hours and quite a few 'wiping the slate clean and start again' events, I nearly gave up and chose another scheme... here's the most recent attempt. I don't love it, but it's the attempt that I've hated the least, and I think I'll call it there.
(https://i.imgur.com/oO9BIDk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/lzeOeYT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1jd0Xgw.jpg)
(... and yes, the streaking is 'backwards' on the wings (i.e. fades in the wrong direction)... this was for practical reasons for me, mainly to get the paint evenly to the leading edges... but I guess it's plausible that this was a 'Friday afternoon' Fokker, and was painted upside down in the jig... haha!)
It is still wet, so happy enough to wipe it clean and start again if the consensus is that it's rubbish... otherwise, I think i'll let it dry, and once dry, I can work with some thin over-paint / glazing effects. I think post-shading the ribs during weathering will help 'pull' it all together. Happy to take thoughts / comments / recommendations. I must say I am surprised at how hard this has been...
Cheers,
BC
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I don't know why you are criticising yourself besides those Fokker guys back then did it with a 4" brush and certainly didn't rub off what they did because they thought they could do a better job next time, especially not on Friday afternoons.
Alan.
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Looks pretty good to me for 1/72, I say carry on!
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Your streaking looks Good to Me! The Markings will give it, the streaking, a whole new look once applied. I don't know about you, but I find the forward Fuselage sides to be the most difficult part of the job.
RAGIII
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That looks good for 1/32 so at less than half the size it's excellent!!
Steve
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Thanks all, I appreciate the feedback (and the emotional support...!)... not sure why this was so hard to get an effect that I was vaguely comfortable with. It's a technique I think i'll need to work on in future, as I still don't love the results i've achieved.
Rick, your technique in particular is one that I think i'll try and emulate better in future; I followed your technique and found in 1/72 though that using a 'wet' brush to remove pigment resulted in streaks that just didn't look to scale, so my attempt ended up being more of a 'dry brushing' technique. Sigh. Very happy to take more tips from the super-coach...!
Now to let it dry for a few more days, before I tackle the blue undersides and then them pesky stripes...
Cheers again!
BC
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Rick, your technique in particular is one that I think i'll try and emulate better in future; I followed your technique and found in 1/72 though that using a 'wet' brush to remove pigment resulted in streaks that just didn't look to scale, so my attempt ended up being more of a 'dry brushing' technique. Sigh. Very happy to take more tips from the super-coach...!
Cheers again!
BC
Having not had the pleasure of seeing the first attempts I can only make a theoretical suggestion for the future 8)
Make sure you are using a "Damp" not soaking wet brush. As in the tutorial have a bunch of different wide flat brushes on hand. Some of them need to be soft in order to Smooth things out. In 1/72nd the one on the far left of the photo, the Big Soft watercolor kids brush is very important to smooth out the streaks for the final finish. IHTH in the future.
RAGIII
(https://i.postimg.cc/xCwmjPRw/fokkerstreakedcamo-001.jpg)
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Thanks for the tip Rick, much appreciated!
Slow progress on this one; I have given the oils about two weeks to dry (as I always prefer to be safe than sorry with these) - plan is to continue a little bit of progress with the paint this weekend, all going well.
Cheers,
BC
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Hi everyone - been a while between drinks here; work, a house build, and travel have all gotten in the way of progress. None the less, the little 'tripe now has some additional colour.
I masked and sprayed everything, with the exception of the forward fuselage datum line, the weights table, and the propeller logos, which were decals. The stripes were by far the most time consuming and tricky part to mask, as I also wanted to integrate the national markings into the masking.
It's far from perfect, and the close up photos show every little mistake that i'll have to go and think about fixing, but here we are...
(https://i.imgur.com/KB6obNy.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CMJibv9.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ekbg3x8.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/31BC3OB.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/4MjNY8K.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2ow2hTC.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zl0eY4o.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/UhZmtBf.jpeg)
Glad to be at this point; though there's still much of the major assembly to go, the home stretch starts to tease me...!
Cheers,
BC
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Cracking job Brad
Love it when a model reaches this stage and you 'nearly, nearly' but at least with a DR1 there's not miles of rigging to add ;D
Paul
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Outstanding progress on your little Tripe Brad! She is a Beauty! Not far to go now.
RAGIII
PS: I forgot to Mention that Fabulous Prop!
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Fabulous work, Brad. You're certainly turning it into something special.
Cheers,
Gary
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Beautiful job on that Brad. Perfect weathering.
I have one of those in the stash, your build may have moved it closer to top of the list.
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That's looking amazing for 1/72 Brad. That propellor is stunning in that small scale. This is going to be an absolute jewel when it is finished.
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S P E C T C U L A R !
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Thank you everyone! ;D
Just working out how best to tackle mounting the wings and getting everything straight. Might try something a bit different this time around...
Cheers again!
BC
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Some more progress over the weekend. I decided to try something slightly different, and mount the top wing to the middle wing before mounting the assembly to the fuselage. I tried this as I wanted to use a method which ensured the top and middle wings were in alignment for the interplane and cabane strut pieces with a minimum of fiddling. So, first she became a biplane, at which point I also mounted the guns and did the rigging of the cabane struts and aileron wires.
(https://i.imgur.com/ynTKMbB.jpeg)
Then, I mounted this assembly to the fuselage, followed by the bottom wing, while the glue was still not quite set, in order to facilitate any adjustments. With a relative minimum of fuss, I now have something resembling a triplane...!
(https://i.imgur.com/Af9Qqk9.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mlqdBmn.jpeg)
The close up photos show areas where I need to do more touch ups, but at least a sigh of relief now the hard part of any triplane build is done.
Cheers!
BC
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Now that's a novel way to approach a triplane build, but it worked really well. She is looking very good indeed.....
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That's a bold approach Brad, but worked well for you 8)
The model's looking great as well
Paul
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A novel way to build the wing cellule but as others said it worked well! Your triplane is really looking fantastic!
RAGIII
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The giant pegs startled me...then I remembered this is allegedly only 1/72. I still don't believe it - she's so gorgeous!
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Hi everyone - she is now finished!
(https://i.imgur.com/9JZnVYU.jpg)
For all of the completed build photographs, see link here - https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14551.0
Thanks to you all for your encouragement through this build. I hope it to be a fitting little tribute to a larger than life man. Blue skies, Dave!
Cheers,
BC
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WHAT A BEAUTY!
Well done Brad, a superb job.
Alan.
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Beautiful build - well done :)
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Thanks lads! ;D
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Stunning build and excellent Tribute Brad!
RAGIII
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Just catching up. Great results and a worthy tribute to Dave!! I meant to ask - what clear coat did you use to seal the oils?
Steve
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Wow! Brad, your superb building make me want to pack up my toys and go home. Really impressive work!
Tim