forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Under Construction => Paper and Card models => Topic started by: DMPopa on October 29, 2024, 03:34:40 AM
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After finishing the Udet Fokker DVII I am tackling another Fokker DVII repaint. The graphics for this model are taken from IL-2 Sturmovik, another flight simulator program than the source for the Udet Fokker. There are an enormous number of Fokker DVII to choose from in both flight simulator games and this particular Fokker, 247/18 interested me as it is a subject not covered in an existing paper model form and is colorful with a well rendered streak camouflage.
Repeating a Fokker build serves for me the purpose of working with a familiar subject as I learn how to work with the Sturmovik graphics, develop the skills to draw my own under-skin structures, and to improve model construction skills.
The Plane is identified as a Fokker DVII, 247/18 Jasta 28 Pilot Unknown. The Sturmovik Skins and Template forum included the following pictures of the plane:
(https://i.imgur.com/ERK39c4.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/31yu1Dj.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/BGXHbV6.jpeg)
Items of interest:
The national insignia is the Balkenkreaz cross overpainted on the earlier Iron Cross insignia..
The engine surround does not contain any ventilation louvers. Apparently the Fokker DVII has a lot of variability in this regard over its career.
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You are a glutton for punishment ;) :) A very interesting scheme.
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File types used in IL-2 Sturmovik: There are two (2) file types used, one is a PSD file, a filetype associated with photoshop, and the second file type is DDS, a file type associated with on-line game graphics. The PSD files are multi-layered files that serve as templates for an airplane type, example Fokker DVII, that can be opened in GIMP. These are big file size. This is the link to these PSD Template Files:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/35355-official-skin-template-links-updated-81222/
The DDS files are single layer files that may be created from the PSD template or edited from a similar DDS file. These are small file size. DDS files can be opened in GIMP but as I will describe in a later post, are of limited use in GIMP when directly opened from a DDS file. There is a workaround to this.
PSD file discussion:
These PSD files are marvelous. The airframe color graphics (sometimes there are alternates in the template) are in one layer. Metal parts color is in another layer. The panel lines, in the layer called Shadow is in another layer. The Shadow layer also includes a sub-layer called canvas texture that highlights canvas features and creates a cloth like pattern in the color layer where canvas is used. Mechanical details like rivets are in another layer. There is a wireframe layer that provides the actual boundaries of a detail, like the fuselage which I use to work the structure parts and is important as the color renderings will at times go past the actual feature boundaries. Bottom line it is easy to create a different version of the template version.
(https://i.imgur.com/mKa8i8i.jpeg)
Weathering along with Shadows I have found is what creates issues with color brightness / darkness in the resulting model graphics when printed on card stock. Where Weathering and Shadows are used, DDS graphics is not for example, dark green that can be lightened using the GIMP or a post-processing application to change individual color levels, but green with a layer of black or some other dark shade on top of it. It is possible to find DDS files where the author used low levels of weathering and shadows so consider this if you want to do a repaint from DDS files and don't want to deal with color brightness fixes.
Increasing color brightness using the PSD file in GIMP can be achieved by reducing the Weather and Shadow opacity level or unclicking the visibility for these layers entirely.
For the subject model repaint I have a DDS file and used the PSD file to change certain parts. For the metal parts forward of the cockpit in the PSD Template file, I unclicked the Weather and Shadow layer visibility. It turns out that the metal parts color was good for the model I am doing. For the fuselage underside, I went to the Color Here layer and changed the color to the light blue in the 247/18 DDS file and reduced the Weather and Shadow visibility. For the national insignia white parts, I repainted these in a brighter shade of white. As I will write about in my next post about the DDS files, I lightened the streak camouflage using the Dodge function.
My best practice is to make changes to the PSD file, and then export as a jpg file. Then open the resulting jpg file in GIMP and make changes as I describe in the UDET forum posts.
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DDS Files:
The majority of IL2 Sturmovik skins are saved as DDS files. The DDS files can be downloaded from individual links in the il2sturmovik forum however the best solution is the so called Haluter skin downloader which has links as well as sample pictures of the plane in the database. The downloader requires downloading the sample files into ones computer but once done things work pretty well. Below is a link to the downloader:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/156-haluters-skin-downloader-hsd/
DDS files can be opened in GIMP for viewing.
Click on the DDS file and Open File as GIMP.
You should see something like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/3Bc71Co.jpeg)
To see the graphics, go to the color channels and unclick the Alpha channel:
(https://i.imgur.com/BJa7iph.jpeg)
The image should appear, similar to the 4th picture above.
As I wrote above, other than viewing the image, there is not much that I found that I could do with the image opened in this way, as saving to jpeg or doing a copy and paste resulted in the original greyed out screen.
My workaround is to convert the DDS to a jpeg and open the file the jpeg file in GIMP.
Below is the DDS to JPEG converter application that I use:
https://anyconv.com/dds-to-jpg-converter/#:~:text=AnyConv%20is%20a%20five-star%20%E2%AD%90%20DDS%20to%20JPG
The conversion process is slow so I use the open in gimp just to view the file, convert if I am serious about doing edits.
The DDS files will have embedded into the file all of the weathering and shadows and these and if dark enough need to be reduced if the printed image is to have an acceptable brightness. The method that worked for me is to use the GIMP Dodge function. In the UDET post I discuss that using the Edit functions in GIMP damages that file, but apparently Dodge is not an EDIT so it works without damaging the file. For the subject Fokker, dodging was used to reduce the dark weathering and shadowing on the fuselage streak camouflage. Not perfect, but the results are acceptable.
One use of a DDS file is to find graphics that are in turn copied into the PSD file and the weathering and shadowing is dealt with in the PSD file which is in turn exported to a jpeg.
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The fuselage structure and skin graphics are printed out
(https://i.imgur.com/6SUkcZU.jpeg)
The individual pieces are cut out and the skin is matched to the structure with the structure trimmed to correctly match up to the skin
(https://i.imgur.com/g2SNBfs.jpeg)
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Cockpit parts done. Control stick made from flexible wire of unremembered make and center shaft between control stick and pedals is .040 evergreen polystyrene rod. Both are spray painted grey primer and the red control stick handles are brush painted brown. Pedals are paper.
(https://i.imgur.com/mgc27cP.jpeg)
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You are very prolific! A nice start on this one.
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The main bulkheads are glued the right hand fuselage member, including the cockpit floor shown earlier. I intend to add the engine later on in the build as the Udet build showed that it was prone to damage during the fuselage prep and skin addition. Each side is made as a single piece of cardboard that runs from fore to aft. The engine horizontal bulkhead is placed a little lower to allow for a second horizontal member to be added on top of it. Blocks of 1/8" basswood sourced from a ship model (Yankee Hero by Bluejacket) are added at the lower wing and landing gear connect points. The intent is to make a more secure connection point and hence allow thinner wires to be used in the wing and landing gear struts.
(https://i.imgur.com/SKqeQCE.jpeg)
This is the top hand view with both sides added. The rear cockpit bulkhead is moved downstream vs. the kit used on Udet to match the skin graphics cockpit location. I retained a horizontal bulkhead from the original kit downstream of the cockpit to set the curvature of each fuselage side.
(https://i.imgur.com/I39S094.jpeg)
The bottom view shows additional bulkheads located aft of the cockpit. These were necessitated due to the sides going out of square from the top bulkhead to the bottom, which I attribute to the amount of bend in the cardboard sides. This might explain the original kit design which did not have cardboard structure anywhere that the cardboard would have an extreme bend.
(https://i.imgur.com/p2c15Sr.jpeg)
Top view with additional cardboard pieces added. I use small rubber bands sourced from the cosmetics section of my local dollar store to assist in the gluing operation.
(https://i.imgur.com/H7ztTff.jpeg)
Side View. It does not show but the bottom is covered with a single piece of cardboard.
Next step is to add the MH Ready Patch to smooth things out.
(https://i.imgur.com/9Mnoxms.jpeg)
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Bottom view. The pictures that I posted made it appear that the fuselage is not straight. I believe that these pictures were taken before the bottom piece was added. The bottom looks good and it should as the bottom is a single piece of cardboard and I believe that this bottom piece straightened out the fuselage.
(https://i.imgur.com/CJYM820.jpeg)
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Thanks VERY much for the detailed explanation of your process. Most interesting since I do something similar, but using skins from an older flight simulator -- Rise of Flight (ROF). ROF is the mother of the program you are using, Flying Circus, which is part of IL2 Great Battles. The Flying Circus skins are higher resolution, but I still prefer ROF for the graphics (NOTE: I'm not addressing flying the sims, but just using the graphics to make paper models ... and ultimately Radio Control models). A staggering number of free ROF skins are readily available on line.
My basic process is to open a particular skin (DDS format) in my graphics program (Paint Shop Pro), overlaying it on a three view sized to my desired scale, and individually resizing the skin pieces (fuselage, wings, etc) as necessary. This resizing is necessary since not all the pieces of the skin are to the same relative scale!!! . Then it's just a matter of using the 3 view to make the support structures such as formers.
Sounds like a lot, but relatively enjoyable once the work flow is established. Fun!
Thanks again.
Gene K
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Thanks Gene for the compliments. The Udet Fokker model build log also on this forum explains how I do the re-sizing and for Udet the skins were taken from another flight simulator. Incidentally it was on a RC airplane forum that I got turned on to using flight simulator skins for model use.
On to the Fokker:
The fuselage has been glozed with MH Ready Patch and primed.
(https://i.imgur.com/tLm9noS.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Yw6e9Ol.jpeg)
The engine is constructed using similar techniques from the Phonix and Udet Fokker builds Cylinder heads are paper, cylinder tip is paper spray painted black. The springs are Bead Treasures Milyuki 11/0 Delic Matte Metallic Silver Grey beads.
(https://i.imgur.com/IeeWs4C.jpeg)
The camshaft is Evergreen Polystyrene 1/6" rod spray painted silver and the valve lifters are thin strips of paper printed in a light grey color.
(https://i.imgur.com/SMz5zfp.jpeg)
The valve covers are single pieces of paper as well as the intake manifold. One of the Fokker DDS skin files from IL-2 Sturmovik had some detailed engine renderings so I used these to simplify this part of the construction. The way the engine is situated in the fuselage the intake manifold will not be seen but it is there anyway.
(https://i.imgur.com/9OrVkz0.jpeg)
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Another excellent build that is coming along nicely. You are really thorough in your approach and it is paying off.
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The fuselage structure has green paint added to the locations where seams will occur and the front is spray painted in dark grey primer. The paper skins have their edges painted green. At this point the radiator / engine cowl has not been printed up. The engine is installed in the fuselage structure and on the right hand side, some additional fuselage structure is added, the area where the exhaust pipes are located.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZiNVS1n.jpeg)
The yellow bands need to line up correctly top and sides so the bands are one continuous band. The top was test fitted as alignment requires that the cockpit opening be in the correct location on the top skin. So before any glueing occurs the top skin is positioned in place and pencil marks are made at the band locations.
(https://i.imgur.com/EKKNP99.jpeg)
The fuselage skins have been applied to the prepared structure. With the structure prep, the skins lie down smooth and the seams do not show any bare paper color.
(https://i.imgur.com/XYOnqyB.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bfjRYsj.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/P1M0Ujb.jpeg)
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Looking really nice! Another fine addition in the making...Dan
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Coming along nicely and interesting DVII finish with the streaking, lozenge and wide cross forms.
Looking at how you produce them I'm sure a cleverer person than I could print the 'skins' as decals (a bit like the Aviattic style ones currently available) ???
Paul
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Printing the insignia as decals: Yes, this would be possible. The PSD files described above have the insignia as a separate layer, which I perceive would enable decal making a relatively easy chore.
PRINTING:
I learned something. Printing graphics using a printer app where stretch to fit the page is used has the same effect as editing in GIMP. At least that is what occurred when I used Irphan view on an HP Computer. Size was correct but the graphics came out a little blurry. Got to print with a full size setting.
Front Cowl and radiator:
I ended up molding the front cowl and radiator location using M H ready patch, painted and toned down the gloss using L.A. Colors cosmetic powders to get the matt finish and color correct to the rest of the fuselage. The radiator was printed on regular paper and glued into place. What makes the cowl radiator construction so challenging is the complicated geometry and the radiator is angular and if the radiator is out of horizontal and vertical, it really shows. Basically I avoided papering this section in a single sheet. The results look good.
(https://i.imgur.com/vBCyCO1.jpeg)
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The vertical stabilizer / rudder and the horizontal stabilizer / elevator are installed. I had trouble with these parts as the skin graphics from IL2 Sturmvic and the kit were not the same size, the skin graphics are a little larger. I had to go with the skin graphics to make everything fit.
For control wires I used EZ Line which I installed first to the fuselage
(https://i.imgur.com/WJK7hKh.jpeg)
The Fokker has the upper control line pass through the horizontal stabilizer and this is wire is passed through pre-cut holes in the horizontal stabilizer
(https://i.imgur.com/BvR0boV.jpeg)
The vertical stabilizer / rudder and the horizontal stabilizer / elevator are installed are glued to the fuselage and the control wires (EZ Line) are attached to the control arms. The control arms are made from thin aluminum painted brown. The edges of the cardboard stiffener and the graphic skin edges are painted to cover the white cardboard and paper edges.
(https://i.imgur.com/sSaxzMA.jpeg)
The attachment point of the forward part of the horizontal stabilizer and the fuselage was carefully matched and cut for a good fit.
(https://i.imgur.com/dOlAMVQ.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nO8qIRS.jpeg)
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The engine exhaust pipe is made from Evergreen 222, 1/6" Polystyrene rod. I attempted to make the exhaust pipe from paper, but was dissatisfied with the results. The polystyrene is cut, bent and the individual pieces attached with crazy glue. The exit piece is made from a short piece of hollow plastic tube that came from a Q-Tip of unknown brand. It is the perfect fit to slide outside of the 1/6" rod. After gluing, the assembly was painted with grey primer from a rattle can. The entrance pipes were trimmed to length and glued with crazy glue to the engine and forward fuselage.
(https://i.imgur.com/6jFVWiG.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6jNO6OM.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/4upC4kM.jpeg)
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This is coming along very nicely. The front end looked like a challenge and you handled that well.
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Machine guns are done.
The gun sight rings are Model Shipways MS0952 3/32" brass split rings from the model ship hardware stash (I could not locate the 5/64 brass rings used on the Udet Model so these had to do. Got to clean up the work desk). The gun barrels are vellum paper wrapped around .039" music wire and rolled between my fingers until the desired diameter is obtained. This time around I did not glue the gun barrels, they kept their shape naturally. Graphics are a repaint.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZNArrqg.jpeg)
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Clever work!
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Incidentally it was on a RC airplane forum that I got turned on to using flight simulator skins for model use.
Perhaps on RCGroups?
Gene K
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The bottom wings are done and are on the plane.
The frame is made per the kit. With modifications. The airfoil sections are made from cardboard with the kit graphics glued on. These airfoil sections have proven to be pretty flimsy and I add additional cardboard to the downstream location. Without the additional cardboard the airfoil sections will not stay straight and also the added wing skins will be lumpy at the airfoils. Also, my experience is that the outboard airfoil section does not work well with the wing skin at least the way that I work. So I delete it. I will write later I added wire at the outer edges that can be bent to follow the wing contours and help to create the concave airfoil section.
Note that the lower wings are rectangular and the vertical thickness decreases from inboard to outboard. And note that even though the lower wing is rectangular the airfoil sections get smaller as you go from inboard to outboard. The added downstream cardboard makes the downstream edge straight.
(https://i.imgur.com/OBwDNEV.jpeg)
I built this wing structure with .032music wire to keep things straight. In the picture above is one of the wires installed. I would stack the airfoil sections and drill them together to result in the wires being in the correct position.
As mentioned above, I added another .032 music wire on the leading edge and bent it downstream at the outer edge and generally follow the contour of the wing skin. And another cardboard support is added to the outer aft edge that connects to the wire. A piece of wood is added at the location of the downstream inter wing strut. When I drill a hole for the strut there will be support inside the wing. I also add an appropriate paint color to the edges which will help later.
The lower wing skins are cut out and pre-bent. The skin edges ae also painted.
(https://i.imgur.com/ttILNLC.jpeg)
Note that the .032 wires extend inboard and will serve to attach the wings to the fuselage.
The structure is glued to the bottom and care is to correctly position it, and also to achieve the concave effect on the bottom wing surface. I also used this opportunity to re-position the side wires to move them away from the edges of the skin. In retrospect I should have moved them inward to leave two wire diameters between the wire and the skin edge. Later on I had to add MH Ready Patch to fill the gaps.
(https://i.imgur.com/8RbyGyO.jpeg)
This is an end view. It is important to get the skin to follow the airfoil.
(https://i.imgur.com/SPUTLYn.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7JGm9VC.jpeg)
It is tricky to get the paper to follow all the way around the airfoil and reach the other side of the wing skin. But that is the goal. I found that by gluing the bottom and letting it dry and later do the top works the best.
(https://i.imgur.com/U3RlSnZ.jpeg)
The graphics look good.
The wings are attached by drilling holes in the fuselage side and the .032 wires ae passed through. As mentioned in an earlier post, I had placed wood supports inside the fuselage and these worked as the wings are tight and straight.
(https://i.imgur.com/iEQC4ji.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NA5a3dL.jpeg)
The wings are straight and the thickness gets thinner as they go outboard.
(https://i.imgur.com/xavAoB8.jpeg)
I also added the machine guns at this point.
(https://i.imgur.com/IhRM1tB.jpeg)
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That's looking very good. Well done on that wing profile.
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Looks great!
Dan
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The upper wing is completed.
The wing structure is built using pieces from the original kit with additional cardboard pieces added to supply additional support and rigidity, plus providing additional gluing area at the downstream edge. The leading edge has a .032 music wire bent to conform to the leading edge and the two sides. The wire is shown in the picture below as separate from the structure at this point and laid against the wing skin. The wing skin is cut out wand showing in the picture that the edges are painted in a green color to hide the white paper edges.
(https://i.imgur.com/KosITZw.jpeg)
The leading edge wire is added to the structure using gel crazy glue and the skin bottom wing surface skin is glued on first.
(https://i.imgur.com/nnvjTsc.jpeg)
The skin is clamped to the structure to ensure to ensure that it is tight, with no lifted surfaces.
(https://i.imgur.com/HxPVHOd.jpeg)
The top is glued on and clamped.
(https://i.imgur.com/C4zJ9rb.jpeg)
The finished product. The 4K graphics look great with that wide black German cross.
(https://i.imgur.com/HcGWLRy.jpeg)
The bottom base surface camouflage is lighter than the ailerons but that is the way it was drawn.
(https://i.imgur.com/0Yu1ui3.jpeg)
The wing came out well however I had difficulty getting the structure perfectly flat, so I got more work to do on my techniques.
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I do enjoy looking at the marvelous results you guys get with paper! Looking terrific to date!
RAGIII
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I read in some posts of executing the wheels using rubber 'O' rings for the tires, however when it came time to make them I could not find the posts. I then had to come up with a method which took some time. Finding the right O-ring size was made simple by virtue of me having inherited a "Universal Series O-Ring Service Kit which contained a whooping 30 separate 0-ring sizes. The R12 in this kit, with a listed OD of 13/16 and ID of 5/8, 3/32 section looked to be the best fit for this model.
The build method I employed starts with a strip of cardstock the same width as the O-ring and wound it around the OD and Glue the paper together, but not to the O-ring.
(https://i.imgur.com/VJyT3IK.jpeg)
I printed out on cardstock the wheel skins and glued in a the wheel disks into a conical shape. The OD of these disks matches the diameter of the glued ring. A bead is placed at the center to serve as a support for the axle that some day will occupy the ID.
(https://i.imgur.com/xJAkPfX.jpeg)
I got is so the O-ring ships snuggly onto the paper disk.
(https://i.imgur.com/HgwTRf4.jpeg)
Next up is to glue the opposite disk, printed on Cardstock. I did not like the look of the disk printed on cardstock, the seam showed up too much. So a second disk, this on printed on paper was cut our and glued into a conical shape.
(https://i.imgur.com/55iaZE0.jpeg)
This paper disk is a little oversized. Next time I will cut it a little smaller.
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I popped the O-rings off and trimmed the wheel center to get a bit better look.
(https://i.imgur.com/oQm18d5.jpeg)
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Building the Wheel fairing wing.
I am using a bottom support of 1/64 thick wood glued to the bottom of the paper skin and curved supports of 1/32 wood. Inboard supports are added to eliminate the tip pinching in when it is glued.
(https://i.imgur.com/7MozSwV.jpeg)
Supports of 1/32 wood are glued where the wheel struts will require support. Axle is .032 dia music wire.
(https://i.imgur.com/nPxeiXL.jpeg)
Top is glued in place with paper clamps holding it in place.
(https://i.imgur.com/FDLGjyB.jpeg)
Final results:
(https://i.imgur.com/wh4HFD2.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/I8hlZuO.jpeg)
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You are making great progress. Looking forward to more!
RAGIII
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I really enjoy seeing the extra work you're putting into this one. Thanks for sharing! I'm eager to see the next update.
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The process of turning the various sub-assemblies into a biplane starts with the inner struts being added first. The thought is that the brass rod I will be using is pretty strong and does a good job of positioning the upper wing, in contrast to starting with the relatively weaker outer struts and adding the stronger brass rod struts second. I have also been influenced watching Microaces builds on Youtube and I see the inner struts done first, the outer struts done second.
The inner struts are a mix of K&S 3/64 brass rod, Plastruct .040 styrene rod and K&S .020 music wire wrapped in cardstock.
The rear inner struts and the landing wheel struts are a folded piece of cardstock with a .020 music wire piece inserted inside. This strut is pretty narrow, so the thinnest music wire is needed and the paper cut very narrow. It ended up that MH Ready Patch was needed to close up the seam and the resulting strut was spray painted green primer.
(https://i.imgur.com/DSlQATp.jpeg)
Several struts made from either Brass Rod or Styrene rod ware cut and painted in green primer. Also shown are the wheel struts and the effect I am looking for there is to show the thin inner wire and the simulated aerodynamic fairing with the ends of the fairing cut at an angle exposing the inner wire.
(https://i.imgur.com/lF8n8uf.jpeg)
The fuselage is pre-drilled with the holes that the struts will attach to I started with the forward strut shown in the picture below, made from brass rod and the rear struts added next. Ther rear strut is music wire and paper fairing this time around, the Udet Fokker had the rear strut brass rod. The challenges in getting the inner struts right on the Fokker D7, at least in my experience, stem from the struts entering the fuselage from the side, not the top, so the way I approached their construction, they can rotate. The struts attach at the bottom of the fuselage and they act in all three dimensions meaning they are pretty long and small differences in cut length complicate construction. And the struts are pretty thin in diameter.
(https://i.imgur.com/Rt2Mrpm.jpeg)
The rear struts are wire and paper aerodynamic faring. On the UDET Fokker the rear inner strut was brass rod as well as the forward strut. On this build I went with the music wire and paper because I believe the actual Fokker had an aerodynamic rear fairing and also because I wanted to use a less stiff, less stiff than brass rod, strut. Too many stiff long struts complicates matters.
The rear struts are attached, however the assembly was not stable, the upper wing would move as the strut sets would rotate in their fuselage attachments. The short leading strut is added and it needed to be made of brass rot to provide enough strength to stabilize the assembly and keep the upper wing in its correct position. The styrene was not strong enough to do the job.
(https://i.imgur.com/csUOROy.jpeg)
Finally the third forward inner strut is added, this one made of styrene rod as additional strength is no longer an issue.
(https://i.imgur.com/xgwynWJ.jpeg)
I still have some clean up here but this is the overall result.
(https://i.imgur.com/aQ5MGbB.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/38kEPNF.jpeg)
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The overall result is looking very good!
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The outer wing 'N' struts are constructed and installed. I made them similar to the Udet Fokker build, I sanded down opposite sides of Evergreen 222 Polystyrene 1/6" rod, and cut sharp edges to fit into the pre-drilled upper and lower wing holes. Gluing is by Gel Super Glue.
(https://i.imgur.com/OQoxsNd.jpeg)
Landing gear sub wing and struts are pre-assembled along with the EZ-line strut wires. The turnbuckles are rendered in painted velum paper wrapped around a .039 music wire, similar to the Udet Fokker. Paper clips hold the turnbuckles in place prior to final assembly.
(https://i.imgur.com/NgwCdDJ.jpeg)
Installation was tricky. Each of the four (4) struts is a separate piece and I ran into a problem with the forward strut connection to the fuselage bottom where the inner strut wants to occupy the same space, resulting in .02" music wire inside the strut having to be cut short at this location. I did not get to use the full benefit of the wood blocks that I placed in the fuselage at this location. The left side struts were glued, allowed to dry and then the right struts were glued in place. And re-glued. And re-glued..... I appeared to achieve the intended effect of the thin wire showing at the fuselage connection and the aerodynamic strut covering cut at an angle at this location. Glueing is also done with gel super glue. The E-Z line strut wires and wheels are assembled.
(https://i.imgur.com/LhnzYSX.jpeg)
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I finished up the Fokker.
This is an in-process picture of rear horizontal stabilizer EX Line. This is accomplished in one piece of easy line, threaded through the left horizontal stabilizer, then the vertical stabilizer and out the right horizontal stabilizer. The bottom support struts will hide the entry points on the bottom. The tail skid is also in place and was made from a piece of "hobby wood" from my ship model stash, stained with mahogany gel and sealed with a clear coat. It is glued in place with gel super glue.
(https://i.imgur.com/nLHlEUX.jpeg)
At the start of this series of posts I wrote that to work on my skills I did a second Fokker after doing the Udet Fokker and I believe that the purpose was served. Making the graphics skins from a new source of graphics was helped in replicating something I had recently done was a big help. Putting wood blocks at strut and wing attachment points was a big winner. The strut with wire and paper aerodynamic surfaces was success as well as tires made from O rings. I am vary happy with the graphics, they came out very sharp.
Second thoughts are that when it applies I want to try making the wing spars from wood, not cardboard as the wing was just not straight enough. And I am not happy enough with the propeller. Maybe at some point I will redo-in.
Here are some pictures of the finished plane. The carry handles and step on the bottom of the fuselage are made from a flexible craft wire, bought I believe from the Floral section of the local craft store and spray painted green primer. The bottom horizontal stabilizer struts are evergreen styrene rod.
During the posts there were a couple of questions and comments that I did not reply to. I was asked what flying model airplane site I got inspired to use gam play templates; What I recall is it involved ready made WWI airplanes that came with no skins and a commenter suggested using game play graphics and printing them on tissue. Also regarding decals, I guess that what I am doing here, at least for the fuselage, is treating the paper skins as decals onto a prepared structure.
(https://i.imgur.com/bLlBlT4.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/A6jFFUj.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NSow0Pb.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/KRKA8kz.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1r0DAE5.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jAmrI8X.jpeg)
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Damn son, that is A number one great modeling right there!
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The end result looks really good. You have definitely mastered the "skinning" process.
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Great results here! Is that plane REALLY made of paper????
WOW
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Very realistic job! Nice finish. This was fun to follow...Dan