JASTA 5 Fokker D.VII

[falcon04]

Windsock International ( Vol.21, No.4, July/August 2005) pp. 22-24, has 2 photos of the "lightning bolt" marked D.VII of Friedrich Vollbracht in the red nose/ green fuselage/tailed markings of Jasta 5, I.D.ed as an OAW-built airframe.

Bob Pearson's artwork depicts this airframe on the back cover.

Lifelike Decals No. 48-029 - Fokker D.VII Part 3 has a different take on the "bolt", and also I.D.s the airframe as Albatros-built.



Looking very hard at a high-res scan of one of the WSI photos, I cannot see the OAW characteristic "Round" hatch on the nose, and the fuselage lift handles are NOT "turned up" - both of which I thought indicate other than an OAW bird.

I know that the D.VII has a plethora of configurations, and my planned build of this aircraft using one of the new WNW kits will require some cowl louver and radiator mods and a late Garuda prop,  but I'd like to more exactly I.D. the variant.

Any help or comments welcome !

[rowan broadbent]

Hello there,

I have to agree that the manufacturer's identity of Vollbracht's mount is not clear cut. I would suggest that the front engine cover is clearly representative of late Albatros production but with  a late Fokker-built rear metal panel. Unless the wheels are also from another machine (not impossible) I'd say this was an Albatros-built machine with Fokker or Fokker-type rear panels fitted. We will be suggesting the Albatros kit when our 32nd decals for Jasta 5 DVIIs are produced in the early future. The lifting handles aren't necessarily a fool-proof identifier - indeed there is at least one example of two  photographs of the same D.VII at different times, each showing lifting handles of both configurations! I am firmly of the belief that a lot of switching about of fittings took place at unit level....... just to add spice to the issue of who built what!!

We won't, however, be using yellow for the zig-zag and the motif will have quite a different geometry to that in the Life Like decal set or Bob Pearson's rendering on the back of WS21 no 4.... neither of which tie in particularly well with the two photos - in our opinion, of course!!

Rowan

[falcon04]

Rowan - thanks. I assume you have the refd. WSI. - Note that the 3 lower louvers on the rear panel are not vertical - they slant back at the top quite distinctly - I'm coaming my refs. for a similar back panel - this is not quite the Fokker panel ! There also appears to be a circular hatch in the fabric just behind the lower rear cabane strut mount !

I wonder if this might have been a replacement fabricated at the Jasta level - a fairly simple job for a good "panel beater" - and weren't the original panels hand made at the factory ??

Bob Pearson has the "bolt" ending at the lower longeron beneath the forward arm of the fuselage cross - clearly not shown in one of the photo's. I do like the yellow bolt - I'll be looking forward to your take on this !

ON EDIT:

also note - no hinges or split on the leading edge of the axle wing - an Albatros detail which is not there ?? the circular hatch is, of course ( Why do I always pick the difficult schemes ! )

[pepperman42]

Boy-ee-oing. Antenna straight up- DVII sheets - pray tell us more......

Steve

[rowan broadbent]

Hello Steve,

Lots and lots of things on the go at the moment for the D.VII. As soon as I have finalised the first batch I'll make an announcement here. Promise!

If anyone has any particular favourite schemes that they'd like to see, now would be a good time to drop me a PM!

[lcarroll]

Hello Steve,

Lots and lots of things on the go at the moment for the D.VII. As soon as I have finalised the first batch I'll make an announcement here. Promise!

If anyone has any particular favourite schemes that they'd like to see, now would be a good time to drop me a PM![/b]

Rowan,
   Since you asked don't lose the thought of the Canadian Airforce Green Maple Leaf badge in the lower right corner of the Sheet!
Your Great White North followers would be thrilled.
Cheers,
Lance

[ALBATROS1234]

 i like the hasso von wedel, jasta 23 machine with the red wagon wheel on the white background for an oaw sceme.i also like rudolh bertolds jasta 15 w the red nose/streak/blue rear with thw winged swordfor an early fokker machine.i hope someone does the "du doch nicht" kinda surprised that one wasnt covered by wnw i see they got " sieben swabiens" on one of their am sets.i also like hartmans witch. .

[ALBATROS1234]

i wanted to do the willi gabrial jasta 11 macine til i noticed that the wnw decal is too orange. i think it needs to be more yellowish orange. unless they tone down over streaks?

[rowan broadbent]

Rowan - thanks. I assume you have the refd. WSI. - Note that the 3 lower louvers on the rear panel are not vertical - they slant back at the top quite distinctly - I'm coaming my refs. for a similar back panel - this is not quite the Fokker panel ! There also appears to be a circular hatch in the fabric just behind the lower rear cabane strut mount !

I wonder if this might have been a replacement fabricated at the Jasta level - a fairly simple job for a good "panel beater" - and weren't the original panels hand made at the factory ??

Bob Pearson has the "bolt" ending at the lower longeron beneath the forward arm of the fuselage cross - clearly not shown in one of the photo's. I do like the yellow bolt - I'll be looking forward to your take on this !

ON EDIT:

also note - no hinges or split on the leading edge of the axle wing - an Albatros detail which is not there ?? the circular hatch is, of course ( Why do I always pick the difficult schemes ! )

Take your point on the backward slope of the louvres - aren't these Fokkers fun? I haven't seen louvres like that on other D.VII photos which might point to a squadron-level one-off design.

Whilst the yellow looks nice, I don't see it as being consistent with the normally expected grey shade for yellow if orthochromatic film was used. "If", of course, being the operative word...... The zig-zag pattern on the drawing really doesn't match the photo with regard to it meeting the lower edge of the fuselage, as you've pointed out but also the pitch and therefore the frequency of the "zigs and zags"  are inconsistent with that shown in the photo.

[falcon04]

Good point on the ortho film - yellow would of course look very much darker IF it's ortho ! A light blue would of coarse appear bright ( but so boring ! ) The fact that the prop shows light-colored laminations - which are very probably "yellowish" wood - makes me tilt on the side of panchromatic film, however.

I have dredged thru many of my D.VII refs. - there are some "poor" pics which appear to have the 3 larger "tilted" louvers ( and only 3 louvers, lacking the louvers on the back edge per Fokker built ) on the main back panel. Some of these are captioned as BMW-powered. I wonder if our subject is BMW-powered ? - Note the large gap under the starboard LMG - high mounted as for BMW.

One certain way to determine all this is to build the WNW kit using any of our conclusions - this will most certainly force the fates to unveil photos which will contradict our work 

[falcon04]

Take your point on the backward slope of the louvres - aren't these Fokkers fun? I haven't seen louvres like that on other D.VII photos which might point to a squadron-level one-off design.

Whilst the yellow looks nice, I don't see it as being consistent with the normally expected grey shade for yellow if orthochromatic film was used. "If", of course, being the operative word...... The zig-zag pattern on the drawing really doesn't match the photo with regard to it meeting the lower edge of the fuselage, as you've pointed out but also the pitch and therefore the frequency of the "zigs and zags"  are inconsistent with that shown in the photo.

Rowan,

I've re-scanned the two WSI pics and applied some PSP "clarification" and I now can fairly clearly see the hinges on the leading edge of the axle wing.

The spacing of the hinges differs from the WNW kit, and the resolution just does not clearly show the longitudinal or horizontal split in the axle wing, but I'm now comfortable that they are more than likely there.

The axle wing is the modified "short span" variety as shown in the WNW instructions and the wheel covers are the aluminum hatched disks ( WNW part D12 ). The inner left wheel has only the outer rim covered and shows the spokes.

The starboard top engine cowl ( WNW part K13 ) also is slightly different from the photo, and will require an easy mod.

Aft cowl panels ( WNW parts K4 & K5 ) can be easily modified to match the photos by removing the single louver and adding 3 louvers each - Plastruct quarter-round rod .030 ( MRQ-30, or 90891 ) is a perfect size match for the existing WNW louvers.

I'm now comfortable that what we have is a late "Alb." machine with some slight variations - and I'm looking forward to your decals.