Cheers Richie, RAGIII and Joachim
Since the last post the only bit left to do was put on the two pulleys that carry the wing warping control cable. The instructions show they go on the rear centre of the top wing but are quite vague as to what possition they should be in. Assuming that they just attached to the top wing I left them till last for fear of knocking them off. They actually don't attach to the wing, they are attached to a horizontal metal tube that in turn is attached to the two rear cabane struts. At this stage of the build this presented quite a problem. I tried to cut the centre section of the wing as far back as the cabane struts but had to stop part way because of damage I was accidentally inflicting on other parts of the plane. I think I did enough so much to say that only a modelling critic with acute AMS would notice this. I drilled holes in either side of the opening and put a length of copper wire in. Attached to the copper wire are the two PE pulleys, the pulleys were housed in spare PE from the engine rather than the PE supplied for the job because it was sturdier.
Weathering was done with coloured pencils, I am happy with the wings but the method was not so effective on the fuselage. Exhaust and oil stains were done with kiddies water colours because I didn't want to cock this up and ruin the machined metal effect already made. The beauty of watercolours is it doesn't cure so i can just wash it off at any time. The crosses on the wings have an enormous amount of carrier film which for the first time ever I managed to remove with a scalpel. I have however reached the point where I undo as much work as I do on this so now is the time to stop before I bugger something up I can't fix.
Now to list the mistakes. The worst one is with the paint. I mixed in an empty pot what was supposed to be a 'cardboard brown' colour to replicate Central Powers doped linen. After it was applied to the Fokker it somehow morphed into a slightly green version of what I wanted. To my frustration the paint still in the pot is the same colour I made. In future I will not mix paint but just use or buy a manufactures one closest to what I need. Another was the error I made with the tail skid mentioned in the earlier post (although this was a happy accident as it will not be noticed and is sturdier). I am still unsure of the colour of the steel tubing used in the undercarriage and cabane struts. In archive pictures some look black and in other pictures they appear to be a lighter colour. I do know the undercarriage of the eindeckers are black so maybe I should have gone with that but instead I copied what most of the other modellers did and painted them silver.
The kit has marked where the lower wings should be but this is slightly out. Admittedly the possition suggested is easier because more of the wing is in contact with the fuselage but looking at archive photos both the leading and trailing edges are below the fuselage. There is a recessed panel line on the panel behind the engine cowl that should be filled. This same line continues raised along the length of the fuselage and needs to be removed. It is worth noting that the rigging diagram in the kit instructions is correct for the fighter version but not for the trainer. To the contrary the metal panel aft of the cowling is cast correct for the trainer, it's training edge forms an arc, but on the fighter it is more straight and a little surgery is needed for this version.
To sum up the SH Fokker B.II kit this was a nice one to build. The shortcomings mentioned can be easily overcome and the only difficulty I had was due to my own making or lack of forward planning. With no AMS you could actually make this out the box. The best thing about the kit was the fact that all the parts went together well. The suprise was the PE turnbuckles. I thought these were too 2 dimensional but used them anyway. With just a dab of gold paint on each side they looked the business. This was my first Special Hobby build but I look forward to building the SH Lloyd C.V I have in my stash.
I apologize for the crappy fotos, I tried both indoors and outdoors to take them yet they still don't show the weathering and other details (through at least you can't see the mistakes so well). I just need more light and hope to rig something up for the completed models section. Thanks to all that followed my build.
Alan
