Projekt Eindecker: WnW Fok. E.I (Early)

[Dutch522]

Hi all, through an odd set of circumstances I was inspired to put my Amodel Nieuport 16 build aside at the end of November, and embark on a long-term project involving all the Wingnut Wings Eindeckers, from the E.I to the E.IV. Hopefully, more on this later.

For now, at least, I'm currently well into the cockpit of the E.I (Early). I'm honestly a little hesitant to post my efforts on the heels of recent Eindecker builds by Przemol, Gary, Tim Mixon, and Mike N, but it's been a while since I've posted any of my own work and I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures of my progress. Period cockpit details being fairly scarce, I'm making extensive use of Jamo's wonderful photo collection of the Achim Engel/TVAL repro currently based at Hood Aerodrome in New Zealand (Zac's stomping grounds!). While that one's an E.III, it provides a pretty good starting point for the earlier version.

I replicated the mixed copper/brass construction of the fuel tank just for fun/practice (knowing it would be completely hidden), complete with lines of blobby solder marks; likewise some totally unnecessary sworl effects on the areas behind the rear cockpit bulkhead to test out different combinations of methods:

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This weekend I decided to cut off the molded-in mixture control quadrant/"block tube":



... since it seemed too far forward (the pilot would have had to have had arms like a gorilla to reach it comfortably), and scratchbuild a replacement out of a slice of Evergreen tube, strip, copper wire, and stretched bits of sprue:



It actually came out much better than I'd hoped, once it all got painted and temporarily mounted on the cockpit framing:



Much left to do, grip on the control column, rigging & control cables, instruments, seatbelts, plumbing, and on and on. But I'm pretty happy with it so far, and, (best yet!) it's been tremendous fun.

Thanks for looking, and all best,

Dutch

[Whiteknuckles]

Nice work Dutch, the fuel tank looks great!!

Andrew
 

[Edo]

Great start indeed!
what did you use for the fuel tank? pencils?
the effect is very convincing....

ciao
edo

[AngryJazz]

Very nice work on the Eindecker Dutch 
The colors and added details really look great!

[NigelR]

Well this is looking really good so far. Excellent "detailing for god". Which, due to my advancing years and therefore lack of remaining time to build the stash, I have decided not to do anymore......

[macsporran]

Nice project, Dutch, and a great start.
I like the tank with the solder effects.
Bet you'll enjoy WNW after an A-Model!
Sandy

[DaddyO]

Lovely work there Dutch.
I'm also a fan of Eindekkers and it should be quite the collection when completed

Paul

[PrzemoL]

Great start, looking forward to see the continuation!

[Umlaufmotor]

@Davos522

Very nice work on the Fokker cockpit!

Allow me to make a small remark, Dutch:
Wingnut Wings has designed the throttle quadrant correctly.
The position is also right!
Note that there are NO levers but copper pipes.
These pipes contain the fuel - the quadrant is a valve.
In principle, there was only the full and zero throttle position - the engine speed was controlled by the blipper button on the control stick handle via the ignition interrupt.



Here the tight space conditions in the E.III cockpit (replica in USA. Tip: Engels book!!).
Instruments and levers were almost identical on the E.III and E.II/E.I.




Here is an original picture - an E.III captured by the French.



Here is a drawing with an overview of the fuel system of the E.III (almost identical to E.II/E.I).
Drawing Dan-San Abbott 1996
There was only one lever to open or close the fuel tap.
But separately, this was not possible via the throttle quadrant.
You can see this lever below the rev counter in the picture of the E.III captured by the French



Servus
Bertl

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[Dutch522]

Thank you, Andrew, Ben, and Paul!

Sandy, that's putting it mildly... this is my first WnW kit, and I finally get what all the kerfuffle was about; I only wish I'd seen the light before the Dark Days fell upon the world...

Przemo, if this build comes out one-third as good as your E-I did, I'll be overjoyed!

Edo, the fuel tank was done with repeated applications of Testor's Copper enamel in the small jar wiped back while it was still tacky, then washed over with brown alcohol-based ink. It's what we call a "happy accident" in easel painting, and I probably couldn't reproduce it if my life depended on it!

Nigel, I made that promise to myself too after spending six weeks on the Nieuport interior. But as I said, a lot of it was practice with different paint techniques, so that makes me feel a bit better about it all eventually being swallowed up.

And Bertl, it figures I'd get started with a blunder (see my N.16 thread, where I began with the wrong seat, fortunately Rick/RAGIII and Steve/pepperman saved me a bunch of time on that one). Here's the quadrant on the NZ aeroplane that I was using for reference (blowup of one of Jamo's pics):



Which has been moved aft by a good 8"/20cm. Why, I wonder?

But danke vielmals for taking time to point out the error in such detail... I have the photo you posted of the original cockpit and DSA's drawings from WWI Aero copied in my project binder, but never bothered to look at them! I'll move the quadrant back to where it should be, and add the U-shaped guard as well.

Help like this is only one of the many reasons I love this forum...

All best,

Dutch

[KiwiZac]

What an excellent start! I'm so excited to follow along.

Period cockpit details being fairly scarce, I'm making extensive use of Jamo's wonderful photo collection of the Achim Engel/TVAL repro currently based at Hood Aerodrome in New Zealand (Zac's stomping grounds!).

I normally live about 10min away from another of Achim's Eindeckers, but I'm currently back on the same island as Hood and 2.5hr or so drive away and will be there in a couple of weeks - I'll have to get a photo of Jamo and I together!

[Borsos]

Very nice!
Andreas

[Dutch522]

Thanks, Zac & Andreas!

Zac, if you talk to anyone at Hood who's familiar with the Eindecker, could you ask them what the position of the stick is when the a/c is at rest? I'm thinking that it would automaticlly assume a neutral position because the tension of the wing-warping cables... or if anyone else knows, please LMK.

Dutch

[WD]

Wonderful work so far!

Warren

[Umlaufmotor]

Thanks, Zac & Andreas!

Zac, if you talk to anyone at Hood who's familiar with the Eindecker, could you ask them what the position of the stick is when the a/c is at rest? I'm thinking that it would automaticlly assume a neutral position because the tension of the wing-warping cables... or if anyone else knows, please LMK.

Dutch

From a logical point of view, the control stick is in the center position - the elevator (pendulum rudder in the case by Fokker Eindekkers) has a mass balance as it will be almost equally heavy in front of and behind the pivot point (on the ground, not in flight!).
This means that the control stick usually remains in the elevator position in which the pilot left it "parked" when getting out.
However, I know from gliders with a pendulum rudder that the wind moves the rudder, depending on whether it is pulled, pushed or in the neutral position.
The idea that the (even!) tension of the cables always keeps the stick in aileron neutral is completely correct and logical for airplanes with wing twist.
The rudder pedal, on the other hand, will deflect in the direction in which the wind pushes the rudder.
In our gliders, the control stick was fixed with the straps so that the wind could not push the control surfaces hard against their end stops (hinge limit).
The rudder was often blocked against wind pressure with a sandbag etc. when deflected.

But the above only reflects my experience with gliders, which I learned as a boy at our airfield.

Servus
Bertl

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)