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

[Dutch522]

Thanks, everyone!

Rick, apologies, I misread your post and thought you'd written that Wingnut was going to fix the errors in future editions... now that would have been news! The mistakes that I was referring to were in the original WnW decals, not the new Aviattic sets, which (for now, at least) are "generic" fabric, with no markings at all. And if any errors crept past Richard's eagle eye I'd be really surprised... the guy's really good at spotting slip-ups. Trust me on that

Ben, thank you, and as I told Nigel, the heavily weathered finish is one of the things I've been looking forward to trying my hand at the most in the modeling part of this project. Work on the sworling continues, and I'm getting happier with it.

Nigel, thanks, and I haven't taken any specific anti-drooping measures, but I will say that after spending nine months now staring at thousands of pictures of Eindeckers, it's apparent that some E-types actually did exhibit a certain amount of wing droop, as can be seen in this photo from Peter Grosz's collection:



... there are a number of other pictures in the Aeronaut Eindecker Vol. II book that show similar deflection. Might it have just been a matter of how the a/c was rigged on any given day... ? Not sure, but I'm going to play it safe and try to get mine as level as possible. I'll probably use PrzemoL's trick of shimming the wing tabs inside the rear "fuel tank" assembly on my E.IV.

And Lance, thank you as well, that means a lot coming from someone whose work I admire as much as I do yours!

All best,

Dutch

[NigelR]

Nigel, thanks, and I haven't taken any specific anti-drooping measures, but I will say that after spending nine months now staring at thousands of pictures of Eindeckers, it's apparent that some E-types actually did exhibit a certain amount of wing droop, as can be seen in this photo from Peter Grosz's collection:

Funny you should say that, I bought the Aeronaut Eindecker book and noticed the droop on that very same picture. And a few others. So a couple of days ago I got my ruler out and went through many of the photos to see if I could justify "droopy" wings. Unfortunately I found that while some had a droop, most were dead straight. So I was planning on the shimming approach to try to minimize droop, and maybe use monofilament for the rigging rather than Modelkasten elastic thread. Like you say, it probably depended on how the planes were rigged at that point in time.

Great minds eh?

[DaddyO]

Interesting to see the photos showing wing droop 

Given the flexibility of the wings and a certain amount of stretch in wires I'm not too surprised to see 'in service' aircraft looking different from factory fresh even before you add the variables of rigging set up. 

For those interested a trick that was often used by scale free flight modellers was to add a tiny smidge of dihedral when rigging the wings (barely perceptible, but still there) Apparently this is less obvious to the eye than even the tiniest amount of anhedral without a straight edge alongside as a guide.

Really must dig out that EIV kit to have another go at one

Paul

[PrzemoL]

It is so interesting to read about the drop of Eindecker wings...

I think that the rigging was meant to hold the wings of Eindeckers without any anhedral. If there is some visible in the photos it might be that a mechanician did not take care of it for some time or that there is some apparnet deformation due to the limitations of the photo camera optics.

[Dutch522]

Thanks all. A bit more grime added (still a ways to go), and the cowl, rudder, and prop press-fit on so it would look a bit more presentable:



And in one of life's more random moments, my son Curt's significant other spent the day at a county fair about fifty miles away on Friday and sent us this photo:



You have to love a girl that knows an Eindecker when she stumbles across one!

Dutch
PS - And oh yeah, the county fair was in Rhinebeck, NY, home of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome :-)

[NigelR]

Looking good there Dutch, keep going with that weathering......

You have to love a girl that knows an Eindecker when she stumbles across one!

She's definitely a keeper as she appears to have managed to steal the cowling.......

[PrzemoL]

Great progress on your Eindecker.
And congratulations on that to-be daughter-in-law  She IS a treasure for sure 

[Allan31]

Great progress Dutch, where would someone find a county fair with an EIII? Rhinebeck?
I'm thinking of something easy for my next build with no hacking or surgery required.



Check your PM's Dutch.

[RAGIII]

Lovely Eindecker and Young lady!
RAGIII

[William Adair]

Fantastic work on the fuselage shading. Congrats to the Fokker-spotter too!

[gedmundson]

Just catching up now on your build(s) here - wow. Great work indeed. I've just cracked open my WnW E.1 and enjoying the experience of building a WW1 aircraft again (it's been a while).
Cheers,
Gary