Fokker DVII Ernst Udet LO!

[DMPopa]

The fuselage side skins are applied first to the now red prime painted fuselage structure.  This picture shows off nicely the glazed fuselage structure top prior to attachment of the top back skin.



The way things have turned out, the side, top and bottom skins are a little oversized to the fuselage structure.   These get trimmed prior to being glued to the fuselage structure surface.   On order of application, top back, top front, the front radiator cowl and finally the bottom.   The bottom goes on as a single piece; the kit has the part below the engine as several pieces.

These pictures are with all fuselage skins attached:

[NigelR]

More impressive work, this is coming along nicely.

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Liking this!!!

Dan

[DMPopa]

The Vertical stabilizer, rudder, horizontal stabilizer and elevator are assembled along with the control wires which are rendered in EZ Line.



Du doch nicht!  roughly translates to "no not you".  An online resource wrote that these words in German do not exactly translate so there are other translations out there.

 

[NinetythirdLiberator]

I love using EZ-Line.  Works just great. Looking really, really good!

Dan

[DMPopa]

I added clear coats to the fuselage to seal and to add some "pop" to the colors.     

I experimented with different clear coats before I hit the best one for the final coat.

Some background:  To fix places in the red areas, I used the red primer sprayed into a plastic spoon and brushed on.  The red primer I used is red Dupli-Color Primer Filler.   To reduce the shine I brushed on a powder, L.A. Colors Water Lily; I would mix up the different colors in the pack for best results. 

My first attempt at a color coat was Mod Podge Matte Clear Acrylic Sealer.   To my eye, the coverage was not even and consistent.   Same for the second coat, Aleene's Acrylic Sealer Gloss.    Final coat was Testors dullcoat, shot using an airbrush.  This gave me the best results; coverage was even and consistent.   



Work included as shown above the engine radiator cowl was smoothed out with MH Ready Patch and touched up as noted above with paint and powder.

[NigelR]

Nice progress here. This is coming together nicely, all your efforts will be rewarded.

[NinetythirdLiberator]

This is the bees knees.  I really like the subdued underside too.

Looks great!

Dan

[DMPopa]

The machine gun, exhaust manifold and the cockpit cowling is done.

The machine guns is a repaint from a Siemans Schuckert D.IV skin that I got off of IL-2 Sturmovick.  Lots of detail in the skin at a magnification but at the small scale of the actual printed machine gun a lot of detail is lost.   



The gun sight rings are Model Shipways MS0951 5/64" brass split rings from the model ship hardware stash.   The gun barrels are vellum paper wrapped around .020" music wire (the wire is removed after the glue dries). 

The exhaust manifold is right from the kit.



The fuselage had to be cut to accept the ammunition feeds and shell removal Shutes.  A little crude but the machine guns hide most of it.



Business end of the machine guns showing the gunsight rings



Side view.

[DMPopa]

The top wing is done.

The wing structure is built, and when gluing the downloaded paper graphics to the cardboard that I am using, things are pretty unsteady.   

What I consider to be the goal of the wing build is the wing has to be straight in the top view and front end view.   When the wing skin is attached, the leading edge rounded fold has to be smooth and the demarcation between upper and lower graphics has to be consistent from edge to edge.



.039 music wire is added to the leading edge, covered in velum paper and the trailing edge has a .032 music wire added, covered in velum paper.   The connection points are found in the upper and lower wing skin.




The upper wing has been repainted as a single piece, unlike the model graphics which is in three pieces.

Hard points are added to the connection points.



The structure is glued to the lower half wing graphics at this point. 

Close up of the hard points.   A hole is cut in one piece of cardboard and a second piece is glued over this piece.  Also the aileron cables are added at this point.



 Aileron Cables pre assembled in the lower half



The top half wing skin is glued in place.  After trimming the edges, using HM Ready patch and paint touchup, this is the result.







It does not show up well in the pictures, but the aileron control arms and cables are added  at this point.

[NigelR]

Excellent progress here, trhis will look great when it all comes together.

[Dirigible-Al]

That looked very fiddly and hard. My hat goes off to you.
Alan.

[DMPopa]

The lower wings are done.    Because of the way that I constructed the fuselage, having a solid bottom vs. a separate fuselage piece at the wing added after the wing is attached, the center part of the wing spar is cut aut and music wire is in place to secure the lower wings to the fuselage. 

Concerning the wing structures, a piece of .032 music wire is added at the leading edge covered in paper velum and a second .032 music wire attached through holes drilled into the wing ribs.   These will be used to attach the lower wings to the fuselage.



This is with the wing skin added and sprayed with Testors Dullcote.

[NigelR]

Impressive engineering!

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Moving right along!!!

Dan