WingnutWings Fokker D.VII (Alb) Robert Greim, Jasta 34b

[RAGIII]

Excellent work on the rudder bar and triangular addition. As for the panels I think they are as you surmised too thick. I believe the thicker portion helps hold them in place when the modeler chooses to make them removable. If you plan to permanently attach them or leave them off it should present no major drawbacks to sand them down. Perhaps others will chime in with opinions here as to any structural reason to leave them as is?
RAGIII

[uncletony]

Oh... and another question crosses my mind...

How thick are those engine cowl panels supposed to be?
32-scale-newbie

this bothered me too -- of course they are just thin sheet metal on the original, so...





if you are curious -- somewhere in here I show how I made them...
http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=3778.0

[petrov27]

Those thin panels look brilliant... Surprised a bit no aftermarket has released replacements like these in soft brass etch to replace the kit plastic

[jeroen_R90S]

Wow, Bo, I'll get out the belt sander! 

RAGIII, I think you may be right. This started out as a OOB build in my mind, then I went for Aviattic lozenge for the outsides (ran out of € for the interiour reversed lozenge so will use the kit decals for that), and here I am fiddling with all sort of parts doing anything but an OOB build... As I don't want to start scratchbuilding everything else in the engine bay that is visible on the photo in the WNW book, I'll leave the bottom and sider panels on, but the top cowls off.
I've decided my limit is there, after trying to scratchbuild the throttle linkage... one other thing I might do is the radiator flap, though!

It is fun though, but I'll stop short of Bo's outstanding panels. Impressive work, they look amazing! (I'd amost say, as usual)

I've collected the colours I needed today (well, my wife got them for me), so hopefully when I paint my fixed Albatros struts I can do some painting on this model, too.

Thanks for the answers!

Jeroen

[uncletony]

Perhaps others will chime in with opinions here as to any structural reason to leave them as is?
RAGIII

not so much a structural reason, but be aware it will change the way things fit; the structure of the kit is designed around those 1mm+ walls... so prepare to do a bit of the ol' farmer cut 'n' try

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bo. I'll wait with the sanding until the fuselage is together so I can check the fit better.

Jeroen

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks, Red Baron. I'll keep it in mind when I get there!

[jeroen_R90S]

I get a red message box over here telling me this hasn't been posted in for at least 120 days. Since I spent my summer working on our to-be camper van conversion and thereafter on my Jasta 18 duo, that's probably true!

However, I'm not just posting to share that
Unfortunately it seems all the posts by Red Baron have unfortunately disappeared from this thread, and also everywhere else. So there goes my "I'll copy some of RB's Improvements". Fortunately there are many other very well done D.VII builds here, so we'll see later.

Most work I've done has been pretty dull; cleaning up parts, pre-painting parts, etc etc.
However, this had me kind of worried:

I assume the difference in thickness is due to the fact that that normally the forward panels don't butt agains the framework, but the under- and top cowls?

All of that culminated in this dryfit I did this afternoon. After reading several build logs where there were some fit issues getting the interiour to fit and close the fuslage seamless, I spent an hour or so and a few bits of tape to see how it would go:

And, indeed, just a thin coat of paint on the fuselage frames, bulkheads and sidewalls seems to cause an (albeit small) problem closing the fuselage. So some scraping and sanding may be in order later, but better to know it now already.
The forward cowl panels fit a lot better with the radiator and lower cowl panels in place, so that should work out.
(and yes, those wings are painted white already in anticipation for the Aviattic lozenge decals)

After getting a good look thanks to the dryfit I decided to leave them alone (as in, not sanding them thinner) as it's not noticable unless you leave one (or all) off, which I'm not doing. So the insides were painted Revell Aqua "Steel". IMHO those Revell Aqua are one of the best acrylic metallics and they really look nice.
Still thinking about the outside; steel first then green and chip, or paint them green and then chip using steel... descisions, descisions...


Still drying as of now, but I also painted the engine. More on that later.

Jeroen

[RAGIII]

Nice to see you back on this one! The panels are looking great! I am looking forward to the next update!
RAGIII

[jeroen_R90S]

Thank you, RAGIII

I finally got around to updating the broken Photobucket links. Even though there were only a few, it's quite time consuming. Fortunately, this build log wasn't too far underway!

Jeroen

[aliluke]

Good to see another D.VII on the go. Mine goes slowly but it is such a fine plane I'm happy to try to do it justice. I look forward to your updates.

Best
Alistair

P.S.
Red Baron pulled out all of his posts a while back. No idea why. That is a shame his work was well worth a look and then some!

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks, Alistair!

Just had a look in your build thread, going to look great!

------------------------------
Question... I've collected enough courage to tackle the machine gun cooling jackets this evening. Using the tutorial in the Hint and Tips section of the WNW website I was actually pleasantly surprised as to how good their PE parts are to work with (being used to thick and stiff stainless Dragon frets...)

I used the kit supplied rod (D6) but have a gap at the bottom:

Is that supposed to happen? They do fit now, if I roll them tighter they won't slide over the round section of the gun, but butt against it.

The front part has this opening at the bottom, so I'm inclinded to think it it supposed to be this way?


Anybody know this?

Been doing a lot more, just not much to show for at the moment!

Jeroen

[RAGIII]

Nice work on the Machine Guns!
RAGIII

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks, RAGIII

I sent a mail off to Richard of WingnutWings and he kind of confirmed the gap should not be there on the real thing, but will be invisible on the assembled model. He also mailed that the new DVII issue had redesigned PE parts, but I don't have that kit, so I would not now what has been changed.
But since it'll be invisible I'll leave them as-is.

How do you paint these guns? In sub-assemblies (so as to get paint inside the PE and on the barrel), or do you assemble them completely and paint will get through the openings of the jacket anyway?

I also worked on the engine:


Still learning a lot of things on my first 1/32 build -used too thick wire for the air pump lines. (and the diagnonal one attaches to the wrong line on the left side of the engine, shhh, don't tell anyone!) I made the spark plugs from shortended Master bolts (0,7mm or something, they have a 0,5mm pin that fits in the WNW cilinders)
Though the upper cowls are off the priming cups will be pretty invisible so I won't add them, too. I did make a throttle linkage on the carburettors.
As you can see currently struggling to wire the magnetos with copper wire, too. Fiddly, to say the least! Might use thicker monofilament next time; like I wrote, still learning things!

Intake manifold is still dryfit to help wire placement and aid with weathering later. Having fun, though!
Comments and critique welcome, like I wrote, still learning!

Jeroen

[lcarroll]

   Regarding your questions on the guns, Jeroen, I always get a small gap and they fit snugly over the round section on the receivers, the gap is as you say, invisible. I assemble them completely and then spray through the cooling vents in the jacket to paint the barrel and inside, it works nicely.
Cheers,
Lance