Fokker DVII 1/48, 1/72 design

[Golden Bear]

Hey Fred. Because I want to (?)

[Gil]

Carl,

Great progress. Looks like you actually desire to complete the design and build of the D7. Really miss the spoked wheels though. But it does give me an idea on how to make canvas covered wheels look "spoked" without too much bother...,

-Gil

[smithdr]

Wow...how'd I miss this? Neat D-VII and moving along apace too!

Cheers,

Dan

[Mike1158]

The title is DVIII, why call it a DVII?

[Golden Bear]

First, it is a model of a Fokker DVII, title of thread is incorrect. The Fokker DVIII was a high wing monoplane with radial engine.

Next, a longer answer for Fred - I've always built models of aircraft. When I was a wee lad I built in 1/72 and didn't have access to an airbrush, so handpainted everything. After receiving a volume of Profiles, I wanted to reproduce lozenge camoflage, but could not.

I am building at 1:48 for a couple reasons. The first is that my storage space has shrunk and the other is that a pair of year old kittens has shown how ephemeral is the lifespan of large card models.

And as to "why little airplanes and not large ships" I have contrived a mental block against the long process of making a ship model that meets everyone elses' expectations. First, full hulls were demanded. Then I had to make the hulls more buildable - this part is REALLY tedious in order to do it well. Thus, I have looked for a way to rebuild my interest in designing and building card models. I actually began with a 1:600 model of Dreadnought but couldn't get through the coloring stage. I actually seem to have more or less finished a project with the Fokker DVII and am satisfied.

Gil - you are a devil! I've been thinking about spoked wheels at 1:48 and 1:72 scales. I think that you still owe me (and the world) finished drawings for your spoked wheel tool from back around 2008. Did you notice that I made the wheel covers by lightly creasing them radially rather than by smooth rolling? An odd thing is that images of these covered wheels actually show the inside surface as flat rather than conical (my model is thus incorrect in that detail).

...I've been working on a different coloring scheme, laying out machine guns and identifying a possible next model.


Carl

[Gil]

Hi Carl,

I looked around and you're right about the wheels looking flat though they show a catenary curve toward the axle hub. Take a look at the following photographs on Wingnut Wings. There's a couple of shots of late production wheels that look amazingly like your interpretation. I know, go figure.

I left off on the spoked wheel escapade after untwisting pure silk thread to obtain the near perfect spoke material. A mental health break was required after that little obsessive-compulsive episode. I'll get back to the project after figuring out how to make the perfect rims - nearly there now by the way - and constructing the perfect tire (a key idea has came from water painting - a closely related subject area so it has to be legitimate for use in cardmodeling).

I've been working a few more details out in my head regarding improvements and how to make perfect ship rails with abundant low cost materials and minimalist technology. The kind of thing that makes people design a ship with lots and lots of railings and strut style filigree detail just to try out the new railing technique - one of those "Bourbon Street" style French jobs would do it up nicely...,

Meanwhile, back at the screen: Looking forward to the completion of the D7. I suppose you're going to use Leif Ohlsson's prop design(?) - that is if you haven't already started on it...,

Best regards,
-Gil

[Royaloakmin]

I'd say that you want to is a perfectly good reason!

[Golden Bear]

I'm calling "done" for this model. I added MGs, seat and prop.

The undercarriage was not originally strong enough to support the plane. To keep the strut appearance light they were fabricated from one layer of card stock backed by a layer of paper. I rebuilt the landing gear struts with double card and have my fingers crossed.

The first model is made of card stock but I discovered that the colors don't look as bright as they do on bright white paper. The last image below shows pieces being built for the next model but with bw paper instead of card.


Carl

[Rubenandres77]

It looks really nice!
A very good rendition of this great plane

[Don Boose]

It's really beautiful!

Don