Fokker F 32; scratch built 1/100 scale

**chris190** · #1 05-15-2020, 09:56 AM

Not sure how much interest this will be to fellow modellers as it's of a somewhat obscure and not very successful airliner (the first and, until the Boeing 307B Stratoliner in 1938, the only four engined airline landplane in the USA) which nonetheless was voted most beautiful aircraft at the 1930 New York Air Salon!

I agree with this verdict, showing how in tune I am with the taste of 90 years ago and so I decided I must have a model of it. No kit available though, so this is all my own work, drawn up in 2d cad. I have to say that a fair part of this process was developing usable general arrangement drawings; Rob Mulder's fine book "The Fokker Fours" has excellent colour profiles and a 3d cutaway but there is only one drawing that I could find on the internet which I could use for plans and detailed elevations.

I'm pleased with the end result, it's a lovely and colourful plane and there has only been myself to blame if something is wrong or doesn't fit; it did stretch my rusty technical drawing skills in developing the various components from the ga s into kit parts but if it is wrong, redrawing and printing is simple.

If anyone is interested in this prototype, I can let them have a pdf of my drawings but you would need to interpret and add bits in styrene rod (engine exhaust pipes) and fuse wire etc to complete.

All the best

Chris

**rifleman** · #2 05-15-2020, 10:04 AM

thats a great build sir well done all round

**gomidefilho** · #3 05-15-2020, 10:49 AM

Fantastic Work! I'm interest try to build this plane, I'm enthusiast of 1930's Airline planes!

**Don Boose** · #4 05-15-2020, 12:32 PM

A beautiful model of this classic of the Golden Age of Aviation!

Don

**wireandpaper** · #5 05-15-2020, 01:27 PM

Thank you for sharing.
Definitely an obscure subject.
A very nice surprice, that wing, landing gear and engines look that you need to be very careful while constructing it!
Well done.

**chaparral2d** · #6 05-15-2020, 01:37 PM

Chris,

Amazing! It's absolutely beautiful.
I am definitely interest in receiving
a set of your drawings.

Dave

**scon10** · #7 05-15-2020, 01:50 PM

Ah, a civilian airplane at last amidst the military power, and a historical one at that. This aircraft heralded the metal construction method in the US, and consequently in the rest of the wordld after the crash of the Fokker due to wood rot in the main wingspar, which was undetectable.
A beautiful model. Especially the engine cowling and the wheel spads. How did you make them so nicely curved?

**nibor** · #8 05-15-2020, 03:54 PM

Lovely. I'd certainly be interested in your plans for this aircraft.

**Butelczynski** · #9 05-15-2020, 04:00 PM

I'm always curious about interwar airliners.Period when everyone and their dog tried all sorts of ideas;some crazy,some good,some outrageous and all in pursuit of similar goals.

From Junkers f13 in 1918 to DC-3 in 1936 progress was crazy fast and Fokker was big part of setting trends. I have somewhere a book with good read on Fokkers attempts to sell their planes in US,Fokker T2 was part of that effort. So was F32.

Very beautiful model.I'm envious of those spats.Really fantastic shape.I could never get mine anywhere that good.

btw,that push/pull arrangement of engines reminds me of Farman F.220 plane.That plane was much more successful,I wonder what they did differently.

**chris190** · #10 05-16-2020, 03:08 AM

Some very nice comments here, thank you all. The wheel spats were built up out of four layers of 1mm card with the full profile glued onto the outer faces and the inner two hollowed out for the wheels; the outer edge was then carefully shaped, sanded with fine sandpaper, coated with pva, sanded again and then painted with gouache. Same procedure for the wheels, of which only half needs doing since slightly more than half is concealed within the spats. Final coats of fixative spray (Rustoleum clear matt) to give a gloss finish after adding the printed overlays which cover the flat sides of the spats.

Strange about the Farman F220 with the same engine arrangement but a far longer and more successful service life; however, even if the engine overheating/plug fouling etc. problems on the F 32 could have been solved, the wooden wing issue arising after the widely publicised crash of an F 10A in 1931 meant an end to the traditional Fokker design in America.

I'll be sorting the drawings out presently, removing my "workings out" and trying to make them a bit more comprehensible to others! I will put them in forum downloads and I assume I send them to a moderator first for clearance?

Chris