LVA Fokker D.VII WIngnut Wings

[IvotB]

I added almost the last details on the engine:

The throttle is now completely attached although no further details are installed on top of the carburator. Also the spark advance lever is attached to the left magneto. The right magneto is attached in the same fashion as the rod that moves the lever to the magneto runs behind the engine to the other side thus shifitng the magnetos equally. You don't see much of it, but I know it's there. Perhaps more can be seen on this photo:

I think I am going to leave the mixture control unattached. I didn't find any information on this.

Then I tried the front covers looking for the fit problems that some have encounterd in this part of the model. It may not be thesame for everyone as WNW supplies several possibilities in covering up the front with different top covers (I used the ones that are marked in the manual not te be used for the versions in the kit, but those are correct for the LVA version). I also used the radiator for version D, which is thicker and had in the middle a wider flat area in front than the other.

First I tried the chin cowling, the radiator, the bottom with the hatch for oil replacement and the top covers. This went on without any fit problems:

Moreover I found especially that the radiator and the top covers fitted perfectly (of course without the engine, which is going to cause problems in front)

Then a picture of the fit between the chin cowl and the cover with hatch:

This shows a small gap and the panels are not in line (the chin cowl is lower than the other at the joint), but you can push the chin cowl a little further on the front frames and then the fit is good.

Next step is to fit the triangular panel:

This panel absolutely seems to belong here, because it fits perfectly in the frame.

Last panel is the forward panel with the curved front which falls over the top cover and over the sides of the chin cowl. Because it is all dry fitting I couldn't make a picture as I needed an extra pair of hands and my wife was out, but it fitted ok.

Then I did discover 2 problems. If you look from the top down to the chin cowl with the bottom frame tubes in between I noticed that the chin cowl is pushing the frame inward because of the imitation connections for the screws to fit the covers:

Here you can see the frame pushed inward

This is how the frames should look like.

A little bit of filing of the inside edge of the chin cowl will solve this problem.

Here you can see that the chin cowl follows the curve of the bottom frame tube perfectly.

Here I do find a problem: the radiator that I am going to use doesn't have enough room for the airpump. You can see that the unpainted water hose connected to the radiator that should fit into the housing of the front of the engine isn't going to get there. I will have to remove some plastic at the top left inside of the radiator to make this airpump fit. Perhaps I have used the wrong part for the inside of the radiator, I am going to check that first, but I remembered that only one part will fit in this radiator.

regards,

Ivo

[IvotB]

Today I fitted the radiator and the chin cowling. I took at the inside kit part of the radiator and replaced it with the kit part for the thinner and less wide radiator:

It does need some work around the radiator hose on top. The part itself (left bottom) won't fit in the radiator (right top), but you just file enough room above and beneath the hose, making it longer along the way. When it fits it gives enough room for the brass pipes from the air pump.

And then I removed some material on the top of the radiator.

Top view showing the triangular part I removed to give the left side of the air pump enough room.

Side view

View from the inside to see the room created for the copper tubes inside

And the other side

Front view. The radiator hose still needs to recieve a matt black color

Bottom view, just before closing her up too here.

regards,

Ivo

[IvotB]

The radiator still wasn't connected securely and is in flight pushing on the engine. I discovered that WNW forgot another two tubes in the frame which shows in almost all photographs. So I took another piece of 0,8mm brass tube, cut it at the correct length and clamped the end in pliers:

The new part of the forward frame runs from the strut connecting the forward engine mount to the upper frame to the sides of the radiator.

Of course this is done on both sides and they have now got a coat of grey green (after the picture had been taken)

Then it becomes time to finish the aircraft. But first I want to apply some weathering especially to the upper wings. Now this is new to me but I recieved some excellent instructions. So after buying some dark pastels and plundering my wife's make up gear I started with the bottom wing:

1mm Jammydog paper tape over the ribs. Here I found them too wide, but this proved ok afterwards.

Then I made a mix of black and brown pastel dust. The brown was too light to apply only brown. I wanted a little bit of shading from the greenish khaki color I sprayed on into a more brownish shade of khaki. Well at first my impression was that it didn't make much difference, but after removing the tape I was satisfied at first, but perhaps it is a little bit too much. I know that after spraying another clear cote the effect will become less, so perhaps it is ok.

An impression:

Right bottom wing done, left still to go. The picture gives a darker impression than the real thing

Attached to the fuselage it doesn't look too bad. But now I must probably do something to the fuselage as well. The fuselage however is almost straight, so there isn't much to use as guidance.

I did the upper wing too:

I used a middle grey pastel for the orange. First I was a little bit disappointed in the orange as I found the effect too strong, but I am getting used to it. This photo is mild on my attempts.

If I am satisfied and those wings have their final clear cote then I can assemble the entire aircraft pretty fast. There will then only be two last hurdles. The first is the rigging between the landing gear and the tailplanes and the painting of the laminated propellor.

Please feel free to be hard on me on the weathering if you like. It is now still possible to correct I guess, as nothing is painted.

regards,

Ivo

[Isaac]

Beautiful work Ivo!

[IvotB]

Thanks Isaac for your compliments.

On with the fuselage. There is not much to go on for weathering the fuselage as it is pretty smooth

I tried to put the light in front and let it shine along the fuselage. Just the top and bottom sides of the louvers might be the beginning of some weathered striping to the back. Further you see some gradual vertical bends along the fuselage where the vertical beams of the inside frame are. You see one just behind the cockpit, at the second half of the orange circle and under the tail. Perhaps just some weathering around the top and bottom corners will do the trick.

Beautiful detail of the forward covers by the way. It will keep the engine out of sight ;)/>/>

Forgot to put the custom made Hier optillen decals on the wing tips before weathering. But they still went on ok. Just add some more Micro Set and they will be just fine. Now I wonder if I got the dutch text right, because at the LVA Sopwith Pup it says Hier oplichten.

I couldn't resist building at the side of the WNW D.VII another D.VII in a different LVA scheme. The scheme with the oramge cockades was used in the LVA D.VII from 1919-1920, so it is a real postwar scheme.The next scheme was with almost the cockades still in use in the Netherlands, although the orientation of the cockades is different on the wings. This scheme was used between 1920 and 1936 when the last D.VII went out of service. In the beginning the numbers were round like shown here and later on the lost this roundness and were painted more with square lettering. Also there were variations with propellors and engine cowlings, which were painted and sometimes were bare metal.

This kit had been waiting a long time in my stash and there must be better ones, but it is for my collection and still some work te be done (painting of cockpit edge and landing strut, rigging between landing gear and between fin and stabiliser):

regards,

Ivo

[IvotB]

Update:

fitted the bottom wing including cover, fitted the undercarriage and added the rigging following to Des' method on ww1aircraftmodels.com (its a first for me, but it's ok. It just needs some paint) with only turnbuckles below and mounted the Spandau MG's with the empty belt shutes.

The undercarriage may have to come off again as the glue doesn't seem to set. The undercarriage doesn't fall off and stays into place, but is very wobbly and let's the left wing drop a little. It can dry overnight after putting it with some supports in the correct position.

Then I wanted to fit the upper wing. I first added the cabane struts and wing struts to the model and tried to align everything as much as possible. I used the parts B8 and B12 as the main guidance for the positioning of the upper wing as those parts are connected with at least 2 cabane struts to the fuselage and leave little room for false positiong. The third strut of those pieces were left unglued to be able to place and remove the forward side cowls. With a vernier caliper (?) I measured the exact positions in the upper wing and tried to apply the correct spacing between the upper connections of the cabane struts. Then I placed parts B4 and B5, carefully measuring and positioning. After that the wing struts were placed in line with the cabane struts as they all support the wing below the two girders of the wing.

Then I put some glue in the openings in the upper wing, placed it upside down and let all the struts fit into the upper wing. I found that there was too much glue in the openings for the 4 cabane strut connections, so I'll have to do some correction work there as it messed up the paint there.

But the wing fitted and it is an excellent and strong connection. Nothing wobbly here:

Earlier I tried some dry-brushing on the tires, but that wasn't a big success:

You can read Gothania and flugreifen 960 x 100, but there is too much paint around it, where it shouldn't belong. I think I might paint the entire area white, let it dry thoroughly and the cover it up with a thin layer of the required tyre color. After that has dried simply polish it carefully with a flat piece grade 1000 paper and the paint color will vanish from the letters and let them become white. At least that should be the result :rolleyes:/>

Size difference in 1:72 and 1:32:

Another shot:

And yes, the forward side cowling can be placed and removed again. Just bend the forward cabane strut a little bit, slide the cowling with the appropriate hole over the strut and put it in the rigth place. It is more or less clamped. Here the upper cowling is still loose and needs some more room on top for the airpump.

regards,

Ivo

[IvotB]

Some small last items before it is finished:

Rigging between the stabiliser and the fin.

Finally I could connect the control cables for the ailerons. It is not easy to connect the two correctly, but this one is reasonable. On the other side one wire just doesn't want to stay where it belongs.

Then finally I had to do the prop. I have been thinking of an easy way to mark the different laminations, but I just didn't find an easy way. In the end I used the milling machine again and used the accuracy of the compound table:

I clamped the propeller in the table and decided to scratch the propellor from the centre to the tip with 0,65mm in between with which I would achieve 7 laminations that I counted on pictures.

This is what it looks like after scratching. It looks more dramatic than it is due to the enlargement in the picture. After that I started working with pencils to fill in the layers and trying to sketch some woodgrain into it. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils.

I don't like the colors yet and the contrast maybe too much, but the layers are correct, especially when checked from the side.

The colors will improve when there are a number of layers of clear cote on top.

regards,

Ivo

[JesniF-16]

Been following this since the beginning. I must say, GREAT Craftsmanship :worship:/> The prop is amazing :thumbsup:/> Can't wait to see it finished!

/Jesse

[IvotB]

Sorry, not finished yet ;)

Last night was spent to draw the laminations on the second front and backsides of the prop. Then a cote of Tamiya clear orange was sprayed and I am satisfied with the result:

In today's feeble sun light

In the shadow

And on the back.

Now on with some more details and the D.VII will be finished.

regards,

Ivo

[BeeJee]

nice work !

[Ruud]

Wow Ivo! Fantastic work!

Hier optillen would be correct for today's Dutch (says my 30 year old 4th grade education).

[IvotB]

Thanks BeeJee and Ruud,

And yes: Hier optillen is correct dutch nowadays, but the language changes over the years and especially because I saw another text for thesame purpose on an LVA Sopwith Pup, I started wondering what it should be.

A little progress running towards the end of this build:

Some tiny bits needed to be done. One of them the writing on the tires. I'm still not satisfied. I tried the wash method, but that results in all kinds of different shades of grey with different levels of shinyness. Perhaps in the end I am going to spray it all flat grey again.

I need some 1:32 mechanic for the display and a dutch 1:32 bicycle. For the rest it is nearing the end:

regards,

Ivo