Global Scale Modeller

The Aircraft

The DVII was the end product of series of experimental aircraft by Fokker's chief designer, Reinhold Platz. It went through various refinements until it was entered in a competition in Janurary 1918. Unusually at the time front line pilots had a say and Manfred Von 'The Red Baron' Richthofen himself stated that was the best of the bunch which pretty much made it a done deal. And so the production version D.VII was born

However, all was not well and Fokker was not able to meet the demands Albatros and AEG stepped in to build it under license(although AEG didn't actually make any in the end)

Since Fokker did not supply blueprints to the D.VII and only a complete aircraft there was a great deal of variation between aircraft and some parts were not interchangeable between aircraft produced at different factories, even between Albatros and OAW. Additionally each manufacturer tended to differ in nose paint styles. OAW produced examples were delivered with distinctive mauve and green splotches on the cowling. All D.VIIs were produced with the lozenge camouflage covering except for early Fokker-produced D.VIIs, which had a streaked green fuselage. Factory camouflage finishes were often overpainted with colorful paint schemes or insignia for the Jasta, or the individual pilot.

Albatros soon surpassed Fokker in the quantity and workmanship quality of aircraft produced[citation needed]. With a massive production program, over 3,000 to 3,300 D.VII aircraft were delivered from all three plants, considerably more than the commonly quoted but incorrect production figure of 1,700

When it first saw combat allied pilots were shocked to find it far faster, and far more agile than expected and indeed such was it's reputation that a clause stating that all examples were to be handed over to the allies was inserted into the armistice treaty

The OAW version in this kit was made by a subsidiary of Albatross called Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke

The top trumps bit

Length: 6.954 m (22 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.75 m (9 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 20.5 m2 (221 sq ft)
Empty weight: 670 kg (1,477 lb)
Gross weight: 906 kg (1,997 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Mercedes D.III 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine, 120 kW (160 hp)
or 1 × 130.5 kW (175 hp) Mercedes D.IIIa 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine
or 1 × 137.95 kW (185 hp) BMW IIIa 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine
Performance
Maximum speed: 189 km/h (117 mph; 102 kn)
BMW IIIa engine - 200 km/h (124 mph)

Service ceiling: 6,000 m (19,685 ft) [12]
Rate of climb: 3.92 m/s (772 ft/min)
BMW IIIa engine – 9.52 metres per second (1,874 ft/min)

The Kit.

The kit was reviewed by Lee back in March and you can find It here

I bought mine from wingnut wings, which arrived in about week(albeit with customs and handling charges) later

Why I chose it?

There are a few reasons for choosing this kit. I've always loved the design and paint schemes of the German WW1 fighters but they always seemed beyond me. Then I saw the review above and thought. Ohh, interesting. Another main appeal of the kit was that it didn't actually need much rigging done, and so made it all the more suitable for my klunky novice fingers.

Then there was the wingnutwings reputation for some of the best made, and best detailed kits out there and this also appealed in a 'am I able to do this justice' challenge kinda way. It's the challenge that both excites me and terrifies me in equal measure. To say this is a daunting undertaking for me is an understatement

Anyway, here are the obligatory sprue shots

Wow-wee Neils, they do look amazing kits, will be interesting to see if she goes together ok I'm sure she will. "Daunting" you say mate.... Not 'arf says I

Can't wait to see this baby all prettied up!

Shall be following this build closely!

Good luck with the build mate. Looks like a great kit, heard nothing but praise for wnw stuff.

that looks like a great kit! i am looking forward to seeing it built up because wing nut wings are meant to be the best out there for ww1 aircraft

1/32 looks like the best scale for this era. That kit looks sweet!!

GG

Thanks guys.

Nothing really to show picture wise, but I thought I'd give a quick impression so far

This is the sheet I'm on so far Basically, everything on this page is now glued and has the primary colours sprayed. It's just waiting for them to dry and some extra weathering stuff to arrive in the post to proceed.


So.. what's it like to build so far?

Well it's not a kit to rush if you see what I mean. Each piece needs to be cut, trimmed and the remains of the sprue need to be filed away. Now this isn't because the kit is bad, in fact quite the opposite. The precision of the kit, plus the way the instructions are laid out kinda forces you to take it slow and relish each piece slotting into place. you just cannot rush this kit(well you can I guess but it feels like it would be sacrilege ).

The number of small, tiny components or those with hair thin lines makes every cut seem like brain surgery, so to minimise the risk of parts flying off or snapping I've been cutting away from the piece and using frog tape to stop the parts flinging off which is another reason for the filing and sanding for each piece.

It definitely feels a step (or maybe 4) up from my usual kits both in challenge but also strangely enjoyment

Cool looking kit...looking forward to seeing it come together now you've made a start.

never done one of those kits so i will be dropping in to see how it goes together

Wow those instructions are really nicely done.

Hear nothing but good things about these Wingnut wings kits.

A Monday update.

This is a real tortoise and hare kit, you need to be the tortoise in order to really appreciate the kit, and the whole experience. Since I'm still waiting on some more paints and weathering washes(for the engine, leather and wood effects) I decided to skip ahead a little and put the engine together. It still needs some decals, a varnish and weathering but the hard stuff is done.

Progress on the parts in Step 1..


I need to add some wood effects to the floor, add a glaze to the decals on the seat, side and floor to give it a more used look as well as adding some staining to the fuel tank and ammo boxes. I can then put the seat and cushion in place as well as add the firewall.

Anyway onto the engine...


Personally, I found this part a little confusing as I had to keep reminding myself to read top to bottom not left to right. This is also where you need to decide what model or option you are doing. I tended to take more notice of the full colour diagram at the bottom than do all the painting in the stages as the instructions suggest.

This on a subsequent page was a huge help, although a nice and clean help

I'm weighing up if I should try to do some super detailing here and add some tiny fuse wire to where the yellow tubes connect to the cylinder head. Dunno, it depends on how much you'll be able to see when the kit is done I suppose.

Anyway, the fruits of my labour.



When we get to the rigging I found a place (gaspatchmodels) that does really nifty little eyelets which should help me no end. expensive though

The kit is still a huge challenge for me, but you know what? I'm falling for this kit big time

Thanks for reading.

Neils wrote:
When we get to the rigging I found a place (gaspatchmodels) that does really nifty little eyelets which should help me no end. expensive though....

Yeah I ordered a few packs of different eyelet configurations, not sure what I will be needing over the few builds I am planning. They do look amazing though. I'm expecting my order this week so will be able to provide a review.

GG

nice looking engine , plenty of detail , i will have a look at gaspatch see what rigging parts thay got for my albartos , i was looking at bobs buckles . good luck with the rest of your build

Great work on the engine.

Looking great. Especially encouraging for those of us who find ourselves thinking 'I don't think can I do this justice?' when faced with a really nice kit, and so leave it the stash for the occasional 'one day, when I'm ready..' sessions through the years (I'm not the only one am I?)

Fantastic start on an excellent piece of kit.....
Well done mate, take your time.... these kits are fantastic when built just right...
Continued success Buddy..

Excellent start mate.

Wow! Beautiful paint job on such a tiny assembly....you must have good eyes or a strong magnifying implement.

beautiful work so far!

Been busy these last few days as the cockpit sub-assembles have slowly come together. I'll keep saying this to not only remind myself but also as a heads up that the instructions really have to be read single part by single part and dry fitting multiple times is a really a must

Snipping out the cockpit frames was pretty nerve wracking. Really small parts and thin links made sprue cutters a must. Also, don't try to trim the parts on the sprue and give the part plenty of support when sanding stuff away. I didn't break any though - phew



One idea I did have, was that instead of slipping down the photo etch into the seat when it was glued in place was to stick the photo etch around the seat mount and then stick the seat on.




Instrument panel was given a wood effect(I hope) by spraying with wooden deck tan XF78 , then using a very stuff brushed lightly over painted with acrylic raw sienna and when that was dry doing the same with acrylic burnt umber

Took me a couple of hours to fit it all together, but I have to say I'm very pleased with the result.

Weathering on the brass fuel tank was done by AK worn effects, which I now completely love. Simply put down a base coat, spray it on and leave it for an hour. Then spray it with the final coat and gently brush/scratch off to suit.



Seatbelts were painted white(as per references in the instruction book) and then weathered using a grime wash to make it all dirty looking. Seat was painted dark earth for the main leather along with a thinned mix of XF68 Nato brown. it was then scuffed with a course grain thin sanding stick to give it a beaten up look.

3amp fuse wire was snipped off and hooked around the pedals to do the internal rigging.





I have to say I am really loving this build, while every step demands my concentration the result of this is a tangible and wonderful sense of progress both in the model and my skills.

Next step is buttoning the model up and so far dry fitting shows I will have some filling to do but that's not affecting my enjoyment on bit.

I think I might be catching the wingnut wings bug..

That's beautiful work mate.

Awesome just Awesome. Not the cheapest of kits. you are making it look like its worth every penny. Hope to be this good someday. Well done, look forward to the rest of the build.

Tommy

Phenomenal work so far, very skilled - taking your time with these is the best way.

Your decals look superb and that is one fine engine block.

Lovely work mate.

Wow.....beautiful interior detailing!

Thanks guys. it's one of the great things about this forum is the encouragement to do better

“Finally! I think I’ve got the build order sussed” is what I kept telling myself each time I sat down to do more of this epic kit.
It’s not that the instructions are wrong, it’s just that there are certain items that need to happen before other certain items. I made a couple of mis-steps along the way, which made stuff a lot harder than it needed to be. My next WnW kit I’ll know better  The instructions also kinda assumed you knew where a certain piece went and had put it in place without being told. Still it makes you pay attention 



As mentioned before, very often you find out more painting detail in later stages that, while it doesn’t contradict what you did previously it does make you think ‘They should have told me that earlier” I guess it’s WnW’s way of slowing you down and make sure you get it right.

I decided to practice my rigging skills and go for the internal rigging step as shown above. Now you could just glue one end of the wire through the top hole and not bother about attaching it to the pedals etc but I decided in for a penny, in for a pound and besides it would be good practice for later

So here are a few shots of my attempt at the internal rigging. Say good bye to all that detail as very soon it will be gone and covered up. At least I know it’s there and I have the photo’s to prove it. Just a shame it’s gone, but it was great practice and I enjoyed every moment.







As you can see I hopefully left enough line to go directly from the rudder pedals to the upper wing.



Gluing the sides together is always a tricky thing, esp with such fine tolerances. Note the glue the top first and then the bottom instruction. Not really sure they did it that way, but I was a good boy and did it anyway. I did need a tiny amount filler behind the cockpit(top and bottom) and tail joints to cover some seems but I’m not really sure how I could have gotten a closer fit without filing down internal struts. But anyway can’t fault the kit and it’s not as though the seams were that big. Some Vallejo filler and Mr surfacer 500 did just fine.

Note how little of the detail in the previous steps is actually seen. Oh well



Here it is all buttoned up, with the first on many coats of yellow (10 parts XF3 to 1 X6) on. I’ve found the best way to paint yellow is lots of thin coats and build up from there. No idea how else you are supposed to it, but this way seems to work
The observant among you will notice my first tactical error. Which is best explained below



Notice it shows part H1 being glued to the front of the cockpit? Well I did just that and ended up with the devil’s own job masking it all up(see how the details all springs up from all over the place. What I’d do next time is mask the piece up, paint it and then fix it on. It’s then easier to mask up to cover up any filler that would be needed.

It was also my first time using photo etch so, after stealing the wife’s candles annealed them and after leaving them to cool slowly bent them around a 2.5mm brass rod. They are tiny, tiny parts and came out pretty well.



Notice I’d started putting the wings together while I waited for filler and paint to dry.

One problem with doing the rigging the way I did was that the blooming string kept getting in the way, so drastic measures was called for, but not before tiny aluminium spiders had been spread over the paintwork from where the buffables were being buffed just by moving around. Grr..



Since yellow was such a pain, I went ahead and pre painted the other yellow items



Got a little touching up to do(thanks to the above H1 Doh!



Feeling brave I glued the lower wings on, gave them a protective coat of Klear and holding my breath headed for the wing decals.


They slid on very easily and I was surprised at how easy they were to line up. The was a slight snag at the wingtips as they didn’t seem to want to settle into a non-crinkle pattern around the tips and leading edge. So, after some micro sol and set and a period of waiting ended up gently cutting slits into the decals, trimming the excess and using tiny amounts PVA glue to make sure they were stuck down.





Hopefully they’ve turned out alright.

I’ve given them a couple of coats of protective Klear so that when I put down the wing ribs I’m not decaling on top of decals. I used klear as a nice gloss coat is needed to make sure the decals go down and also be more resilient than my satin gloss(dunno if that's really true but it seemed reasonable to me)

In order to deal with the spider webs from above I did a brave but on the face of it muppet thing. After putting down a fresh Klear coat I Used de-tacked(pulled off and on the skin a few times) frog tape I masked the wings so I could respray the fuselage. All went well until it came to peel off the tape. It was terrifying watch the decals slowly lift and settle down once more as the tape was slowly, mm by mm peeled away. Luckily there was no damage but I’m not doing that again!

Flipping good job I put the klear coat down..

The lower wings will need an extra coat on as I need to put down the crosses over the wing ribs so there’s quite a lot of decaling left to do.

After using the brown glaze (an 10 parts X22, to one part XF52 mix) I’ll then add a final few coats of Alclad Semi matte varnish to give a nice satin look.

You’ll notice from the shots I’m building the fuselage details first along with the lower wing so I’ll be stacking construction onto already completed parts. For example you can’t do the wing ribs when the top wing is on, neither can you decal and fit detail onto the fuselage once it’s covered up.

It may look close to being done, but in actuality it’s about ½ way thanks to all the decaling to be done. I’ve still got to assemble and drill out the cowlings as well as making sure they fit before moving onto the undercarriage and putting the upper wings on.

There's some very very nice work there mate.

Marvellous work!

Wow! That kit is something else - the instructions are a work of art in themselves. The cockpit is so detailed and your build looks super nice so far. Top work.

Great work

I so want one of these wing nut kits. Not sure if I have the patients or skills for it though.

Really nice work...loving the lozenge pattern against the blue.

Lovely work, beautifully neat paint work.

great work

Getting near the end now, which has me feeling both happy and a little sad. Happy because I’ve loved the challenge of the kit, and sad because it’s nearly over. However, in my limited experience so far it always seems like the building and painting are the quick parts and it’s the finishing that takes forever.

This is what we did in this step.



And some of this step


I put the side decals on, painting over the crosses with a very thinned XF8. After putting down a clear coat to seal them in, I then followed it up with several coats of Alclad 2's satin varnish to give a more 'painted wood' effect. Quite pleased with how it came out



At this stage I didn’t stick the cowlings down, as I wanted the flexibility of being able to position the struts. I’ll need to fil in the gaps ofc which, learning the lessons from last time I’ll make a paper sheath to mask the wings.

My first try at rigging and as per instructions I used a thicker wire to do the rudder control cables and undercarriage wires. Was’nt too hard, but we’ll see how the EZ-line goes later on.




After putting a coat of protective clear over the underlying wing decals I also started the process of putting the wing rib decals on, which wasn’t as laborious as one would think thanks to the lines in the wing decals to give you a guide line. There are some length issues with the decals which will require some trimming/faffing around with and if I had to make a negative comment about my experience with the kit it’s that the decal design is not really user friendly.



And here it, nearly ready for wing spars and the finishing bits and bobs

Nice! I may have to try one of these. The detail looks great! Fantastic work so far!

Looks great mate love the scheme too

SeanH20 wrote:Looking great. Especially encouraging for those of us who find ourselves thinking 'I don't think can I do this justice?' when faced with a really nice kit, and so leave it the stash for the occasional 'one day, when I'm ready..' sessions through the years (I'm not the only one am I?)

your not the only one, I've just got back into the hobby and my wife bought me a Tamiya 1/48 Swordfish, its going to be some time, a quite a few "practice" kits before I attempt that little beauty

Sweet! That's a nice looking craft with those bright colors and the lozenge camo-scheme. Great job so far!

Thanks guys, real life spare time is short so not had a lot of time to respond but that's how it goes...

Final update for the reveal and somewhat of a cliff hanger 

Constructed the cowlings and filled in some of the gaps in the rear cowlings. Since I didn’t want to cover up all that engine detail I won’t be sticking on the front covers.



Struts went on easily enough. I glued the N shaped struts on the lower wing and B8/B12 to the upper wings to help alignment. The Carbane struts B4/B5 I’ll leave until both wings are on as I think the angle will be tricky.



And this will be the final stages



Going to use XF60 as a base for the prop, then using a stiff brush I’ll used Raw sienna to give me a lighter wood tone before finally masking a stripe on the propeller in which I’ll stiff brush Burnt Umber acrylic paints
The final stage will be to do the wing rigging, which using my FlexIfile CA-Applicator tool should make a doddle

Anyway onwards

Wheels are on, going to leave the cowls loose as I don’t want to lose all the engine detail



My first attempt at rigging. Quite straightforward, using some 0.3mm wire for the control wires, EZ-line for the smaller stuff and CA glue


Decalling done bar the insignia and satin coats. Also added the rigging to the undercarriage


Starting to put the struts on



All stuts on, waiting for the upper wings and finishing touches.



And there we will leave things on a sort of cliff hanger for the final reveal next week

Very nice work, and a cool looking plane.

Very Nice Model ! You are making a very good work with it !

thanks guys

Final reveal thread is up http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 286&t=8923