DocRob

Slowly but surely, the midget Fokker is closing in on the finish line. I added a Flory clay wash, where I removed the residues very careful and matte varnished fuselage and wings. I added the cross bracing on the undercarriage using Uschis elastic rigging thread. The 08/15 MG's from Gaspatch were added and I tried to add round counters made from tin foil, but lost one of the decals and left them away, as I couldn't find an adequate substitute. The Ammo feeds are made from PE. I added a small windscreen, after cutting the supplied Acetate one to fit. The prop was also painted in desert yellow and got an oil colour treatment and will be varnished next. Next step is to mount the wings and the supplied PE aileron rigging, and I hope it will work again with the little one . Cheers Rob

I thought about that too and started to prepare an electric toothbrush last week. But this place is so tiny and fragile, I have to do it by hand. This area is smaller than a tooth to brush . Cheers Rob

Thanks Kai, actually the plane I build is the one who scored the first aerial victory for the Polish airforce. The planes were captured in 1919 and some were in usable condition On 29.04.1919 pilot Stefan Stec downed an Ukrainian Nieuport fighter. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Amigos, indeed, it's very small and the risk of blowing it away with the airbrush is absolutely given. I have kits with bigger parts, than the whole Fokker thingy. The good thing, you need only drops of colour and varnish and there is no need for aftermarket, besides the Gaspatch 08/15 MG's, I will use. There is almost as much work involved as with the 1/32 Fokker, that makes it a bang for the buck with a price of 15€ plus 7€ for the MG's. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff. Actual progress slows down a little, due to drying times, be it CA or varnish. Today I built up the undercarriage, which helpfully has the struts for each side connected by plastic sprue and these got glued together with the jig part. When this has dried, I attached firs the uc wing and then after, guess what, drying to the fuselage. It was a quite fiddly affair and I have some cleanup to do with residues of CA and I still have no idea, how to clean the mini wheel struts off the residues of te jig, after carefully snipping it away. The Fokker received a sealing coat of Pledge and then I will use a clay wash, for weathering. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil and Peter, what's next, I'm not sure, but it will definitely not be in 1/72 . Maybe it's the Vanguard Duchess of Kingston, if it ever arrives at my house. It seems to held hostage by UPS due to Brexit issues. Crazy, I mean we live in 2021 . There is my started Arado-234 night fighter project, the big WNW AEG G.IV is waiting, or some 1/20 MaK kits, which are great to study new painting and weathering techniques. Cheers Rob

The cockpit and engine eats at least half of the building and painting time with the Corsair, but it's well worth it. Your pit and engine look great and don't worry, my micro holes are never centered, but this will be unseen by most observers, specially when the cowlings are closed. The only problem area I ran in, when I built mine was the attachment of the dropped flaps to the fuselage. I don't know, if it was my fault, which is quite possible. Al other issues I had were induced by installing the Brassin cockpit, which needed a bit of surgery, which was simple to do and mainly the engine cowling area, where I wanted to find a solution for removable engine covers, where I tried a thinned plastic variant, a soldered and bent PE variant and the resin option, with the final result, that the flaps were permanently closed . I'm always considering to build a late model in NZ or FAA outfit, but I have too many kits . Cheers Rob

Don't build too many planes Gus, people will look irritated, when they meet you . I know the feeling, you can't live without PE, but it can be a pain. Jeroen however, seems to be non stick, seeing the quality of his PE work. Cheers Rob

Today I finished decaling and assembled the engine, cowling, rudder and front part of the fuselage. For the x-rigging of the undercarriage, I glued some UvR elastic rigging line into tiny holes of the fuselage. Assembly was done with CA, as I noticed, that the decals were very sensitive to Tamiya plastic glue. The rigging will be minimized, by smartly designed PE parts for rudder and aileron horns, including the wire as PE, as can be seen on the pic of the lower tail section. The Polish livery will make this tiny Fokker even more colourful, than the big Jasta 6 one. Strangely the manual called for a different type of upper lozenge for the tail of the Polish planes. As I could not find any evidence of that with the German original planes, I used the also supplied same type of lozenge as on the fuselage. The proposed would have looked weird and I doubt, that the Polish airman applied a different lozenge scheme only on the tail, so I think, it's an error in the manual. Cheers Rob

Very nice detailing. They are 1/35, but they look cool and maybe nobody will notice . 1/35 Deckhands Series 1 (industriamechanika.com) Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, and no, the mini Fokker isn't so difficult to build and paint, beside the spoked wheels, which are needed for only one of five different planes. Yes, everything is tiny, I've seen bigger dragonflies, even in Europe, but the kit is well designed and helps the builder with clever engineering and you get away with a bit more of simplification, at least, I hope so . Cheers Rob

Thanks Amigos, the decals are provided with the kit and they are printed by Cartograph. I had some not so good experiences with Cartograph decals lately, for example some from WNW, but these are a joy to work with. They have good colour rendition and fit like a glove. The Lozenge looks better, than what Eduard provided with their kits. For the Eduard Siemens Schuckerts I built, I used Aviattic decals, because the Eduard colours looked way off. Cheers Rob

The Fokker is done and RFI'd, so on with the Fokker. In this case with the 1/72 incarnation from Arma Hobby. I prepared many parts along the big Fokker, like the streaked wings and others, only scaled down with finer brush strokes and more thinned colours. The plastic and fit of the kit is mediocre. There is some flash and therefore more cleanup than expected, but nothing really disturbing. Other things are better realized, than with the bigger kit, like including a little jig for the wheel struts and mould the V-shaped wing struts directly onto the cowling. The fuselage, after applying the inner decals and details like the tiny seat with PE seat belts, received a coat of gloss white and got the perfectly cut and good to work with Lozenge decals applied. I opted for the spoked PE wheels, which were a pain to assemble, but the use of the wheel hub of the big Fokker as a bending template, helped getting the cones right. That is where I am now. Not shown are the wings already with Polish markings and Gazpatch 08/15 MG's which are readily painted Cheers Rob

Sublime as ever, the cab looks great. Can't believe, that you have the patience to scratch that beast completely, but the result will be a stunner. Cheers Rob

Impressive result. I was tempted sometimes by kits in 1/700 but resisted. I have two in 1/350 that's a small as it gets to me. And there is always the risk of being banned here . Cheers Rob

Thank you Gaz and Mike. As for the next project, I'm a bit undecided in the moment. I have to finish my Arado 234 nightfighter and am tempted by MaK Küster in 1/20 as a canvas for painting and weathering training. I got a wooden ship, the Duchess of Kingston held up by UPS since weeks, I might want to start and there is the big WNW AEG. IV in the loop. As a little filler, I first complete my Fokker D.VIII parallel build in 1/72, that's what I'm actually working on. I will add some pics later. Man 1/72 is not my scale, but it's also a lot of fun and easy to handle. Cheers Rob

Very nice little dio. The figures look believable good and I like, how the 109 blends into the surrounding sand. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, lets see, what's next, I can't decide at the moment, but first the little Fokker in 1/72 for fun. Cheers Rob

Nice haul. If I'm not able to score another Pfalz very soon, I have some decals left from kit # 32006, where I used only the ones for Buddeckes plane (scheme A). It would be a shame, if this most elegant plane of it's time will not be build, because of the lack of decals. Cheers Rob

Congrats, you'll love it. Will you WIP it Jeff? Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, indeed, the idea of colourful camouflage is a little overboard with some of the German planes of the time. On the other hand, this is wat makes them interesting to build, at leas t to me, who is not a great friend of dull PC10 or grave RLM 66 . Cheers Rob

Nice work on the Focke, Jeroen. You are a brave man, adding PE to the canopy, a thing which always scares me. Do you glue it with Future or do you use CA? I will not use HGW vinyl type masks anymore, as they never fitted properly, when I used them. Cheers Rob

Wow, it looks so real, I have to second Carl about the black body and the engine has the great realistic appeal of real metal. Cheers Rob

Amazing attention to detail. When painted, it will look like the real thing. Cheers Rob

Great effect with the rib tape. I wouldn't have thought, that the thin decals show through the paint that much. The mottling is muy bueno too. Cheers Rob