Building a Couple of Old Dogs.

[John Symmons]

Building a Couple of Old Dogs.

This is a post I’ve been wanting to do for some time but what with the Airfix site being on the blink and Photo-bucket changes it’s been on the back burner.

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It all started with the purchase of some new rigging thread. No not that special modelling thread, that unfortunately is rarer than hens teeth in Cape Town. No it’s the normal nylon mono-filament stuff, but finer than the other stuff I had and coloured a nice smoky grey. Should look great on WW 1 bi-planes. I’ll do a separate posting on the rigging in the techniques section later, but two models I made out of a batch of five were a very old Fokker Dr-1 from about 1960’s vintage, (( I think I first made this model just after I did the Albatros D-V about 1957-ish-Ish, so it was my second model I made, and my first encounter with the carpet monster when I dropped a wheel on the lounge carpet and I saw it land at my feet and vanish, and I mean I really saw it vanish. Never did find it again not sure how I finished the model probably stole a wheel from the Albatros.) Back to the present; the other old dog is a re-release of the Bristol FB-2 fighter. I brought this as a practice piece for the Roden one hoping it had been improved since the 50’s; no it hadn’t, it even still had the amputee crew, all that had changed was a nice fancy big box, (Way too big for the model but only just big enough for the instructions.) and a nice new decal sheet with a choice of two versions, As usual I chose the second version. My main remembrance of the model was the almost impossible task of fixing the top wing to all those struts, how I managed that back them I’ve know idea, and the free spinning prop, I think I even mentioned that in one of my modelling memories postings. I must admit to being disappointed that the kit hadn’t been improved especially after 56 years and a new price of R.60 in 2014 as against 2/6 in 1960.

The Bristol has about 33 parts and the Fokker less than 20 parts I not comment about the accuracy of either kit just to say the size of the Fokker seems a touch on the small size when compared to the Revel & Roden ones and aileron shape is very iffffy also somehow Airfix forgot the tail-plane struts, easily fixed with stretched sprue, and Jimmy Goggles is made another appearance and was retired again. I also added the foot step on the port side and the grab handles under the tail-plane, both from stretched sprue. The grab handles were made by first drilling two holes for each handle and gluing one end into place, when dry the other end was pushed through the other hole, which was drilled right through to the fuselage insides, until I had the handle the size I wanted it and glued with liquid glue. The stretched sprue being quite flexible that the tight curve was easily managed. The step was done in a simular manner with two holes drilled through and two short pieces of sprue glued into place ensuring they both protruded the same amount, when dry a piece was glued across the bottom and trimmed to size when dry; aren't side cutters wonderful. One thing I like about the Airfix Dr-1 is that the inter-plane struts are one piece unlike the Revell or Roden ones that are in upper and lower parts making the fixing the upper wing that much more awkward. Once the Airfix inter-plane struts are in place the correct alignment for the cabane struts using the top wing as a jig that much easier.

 

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Fokker Dr-1

I wanted to do the Fokker Dr-1 Jasta-11 Sn-127-17 1917 flown by Manfred von Richtoffen in 1917 but didn’t trust the Airfix decals anyway they were the wrong type, so had to make some new ones. As I wanted several new WW 1 decals I made up a whole A4 sheet ( Lots of spares. ) and had them printed out. It was only later that I realised I’d printed them on white decal paper instead of clear so had to get them reprinted. All was not lost as the Sn-127-17 Fokker had white surrounds on the crosses and with a sharp scalpel managed to trim the decals to what I wanted; only ruined one but I had plenty pf spares. The decal were done in Corel Draw as was all the lettering then shrunk to size using some original decas as templates, the propeller decals were copied from a Roden decal sheet. The model was brush painted with Vallejo paints using Dark Vermillion ( not quite as garish as red.) and sky blue that I thought too bright so over painted it with pale grey blue ( Much better.) The wings and fuselage sides were done in the same pale grey blue and roughly brushed over with a semi dry brush with US dark green or a dark olive green to give the streaky effect. One point of interest is that the fuselage streaking is vertical while the wings are at approximately 45 degrees, left to right from front to back. I elected to paint the wheels red although some sources have them green streaked like the fuselage, I think the red looks better. Finally the propeller and red parts were gloss or satin varnished, again not sure if this is correct but I think it makes the model look better. Tyres were painted a mid grey not black

The little Dr-1 really is an ideal kit to try rigging as the only rigging on it is the undercarriage and between the cabane struts and two control wires for the ailerons. All upper rigging wires were first fixed to the fuselage insides ( see photos ) then pulled taught and glued to the cabane struts or upper wing. The undercarriage wires were first glued to the undercarriage struts. The undercarriage assembled and when dry the wires fed into the fuselage and pulled taught and fixed; easily done with no pilot and or with the engine not installed. That’s why there’s a big hole cut into the fuselage front, it really helps with the rigging. The two control wire feed into the top wing about the main spar level so can only be pulled taught once the wing is assembled ( again see photos.).

That’s about it for the Fokker; I really enjoyed building it and the simple added bits and rigging really make up into a very pretty little model, and it is tiny even compared to other WW 1 types. Pity its no longer available as I’d like to make more in other liveries, even though the accuracy is questionable the final result is quite pleasing and there’s no mistaking it for anything other than what it’s supposed to be.

/media/tinymce_upload/53fd453821acf76700411d44a319d189.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/ca0ac0ecd820ff3c7373825e6a16ffd6.jpgThose needle like things are just stretched sprue glued to the rigging thread so i can easily find the ends, itv also helps tp stop tangles.

/media/tinymce_upload/17bb9030bf64b4994822bba72ad08644.jpgThe things sticking out the top wing is again stretched sprue used to plug the rigging holes and secure the rigging wires. the excess will be cut off flush when dry.

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The Bristol FB-2

The best way I can describe the re-release of this old kit is mutton dressed up as lamb, that about says it all. It’s a 1950’s kit in modern soft grey plastic and a fancy decal sheet. Again I can’t comment on the accuracy but I suspect it’s like the Fokker, a bit ifffy. The two versions offered No 7 flown by Major A.E. McKeever in 1917 (The roden one offers two McKeever planes plus 4 others.) and one of A-1 flight 12 squadron RFC in 1918. Both schemes being Khaki and linen. British WW 1 aircraft were always drab except the Felixstowe flying boats that were truly gaudy in the extreme.

There is little in the way of detail on this model except some heavy basic detail around the cockpit and engine areas and heavy rib detail. Even though the crew are amputees what you do get isn’t really too bad especially seeing it’s a 1950’s moulding, much better than Jimmy Goggles from other Airfix WW 1 kits of that era. Many of the locating holes and pins are really large compared to modern kits which actually makes the kit quite easy to build. The obvious difficult bit is again fixing the top wing onto all those struts. Airfix do give a diagram stating the stagger is 14 degrees so I made a jig or template to set one pair of struts on each side to the correct angle then very carefully added the other struts after the wing was attached. Very awkward and fraught with danger of crushing the fragile assembly, but with patience and luck it can be done. Again the large location hole helps especially with the cabane struts. The main things missing from this kit are the side struts for the tail skid, the wing tip skids; even though they’re shown on the painting diagrams, the bomb racks under the wings and the mini rigging masts on the fin. All these can quite easily be fashioned out of stretched sprue and if added can make the model that much better. I added them all except the bomb racks. The other really fiddley bit is rigging the beast.

Like the Fokker I used the new very thin nylon thread and it worked reasonably well. I even managed to rig the bit between the fuselage and the bottom wing. Actually that was the easiest bit as it can be done before the wing is attached. Just drill holes in the moulded on struts and add the rigging; easy. Not so the rest of the plane. The tail was also quite easy I added a small mast to the top of the fin and drilled through the tail-plane and fin and ran two treads around the the whole thing ending at the bottom where they all meet and glued into place after pulling them taught. The main wing I tried something simular by drilling holes in the struts for the rigging before I glued everything in place. Then added some long thread to some of the struts to be treaded though once everything was dry. It sort of worked, but I had to remove some of the wires as they were not taught enough and had to replace them the old fashioned way. By tying a thread around one strut and then fixing it to the other one by tying and gluing as best I could without collapsing the whole thing. The final thing I did was to try and make the rigging more visible, especially for photographing, by running some natural steel paint over the wires. Not a good idea as its now made them thicker and too visible; I won’t be doing that again in a hurry. Maybe it’ll work on something bigger like a Swordfish, but on a WW 1 aircraft it’s too heavy for my liking.

Again like the Fokker the FB-2 was brush painted with Vallejo paints. Using ice yellow for the linen and USA olive drab for the khaki upper and side surfaces. The cowling was done with a mix of light grey blue and steel and bronze for the radiator cowling.

Airfix decals were used except for the fin which I painted as I dislike large decals like that as they never seem to fit the edges properly, and end up tearing or breaking. The fin is easily masked and painted before adding the elevators, not sure if the blue is correct but it looks about right. Finally this kit is now no longer available which is probably a good thing and as Airfix have recently added some new WW 1 aircraft like the BE 2 so maybe we’ll b getting a new tool of the FB 2 to keep it company as the only alternative is the Roden offering. While the Roden one is a superb kit, I feel it’s very over engineered as to be almost un-build-able, I have one in my stash and to be honest it scares me. So come on Airfix hows-about a builder friendly new tooling of the Bristol FB-2, and a few more WW 1 aircraft you know it’s in your roots Think of all the markings and releases you could get from a new Albatros D-III or D-V / D-Va and Fokker Dr-1 and from the Dr-1 you could easily get the D VI and the E-V, then there’s the D-VII the Pfalz’s and, and, or etc etc, etc to quote Yule Bremmer from the King and I.

Sorry about rambling on, Hope you enjoy the photos.

/media/tinymce_upload/bb57d333f06c54ebc3bfab926df7df65.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/f0a669b8d6362992ca79a841bb4a454c.jpgRigging in progress

/media/tinymce_upload/e17635b0997a02230fbcecbc3db5f2cb.jpgTail rigging & added tail skid struts.

/media/tinymce_upload/039908044d2f784e63c5391dee3c3f49.jpgRigging the undercarriage.

/media/tinymce_upload/4050eabeebe9d467785a2f6a721a0088.jpgRigging completed and wing tip skids added.

/media/tinymce_upload/dba135bf2b57f28b149079fa98dcc76f.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/95ae00375c24d8a7f1c2d3fbd0076a02.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/daad91edeb957abb8368816b71f196ef.jpgReady to rumble.

/media/tinymce_upload/f3f9cfe83ebdc68511f396c77d5420d5.jpgThat's it hope you found it enjoyable and all comments welcome.

Remember we do this for fun                       John the Pom

[aeroplanegripper]

Excellent builds John, I admire your patience. And a really interesting read as well. Thanks for posting.

[Toboldlygo]

Ahh two classic WW1 planes (both of which I've built) and would like to see retooled in 1/48th Scale..

 

Excellent work there John

[Heather Kavanagh]

I recall building these two as a Dogfight Double when I was very young. I think the Bristol was the first model I attempted proper painting. Wow! Lots of memories here!