RED BARON FOKKER TRIPLANE
If you need to know more about this model visit- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RedBaronFokkerTriplaneModel
Manfred Freiherr Von Richthofen. (shown sitting in the cockpit of his Albatross aircraft )
Born on May 2nd 1892 in the city of Breslau,Richthofen was educated at several schools and military academies,commissioned in Uhlan Regiment Nr.1 and was posted to the Eastern Front with this lancer regiment on the commencement of the first world war,the future flying ace led just a few patrols before being transferred to Alsace on the Western front.Posted to the infantry,the young eager Richthofen requested a transfer to the flying service,his request was granted in May 1915 and in the following month Richthofen began his remarkable flying career first as an observer and then as a pilot.He was soon posted to the Eastern front before returning to the Western front,this time in Belgium,during August 1915 with his desire to become a pilot he met the great ace Oswald Boelcke.
With some 20 training flights under his belt he flew solo at the age of 23 and soon became the pilot of a C-class two seater during the awful Battle of Verdun,posted again to the Eastern Front,Boelcke then selected Richthofen as one of his pilots and he returned to the Western front where he scored his first official 'kill' during the month of September 1916,prior to this he had shot down three other aircraft but confirmation was not forthcoming or could be confirmed.His aircraft were painted in large areas of red,he went from strength to strength and by January 1916 had scored 16 'kills' total which included the redoubtable British ace,Major Lanoe G.Hawker VC,for this he was awarded the prestigious premier decoration,the Pour le Merit otherwise known as the Blue Max.
By June 1917 Manfred had achieved 56 'kills' and was the war's leading flying ace,Richthofen got wounded in the head but refused to stop his beloved flying increasing his score even further during March and April 1918 at the controls of the diminutive Fokker Dr.1 Triplane for which he will always be associated with.Now with a score of 80,a total incidently unexcelled by any other First World war ace,Manfred von Richthofen was killed on April 21 st 1918,by a bullet in his heart whilst in combat against six British fighters.Where that bullet came from has become the speculation of some 87 years
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE No.100-The Cowling and bush.
Well the cowling has finally arrived to complete the front end of the model,one bush and not two has been supplied,this fits inside the front cowl opening and supports the heavy rotary engine,just make sure that the cowling has been well araldited onto the front former,with the propeller I would like to have seen a lot longer main shaft,this area looks vulnerable to getting knocked off.
The whole model weighs a ton so make sure that when you lift her up,do so from ther bottom of the fuselage,all of those struts need attaching securely.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS #3
One of the better features of this model is the Oberusal rotary engine replica,seeing as we are very close now to fitting this heavy unit to the model now,I thought that it would be a good time to add a few embellishments,firstly make sure that all spark plug leads are firmly in place and that the rocker arms and the pushrods are secure,medium cyno is idea to attach these fittings,finally to pull everything together spray the entire engine with a clear lacquer,the sort available from car accessory shops,this certainly brings out all of the detail and will protect the metal from corrosion in the future.The manifolds are copper Humbrol which has had the clear lacquer treatment,the spark plug insulators are painted white.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 98-Assembling the undercarriage.
Issue 98 contains the required second set of undercarriage legs,clear the workbench and get down to the assembly,follow this sequence and make life easier for yourself,as yet Hachette have not even mentioned anything about putting this little lot together but we have enough parts so why waste time ? lets make a start-
1/Firstly we need the assembled small wing that fits between the undercarriage legs,in the middle is a box structure,this is the part that surrounds the brass tube that does the springing dampening bit,on the original it is a bungee rubber device,we will be using ordinary synthetic 'O' Rings to simulate this,raid your wifes/girlfriends sewing kit and borrow the crotchet hook,the smaller the better,if you do not have one of these then make one hook from 22 swg wire,bend one end into the hook and the other into the handle or slip through a piece of wooden dowel,you will need to exert some energy here so make up a suitable tool to do the job.
2/ Slip the brass tube through the centre of the wooden box,it should just end flush with th end rib of the small aerofoil wing,push it back and slip on the 'O' rings over the tube,next slide on your pre-assembled strut arrangement ( ie the araldited up assembly ) this fits onto the end of the box nice and snug,with your hook start one end and pull the 'O' rings through the hole at the top of the assembly outwards,place a slither of wood to hold them in place and then remove the hook and come upwards from below ( ie between the mini-wing )
next loop the rings and pull downwards towards the brass tube,carefully slip the rings over the tube and push well on.
3/Now repeat this step for the other end by pushing the tube outside of the endplate rib,once again take the wire hook or better still the crotchet tool and pull the other 'O' rings through the upper casting hole,make sure they are held fast on the tube before releasing the hook.
4/You should now have two undercarriage legs dangling in mid air and held upwards by the rubbers,be careful as it is only the rubber rings that are holding everything together,now take the legs and with your model turned upside down offer the front legs to the brackets,with two 10 BA bolts,lock the front legs into place but leave loose at this stage.
5/Now focus your attention on the rear legs,attach these likewise into place,eye the model from the front and adjust sideways as necessary,you can place the model resting onto the undercarriage now carefully,block up the lower wing and nip up the bolts to lock the legs in place.
6/Now turn the model over again resting it on the workbench,next adjust the metal bracket ( ie the part lower of the struts ) and make sure this is sitting onto the ends of the suspension box,it should be a slide fit,lock into pace with a little cyno to locate it.
7/Important-now take the four pins with half circle and a flat at one end,press these into the metal fitting through the end of the small aerofoil,should they need adjusting just clean up a little with a Swiss file,thes pins lock the box to the end ribs,apply a little epoxy to these and press into place making sure that everything is nice and square.
8/Turn the model over again and rest the undercarriage on your workbench,prop up the tail with something and allow the assembly to dry.
9/Last job is the wheels,clean up the axles so they fit snugly into the brass tube,you will need two small washers to stop the wheels from rubbing against the aerofoil,slip these over the axles and with a small amount of epoxy on the axles simply press into place.
Thats it job done,there is plenty of room still to rig the flying controls ( ailerons ) I am just waiting to see where exactly the front cables go to where they come out below the front shroud slot ? at the moment this is not clear in my mind as it comes at rather an acute angle ?
Dont put off assembling your undercarriage as Hachette are making a right meal out of these final stages,concentrating instead on their awful plastic covering material with equally awful instructional pictures,the next challenge will be to work out how to assemble that big heavy engine up front without it falling off,remember we modified the tube slightly to give yet more support in that area,until we get the cowl in the final week then we are working in the dark,but no doubt there will be a solution,if you think that you have one then dont keep it to yourself ! share it here to assist others.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 97-UNDERCARRIAGE STRUTS
This issue contains one set of undercarriage struts,ie one side,unfortunately the struts are handed so we will have to wait until next week to fully complete this assembly,what can be done is firmly araldite the legs of the struts together,there will be a lot of weight on these so make sure you do a good job,to see what the model will look like standing on its undercarriage I have mocked it up by just resting the gear against the fuselage as seen here.
You will need to run a file around the axles that go into the brass tube,the tube runs between the undercarriage mini-aerofoil then through the ends,springing comes from four rubber o-rings attached to the tube and looped around the undercarriage bracket itself,this is called bungee springing and was used on most early WW.1 aeroplanes.
So hopefully next week she will be sitting on her wheels properly,here she is just resting on books,but it shows what the model will look like when assembled.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS#2
The centre section strut arrangement is not satisfactory from a structural point of view,there is not even any provision to attach the struts to the fuselage brackets these just dangle in mid air and rest via some pips against the fuselage brackets,even the pips do not line up or fit properly into the attachments on the fuselage,so a redesign is needed to make the struts actually bolt to the brackets,for this I have used tiny 10 ba bolts purchased at a model shop,they are fiddly but do the job,however the angle of both the struts and the fuselage brackets is incorrect and the struts when bolted sit at a peculier angle with a gap when the bolts are just nipped up,to get around this problem I have devised a simple scheme,it is a pure and simple quick fix but apart from moveing and re-positioning the brackets there is no other option,the drawing shows my plan,where the angles do not meet I have made tiny slithers of wedge shaped wood with an elongated slot in them,these simply slide between the strut and the bracket,belt and braces but it works,for those who feel that fashioning these tiny pieces is beyond them then there is another simple solution,simply place tiny o-rings between the two mating surfaces and clamp up,the o-ring squashes inside and fills the void,any excess rubber is trimmed with a craft knife.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Useful wing constructional details for the Fokker D.7 in the R.A.F Museum store at R.A.F Cardington.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS#1
Well it is now just four weeks to countdown on the final parts for this model,whilst you will probably be left high and dry by the publshers after this series has finished,here we will be finishing off the many loose ends left to do,here at Scale-models we will be striving to improve our test model and sort out a few things that need doing,remember if you have not checked your components for flaws or missing bits then do it now ! it is no good doing this after the publication date as your requests will probably fall on deaf ears,so get your requests in for replacements.
Here is #1 of a set of special instructions aimed at either improving or supplementing the models construction,the first thing that I noticed when looking at the veneer cockpit combing was that it was totally useless to do the job,there is no way that the plastic combing supplied will be capable of fitting to that flimsy piece of veneer,so here is a way round this problem,just use the part supplied as a pattern-
First job is to get hold of a small piece of 1=64th Miralyte ply,you can purchase this from any good model shop,it is much stronger than the veneer supplied and when varnished up the grain will look wonderful,lay the publishers component over the sheet and mark out the shape.
Next with a pair of scissors cut out only the INNER portion of the ply as shown.
Remenber how your piece of thin veneer cracked when you did this ? well no problems here the sheet will easily bend.
Using a sliding action,gently feed the plastic as supplied onto the edge of the ply,push the plastic into place where it butts with the material.
Now you can cut the outer edge,if any attempt had been made to do this before then the job would have been difficult and it would probably damage the piece.
Next job is to simply turn it over and with some thin cyno run a bead all the way around the joint,leave it to dry and for the moment just put the combing away until it is time to fix it in place,and there will then be another tip for builders of this model.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 93 & 94 CENTRE SECTION STRUTS.
At long last we have the parts to assemble the upper wing to the centre section,these come in 6 sections which consist of two wing brackets which fit into slots in the lower portion of the upper wing,the struts are made as seperate assemblies and line up via two small pips which locate into the struts and the brackets.The lower ends of these struts are set at the incorrect angle and no allowance has been made either at the bracket ends to accomodate this,the best way around this is to set up the assembly loosely and once the angles are known make some small wooden blocks to fit between the strut and the bracket itself.
For the sake of doing a dry trial run I have just assembled everything loosely to check the rigging,this allowed me to juggle things into place and then when I need to do any work in the cockpit just break down the assembly again,for the time being the struts are just lapped together with tape which serves its purpose in the alignment procedure.
Hachette have not given any instructions as yet to do this job and seem to be dragging their feet,I wanted to see how things were going to fit so used my two sets of parts which thankfully are identical to get on with the job.
So here the pictures explain what has been done so far,the promised lower fuselage frames are now once more delayed to issue 97,mine are modified originals supplied in an earlier issue.
The supplied explanation sheet regarding these frames has you jumping back and forth on earlier issues,if you have not assembled your model yet then I suggest that you use the new parts when available,that is assuming they are better fit to do the job than the originals.
The upper wing in place with the centre section struts in position,for the time being everything is just loose and can be easily broken down.
The trial run ensures that everything fits into place,the centre section struts simply lap together at the top where they meet the upper wing brackets.Note that the engine tachometer has been shortened as per the original machine and is now well away from the control column.
Front view showing the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane assembled,remember nothing is glued rigid yet around the centre section,tape holds the strut overlaps until final assembly,work still needs to be done in and around the cockpit and I can see areas that will need access.
Internal rigging using rolled florists wire,the rigging is not yet complete as there will be work on the control cables needing access below.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 91-Upper fuselage shroud 7 instrument faces.
This weeks issue 91 contains a rather large chunk of metal,this is the shroud which fits between the guns on the upper forward portion of the fuselage,although we are instructed to put this aside I simply could not resist trying it for fit ! and in doing so I discovered a few issues which need to be resolved.
One of the biggest problems we have encountered with this model has been the distinct lack of scale drawings supplied from day one,to this end it has sometimes been a case of working in the dark,and this latest component is a good example as if you line everything up there remains a gap at the front of the shroud,now it is possible that this is as intended or even a chance that others do not have this gap ? however with the dimensions that have been given to us over the past few months anything can happen and I am prepared for the worst case scenario in that there is a gap,but without resource to the front cowl I am still a little in the dark,so as we have had so many surprises anything could be possible ! so lets dry fit the shroud and take a look at what we are faced with-
At a distance all looks fine,after removing a few burrs it sits across the aerofoil section of the mid wing,in my case the wing can be simply unbolted as many months ago the fiddly side brackets were dispensed with and a combined ply/alloy crossbar was added into which the wing is securely fixed,on reflection this as worked so far and has been especially useful in shoe-horning all the parts that fit around that area,all that needs to be done in cases of working in the cockpit area is to remove the wing.
Here a close up of the shroud reveals the first issue,the holes where the centre section struts are fixed are hidden and the hole needs to be opened up slightly rearward in order to get to the brackets,at this stage I have just gone far enough to reveal the attachment bracket,later on when we get the struts it is possible that this area will need further re-working.It is going to be a fiddly job fixing these struts anyway without the aggravation of not even being able to see them,the picture shows the egg shaped hole worked rearwards a little,the metal is tough so you will need a good half round file to do the job.
My advice is to only cut metal if you cannot see the brackets,the picture explains everything.
Not quite sure how this shroud will be held in place eventually but the magazine cover picture shows their version with an hole placed at the rear of the shroud,just exactly where this screws into and why there is no provision for a single hole at this location is not known ?
Front view showing the gap between shroud and bulkhead,the burning question is should this be there ? as the lower ply floor governs the distance of the bulkhead it could be correct,just hope that the cowling ( where is the wretched thing anyway ! ) covers the gap,otherwise it is thinking cap on again.
INSTRUMENT BEVELS & GLASSES.
You get a set of stick on decals and some acrylic discs,I discarded these bulky glass faces and filled the instrument holes with 'Kristal clear' this can be obtained from specialist plastic model suppliers and it does the job well without the fiddle of those clear discs.
NEXT WEEK.
All we get for our money is a a quantity of what is termed 'rigging cord' not quite sure what they mean by rigging as this aeroplane does not have any apart from a little between the undercarriage ? so horror of horrors could it be for the control runs ? but I would have thought that some type of wire would have been better for this job,we also still need the flat internal wing webbing which criss-crosses between the rib stations,with only nine more issues we still need the following-Engine cowl,undercarriage struts,centre section struts and the promised revised lower front fuselage metal sections,quite a bit to cram in 9 final issues.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 90-Brackets for the guns.
This weeks issue deals with assembling the guns to the cross members,this would have been a fairly simple task had the parts that have been supplied been fit for the purpose,but no surprises they are not so we need to do a lot more work to get things to fit properly,for a start the cross bars are far too short and no way will they reach the longerons,Hachette state 'Do not worry if the fuselage seems too wide-we will correct this later' sorry Hacheete I do not trust this statement as the fuselage sides are and should be perfectly vertical,any attempt to pull them in would end in disaster and be incorrect,what is needed is for the correct length of bars in the first place ! to this end we have two choices 1/ to lengthen the existing bars which is what I have done here or, 2/ better still throw them away and make them from brass tube,the latter would be far the easiest thing to do under the circumstances as they are too large a diameter anyway,and why are they made oval anyway ? my remarks here are scathing but once again we have been let down with faulty and incorrectly sized components something we have lived with over the past 22 months.
So lets start with something easy,and that is marking out and drilling the tiny block of wood that is used to locate the rudder bar at the lower end on the floorboard-
To locate the centre of the tiny wooden block draw two lines,where they intersect drill a suitable hole carefully to locate the lower portion of the rudder pedals.
If you have pre-varnished the floor then remove a portion where the block fits before glueing into place onto the floor and over the respective hole.
Here we are locating the rudder bar support rod into the re-inforced hole in the floor,the piece at the top lays across and between the upper longerons,well it should do except it is too short,it has already been ground to fit through the hole at the top of the bar.
Here we see both upper cross bars which have been reworked to include brass tube either end,do a trial fit until they are flush with the outside of the longerons,then file halfway through the tube so they fit across the longerons themselves,bending them slightly upwards will adjust the height of the guns,once you are happy with the modifications you can epoxy them onto the rods.
Due to the extra thickness of the tube the two upper moon shaped pieces need to have the slots reworked with a round file in order that they fit snugly,better still do yourself a favour and ditch the rods supplied and make new ones from brass tube,this will solve a lot of problems.
The assembly here is easily lifted out to allow any work underneath,note also beware of opening out the guns as shown in the instructions,the gun as shown is nothing like the one supplied with our model,I used a small reamer to open the hole,but be careful as the metal is very brittle and there is not much meat in that area.
My middle wing has a mod so that it bolts into place,the cut outs was an attempt to attach the silly and inpractical brackets for locating the middle wing.
Once again we have had to resort to extra and unecessary work on this model because of the poor standard of parts supplied,next week we get the upper shroud for fitting above the nose,lets hope that it fits as it will be difficult to do much about it if it does not !
The bracket to hold the tachometer seen here on the port side has still to be dealt with,the tacho on the real machine did not stick out like this but is mounted snug against the fuselage side,there is no way that something like this would interfere with the control column of any aircraft.
Well 10 more issues to go and a lot of parts are still missing that we need to complete the Red Baron.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 89-Preparing two instruments.
Issue 89 contains some more instrument parts,these are for the Tachometer which is mounted on a bracket attached to the port side of the fuselage,and the compass which is mounted onto a pedestal.
Even the Red Baron himself could not control a machine whereby the control column strikes the Tachometer ! sadly this is the case with the mounting bracket as supplied,the bracket is just too long and sticks out too far into the cockpit opening to allow full and free movement of the control column,to get round the problem the bracket needs shortening,the best way to do this is to cut into two and sleeve it with some brass tubing making sure that the control column clears it safely.
On my bracket the vertical pieces were slightly closed in,if yours are the same do not attempt to straighten them,just take a swiss file and work on the area until the tacho will slide into the slots.
The compass is fairly straightforward in assembly and you should not encounter any problems,just make sure that the mating surfaces of the two halves of the compass bracket have been cleaned up with a file so the joint closes properly.
Other tasks this week are to mount the two elevator horns,this again is a straightforward task,then the elevator hinge brackets can be fitted.
The covering instructions continue but judging by the poor results shown in the photographs even the magazine build model has suffered from wrinkles and bumps,personally I would not be happy using the material supplied for this job.
Next week is the white fin/rudder covering material plus two small un-defined brackets.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 88-The Covering material.
This weeks issue 88 contains a roll of heatshrink red covering material,in view of the amount of internal detail in this model personally I think that it would be sacrilage to hide it with what is really cheap plastic film.
If covering is contemplated then the best choice would be some nylon or even silk laid over a tissue base,this way the tissue forms a good layer from which you can position the covering and the delicate weave would show just like the real fabric material does,plastic iron on film is ok for flying model where weight is a concern but not for a model of this type.
If you do attempt to use the film supplied then you will need a bottle of a material called Balsalok,this is a polymer liquid that is applied lightly with a piece of sponge to the framework,when it is dry it forms a grab from which you can attach the film with an heated iron,I doubt whether iron on film would attach itself to metal framework without this resource,there is also another factor involved which puts me off using iron on film on a model such as this,the structure is far from being smooth and has several humps and bumps due to the nature of the construction,the film would be difficult to attach in these areas,so the choice is yours given these warnings.
Another way around this if you really did want to use film would be to use a Solartex fabric material,this is slightly thicker than other products but does have a realistic fabric weave,it is also available in the blood red colour of the Red Baron model,but once again the structure wuld probably be difficult to cover due to the bumps and irruglarities mentioned,even this material will not answer this dilemma.
I think that I will settle for covering the fin/rudder only with the tissue/nylon idea and leave the beauty of the detail to be seen on the model of a typical aeroplane of that period.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 87-Intrument fittings.
Issue 87 contains 4 instruments,one of these is seperate and attaches to the side longeron looking inwards towards the cockpit area,the other 3 are a cluster which has to be mounted onto a crossbar which is easy enough,the side mounted one does not fit the longeron and a bit of work with a small round file is called for,better still use your Dremel tool fitted with a de-burrer to scoop out the metal,we are instructed not to attache these pieces in place yet.
Red Baron builders who are currently starved of any parts from which to do some real building work, will be dissapointed to know that next weeks issue contains some red covering material for the fabric structure of the airframe,there does not appear to be any real continuity recently with this build,a more logical step would have been to provide us with the instrument bezels to attach to the instruments themselves.
The instrument bar is centered and attached to the instrument cluster viz.
(Ammendment-the bar is shown inverted in the illustration above)
Open up the slot in the fuselage side mounted instrument with a Dremel tool,be careful as the material is very brittle and is liable to shatter.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 85 & 86 -Wheels.
Issue 85 and 86 contain one main wheel each,a bit long winded supplying one wheel a week but there you go,assembling these wheels is a fairly simple operation involving glueing the two main halves together,spraying the hubs red and pressing on the tyres,the spindle jusdt needs a little clean up to make sure the wheels spin freely.
In view of this lack of anything to do on the model I decided that it was time to do a bit of assembly work,obviously they are holding back because they imagine everyone is intending to cover their creation,not myself as there is just too much work in this model to get covered up,so I set about assembling the tail,as outlined in issue 84 the tail struts need alteration as they will not fit as supplied,quite frankly a trip down to the local model shop to purchase some streamlined strut material would be a better option,then to crimp the ends and attach them.The strut locations where they meet the tailplane are incorrect but there is not a lot that can be done about this dilemma,they actually attach to the elevator brackets but this is not feasible to do on our model,next was the rudder,the brackets supplied are very brittle and snapped on mine,I made some new and better ones up from brass strip bent around a piece of piano wire and glued them into place with epoxy,also note that I have added a small piece of wood to the sternpost,this allows a groove to be cut for the rudder horns otherwise they bottom out against the metal sternpost when the rudder is moved,here is a view of this area-
The elevator horns have yet to be added as I am not sure of their exact position yet,once the exit cable points are clear then they will be fitted,a final run around all of the tail attachment points with araldite completed the operation.
Next I decided to fix the fuel tank,this was fairly traightforward except for a bit of juggling with the brackets,then came the ammo box which would not bridge between the upper longerons,this was soon rectified with two pieces of brass tube cut into two,these were inserted like collets into the existing brackets,this rectified this area,to show where the guns locate I have simply aligned them into the ammo box,the ejector chute arrangement is not strictly correct and eventually I will make a new box,but this will suffice to help people who want to use the parts supplied.
You will notice that my mid wing is screwed into position,to do this I made a ply bridge between the upper longerons and held it in place with thin litho plate bent around the edges and epoxied into place,the fuel tank also is screwed into place with one tiny screw so everything can be dismantled if required later.
This is what this area now looks like-
Note that the mid bracket attached to the fuel tank is doing nothing,it should actually reach between the upper longerons ! the reason for this is that it was made too short in the first place,as it is firmly attached to he tank I need to work out how to extend it.
Here is a view from the rear of the same assembly,the rudder bar has still to be fitted.
And finally could not resist adding the upper wings to see what she will look like,the interplane struts simply plug into slots in the spars.
At long last she is starting to look like an aeroplane,it has been over one and a half years since this part works first started,the two year supply of parts is just too long and many people have already lost interest in this project,it would have been better to have supplied double the parts and finish the series in one year,the general publics interest has waned.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 84-Tail struts & hand holds.
Issue 84 contains two struts for the tailplane,and three other items which are two hand holds for lifting the aircraft from the tail,and a step to get into the cockpit,the struts are not very well made being quite bent in places but under no circumstances attempt to bend them into shape otherwise they snap,also one of mine was mis-moulded with nothing on the end where the strut cups around the fuselage longerons.This is not the only problem as the piece that should fit over the tailplane spar will not fit because there is no room for the elevators to move ! the only solution here is to grind off this portion and angle the strut to meet the trailing edge and to araldite it into place,the cups should also have been angled away from the lower longeron in order to fit properly,which they do not.As if this was not enough the step and the two hand holds need opening out to fit over the brass rod,all of the fittings fall short on quality,quite frankly it would be better to start afresh and to fabricate the struts from some streamlined brass tube available from model shops,but this should not be necessary.The pictures below show the dilemma with this weeks parts-
As can be seen,no way can the end of the strut wrap around the spar,here I have ground away the strut which will be araldited directly onto the spar,the tailplane has been bound in place with tape to get the measurements right.
A closeup of the tailplane & strut assembly,we have been instructed not to glue anything at this stage but put the bits away.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 83-Seat assembly.
Issue 83 contains the seat plus a strip of plastic which fits around the edge,a seat cushion is fabricated from a piece of ply supplied a while back,despite being a rugged character I am sure that the Red Baron would have preferred a seat cushion so I made one ! this is how I did it-
Firstly I cut a piece of thin foam the size of the ply base.
After glueing this to the base get hold of a piece of black tissue,your green grocer is the best source for this.
Cut the tissue with an overlap as shown.
Then fold this around the ply base and glue into position.
The tissue represents the leather well,now give it a tinned coat of PVA glue,when dry it simulates leather,you can even give it a coat of liquid boot polish if you wish.
The cushion in place looks the part.
Clip the seat between the two retainers and thread the lower seat support rod in place,lock with a dab of cyno.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 82-Floor brackets.
Issue 82 contains three transverse floor brackets each one of which differs,be careful to make sure that you araldite the three members correctly so do a dry run first,the only problem experienced was to open up one hole which was cast over and needed drilling out otherwise I am pleased to say there were no major obstacles to overcome.Before glueing the vertical longeron locators assemble the front bulkhead sliding the pre-glued floor/bulkhead assembly from the front and into the ends of the longerons.The photographs taken from the top and bottom below show how the assembly looks once into position.
AMMENDMENT- (added on 03-08-2005)
It was pointed out to me that the longerons do not enter the pre drilled holes at the lower engine bulkhead,in fact the cast metal pieces enter these holes instead,this is not mentioned in the instructions with the publication,well they would if they were long enough ! to get round this problem I extended these with brass tubing as shown below to enter the holes formerly taken by the lower longerons which splayed out the fuselage and brought to light the problem,to do this I had to cut through the very end of the lower longerons with a Dremel tool and araldited them to the bulkhead in the correct position shown,the vertical pieces now lie perfectly vertical as they should do.The photograph shows these modifications-
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 81-The Rudder Pedals.
Before we start make sure that you have 5 seperate 'unbroken' pieces as shown in the photograph,I say this because 4 of my original pieces were smashed and badly broken,fortunately I have made a set up without the delay of getting more from the two sets I have,Hachette have rightly come in for an awful lot of critism recently regarding the quality of the metal components in this part works,once more the quality of fit is appalling and it has been left to ourselves to sort out the many ongoing problems with this model,this is the first time that I have mentioned this point here preferring to just get on with the job in hand and get the model sorted and built up,however due to the apathy of the publishers I think it is important for builders of the model to make sure they have unbroken parts at least so they can follow these independant add-on instructions to see us through the problems,to this end get your parts now whilst they are available,otherwise when the series is finished in December 2005 there is no guarantee that spares will still be available,having got that out of the way lets get on with the model itself and firstly describe this weeks problems with the parts supplied-
Here are the five offending parts,if you look at #1 you will note a shoulder at the base of the part,this needs to be filed out to fit the bracket shown here as #4,however when you try to fit this it will not ! as the width of the shoulder is too great and needs attention to fit between the rudder bar #5,only one of the bars marked #2 & #3 above is required this week,try to fit it and it will not go through the hole in the top of #1,well if you are still with me you will be wondering what on earth is going on here !! like many hundreds of model builders throughout the land who are thinking the very same,but help is at hand at least to sort this little lot out,follow the next steps carefully,take your time and we will at least get it assembled-
First step is to take a rat tail file and file carefully the slot between the two shoulders on the cranked bar,this must fit into the support bracket which goes onto the rudder bar itself,observe the way it fits on the instructions.
You will also need to carefully take a small amount from the support bracket with a Swiss file,this is to make it fit properly between the rudder bar centre.
Here is the assembled rudder bar,complete with bracket,the vertical cranked rod is free to rotate in the bracket.
Here is the rudder pedals fitted into the slot in the ply base,they pivot about the cranked vertical rod,do not glue anything into place yet in the base !
The horizontal piece will not fit into the hole in the top of the vertical rod,it needs quite a bit of attention to get it round ( for some reason it is cast oval ?) and also thinning down to the correct diameter,you can either use a file or a quicker way is to carefully grind the part,but beware being so brittle if it snatches it will break easily,I was very tempted to use a piece of brass rod but wanted to use as much of the original as possible of the original parts.
Here the top horizontal bar has been fed through the vertical cranked piece,I have left mine unglued for the time being just in case any adjustments are required,dont ask me what the other bar is for ? I dont have a clue,just put it away for a bit until we get further instructions.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 80-The Control Column.
You should get a packet of nine mazak fittings which make up the control column assembly,these also consist of some brackets to attach this to the ply floor previously assembled,there is a control handle plus a trigger assembly which come within this set of parts.
The first thing is to dry fit everything as some of the holes need opening up ( the ones in the ply base are the wrong pitch ) and some are not of the same spacing such as the one that holds the trigger assembly,a bit of work with a round swiss file soon rectifies these,beware one of the pips on the collar holding the control column to the horizontal bar needs to be filed off as it is out of line and will stand proud if fitted as is.Fit the trigger BEFORE the control handle part as it is much easier to wiggle this into place.One word of warning bind the lower portion of the control column with fine fuse wire and flood with cyno,otherwise if this springs apart at a later stage you could be in for a fiddly bit of re-assembly.
The biggest problem is fore and aft slop in the lower spindle,to rectify this there is a simple remedy,slip two tiny rubber seals over the shaft and once everything is in place simply lock them with a dab of cyno,thats it job done,next week the rudder peddle parts are supplied.
The control column as assembled to the prepared floor,note the caution about the lower clamp brackets which could spring apart if not locked properly with some fuse wire.
The lower portion showing the two spindle clamping brackets which slop fore and aft if not attended to.
Two tiny rubber seals are slipped over the lower spindle,these are then locked into place with a touch of cyno,the slop is then eliminated in this assemble.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 78 & 79-The aileron control pulleys 7 brackets.
This weeks issue 78 contains 9 castings,these are for the aileron pulleys and brackets,the quality of these mazak castings is indifferent,the basic brackets are adequate but the small pulleys leave something to be desired,it would have been nice to have had them round for starters ! I also had to raid my spare set to replace two that had no pulley channel,these were just cast as blobs of molten metal,however we will not dwell too much on these points but proceed with the assembly,the magazine instructions are adequate but a few extra tips will not come amiss.
Firstly start off by checking the parts for burrs,and make sure that those pulleys are what they should be,the axles for some reason are square so a little work with a swiss file will fettle them into shape,beware they are tiny so dont loose them in the best axminster or in amongst the sawdust in the workshop,make sure that they sit nicely into the slots in the brackets and give them a quick spin to make sure they revolve properly,next with the smallest amount of cyno applied with a toothpick join the bracket halves and in turn trapping the pulleys in the appropiate slots,beware of getting any stray cyno onto the pulleys otherwise you will need to use debonder.Pay particular care to get the orientation correct and mount the brackets to the spar with epoxy adhesive.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 77-Fitting the lower wing attachment brackets.
Issue 77 includes four lower wing mounting brackets,beware as fitting these as per the magazine instructions is full of potential problems,my logic tells me to carefully align up the lower wing first and add the brackets once everything is set up,to do this utilise your workbench self healing cutting mat with its built in squares,first lay the wing and then sit the fuselage on top packing up the rear to set at the correct angle,tack the wing in place with four spots of balsa cement and allow to dry,by doing this the wing can be removed easily at a later stage if so required by dropping thinners onto the cement and dissolve it.
Next fit the mid wing in exactly the same way,this time take the interplane struts and push them into the wing slots,check everything for alignment and once again lightly tack the centre section with four spots of balsa cement,by doing this we know then that everything is in line and as it should be,there will be no guesswork as to where the brackets go.
Finally fit the upper wing by plugging in the interplane struts,once again with your best Mark 1 eyeball check everything is in line.
Lets take five minutes to admire the little Fokker,at long last she is looking more like an aeroplane rather than a box of bits !
Right now,less of the admiration,its back into the workshop to remove the upper wing and turn her upside down,take the two rear brackets and dry fit them,remove any of the nasty burrs and ease the brackets into the rear spar holes,once again check twice and glue once !
Do the same with the front brackets so that they sit flush with the front of the spar,it is a fiddly job but just work patiently until you are happy.
I just cannot see how fitting them the way they do in the instructions would work,you will just have the brackets hanging out without any knowledge of their width in relation to the cross section of the fuselage,all along with this model we have been deprived of a proper working drawing from which it would be possible to check and align parts,never in all of my model building days have I built in this manner ! it goes very much against the grain to do so but now common sense is beginning to take over from instructions as given,and to this end it is necessary to plod on and see this model through to the bitter end !!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 76-The Mid wing fixing brackets.
Before attempting to align up the brackets for the mid wing, attach the front bulkhead loosely in order to obtain the correct spread of the front longerons.
The first problem that becomes apparent is that the width of the spar is greater than the gap between the two brackets,dont worry as there is ample material in this area to carefully pare away to allow the spar to fit snugly against the fuselage frame,work slowly until the wing sits properly on the very top of the upper longeron,once this job is completed we can then address the problem of how to get the brackets to sit snugly not only against the brackets but against the spar,this is where we are once again confronted with a dilemma !
After carefully thinking about the problem I decided the only way was to carefully blend in a shallow lead into the spar,so armed with my trusty Dremel fitted with a milling tool I carefully and slowly got trimming wood in the area aft of the brackets,after a few hours tedious work the job was done,then with the aid of a pair of tweezers I did a dry run on the brackets,it worked ! the brackets slid neatly into place both into the uprights and the pre-drilled holes in the spar,there is not a lot of room to work in the area and its very fiddly but I cannot see any other solution ? I have never seen such a complicated wing fixing method for any model or real aeroplane such as this devised here ! the wings could have been easily attached using simple and more accessible brackets which will be used on model number 2.
Here is a better view of the major surgery undertaken in the area.
A clearer view away from the workbench outside.
Test all of the brackets once you have fettled them with a file,they should sit neatly into the slots,as they say it will be alright on the night !
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 75-Prop boss parts.
This issue includes two mazak metal castings for the boss,firstly make sure that you have two ! because mine had worked there way between the seems of the books covering and got lost,make sure that you have the propeller in its correct orientation and check that the boss will fit,it probably will not so whatever you do,do not force it or be tempted to tap it with an hammer,otherwise it will just shatter into pieces ! the best way to go about the job is to firstly place the prop on the base of a drill stand and run a suitable drill through the centre to clear it out,next you will notice some flat slots either side which take the tapered side pieces,with a warding file follow the taper inside the prop to not only clear the slots but slightly adjusting them as well,once again take your time and work slowly,finally with a drop of cyno assemble the two halves and allow to dry.
When everything is assembled do a test fit onto the propeller shaft which has a built in piece to fit into a slot in the boss,looks good as can be seen once assembled,the rotary engine is a major part of this aeroplanes character.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE 74-Propeller
The long awaited propeller is a disappointment and the model deserves better,the propeller is far too thick at the hub outward of the blades because no helical pitch or undercamber has been added,as it stands the prop would struggle to even move the aircraft forward ! it is no good pretending that it is right because it falls far short of accuracy,however there is a solution but it will require some effort on the part of the builder,the idea is to get the blades thinner along the undersurface and to do this we will need to scrape in the undercamber taking into account the beautiful twist as any propeller has,think of this as a screw,which it is,the best example is a ships propeller,take a look and see what I mean or if you live close enough to an air museum that has a world war one aeroplane in the collection ( such as Old Warden) then you have your pattern in front of you.
First of all place a ordinary glass milk bottle into am old towel and tie up the end so the bottle is enclosed inside,now with abandon simply smash the bottle against a concrete surface,now carefully lay out the debris ( what is this man on about,I can hear you saying ! ) and amongst the broken pieces you will see some curved very sharp pieces of the glass,carefully watching your hands ( wear gloves for this) sort out the useful curved sections,next take you propeller and turn it over in a vice with pieces of wood clamped to the sides,carefully and patiently scrape the full length of the blade gradually removing the surplus wood,at the same time observe how the pitch starts to take on a gradual curve working from the root to the tip,you will be emulating exactly the practises of the old propeller manufacturers from days gone by,these were men of great skill and passion for their job,the used hundreds of station templates to achieve the exact shape of the blade,and once this was finished they had to carefully balance the prop in a knife edge jig,just as we do with our flying model propellers.
Once you are satisfied that the shape is correct,then start to use rough,medium and finally fine garnet grades of finishing paper,we will need to re-varnish the prop using some marine grade clear varnish,apply two coats with a soft brush rubbing down in between coats.
The decals are stick on affairs,I would have preferred proper waterslide transfers but these are not bad and look good when in place,once on apply some Johnsons Klear,but not varnish as this goes straight through the sticker and looks awful !
With a bit of extra care your prop will look a vast improvement from the lump supplied,almost forgot to mention that mine had wood that was of two similar a dark lamination,thus these do not show up as well as they should do,there is no answer to this except to carve a new propeller from scratch,this we will be dealing with in a future tutorial when time permits.
The propeller is another important step towards the completion of the model,how it will bolt onto the short propeller boss will remain to be seen ? probably some type of insert.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 73 Carburettor Support backet (Modified assembly)
After giving this item a lot of thought the following method was devised,the idea was to use as much as possible of the existing assemblies,and with the addition of a few pieces of scrap tube and a standard threaded spiked anchor nut,whilst the mods were taking place the aft bearing assembly has also been improved upon so that it does not rely solely acting on the floating front bearing,this is how I set about getting this job done-
#1 First obtain a large spiked blind anchor nut,these can be obtained from model shops specialising in radio control aeroplanes,the nut forms the basis of a solid sturdy mount about which we can build on and improve the whole integrity of the engine itself.
You need to reverse the spikes so they bed into the built up circular ply pieces,use slow drying araldite for extra security and make sure that it lies central and in line with the bearing,allow to dry overnight.
#2 The next important job is to make a bearing extension for the rotary engine shaft,to do this get hold of a piece of suitable brass tube ( all tube was purchased from a model shop ) cut it to the respective length which is achieved by trial and error dry fitting,this should be a force tight fit into the blind mounting nut,run a little thin cyno down the seam being careful not to get any in the main bearing,dont worry you will not shift this assembly believe me !
#3 Make the outer spacer main bush,once again a piece of tube,we have reversed the existing carb fitting because there is a flange on the end we want,on the other end simply file off the rivets so that it will seat firmly against the carb itself,see I told you we were going to use as much as possible of existing bits ! put a bead of cyno on the lip and hey presto job done,you dont need to mount the carb assembly yet.
#4
Here is another picture showing the existing part sitting inside the tube spacer.
#5 Mount the assembly over the inner bearing,but before you do this flood the void between the two brass tube walls with epoxy resin,this is not essential but will keep everything in line.
#6 Here we are performing a trial fit with the carburettor assembly,no need to fix this yet but offer it up and make sure everything is in line.
#7 Make use of the support frames provided,one fits fine,the other needs to be shortened a bit to keep it in line,here also I am holding the tubes to get the final picture,these should now line up perfectly with the exit holes in the side of the fuselage,the assembly is solid,its a belt and braces approach but it works fine.
#8 This is how everything looks when assembled,the rotary now sits properly into a decent bearing and the extension brings everything into line as it should be.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 73 Carburettor Support bracket.
Issue 73 contains the parts required for the carburettor support bracket,what seems like a simple operation has left questions in doubt as to if the assembly is in the correct place ? the engine crankshaft exits with a slight protusion at the rear of the ply laminated front bulkhead,however for some unknown reason the carburettor support centre hole does not line up with the shaft ? why this is so placed is not known at this time or what exactly goes into the hole? for the sake of demonstration here I have merely lightly tacked the bracket together for the time being,no doubt all will be revealed in the near future when any issues regarding its alignment can be sorted out.
Another view of the bracket showing its position according to the instructions,something certainly does not look right here ?
While I was checking this I decided to place the rotary engine in position to see how it looked,what occured to me here is the way the engine droops on the floating bearing,some extra support will need to be added to bring the crankshaft in line,unless some provision has been made for this factor ? one possibility would be to bush out between the bulkhead and the rear geared portion of the engine,a sort of large diameter spacer assembly perhaps ? once again nothing can be achieved until later on when the front assembly is completed according to Hachette's instructions.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issues 70 & 71 The cowl cheeks.
Supplied with issues 70 & 71 are sheets of veneer,to these are stuck a self adhesive plastic sheet which also serves as a template,carefully sand the veneer and remove dust with a tack cloth ( you can make your own by dipping a lint free cloth into varnish ) now take a corner of the self adhesive pieces and fold back about half an inch,carefully lay the template onto the veneer and pull off the backing paper,make sure this does not have air bubbles by going over the lot with a printers roller.Next with a craft knife and a large hacksaw blade the teeth of wich grip firmly the veneer cut out the parts,for the cross grain you can easily use a pair of scissors.
Now for the crunch line,do not assemble the backing strips as per the instructions otherwise you could end up in trouble ! place the strip wood carefully into the front bulkhead slots making sure the hole is the right way,next lay the veneer against the strips and using plenty of clamps,bulldog clips or clothes pegs make sure everything is tight,with thin cyno just run a bead along the joins and it will permeat into the joints,make sure that you do not stick it to the bulkhead !! place plastic sheet in that area to stop any stray adhesive doing this,now a problem becomes obvious,the exhaust holes overlap the strip wood,but to rectify this just place a few pieces of wood at the sides and with an half round file remove the offending area,you will see that no matter how you position the veneer the holes still slightly overlaps,but this is no big deal and the strip of scrap wood does the trick.Remove the clamps and mark the sides for future reference.
I may add some curved pieces of wood between the strips to retain the curved shape of the sides later on.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 69 The Ammo box.
The basic parts of the Ammo box laid out after trimming.
The box assembled ready for sanding.
Cover with lightweight model aeroplane tissue applied with thinned PVA adhesive,apply three coats between sanding.
Paint with RLM Grey finish.
Glue into place the side brackets with cyno.
Trim the holes where the guns are mounted and thin out the walls of the ammo boxes to accept the belts
These pictures clearly show the ejector chutes on the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 67 Building the fuel tank.
The fuel tank should present no problems,however ignore the offset dimensions given with the instructions,they dont exist and just confuse the issue ! if you check the dimensions you will see that each side is equal,well at least it was on my own set of parts,so dont worry about this apparent error.Start by carefully removing the individual pieces and then as instructed with a small swiss file bevel the edges where the tabs locate,just keep checking until everything fits together but do not apply any adhesive until satisfied that everything fits snugly,then it should look like this-
When happy with the fits apply PVA adhesive to all of the corners and hold together with masking tape until everything is dry.
When everything has been sanded down and the edges bevelled slightly give a couple of coats of thinned down PVA adhesive,sand down again and then cover with fine model aircraft tissue,this will knit the grain together and also provide a smooth surface for the paint.
The tank can then be painted silver to represent the original tanks fitted in Fokker Dr.1 triplanes,dont overdo the finish as the real tanks looked scruffy and a super gloss smooth finish is unrealistic and not required.There was probably some webbing around the originals but until I find a reference I will leave mine like this.Dont forget to open up the various holes in the tank where the mazak fittings will go.
Issue 68-The metal tank fittings.
The mazak tank fittings are shown here on the left of the fuel tank,these require to be cleaned up with a file to remove any burrs,it is important that the fittings lie flat against the tank.
Mark where the fittings go and then carefully remove the layer of paint & tissue with a craft knife,then glue the fittings in place with medium cyno.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 66-Building the Fin/Rudder.
Commence assembly of the rudder parts by clamping the lower rib to a small set square after first removing the surplus metal where it joins the hole portion,assemble with cyno or epoxy as preferred.
Next do the same for the other main rib but this time thread the rib onto the sternpost,apply adhesive.
Fit the brass curved piece into the hole at the base of the sternpost,apply adhesive,then carefully adjust the brass to shape following the trailing edge of the ribs and then glue these as well.
In my case the sternpost upper did not meet the brass,so I added a piece of brass tube over the post,then filed it carefully to meet the shape and continued with the glueing operation.
I then finished off the joints with cold weld and allowed this to cure overnight.The rudder horns were then filed to fit and assembled.
A check on the rudder support hinges showed them to be very brittle and they snapped,in view of this I intend to make my own from brass strip when the rudder is finally assembled to the sternpost.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue 64-Assembling one half of the elevator.
Parts included in issue 64 include a shaped trailing edge and single leading edge rod,the way that the parts are assembled in the instructions is asking for problems as there is no guarantee that they will fit the tailplane properly and above all have the correct spacing at the tips of the tailplane,after a bit of thought I devised the following system which utilises the existing tailplane from which the elevators can be built around,also the pre-shaped portion needs a little bending to make it fit properly and if these instructions are followed carefully no problem should arise-
The first step is to mark the centre of the leading edge piece of the elevator rod,align this up with the trailing edge of the assembled tailplane and use a suitable clamp to hold it in place,the half circles of the ribs in the tailplane also assist this operation.
Slip the end rib into place to test fit the item,remove and bevel the rib with a rat-tail file where it accepts the shaped trailing edge piece and assists in locating the item.
Next slip a piece of card over the rod,adding another piece of card at the front and clamp in place the end rib,this ensures that there is a proper gap between the elevator and the tailplane,apply thin cyno to the joint of the mazak rib.
Next offer up the trailing edge and mark with a permanent marker where the first rib joins the front of the bend,at this stage you will need to adjust the bend to meet the front of the rib itself as it is not accurate as supplied and requires adjusting.
Trim the length by cutting with a pair of snippers and finish up by trimming with a file,offer it back up and clamp and glue in place.
Next add the capping brackets,these can be filed up later as they are far too bulky.
Next mark the positions of the remaining ribs and assemble.
Finally add coldweld fillets to lock everything firmly into place,there is no way that I am going to let this heavy assembly just fall apart after all of this extra work ! everything will be finally sprayed white to replicate the anti-dope white of the full size machine.
When we get the other parts do the same for the other side.
Issue No.61-Aileron hinges & addition of the trailing edge.
Time to fit the aileron support brackets and also the trailing edge as well,the brackets need cleaning up with emery paper before fitting to the locations stated in the magazine,make sure that they sit parallel to the wing ribs,I am not sure why they are slightly proud of the other assembly and the only solution would be to file them extensively ? slip the aileron brackets through them and offer up to the wing trailing edge,with a pencil mark the inner slot positions and then file the top & bottom TE so that the brackets just slide over,when it comes to fitting time which is much later in the assembly I think that some spacers set between the leading edge of the aileron & TE of the wing,as a jig to set everything up will be the order of the day.
Next take the trailing edge pieces and check the slots,mine were out and required work with a small file,next attach them to the ends of the ribs,it will then become apparent that the TE is too short,my answer was to splice another piece of wood at the tip,finally fair everything in with slow drying araldite to lock everything into place,put aside to cure.
Issue Number 60-Starboard Aileron.
The starboard aileron uses the same parts as the port side ie they are not handed,this means that although the construction is basically the same the ends appear different as the fitting for the leading edge is reversed,this can be detected in the photographs below.
In order to make the assembly of the ailerons easier a simple jig can be made up,all this consists of is a few pins in a line and the leading edge is pushed against them,next the end ribs are added and a strip of wood holds them in place,now thread the spar through the centre of the ribs and instead of cutting off the end of the brass spar and glueing this as a seperate item,simply bend it to effect the correct angle,if you thread the ribs onto the spar in this way it will save fiddling to get everything in line and then having to thread the spar later.
Simply push all the ribs so they butt against the leading edge and lock with a strip of wood and some pins,now flood the joints with thin cyno and leave to dry overnight.
To really make sure that nothing is going to move later on I mixed up some slow drying metal filled epoxy and built a fillet around all of the joints,you can do this by leaving the structure pinned to the board and when dry turn everything over to do this on the other side.The photographs below show the simple jig.
Here you can see the bend in the brass instead of making a cut and glueing as two seperate pieces,thread the ribs into place and offer up to the leading edge.Dont forget to lay down some plastic sheet to avoid glueing everything to your building board !
Here we have one completed aileron in the front and one in the jig drying up ready for epoxy fillets to be added the next day.
IMPORTANT update to issue Number 55.
Issue 55 in picture 7 of the instructions states the wrong dimension for the front fuselage former,insteaad of 73 mm between the two brackets it should read 85 mm,in some models the longerons stop before this point thus making the ends hang in mid-air,to rectify this cut pieces of brass tubing and cyno these over the longeron ends to extend them,the picture below shows how this is done-
The distance that is incorrectly shown in the instructions is the centre hole position of the two lugs.The brass tube extensions can be easily fitted to rectify the incorrect longeron length.
Another view from the top of the rectified front end of the fuselage.
This is the nearest that I can get to showing what we can expect this model to look like when finished,this is the Hasegawa kit model on which the Hachette model is based,lets hope that it will give many the inspiration to build a really first class model to museum standards.
The ailerons are best built up in a simple jig,this consists of a row of three nails driven into your workbench,butt the leading edge brass rod against this and add the ribs pushing them home with small blocks of wood and then use a small nail to hold the blocks in place,then thread the brass spars through the ribs and lock with thin cyno flooded into the joints.Before doing any assembly clean all metalwork with a thinners dampened cloth and lightly run the spars through fine emery paper to give a good key.To strengthen all joints make fillets with slow drying araldite and leave to cure for at least 48 hours.
Stages in the construction of the Red Baron Fokker Dr.1 Triplane model produced by Hachette,the model appearing in 100 parts started in January 2004 as a super detailed miniature of the Red Barons aeroplane,as at January 2005 we have reached the fuselage assembly stage,basically brass longerons with mazak formers the assembly has been hampered by the incorrect fuselage former being sent out during December,this delayed the assembly as the formers have to be slid into place one by one,however this is what the fuselage looks like at this stage-
The cockpit bulkhead is in place with the vertical braces added.
( Note: The fuselage wooden bulkhead has been glued the wrong way round in this picture,the hole for the cables should be on the bottom,this has since been rectified) also do not glue the seat stay horizontal piece in place until the seat has been fitted later.
Side view of the fuselage with the formers glued into place.
Basic wing construction of the Red Baron Fokker Triplane,a box spar is built up carefully and the ribs slid over the spars,thankfully the numerous lightening holes are laser cut.
The undercarriage mini wing is built up in a similar fashion,in this case the capping strips supplied have been discarded and replaced with mahagony strips from a boat kit,as yet there is no axle supplied.
Another view of the mini undercarriage wing with the dowel threaded through the ribs,the undercarriage will pivot between the slotted forward portion possibly with a rubber bungee.
The wingtip before sanding to shape,although soaking the end wingtip piece is recommended I did not find this necessary and it fitted easily into the end rib.
It appears that the first batch of ribs came without the sand off top/rear trailing edge piece,this has confused some modellers,however there is no problem just sand down the ribs to a nice taper into the scalloped trailing edges.
No Red Baron would be without his guns and this model is no exception,here the castings have been assembled and painted soot black with the ammo belt picked out in gold paint,the caps are left natural metal,once this is done burnish the barrels with a soft cloth,this will give a realistic sheen,the muzzles and sight need to be glued in place,take your time and work carefully.
The gun after burnishing with a soft cloth.
Wing parts laid out all ready for joining and the necessary rib cappings.
One wing assembled and capping added,note the cap strips go the full length to the trailing edge and fit into the slot at the front of the rib,personally I would have made the slot square cut and butted the strips into this,doing it the way they have here has added more complication.
One word of warning here,the strips supplied require proper bending with a special crimping decking tool used for model boat building,its investment will well repay the time taken in soaking the strips in water even if this was successful.
The two guns all ready for action.
Have plenty of clamps to hand when assembling the pre-worked capping strips,leave overnight to dry out throughly.
Another view of one of the wings all clamped up.
The magnificent Rotary engine assembled sans ignition leads,everything requires careful alignment and fitting the rocker arms requires patience,the crankcase holes require a bit of opening up with a round file to get the cylinders to sit properly.
Just look what a difference adding the exhaust manifolds,pushrods,spark plug leads and a bit of paint make.
The engine bulkhead complete with bearing inserted.
Wing struts have mazak fittings with shaped wooden struts,I left the fittings loose at this stage just in case any adjustment was needed on assembly.
The fuselage starts like this working in a strange way from the rear,the problem is knowing the correct angles of the formers in relation to the longerons.
A close up view of the sternpost assembly,dont ask me what you are supposed to do with the huge gap at the rear where the lower longerons meet up ?
The tailplane assembled,lots of patience is needed to get it sitting correctly with everything in line.
Showing Part 1 with a variety of pieces,only another 99 to go !
Red Baron Fokker Triplane model,fuselage construction 12-01-2005,Issue 54
The cockpit area side frame forward piece which has proved a problem,note where the pieces fit over the longerons they are badly under size,the slots need re-working with a rat tail file in order for them to fit,the transverse joint is almost impossible to rectify by filing as it becomes too thin,the drastic step taken here is to remove the lug and butt this up tightly against the frame,everything is then checked,clamped and spot glued with cyno,then allowed to set and the clamps removed,the joints are then flooded with more cyno and after drying out re-inforced with epoxy to ensure a good sound joint.
As supplied the parts are of varying straightness,some of mine had to be scrapped and any attempt to bend them ends in disaster,being made from mazak they are very brittle,so be warned.
One final former needs to be added at this stage,this will come with issue 55.
Hopefully this is what the model will look like at the end of 2005 ! The Black Baron in this case.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE FOKKER D.VI
This Reinhold Platz designed fighter consisted of a Dr1 fuselage, undercarriage and tail surfaces mated to reduced span D VII wings. Originally the V13/1 had an Oberursel U III and the V13/2 a Siemens – Haske Sh III engine but the D VI standardized on the Oberursel U II 9cyl rotary engine. It had a span of 7.65m and a length of 6.25m and was armed with a pair of 7.92mm machine guns. Only about sixty were produced before production ceased in August 1918 in favor of the D VII.
Fokker wing construction,30-04-87 D.7 at Cardington.
ALBATROSS C.1
Made for the TV series 'Wings' one of a fleet of such machines.
Safely stored in the dry,a retired film star.
When I purchased the model at Old Warden she had a damaged starboard lower wing and had apparently struck a tree at Stoneleigh,another story relates to filming damage,anyway I set about and jigged up the wing carefully repaing it to the original specification,then the repair was covered in nylon,the green is slightly darker than the original but that is exactly how they did repairs in WW1.
