Up | Chez Tom Plesha | Gallery | Home
This is a 1/48 scale DML Fokker D.VII built completely out of the box. I built this completely out of the box as I needed a break from the Lohner B.II I have been building.
The Fokker represents one of the Fokkers flown by Rittm. Karl Bolle, Jasta Boelke, 1918. with an unknown serial number. The white stripes on the upper wing were used to distinguish the Jasta Commanders from others in the Jasta.
There was 1 necessary deviation that I had to make. Like the previous 4 models I dropped this one upon almost completion and had to replace the cabane struts with struts made from styrene, as the kit struts were broken and bits lost.
Wing fix: The wing upper wing was corrected by mounting the wing securely in a jig and pouring hot water over it and then rapid cooling.
Lozenge: The whole exterior of the aircraft is covered with lozenge as was the original. The interior also has lozenge in all areas that could be seen, included the tailskid area. Copper State Models lozenge decals were used. Apparantly I received some bad ones, insomuch as I had to completely redo the wings, upper and lower surfaces twice. All rib tapes, leading edge tapes and trailing edge tapes are done using the lozenge decals. The trailing edges tapes have a color match so painting the very edge would show a match between surfaces.
Painting: I mixed up a very dark grey and an aged type white for the scale effect for black and white. It was painted so the lozenge does show through most all painted surfaces. The interior lozenge was faded using a light grey wash. All painting is airbrushed except where noted. The yellow is a lightened WWII German yellow.
Weathering: The Lozenge on the upper surfaces were weathered and faded by the following: After all decaling was completed, including rib tapes, stripes, etc. and sprayed with clear Future the upper surfaces were then sprayed with washes of light grey, tan and the aged white. The crosses were drybrushed with a dark grey, the white borders and stripes with the aged white, etc. The same was done to the fuselage and tail surfaces. Then various washes, pastels, water colors and Prisma pencils were used for the final weathering on all surfaces as required. When all the weathering was completed the top and side surfaces were covered with clear flat and the bottom surfaces with clear satin.
Prop: The prop was sprayed a base wood color that I mixed. Then 5 other wood shades were mixed up water thin. Strips of masking tape .015 thou wide were applied to the prop. Then the various wood shades were brushed on until I got the colors/shades that I wanted. After removing the tape the prop with was sanded with 1500 paper to remove the ridges. The ridges are for sanding guides and control. Then wood grain was drawn with Prisma Pencils. Then a light tan color was mixed up with Future as a wash and then very heavily brush painted on the prop. After drying it was sanded down until I had the overall color(s) effect I wanted and then coated with clear Future.
Miscellaneous: The stitching underneath is Archer transfers. All control surface lines and panel lines, etc. were re-scribed lightly for depth. Various paints were used: Model Master, Poly-S, Aeromaster, etc. I used both Acrylic and water based paint. The Eagle Strike cross decals were used.