[WWI] Welcome Art & Terry

[Dave Calhoun]

Subject: Re: [WWI] Welcome Art & Terry
To: "'World War I Modeling Mailing List'" <wwi at wwi-models.org>
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Thanks Appreciate the Hello!  Terry  If I may could I invite the Org. to
discuss the good (if any!) and bad of the Revell 1/28th Fok. D7. I've
read 1 article about some fixes. The one I'm working on has been
incomplete for the last 10 years. The fuselage is assembled with lower
wing. The article mentions wheels, stab size and a couple of other
issues. I'd like to complete it to give me the courage to built one of
the kits I've collected the last few years. Terry

Hi Terry,
One of my half completed builds is the 1/28 scale Fokker D.VII.  The main
problems that I have found (so far) are the upper wing, which must be
straightened on the upper half and tapered on the lower half (Revell has the
tapered section on the top and the flat portion on the bottom)  I used a
razor saw to slice about halfway through the upper wing at the area where
the wing started to taper downward. I used a flat strip of brass to act as a
spar, and super glued it inside the wing half to straighten it.  Then I
razor sawed the lower wing where the wing tips should bend upwards, and cut
out small notches.  Then glued it to the upper half and puttied all of the
gaps.  looks pretty good so far.  The fuselage is about 1/4" too deep and
also too wide.  I tried to cut notches and bend my rear fuselage, could not
get it to bend properly so I heated it up and proceeded to melt it.  So i
cut off the forward fuselage and scratchbuilt the rear half with sheet
styrene.  Still needs lots of putty to get it all smoothed out, may be more
work than it's worth but I'll finish it someday.  I bought the early cowl
panels from Copper State, but must also modify the BMW engine to look more
like the Mercedes used in the early ones.  I plan on finishing it in von
Hantlemann's Jasta 15 white skull marking.  These decals are available in
1/28 scale from Americal Gryphon and look pretty good.
Dave Calhoun