R9 Fokker D.VII

Feb 2017

Roden Fokker D.VII

Scale 1/48

Completed: Feb 2017

My rating: 8/10

Therapy ratting: 7/10

This is my first Roden model so I am looking forward to seeing how this compares with other manufacturers.

Once again it's the colour scheme that first drew my attention. The same lozenge pattern as on the Eduard Albatross which is such a curious design.

Contrasted against the stark black and white stripes - its a striking finish.

I decided to have one half of the engine exposed which is a nice option in the kit. I am very pleased with the final result. I did have a few problems along the way which was a bit frustrating but I certainly enjoyed most of this build. Challenging.

Background research

Just a few pics from Wikipedia to kick things off.

Luckily there are quite a lot of these still in existence. The D.VII was introduced during the second half of 1918. The First World War then ended on 11th November with the Armistice so they were not in action for very long. Around 3,300 were produced and whilst in action they were considered a formidable opponent.

Bigger than the Albatros, which it replaced, but using the same Mercedes D.III engine the tradition of customized paint jobs continued with the Fokker and they do come in an amazing variety of liveries. This kit provides for four variations.

The Fokker is overall a bigger plane than the Albatros thus completely enclosing the engine. In the Roden model parts are provided to have the engine compartment exposed or closed. I think I might try a 50/50 approach and have one side open. Best of both worlds.

Its nice to be able to view interior detail for a change. I must admit that I can't really see the point of painting hidden interiors at all.

Tally ho.

First impressions

This kit compares very favorably with the quality of Eduard kits so overall pretty good. The plastic does seem a bit harder so will see how I get on with that.

Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the, err, pressings. The plastic seems to have something of a granular quality to it. You can see this clearly in the engine block. It gives a rather nice soft texture which is suggestive of cast iron. That's very welcome but elsewhere ?

Well here is the clever part. Roden seem, somehow, to vary this texture. If you look at the interior cockpit walls for example you can see that the surface here is dead flat with no apparent texture at all. Overall good use is made of this soft/hard approach throughout the various components of the model.

On the whole the pressings are very clean. However, some cleaning up is necessary to remove over-spill and the removal of unwanted injection points. This turned out to be quite easy with a sharp craft knife. The plastic cuts very easily and smoothly with a minimum of force required.

No PE parts or instrument decals supplied with this kit so it is down to hand painting all of the small details . That new Tamiya brush just became an essential item.

Filling in the Gaps

Like most manufacturers Roden provide very little information concerning detailed painting.

Yes you get the (B/W) exterior colour scheme but inside ? very little at all. It would be great to see manufacturers provide greater detail for interior painting and also colour photos - would it really add that much extra to the production costs ? Or just put it on-line. Come on Roden there are 0 examples on your site, even the G+ page is empty.

Oh well moan over. Here are a few web images showing lots of detail. Click on (1) which is very good resolution if you are looking to recreate the different wood textures in particular.

The aeroscale (4) picture is of the WingnutWings version and is very helpful in getting an overview of the supporting metal frame work. It's pretty difficult to figure this out just from the Roden instructions alone.

It is not separate like this one. Some is molded into other sections, some is separate pieces which is all a bit confusing.

Could do better

Getting into the build now. The BMW D.IIIa engine looks very nice once assembled. That new detail brush just makes such a difference. Just need to add some weathering now - oil, dirt, heat stains etc.

As mentioned above the supporting framework is a bit tricky to figure out. The Roden drawings are rather confusing concerning how the engine mounting fits together. It really would help to have a

clear diagram of this option. In fact I will do one myself to show you what I mean.

This brings me on to another observation. There are no alignment pins/holes on this model at all.

I have not come across this before but I understand this is not uncommon practice on Eastern European models.

Mmmmm. This rather does make it more difficult to see how things fit together in a dry run. Also the instructions are pretty vague as to placement - just providing a line pointing to the general area. This all results in a lot of trial and error and having to re-glue parts that are slightly out of place. Rather frustrating.

The overspill/flashing mentioned above is a bit of a headache. Sure it can all be cut out and cleaned up nicely, but I would prefer not to have to do so.

On the control stick flashing had completely filled up the holes used by the connecting bar. And one of the rudder foot controls was broken. I can probably repair but...........

Gunking Up

Made a start on some weathering effects on the engine.

I used a mixture of silk varnish and diluted black and brown enamel. The two dont mix particularly well, if at all, so it was a case of a dry brushing technique which worked pretty well.

This mixture works well to create a raised texture - the bumpiness on the engine sump for example turned out well.

A bit overkill in places I might tone it down a bit with some white spirit later on.

Unexpected Bonus

You can see here the open engine fairing which is an unexpected bonus for this model. Roden should make more of this on their website which is rather bald. You don't often come across 'open' interior detail like this except on more expensive models.

Fitting in all the engine framework was very tricky. As I said before the diagrams are really not very usable and the lack of any position holes made for a fair bit of guess work.

In the end I think it looks pretty good. I did make a mistake with some parts but too late to worry about it now. The cockpit detail is also very nice.

Next up - a lot of masking.

The Big Reveal

I know I chose this model primarily for the colour scheme but there sure is a lot of masking to do.

It probably took about three hours to achieve. It is difficult to firstly cut the tape to the right width and secondly get them all straight. And then positioned correctly in relation to one another.

Working from the diagram was tricky as it is not to life size scale. I copied it and scaled it up to printout to get the measurements which worked fairly well.

The end result I think was pretty good. Some of the lines are a bit thin/fatter than they should be but i am not to worried about 100% accuracy. Il will leave that to the pros.

Wing decals

I added a coat of gloss varnish to the underside of both wings ready for the application of the large lozenge decals. This always makes them stick better.

The lower wing decals went on pretty well. However I did have problems with the larger upper wing decal. These decals do seem to dry out very quickly compared with some others makes. They also don't cope too well with being bent and they began to crack/crumble whilst trying to wrap around the wing leading edges. Bit disappointing.

You also have to hand cut each of the wing rib decals from one large one supplied. I tried this with a new scalpal blade but they just tended to tear at the edges and lift off from the backing and break up.

All a bit frustrating. I'll try scissors next time. I decided to leave the ribs off completely for the lower wing.

Murdered Fokker

Had some serious problems mounting the upper wing and the undercarriage. Nothing seemed to line up and the absence of any guide holes added up to a messy time.

In the end I had to drill some new holes in the upper wing and ignore the proper mounts. This all goes back to the earlier problem with the engine mounting. If you want the engine exposed there is very little for the wing strut to attach too.

I got there in the end and am sort of pleased. Bi-planes are particularly difficult to do the wings. Everything just flops about and you need ten pairs of hands to hold it all together. All part of the fun.