popeye the sailor

I see a lot of new faces here in this forum.......I welcome you I think that at one time or another, most of us have cut our teeth on a plastic kit. some have moved on to wood models for more of a challenge.....to pick up one now reminds us of the challenges we left behind {or so we thought}. so welcome.......did in........perhaps it will bring memories back and make you feel like a kid again. I have never built one of these kits, let along heard about the manufacturer. the Roden company is based in the Ukraine and produces a wide variety of plastic model kits. I got this one from Oldmodelkits.com this past Christmas. from the kit, four different aircraft can be built.....save the box, since the paint scheme in the instructions are in black and white. the decal sheet is quite large enough to hold all of the decals required. the plastic appears to be of a hard plastic.......the parts have very little sheen, as in most kits I've worked with. I had taken some pictures of the sprues earlier, but they were still in the bag that they came in. so I ditched that and opened the bag to show you all of the parts involved. the kit itself is fairly detailed and does give you some room for options. keen to note here that there are two propellers......depending on where the plane was built, different manufacturers were used. Axial, Wolff, Wotan, and Heine were the major manufacturers at the time. I've yet to ascertain the specifics on what prop was used.......heck, I haven't even decided on which one I'm going to model yet I'll let ya know though another thing about this kit, is that there are two stabilizer fins and elevators.....I've yet to figure that out, although other Fokker D VII and Dr 1 kits I've built had a choice of ailerons and stabilizer / elevators. I went to Revell {which is now Hobbico} to view instructions of their kits.....I know that some of them had this option. I found that Hobbico.......nor Revell/Germany, allows you to view or obtain instruction sheets {sad to see......but that settles that}. so I went on my own research jaunt for answers. these are the wings.....easy to denote the top wing halves.......the cut outs for the ailerons.......the center wing halves above them, and the bottom wing halves on the other sprue. the instructions tells you which stabilizer fin to use......part of my research too. these are the small parts sprues.......note that there is a choice of ailerons........more research. the wing parts are of a thicker plastic.....not much of an airspace when assembled. the fuselage however is of a thinner plastic.......this is prevalent throughout the kit....what needs to have some beef........does. I think the scale factor is good....I don't see anything out of scale, as I've seen in other kits . the width of the prop blades is the main difference. one may provide more push and likely had a slightly different pitch. the Sopwith Triplane was wreaking havoc in the skies during the first half of 1917. armed with a single Vickers machine gun, it was out maneuvering the German fighters. the Germans struggled to maintain, but they came to the conclusion that they needed to counter this new menace. they managed to bring one down....how intact is not known. Anthony Fokker visited Jasta 11 to take a look at it. it was April 1917, that the idea for the Dr1 had begun. one nice feature in the kit, is that they give you two sets of "Spandau' machine guns. one set does not have the cooling cans on them, in the event one chooses to use PE. I'm not going to use pe for this model........but the machine guns does give me an idea or two. more on the story next........

.........should never had looked in the kit

nice done KP..........cool looking vehicle

I don't use it myself, there are other ways. a lot of time, you might be able to paint the parts on the sprues, or you can assemble parts that are to be the same color.

very nice work.....it looks awesome.........I'll send a message to Hogan right away

to me....I wouldn't ..........you did a great job imitating the wood maybe muck it up a little?

dry sanding produces a lot of loose dust.......wet sanding you can wipe off......doesn't go everywhere. that's what I hate about metallics......I've done a few planes........never again til I get it right I'd say you could use an air brush with thinned down paint, but I'd be too afraid that it would make the undercoat solvent. then you'd see wrinkles and raised paint......not so good that what I call it, when you can see the brush strokes...regular paint will either give you a bumpy finish or ghosting. I'm surprised that the other paint gurus haven't chimed in for you. {there...I'll get their ears burning }

awwww.....it's just paint do ya really want to watch it dry? soon

awesome........a completely eye popping model! great job!

ship modeling has always dealt with brass.......it's the tiny bits that PE offers that is new. it's found a nitch. I was looking at one of these planes the other day.......I was taken by the gull wings over the canopy. kinda cool nice model!

very nice looking plane........must be quite a bit of PE in the cockpit

he flew the albatross......the time factor was way off for the D VII. he tested the V4 on the 1st of Sept.......it needed only minor changes to the ailerons and stabilizer fin surfaces. he didn't test the D VII till Jan of 1918. it needed changes as well. one extra bay length was added to the rear section of the fuselage, as well as the same change to the stabilizer fin surfaces that the V4 needed. I'm thinking that the ailerons were also an issue too, since these two planes are basically the same design. the similarities lie with the wing design, the stabilizer fin design, and the rudder design. the fuselage may look different, but almost identical design was used here as well. this is what I was looking into........the V4 became the F1......the second test proved to his liking. he likely kept 101/17 for himself. two other F1's {102/17 & 103/17} were delivered to Jasta 10 & 11, to be flown by Oberluetnant Kurt Wolff of Jasta 11 and Luetnant Werner Voss of Jasta 10. it shook Richthofen's boots to hear these two died within a week of each other.....Wolff on 15 Sept and Voss on 23 Sept. his first all red fighter was an Albatros DIII 789/16 ......this is where he earned the nickname Red Baron. he died in an all red Dr 1 425/17. but he flew a few versions of the Albatros, as well as an Halberstadt D II. he oversaw the development of the D VII, but never got to fly one. he also oversaw the problems they were having with the Dr 1........the top wing coming off. BTW........you won.........I started the Roden Dr1

I'm on my third Facebook........never kept up with it enough now I use it to post my models basically........oh, all right.......a few rants too. I looked into your page......I think it's pretty cool! we buy these model cars and build 'em...........but to see them run on a track adds more fulfillment for the efforts we put into them I've only dealt with the small scale tracks........how old is the large scale hobby? I do recall a hobby store back in the day that had a track. you could build your own car and run them there....great PR for the business. I do wonder if these types of models were made for this particular application, having no engine or undercarriage detail, or multitude of parts. I like the idea that you painted your car silver, but I'm sure you know that metallic paints, can actually show 'grain'........they are almost like wood. to apply paint by brush or even spray can, one needs to go in one direction, without any opposite stroke direction. it will show like a sore thumb. as you pointed out......thinning is crucial for a good level sheen. really like what your doing with this model......the dash board looks great

one of the songs I learned to play {not note for note} was the stray cat strut. never could imitate the stand up bass, even with the tone all the way down. I do have to be the responsible one though, and caution everyone about this off topic chatter. I think I started a thread in the past, but I found that OC has a thread in shore leave that we can continue the conversation about music and other things gotta respect the site......it's the best place to be for a reason.......I think it's up to us to keep it that way any chat about B 17's.........I'm all ears here, but we need to stay on topic. I know.......I'm just as guilty

hello Kevin.......sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. yea....this Corvid thing is gett'in on my nerves too. not so much the virus itself, but the disruption it's caused....but it does have a silver lining, and enabled me to take a couple of weeks off it's been nice.......soon reality will hit and I will have to go back. I only have a couple of years left to go. I've kinda held off on the Clotilda.......I'm planking that other hull, and due to the thinner bulkheads and old wood, it's been a bear. now I know how J felt. I'm almost done with it, so I can devote time to the Clotilda when I'm done I've had a few honey dos too.....thankfully they have been small. I'd show a picture of the other hull, but I'll wait till I start the log on her.........she will be the Brig Agillis thanks for look'in in and a big thanks to those who are still hitt'in the like button. I'll have something soon

well, just lay low and stay safe......put some time in on that beautiful ship of yours. your efforts show.......well worth it I'm taking a two week hiatus from work.......not for the virus, but for other reasons {long story}. I forgot what log I vented in, but I posted something about it. looking forward in seeing more

I've got an assortment close to that.......depends what arch the sun is at you can dry brush some bomber tan for fading. nice progress....looks good

detected a strong Brian Selzer in there..........good tune no recordings of me I'm afraid......probably for the best more painting and trying to finish planking that monstrosity of a second hull........it had better be worth it..............

don't do that....you would have had to bail out over the loo! good you didn't evolve into pyrotechnics.......you'd only be able to do it once

great progress OC

nice kit........never seen one either

BMW wasn't a great engine during WWI. considering what they were using for oil back then, no matter the manufacturer.......engines would wear out rather quick. I was just reading about the Fokker D VII's.....they later were fitted with BMW 111a engines towards the tail end of the war. they found that they couldn't put these engines under full stress for too long, or they would fail. the f1's started out with Le Rhone 9J and continued well into the Dr 1 variant. only 320 or so were built, but some were fitted with Oberursel Ur.11 engines. they were basically the same as the Le Rhone engine.....only able to pump out 110 hp. the Dr 1 was slow, but very nimble. I was actually looking for the variant changes made to the Dr 1. it started out as the V4 prototype. Richthofen flew it and didn't like the handling, so they gave it larger wind surfaces {this is where they may have altered the ailerons} and interplane struts, along with the cabane struts. they also made changes to the elevator flaps. the Roden kit I have has the two styles of ailerons.......one has the slight curve, one has the longer arched curve. I'm thinking that the longer arched curve was the V4 variant. the odd thing is the kit doesn't have the different elevator flaps, but has two stabilizer wing parts and two identical elevator parts that are commonplace on the F1 and Dr 1 variants. one other thing I noted is that Richthofen may have test flown the D VII, but he never got to fly one.......he died as they were coming into service.

awesome acquisition of the three ship kits.....I have the New Jersey the Sherman should be a fun build.....

gotta respect a guy who knows how to take his time there's no rush!.......it's always said to savor the experience. got some good ideas in tying some of these blocks.......any technique in tying a 2 mm block my friend, is a darn good technique! half the labor with rigging is tying blocks and ratlines....oh......and the rope coils to finish off tying the lines. I hope the covid isn't as bad in your neck 'o the woods as here, but it's afforded us the time to indulge in our hobbies. take your time and enjoy..........I'm fighting with a hull right now, planking. should be 'old hat' for me, but this one is a bear. the biggest laugh.......I already planked the same hull with little to no trouble at all! still following after all these years

but the results don't look bad at all........rigging looks good. doesn't appear that your needing to do ratlines.......per-sey. godsend I suppose nice job!