Revell B 17 'Memphis Belle' - 1:72 by Popeye the Sailor - finished

[Roger Pellett]

If my memory is correct, I believe that Fokker built short haul commercial aircraft used by commuter airlines during my “business travel” lifetime.

 

Roger

[Egilman]

31 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

If my memory is correct, I believe that Fokker built short haul commercial aircraft used by commuter airlines during my “business travel” lifetime.

 

Roger

in their later years, in their early years they built the baddest fighter planes in the sky....

[tomwilberg]

53 minutes ago, Egilman said:

in their later years, in their early years they built the baddest fighter planes in the sky....

Actually, the same man, two different companies.

In Schwerin, Fokker invented the fighter plane with the Fokker E.I / II / III. The reason for the so-called Fokker-plague. The Fokker Triplanes became famous and the Fokker D.VII was the only plane type mentioned in the peace treaty.

After the war, Fokker went back to the Netherlands. First, to realize more military planes, but soon starting with civilian airliners. After WW2, some Trainers, turboprop transports and some jet Transportsteuerung were designed and became quite popular with hundreds sold.

They produced license-build combat aircraft in hundreds, too, like the F-104.

 

Lateron, EADS (Mercedes Benz) got hold on Fokker and, in Short, did result in a cease of ops.

Some remains are still operational, mostly to provide spare parts.

 

 

Greetings

Thomas
 

(Pictures from displayed airframes of the National Aviation Museum of the Netherlands in Lelystad - please support the museums)

 

 

[Egilman]

15 minutes ago, tomwilberg said:

Actually, the same man, two different companies.

Personally, I don't see the distinction.... 

 

The Smithsonian, after the war, tested the D.VII airframe to 13 g's at the behest of the Air Corps to find out what it took to break one....

 

[Jack12477]

There are some reproduction full size Fokkers in the WW 1 Collection at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome  

[Egilman]

48 minutes ago, Jack12477 said:

There are some reproduction full size Fokkers in the WW 1 Collection at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome  

Thanks for that Jack.... Beautiful Airplanes....

 

Read this....

 

Fokker D.VII

 

Or this....

 

Fokker DR.1

Edited March 28, 2020 by Egilman

[Jack12477]

One of the Fokker tri planes was built by the aerodrome's founder Cole Palen.  They have a weekly air show every summer and most of these planes fly  

[Fright]

Tom - Thanks for sharing the photos!

[popeye the sailor]

you misread my post Thomas........I'm aware that they are all separate companies.....I've read about most of the info you listed.   in the book,  they mention the Stuka.........haven't seen the full name for the plane on any model boxes...I don't think it would fit    very nice pictures of the pink lady {can't believe I spelt Focke wrong.......}

 

nice to know someone else like the FW Ken........I built a lot of them in my youth.   I also built a large scale Stuka.........sadly it was destroyed by my brothers and sister { only one sister was involved in nose diving it into a stump}.  there are eight of us

 

you'll have to enlighten me on the Do200........don't think Dornier built one.........I've never built one.

 

not having done any research on her Mark...I'd have never picked up on any mistakes.   the secret is safe with me   .........still a beautiful model in my eyes.

[popeye the sailor]

Richthofen test flown the D VII himself and didn't like the way it handled,  so it halted for modifications........he later flew the Dr 1 and loved it.  little did he know that there was a flaw where it would lose a wing.......for those it happened to,  they never lived to tell about it.  I have a Guillows Dr 1 waiting for tissue at the moment........when I lived in Florida,  I built  Fokker D VIII....best flying model I ever built   

[Canute]

Denis, the Do-200 is the B-17 in Luftwaffe paint. Looked on Wiki. I got myself wrapped up with the FW-200 Kondor, 4 engine transport used by the Luftwaffe as long range patrolling over the Atlantic.

[Egilman]

 

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

you'll have to enlighten me on the Do200........don't think Dornier built one.........I've never built one.

Ken got the reference Denis, all the captured/rebuilt B-17's the germans had (around 25 or so) were labeled DO for Dornier 200 and assigned to KG 200 hoping to keep it secret... They used them quite often cause they simply didn't have any other aircraft of their own design that could do what the B-17 could..... The German pilots that were graced with the opportunity to fly them loved them....

 

When you built the Wolfhund, you inadvertantly built one....

Edited March 29, 2020 by Egilman

[popeye the sailor]

strange they didn't call them that in the book.  there is a glossary in the back of the book listing every type of plane that the Germans had,  as well as the ones they captured and lost.   they had short range bombing capability at the time.   I'll have to read through the chapter about the B 17 again to see if I missed this.

[Egilman]

My understanding was they used them as high speed transports. they were faster than anything the germans had as transports and they were well familiar with their toughness/durability.... I imagine that it is possible that they used them as bombers, but I don't recall reading that...... KG 200 was their special projects squadron, stuff that they wished to keep secret....

[popeye the sailor]

they were use to run secret missions and reconnaissance.........some of those missions were secret bomb runs.  they had FW 200's,  Ju90's and Ju 290's...none of these could be retrofitted for heavy bomber operations.  I did read through the chapter........it is in there.......called the Dornier Do200,  I must have mistook it for another plane and didn't see the correlation.  ....this comes from the book of KG 200.

  

you can add 'Wally's Wheels',  'the Ground Hog',  and 'Badger Beauty V'.......they were captured later.   some were damaged severely,  and used for parts.  I did get a picture of the tail gear tub installation.......

 

[Egilman]

I don't remember where I got it from but after the war they recovered somewhere between 20-25 of them in flyable condition. And yeah they were assigned to the "Commando" units for secret missions which undoubtedly  included dropping bomb at some point..... They also had several B-24's but just a few, B-24's generally didn't fare well crash landing so it wasn't as easy for them to repair them.... Somewhere in my library I have a book of reminisces of a pilot that flew for KG-200, If I remember right there was no real proof of what he said but he did say it.... KG200 was top secret and not much of what they did was recorded nor did a lot of the records survive....

 

I've told people about the B-17's that the germans were flying during the war and some of them called me crazy and wouldn't believe that the Germans were interested in flying enemy aircraft..... Heck the Germans would use anything they got their hands on if it would work.... So did the russians and so did we.... (the vaunted 88 comes to mind) and the germans were all about learning new tech especially when it came to building 4-engined aircraft.....

 

Your info coincides with what I remember when I was researching it..... one of those almost forgotten paragraphs of history that are fantastic to those not familiar....

[Egilman]

18 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

I did get a picture of the tail gear tub installation.......

Nice, I like the scribing on that kit, very well done...

[CDW]

The Russians were well known for tearing down, examining, and making carbon copies of our aircraft. The B-29 I recall specifically as they couldn't get certain parts of it right even though they copied ours bolt for bolt. 

It's not widely known in the West, but the Russians had a four engine transport/bomber of their own that was capable of trans-Atlantic flight. Stalin flew in it to the USA for a conference in 1942. I have the model of it and will build it in the near future.

[Egilman]

They actually got 4 B-29's that were damaged over Japan and overflew to vladivostok and were interned. Three of them were damaged beyond repair but one was almost untouched. (it's fuel tanks were holed and the fuel loss did not allow them to return to Tinian)...... The crew actually landed it on the runway to the great excitement of the Soviet AF officers present..... They threw them parties and did the whole comrade thing until they were told they were being interned. They were eventually allowed to "escape" through Iran at one of the transfer points for lend lease going into Russia, but the russians kept the plane of course They actually built their version the TU-2 or was it 4, my mind is not remembering it right at this moment. But I do remember the shock our side had when three flights of them showed up at one of their May Day parade/flybys...... (they weren't generally liked by the russians assigned to fly them, they were very unreliable)

Edited March 29, 2020 by Egilman

[Egilman]

23 minutes ago, CDW said:

the Russians had a four engine transport/bomber of their own that was capable of trans-Atlantic flight. Stalin flew in it to the USA for a conference in 1942. I have the model of it and will build it in the near future.

I will definitely pull up a ringside seat for that one....

[popeye the sailor]

the list of captured planes is long.........B 25's,  B 24's....a couple P 38 lightnings........British planes....and others.   the treaty of Versailles,  signed at the end of WWI limited the Germans from building up their air force...what they had was to be completely destroyed.  as Tom pointed out,  Anthony Fokker moved his entire operation to the Netherlands......including aircraft already built.  by the beginnings of WWII,  Germany had built up a small air force,  but most of the county's planes were geared for civilian transport.

  when I saw the Wulfe Hound,  I thought it was too good a subject to pass over  

[popeye the sailor]

I bought a couple of Russian bombers by ICM - A. Tupolev TB 3 in 1:72 scale.  I think this was what the kit looked like....I still have the decals.  they were such a pain to put together,  I tossed them {I was heavy into wood back then too}.

[CDW]

1 hour ago, Egilman said:

I will definitely pull up a ringside seat for that one....

The Petlyakov PE-8

 

[Canute]

The Soviet version of the B-29 was the TU-4 Bull. Prop planes were 1 syllable for NATO naming. Jets were 2 syllables. MiG 21 is Fishbed. Sorry to sneak into your log with that Denis.

[marktiedens]

On 3/28/2020 at 1:50 PM, tomwilberg said:

 

They produced license-build combat aircraft in hundreds, too, like the F-104.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup,got one of them too......

 

 

 

 

Mark

[Old Collingwood]

53 minutes ago, marktiedens said:

 

 

Yup,got one of them too......

 

 

 

 

Mark

What a smart looking Starfighter,

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

9 hours ago, CDW said:

The Russians were well known for tearing down, examining, and making carbon copies of our aircraft. The B-29 I recall specifically as they couldn't get certain parts of it right even though they copied ours bolt for bolt. 

They still do that.  They and Chinese.  Both countries have had "issues" with copying American jets as the engine metal technology is behind the curve.  

[CDW]

Just now, marktiedens said:

Yup,got one of them too......

 

Mark

The beauty of certain aircraft is timeless. I never tire of seeing them and they always look contemporary. The F-104 is one of those aircraft.

[tomwilberg]

Yes, indeed, the F-104 is a very special bird.

A friend of mine used to fly navy on F-104G. Long ago. That thing nearly killed him.

A few months ago, we where at a model exhibition near Utrecht...    ...and geee! A model builder had exactly his old ship in 1:48 scale on display. That was a moment....

 

Btw: I do have that exactly kit (F-104G JaBoG 33 flyout 1:32) on my pile.

Greetings

Thomas

[popeye the sailor]

finally.........some progress on the Memphis Belle    I took the day off yesterday............'cuz I wanted to,  and not because of the virus.  don't get me wrong......this is some serious stuff,  but the more I hear about it.......naaaa,  I better shut up.......chalk it up to one of the emotions felt during a crisis like this    

 

I had made a mistake in my paint choice early on......the Zinc chromate is too yellow........I could have used it on the Wulfe Hound,  for cry'in out loud.   to give it a green hue,  I mixed in some olive drab.....it's much better,  but not perfect.  I will use it.....only for the reason of highlighting the interior more.  you'll see it in a moment......     I painted the instrument panel and the navigator's compartment with a brush.  it came out a bit streaky,  so I will assemble the entire interior and use the airbrush on it.  I can touch it up with the brush later.   after assembling the interior,  minus a few key parts that need detail painting,  I slid it into the fuselage,  so it would dry in the correct position.........I did it with every segment I added {rest easy.......no time lapse photography}.

  

out of the 'box'.......it looks like this.

you can see my Zinc Chromate Green....other colors will be added after the rest of the assembly is painted.....the seat color,  ect.....     then I started to play with the turrets...I couldn't find this one part.  after a visual search came up empty,  I referred to the number and searched again.  I couldn't believe what I saw.........this part was totally unrecognizable......it was loaded with flash!  I spent about an hour trimming it.....there was even a tiny rectangular area within the part that needed to be cleaned out.......a really small part to begin with.

the part you see in the shadow is another part with a lot of flash........even though it's a larger part,  it broke as I was cleaning it {it's drying at the moment}.  here's a better shot of the navigation compartment

with this,  it will involve the clear parts.  this is my first attempt using a window mask set.  I think I'm a tiny bit off with the windshield........I'll fix that  

the two sides up at the nose were next.........these two panels are clear.  they are the main reason why I chose to buy this set.  each side has three windows,  with one of them housing a machine gun.  I was dismayed that the set does not have a mask for the gun window.  I improvised a bit,  cutting out a mask for them both.....not perfect,  but they will do,  although I could try and round off the corners.

I've also done some of the painting that I felt I could do....some of the small bits.  today I hope to get larger areas done    more on her soon!