Fokker Dr.I by popeye the sailor - FINISHED - Roden - 1:32 scale - PLASTIC

[Edwardkenway]

2 hours ago, lmagna said:

WOW........ I never got PAID for my atta-boys! I was lucky if they were even acknowledged! "You man, you fix, I woman, I boss man around."

So I'm not the only one?😋

[Egilman]

No your not!!! The admiral issues orders, the swab jocky's heave too...

 

You got one guess as to who the swab jocky is around here...

 

So's I remind her from time to time as to who actually built the place, at that point, she reminds me of who actually runs it....

 

I'm a husband I can't win for losing.... (and they need a women's march cause they are so abused and downtrodden)

[popeye the sailor]

the tube was clear Jack.......I had to roll up paper towel to sop up the water as it collected in the tray.   this set up is a joke!  reminds me of when we lived on Spruce St.   the refrigerator was on it's last leg when we moved in.  I was curious about how it was slanted....it should be level.  it quit working and I checked it out...........come to find out,  the previous tenant never checked the drainage tray.   it was once overfull.....spilling onto the floor underneath,  rotting it out.   if not for the joices,  it would have fallen through the floor.  the landlord was a Russian fellow and had no idea how to repair the damage.   I told him that if he got the materials,  I would fix it.   he asked to help me.......I said sure.   I took my skill saw and adjusted the blade to the thickness of the floor,  and cut out the bad part........filled it back in with the plywood he bought.  I'm not an expert at tiling floors,  but I think I did a good job.   the landlord was so pleased.......he had a surplus of wood in the dellar and he let me build a workbench....'"use what you need, " he said   he was a pretty nice fellow too....we liked him a lot.......his name was Uri.  I never minded doing thing for him....everything I needed,  he'd get it!  I had better times there though..........this guy is a tightwad.   we asked him if he had the receipt for the fridge { he bought it at Home Depot}........he can't find it.   .....a two year old fridge,  and he can't find the receipt.   he deserves what he gets.

 

I think this will be the biggest Dr 1 I'll build to date.........of course,  if I got off my behind and got with the program,  the Gillow's plane will be the biggest.  it has a 20 inch wingspan.

 

oh....don't think I get favor.........she's still the budget director.....if she thinks we can't afford it,  no new toys for me.   I don't recall the last time I bought any wood.......although I've been submitting my needs for flat stock @ Hobby Lobby.

 

....and if the fridge wasn't enough...........I went to cook the burgers on the grill,  and I ran out of gas  

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

I went to cook the burgers on the grill,  and I ran out of gas  

I lucked out tonight. My bottle is getting pretty light and I was not certain if there would be enough to do ribs tonight. SO I crossed my fingers and lit it all up. Luckily for me we made it. I would not have heard the end of it if dinner was late because I ran out of gas! BAD thing to do! I know because I have done it before.

[Jack12477]

You can buy a guage for those that tell you how much gas you have. I have one on my grill. It attaches to grill hose then to tank. 

 

Sounds like Murphy paid you a vist, Denis.

[popeye the sailor]

I think you are right Jack.  gee.......I think I'll look into a gauge like that    I need to get a new grill........last year we had a violent wind event and silly me left the umbrella attached to it..........the wind blew it over.  one of the knobs broke,  so I've been using the good knob on both burners.  it finally gave out,  so now I'm using vise grips.

 

did just a little on the Dr 1.........should have something soon  

[Jack12477]

The guage attaches to the grill hose then to tank, mine shows green, yellow, red with a needle that moves.  I keep two 20 gal tanks, one in grill, other full one in shed.  Easy to swap that way. When you detach the tank the guage stays with grill hose.   

[popeye the sailor]

I need to get moving on this plane.......this one is close to the finish line as well as the others.  I still need to paint the white on the stabilizer and rudder....I hate white paint.   I did get to add the control cables to the underside of the top wing.

 

I probably posted this picture already.  these have now been painted steel.   I've also added the levers to the ailerons.....just got to run the control cables to them and touch them up with steel.   then I can deal with the tail section.

 

 

more soon  

[popeye the sailor]

a little bit more was done on the top wing.  I wanted to get this out of the way,  so the top wing can finally be cemented on the plane.   the decaling got damaged due to some of the raised detail.......I had to touch the decals up.    after I trimmed the white fields,  I saved the trimmings,  and used it to repair the decals.  I also touched them up with flat white paint.  

    with the levers in place,  I took the thin wire and ran the aileron cables.  these will be painted aluminum

 

 

I've yet to cement the wing on.......still need to touch these two cables up.  try to get this done this week  

[Old Collingwood]

Loverly work.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

thanks OC..........see.....your not the only one with decal troubles      goes with the territory my friend.

[Old Collingwood]

23 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

thanks OC..........see.....your not the only one with decal troubles      goes with the territory my friend.

Yep!    we are the Decal Development Devils.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

where's my red union suit and pitchfork?   

[popeye the sailor]

I went ahead and put the top wing on the plane..........I'll touch up the upper cabling later.   

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking mighty fine.

 

OC.

[Edwardkenway]

Very very nice, you have got a good looking plane after the niggles you had with it at the start😏😉

[popeye the sailor]

thanks OC and Ed.........thanks to all who hit the like button     I finally painted the horizontal stabilizers...I ended up painting it completely flat black.   I don't like the way they present the color scheme diagrams....half the plane is the upper,  the other half is the underside.  I didn't realize that the topside of the stabilizer was to be painted half black and the other half white.    not to mention that when I painted it the first time,  I had bleed through from the underside paint.   it would have been hard to hide.   the rudder will still be flat white.

[popeye the sailor]

dug this one from the archives.......two problems with this model  are the control cables to the top wing.....I cut 'em too short.   I don't have enough to cross them,  so I'll run them straight {small problem}.   the bigger problem is the time factor........these decals are junk.   the one on the underside of the bottom wing has shrunk and split.......I have it back down at the moment,  but the cracking is still there.   this and a few other areas that are now chipping,  I will need to touch up with paint.  the rudder is now prepped out with the cable levers and decals have been added.

this is using flash........I had to retake the next one due to the flash whiting everything out......the step and grab loops have been added,  but not painted yet.  

no flash equals moonlight.........that's amore  

{nobody did it like Dean}

[popeye the sailor]

I went a bit further by adding the cabane struts and touching up the decals.  I also added the struts for the stabilizer wing

with flash........

and without..........

[lmagna]

Nice work Denis

 

I think I prefer the with flash the best. On my computer the without flash looks a little out of focus and it is hard to see the detail and finish of the model.

[Edwardkenway]

I'm with Lou on the photos, with flash as without looks a little dark. 

Looking good 😁

[popeye the sailor]

I do as well.......but there is also a lot of white out.  I've had to toss and retake a few pictures.  I'll find the happy norm as I get used to the camera.  basically, it's the lighting I have here on the desk.  I don't really have the space to upgrade it,  although if I put some thought to it,  I could pull it off { nothing is impossible}.  I made some progress last night.......I took today off,  so it didn't matter how long I stayed up    there are a couple with flash.....the others I adjusted the light to greater effect.   the prop is on,   and so is the rudder!  this is huge!  I hand painted the rudder on this model,  but I wasn't happy with the look.  I gave it two coats of flat white...we all know how flat white lays down with a brush.  looking at it last week,  I thought it looked good enough,  so I put the decals on.  sadly,  the control cables to the upper wing will end up being incorrect.......they will not be crossed.  I cut them too short.  it would be too big of an undertaking to correct them,  so they are as they are,  and I will live with them.  using the wire was good,  but they can get easily bent and disfigured....I've adjusted them to the best I can {I may look at them again and adjust them some more}.  once bent.....they keep the kink...it's very hard to get rid of it.  I painted them too........that was a pho-par.......as I adjust them,  it flicks off.........and being a metallic paint,  it remains tacky enough to stick to the surrounding finish {even as it's had plenty of time to cure}.   I removed a lot of it by lightly scraping it with the x-actor....frustrating to say the least  

I might not bother to touch them up with the flat steel.......further adjustments might loosen it and send it on the finish again {just think it it as light rust areas}.

 

All that needs to be done here,  is to add the control cables to the rudder and stabilizer.   I'm also doing more of the touch ups that I see as I finish this model.

here I adjusted the light,  without flash.   as I'm finishing the model,  I feel that the Roden kit isn't as bad as I earlier thought.......they're not a terrible kit,  but they are challenging.  if it wasn't for the malformed fuselage half,  the model would have gone together better......I would have had to assemble it the way I did.

outside of a couple decals and the tail control cables,  the model is pretty much done.  when done,  I'll present good gallery pictures  

[Edwardkenway]

Nice work Denis, considering the problems you had at the start it has turned out great😉

[CDW]

Great looking Fokker Denis!

[Jack12477]

Denis can you put the camera in Program Mode (P) and increase the ISO number.  An ISO of 400, 800 or higher would compensate for low lighting. I use it all the time, flash sometimes washes out the details at close range. (ancient film photographer still trying to master digital  😉)

Edited November 3, 2020 by Jack12477

[Landlubber Mike]

That looks beautiful Denis!  Did you paint the propeller or is it a wood one?  Looks very realistic!

 

I know what you mean about wire/metal cables.  In some respects they are easier, but others, not so much.  If there is a slight bend or wave, it's almost impossible to correct.  I had that issue with the PE rigging on the biplanes I recently built.  One time in removing a part from the PE fret, somehow a twist got into the full fret which carried forward to the rigging.  Wasn't really much I could do unfortunately.

[popeye the sailor]

thanks Mike    I painted the prop a while ago...tan dry brushed with wood brown.   I had found in the jewelry dept at Michael's,  a wire that has the flexibility of thread.......sad thing though,  is that it really didn't match this scale.   

I hope you can read some of the label.  the one thing with this type,  is that it can't be seized or tied.......I think it might be a little too stiff for that.  I'm not sure it it can be cemented in some fashion,  I haven't done any experiments with it.   I want to try this on ships......at those scales,  seizing might be a good option.  I think the ideal option would be to use metal crimps.   I ran the tail control cables on the plane yesterday.......I still need to adjust them.

 

I should have the gallery pictures in a short while..........Ltn. Kempf's Fokker is finished!  

 

I've downloaded the manual Jack.......haven't found how to access the defaults

[popeye the sailor]

I tried the camera in my new phone........haven't figured out how to import them into my computer yet    I'll try the ISO thing with the other camera too Jack......I may not have tried it,  perhaps there is hope yet.  so I finished up the touch ups and stuff with this one......still not totally happy with it,  but it is what it is........I still like how it looks.

Ltn. Friedrich Kempf, Jasta 2, March 1918..........................Fokker Dr 1,   213/17

 

 

 

 

 

[oneslim]

Popeye,  Looking good!!!

 

BobW

[popeye the sailor]

here's more..........

 

 

 

 

 

thanks for following along    I really appreciate the interest.   now I'll go focus on Ltn. Jacob's plane and get that one finished.   I hope you enjoyed the journey.