1/32 Wingnut Wings Fokker D VII F

Gallery Article by Mike Muth on Feb 20 2017

 

      

It was said the Fokker D VII made average pilots good and good pilots great. The same may be said for the Wingnut Wings kits; they make average modelers good and good modelers great. WNW put out 4 versions of the Fokker D VII. When I purchased mine, the only variant available was the F, powered by the 230hp BMW 3a engine. It looks like WNW is coming out with another early Fokker built variant later this year. The D VII F was the designation for Fokker built aircraft utilizing the 230hp BMW 3a engine. This was the ultimate version and was highly prized by the Jasta pilots able to fly one. As an aside, one of the cabane struts was broken when my kit arrived. An email to WNW resulted in them promptly sending me a replacement part within a week.

Click on images below to see larger images

So, after doing the Eduard D.VII I felt I was ready to tackle the WNW kit. Like all WNW kits, it is engineered to a very precise level. This means no extra paint on mating surfaces, struts, etc; it will cause the fit to be off. For the holes that the struts and cabanes fit into, I filled them with Silly Putty during painting. I decided to do another all lozenge Fokker but wanted it to stick out a little bit. One of the options in the kit (Option D) is for a Jasta 4 machine flown by 9 victory pilot Egon Koepsch. Jasta 4 outlined their fuselages horizontally in black and white along with a black nose and struts. The outlining on this particular aircraft extended to the horizontal tail unit. The kit provided decals for the black and white outlines as well as the lozenge. There was going to be a lot of decaling to get this one done. When doing a lozenge pattern the surface should first be painted with a glossy color. I used Tamiya bright blue from a spray can. It almost perfectly matched the blue lozenge color. If there are any tears or tiny rips, the blue perfectly hides them. As a warning, if you use any of other lozenge out there you should probably use a lighter color since it might distort the color if the decal is very thin.

The D.VII along with other late war German airplanes has their frames covered in a 4 or 5 color lozenge printed fabric. WNW provides this in decal form and it works great for the fuselage and tailplane. The wings, on the other hand, presented a problem. They appear to be fitted and I was able to line them up with the corresponding holes, etc. but they also contain an outline that runs along the outside of the wings. When I lined up the holes the outline was off. If I lined up the outline the holes were off. I couldn't get it to work so I went with lining up the holes and fudged the outline. The black/white fuselage outline fit OK but it is a long decal and would probably benefit from cutting it in half to make application easier. The fitting of the fuselage side panels have caused many modelers to pull out a lot of what is left of their rapidly thinning hair. The fit is so precise that any minor deviation when assembling the fuselage will cause them to not line up. Since many of the Fokkers flew with some panels removed to help with cooling, that was the route I took. While not matching up with the photos of Koepsch's D.VII, it is still reasonably accurate.

These few quibbles aside, the WNW D.VII is an enjoyable build. The kit packs a lot of detail into the model and despite the tiny size of some of the parts, they attach easily. I don 't think I mentioned it before, but the instrument decals are wonderful. Very sharp printing and they fit easily into the painted instrument housing. There is no rigging to worry about so for those with a fear of rigging, this would be a good start to WW I modeling. I did add the rigging for the landing gear. Without the rigging it was a little wobbly, so I used some spare thin wire. The wire is a little scale thick but it keeps the landing gear sturdy. I think I am done with all lozenge airplanes for awhile!

Mike Muth

Click on images below to see larger images

 

Photos and text © by Mike Muth