What's New at the Fokker Factory

[Mitch]

Hi Guys,

With the Me 262 project on the shelf I decided to go back to my first love of WW1 planes. Searching the internet I found information on planes I never new existed...

MY new project will be the Fokker V 17. This was an experimental monoplane built after the Dr1 with a shoulder wing. It was built for testing and the D-8 with the Parosal wing won out.

This project seems like an easy conversion from the Dr1 kit as it was built on that fuselage. I plane to inset the wing though the fuselage one stringer above the side keel to leave room for the rubberband!

I ordered some parts from Guillows parts department and for about 40 dollars I will have parts for 4 more models!

For the V 17 I odered the lazercut fuselage sheets D and E and the vac-u-form sheet. So for 10 dollars in parts and supplies I have I will build this plane. I plan to build a new Dr1 while I am at it! The Dr1 will be in the colors of Werner Voss!


Here is what I drew of the wing. It will go just under where the mid wing is on the tripe. From just behind the engine cowl to just under the cockpit.


I used my NEW balsa slicer ($4.95) and sliced up some 1/32 then cut out the rib blanks. The templete was a rib from the SE5a, I liked the wing cord!


I then used the balsa slicer to slice up the 1/32 sheet into 1/4 stips for making the tail. There are 3 pieces laminated together. I never did this before so this is new to me. I plan to let it dry and hope it holds its shape... take it off the work board and sand the inside smooth, put back on the board and finish with internal braces.

Although I got the strips wet they still cracked a bit during the bending... Is there a better way to do this?

Mitch My V 17 will be olive green with an alumium cowling and NO mg's as it only was tested and never flew in combat!



UPDATE: I now have 2 rudders on the table, and although the balsa soaked longer for the second rudder, it still cracked as I bent it. With the glue and laminations, 3 pieces, I think this will be okay!

[Steve Blanchard]

Hi Mitch,

Great idea doing the V17. I know of at least 2 plans for building it and they have flown very successfully.
As far as laminating the tail, the best way to do it is to create a foam form. You take a meat tray or foam plate and clean it up. Gluestick a copy of the plan to the foam sheet. Cut out the outline of the tail to create the form (remember to cut 3/32" inside to make room for the 3 lams of 1/32"). I like to spray the strips with windex (the amonia helps soften the lignen in the wood and makes it much more pliable). Spread 50/50 carpenters glue and water onto both sides of the center strip and then make a sandwich with the other two. Place the start of the strips against your beginning point on your form. Pin it against the form. Start to wrap the strips around the form and pull on them a little as you go. This will keep them aligned as you go around. When you get to the end of the form you will notice that the strips are no longer lined up at the ends. Pin the strips at the end point and leave a little hanging over for trimming when it's dry.

Here is the link to my Spitfire build showing the process. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2253&p=13862&hilit=spitfire#p13862 Scroll up to the top to see how I did it.

That's pretty much it. Good Luck!

Steve

[Mitch]

Thanks Steve,

That's a good idea with the amonia. I'll keep moving forwad with these. I plan to trim and sand them when dry then back to board for finishing. They are just over 3/32 high as I left room for sanding. The finished tail should be 3/32 as the center section will be 1/16 by 3/32.


Looking at pics of the V17 I think the wing should be right threw the center, but up one notch will not be so bad. I want to try to fly these as my current Red Tripe looks good but had a catasrophic rubber failure which makes the plane NOT flight worthy.


The Red Barons plane is GROUNDED. And since he is grounded I should remove that flight prop and carve a wooden display propeller!

UPDATE: Steve, I plan to use you advice as the stabilizer will have a tighter radius and your advice will help with that!

[Mitch]

Day 2: Progress report

One rudder was a complete failure... the other one I salvaged, I also built a lazer cut rudder... need to follow Steve's advice...



The Wing is coming together, it is just abot 24 inches, so about 1 inch shorted than my D-8. The wing ribs were duplicated from the F2 rib of the SE5a, although, they will be shortened as they go out to the wingtips.



The Fuselage will be built straight off the Guillows Dr1 plans with no changes

Also in the back of the Fokker factory is a Herr Kit D-7 24" ws... the extra parts I ordered from Guillows will allow me to also create a Fokker D-6 with about a 22 in ws.

Mitch

UPDATE:
By the end of the day the wing is coming together...it has a wing cord of 4 1/2 inches and exactly 24 inch wingspan...

The leading edge and two spars that run the length of the wing are one piece so the wing will have NO Diehedral... I will try to set a little when I cover the wing and wet the paper down but I will only expect a 1/4 inch... I know this will NOT be good for flying, but I expect it will be mostly for display... Even though some of my models never take to the sky, I build them light and get them balanced! The constuction is same as the SE5a except the 2 spars are 1/8 in. square rather than 1/8 x 3/16 as the SE5a. I did this because I had this stock on hand. Hope it will be strong enough!

I found this on the net...

Plan to have mine look something like this! Just realized there is NO sub wing on the undercarraige... That will save me a bit of extra work!

LAST UPDATE:


The wing is done and I wet it and will try to set a little diehedral. I will let this dry overnight. Diehedral is 1 inch in picture, I will be happy with 1/2 inch when I remove from board... NOTE: The leading edge and 2 spars had a natural curve which I layed in the direction so they would naturally have a slight diehedral... We will see tomorrow.

Mitch

[Mitch]

Having trouble with uploading pictures today ... Anyway here is the progress report...

1. Wing is finished has about 1/4 inch diehedral. Not much but it will "Look" right. Needs to be covered.
2. I bought a stack of those foam plates and made my templates for tail, am working on the laminated tail this AM.
3. I plan to use the first rudder I made so far, it is okay and now sanded. Needs to be covered.

That's about it... Hope to have more pics soon...

Today I am going to "Pumkin Hurl" They use Trebuchets to launch pumkins... Never seen that before... Okay... you can check out there site and video just type in "Pumkin Hurl". The Roman Army reinactors that I just joined are going so that is how I found out... I'll bring my camera!

Mitch, Legion VI, Cohort II, FFC

[Mitch]

Hi Guys... I did not forget you, but have been busy with other stuff... have not worked on the model but here is the finished wing

And my templetes for tail

Got a package from Guillows today with parts so I can make 3 more Fokkers and a Me 109, all parts from Guillows was less than 40 dollars with shipping
I am planning more Fokkers, so after my V17 and Tripe I plan to build a EIII and D-6, also plan to make a D-5 with some parts from the Morse Scout kit.
Mitch

[Mitch]

Hey All... back from the High Seas for a day and the Fokker Factory is up and running... here are a few pics of work aboard my ship...


Right side wings sanded, left are not. I am curious to see any wt difference. I will bring my scale this trip.


Here are all the pieces for the Dr1. The Pilot is from the Stearman kit. I will order a few more, at 2 dollars a piece I think its a good deal. You can see in this pic that I drill a hole for the axle and pass it though the subwing ribs. Not underneath the subwing as the plans show. I like this better as I believe it is stronger and looks cleaner. I will have to also drill the landing gear struts.


Here is the V17 wing. I have to make a few fit modifications, but it will work out... more on this next week.


I decided not to laminate the stabilizer as it is mostly straight lines. I used the kit parts, cut in half, also made the elevator seperate.


Here is the V17 wing lined up against the Dr1 wings. The single wing is a little less than the combined total of the tripe wings.

I have a bunch more but dont want to overload you. Heres the plan at the Fokker Factory. For now I am, planning, drawing and building all the Rotary engine Fokkers

Heres the engine line up


That will be for EIII, DV, Dr1, V17, DVI... I already built the DVIII last year.

I have more ideas to scratch build or kit bash more WW1 planes in the future so keep looking back!!!
I will be home for 1 day so can answer any questions, or you will have to wait till next time!

Mitch

PS I plan to build all of the 100 series AND MORE for less than 20 dollars a piece in the larger 1/14th scale, and I will show you how I did it. Mitch

[Steve Blanchard]

Hey Mitch,

Great job! Fokker was a force to be reckoned with in WWI and looks like you are on your way to quite a fleet yourself.

Steve

[Mitch]

Hey Good Morning All... just woke up as I am on the 12x4 watch and my sleep is wakky...

Thanks... just looking at some pics of the V17...not many on the internet as the plane was only a prototype and failed.

When I was dry fitting I thought this does not look right as the wing is too big, it goes past the cockpit. But thats why the pilots did not like it and Fokker went with the Parasol wing...D8

I see the tail in 2 different configuations... Dr1 type and D7/D8 type... I think Dr1 type
I see the plane with and w/o sub wing... I think NO sub wing.

As for my Dr1 it will be covered in Light Blue (Werner Voss), although I have a red Dr1, the internals are broken and my new Dr1 will hopefully be test flown along with the V17 I think it will be interesting to see if I can build my new Dr1 lighter than my red one. Mitch

PS Will bring my Dremel and start work on all those cowls and engines this trip!

UPDATE: Heres a pic of what I hope my D6 will look like... I will try some German Lozenge...

[Mitch]

Week 2 update:


Here is a pic of the ship board Fokker Factory


Here is a pic of the V17 fuse getting cut


Here is the V17 mock up / with the test Pilot Bruno

I,m just home for an hour, got to work tommorow... will check back in before the ship sails...

The Fokker Factory is up and running at top speed, I have 4 Fokkers under construction at the same time


October was excellent building weather... hope the begining of November stays the same.

Mitch

[Mitch]

The 4 fokkers I am building are V17, D6, D7, Dr1. The D7 is a Herr kit and I will not feature that build here, but the other three are from the Guillow Dr1 kit

I made the D6 lower wing on the plans of the D7 but shorter, and in the building style of Guillows, you can see the difference in the build of the D7 wing.

I am starting to pick out the paper... The bulkheads are metal on my ship and magnets work to hold up my work progress.

Still planning on doing the lozenge camo on some of the D6 and D7.

This will be the 12 day trip and weather permitting I hope to finish the upper wings for the D6 and D7 and build the fuselages... and start covering.

Mitch

[Mitch]

Week 3 update... spent alot of time on the Herr kit D7 wings and they are finally done... Got back to the Dr1 conversions... Finished the D6 fuse and extended the Dr1 by 1 inch. Also moved B1 fwd and B4 aft to acept the larger lower wing... and made a new L4



Here is the D6 Fuselage. Just finished the upper wing today. Still needs trimming and sanding and scalloping...

Here is the wing during construction. I built it on the Herr plans, but shorter... made all the parts. Also the wing on the D6 are in the style of the Guillow 200 series. That is they have one main spar that runs the length of the wing. The 3 fuselages are Dr1 (red) V17 (green) D6 (blue)

Here is the mock up of the D6... I have more pics if anyone is interested in the construction.


As I said the upper wing still needs the finish work to be done... Also plan to cut out the Alierions.

Mitch

UPDATE: I got more tissue from EasyBuilt... needed pink, etc. Plan to try my lozenge on the D6 bottom wing first. Construction was a bit slower last trip as November weather is getting worse. After this trip we are going to the Shipyard in Portland, Oregon, for 1 week. Mitch

[Mitch]

3 Fokkers comong together


Mockup of D6


Another view of the D6

[Mitch]

Near Disaster at the Fokker Factory

With the top wing nearing bottom finish work... disaster struck...

Although this wing is custom built, it is built to Guillow's Design (Very Strong)

Repairs to 1 cracked rib...

And some splints added to cracked leading edge in 3 places...

New paper replaced and shrunk... Ready for dope and top lozenges...
Total repair time... about 30 minutes... In 3 sessions... plus dry time... One day of production...

Then 3 more hours of top lozenges and you would have not known it was ever damaged...
Total weight gain of repairs = 1 gram... Mitch

[Mitch]

Production stopped while waiting for the Engine factory to produce the U-3 Single Pushrod 110hp model...

The engine finally arrived, and all the children are sleeping so a little work got done at the Fokker Factory tonight...

Bottom wing mounted, Tail mounted, Engine installed for test fit and cowling painted....



NOTE: Engine cowling is painted inside and out. Primed and 3 top coats

PS... Okay I think this is going to be a "Build and Show" model... BUT I am still going to keep the contruction as LIGHT as possible so it COULD fly!

Good Night, Mitch

UPDATE: Thought I would give you one shot with the cowling mounted...



I think I will have to mount a carved wooded propeller on this. That 'ol black plastic just will not do...