Fokker V.8 Build
Fokker V.8 by Anigrand Craftswork. 1/72nd scale resin injection mold.
With the appearance of the Sopwith Triplane in Feb 1917 and it's superior flying abilities, Anthony Fokker responded with the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane. Although very maneuverable, the Dr.1 was slower than its Allied counterparts.
After the success of his Triplane, Fokker proposed a five wing V.8 prototype, intended to prove his concept that more wings would produce a faster aircraft. Fokker made an abbreviated flight in October 1917. After some modifications were made, Fokker made a brief flight two weeks later. The plane never flew again. There is no known flight test data for the V.8.
With that bit of information and one grainy photograph, Anigrand produced a 20 piece resin kit of the V.8. A customer gave me one and had me build one for him. I built his out of the box in about three hours. The resin is of high quality and the detail is exceptional. Decals are included and they apply with no problems.
However, not being content with an "out of the box" kit that I have wanted in my collection for years, I decided to modify mine. Using some excellent CAD plans that Steve Cox sent me I ventured into the world of the unknown. We all should thank Steve because we all know that as soon as you scratch build something, a model will be released of that same aircraft in a short period of time. So, thanks, Steve.
Wings
Looking at the photo of the V.8, it is obvious that only the upper wings had control surfaces. Also, per Steve's analysis of the shadow pattern, the upper forward wing is larger than the rear and lower wings. With this information, I trimmed off the control surfaces on all of the lower wings. I shortened the lower wings approximately two wing ribs and reshaped the wing tips. The wings were shortened from the outside so as not to disrupt the rib pattern and so the wings would fit in their preformed slots and holes. All control surfaces were cut off the rear top wing and reapplied after the wing was shortened. The locating holes for the struts were puttied over as the struts will be moved inboard.
The next step was to paint and decal the wings. Since I am going to build Wiess' fictitious aircraft, I patterned it after his Fokker Dr.1 Triplane but instead of the streaked green, I went with lozenge pattern on later Fokker aircraft. The reason for painting and decaling the wings first is due to the fact that with five wings, it is very hard to get to the fuselage after they are installed. I used Americal lozenge for the upper and lower wing surfaces on the three lower wings and the top of the upper wings were painted white. This step didn't take three hours to complete.
Fuselage
This is a one piece unit with only a hole for the cockpit area. You are given a seat and a control stick and nothing else. I took my Dremel and hollowed out as far as could be reached, especially forward. Hold the fuselage up to the light and you can see your progress as you drill. The resin is not really thin on the sides so you don't have to be too careful, that is, if you don't use a drill that will go through titantin. I use the Dremel Mini-Mite on low speed which gives me great control and more than enough power for plastic or resin. You also don't run the risk of setting your kit on fire. That's never pretty.
After the fuselage was hollowed out, I used a razor saw to make a cut behind and in front of the hollowed out section. With a hobby knife, I cut through the sides of this section until the top of the fuselage came loose. Now that you can reach inside, the interior can be hollowed out front, back and bottom. When this met my exacting standards (snicker), I was able to detail the interior with a Fokker D.VII instrument panel, foot pedals, control stick and the seat provided. Oh, I put lozenge on the interior sides. Glue the removed piece back on, putty and sand and the fuselage is as good as new. This project took maybe an hour.
While on the fuselage, the photo shows that the engine cover is a rounded piece that fits just over where the engine would be. Anigrand molded this from side to side. The Dremel goes into action action again and this section is narrowed to more closely represent the actual aircraft. It will also allow for a firing slot for the machine guns that will be added.
The six cylinder heads were sanded off and the exhaust hole is filled in. Using a 160 hp Merc engine as a guide, I drilled six holes for the exhaust. I used the saxophone type exhaust as used on late war D.VIIs.
It is now time to decal and paint. I guessed where the metal parts would be and painted them RLM 02 Grey. The nose was painted red, the sides and bottom have lozenge and from the front of the rear top wing rearward was painted white. All struts will be painted red.
Final Assembly
I started with the rear wings which have slots and locating pins. The fit is very good with only minor putty work necessary. The top rear wing is connected with a beam and looking at the photo, this appears to be correct. I blended mine in with careful sanding and then touched up the paint. I removed the locating pins on the two rear struts and they fit in about two ribs over. The stabilizer goes on perfectly and the rudder was replaced with a Fokker D.VII rudder as Fokker was already experimenting with larger tail surfaces.
The forward wings are a little more complicated. Start with the middle wing and their excellent locating slots. Next, shape the undercarriage struts as they are very boxy and thick. Glue them into the locating holes on the bottom of the fuselage, then attach the bottom front wing. Moving two ribs in, trim and add the forward wing struts. The bottom wing is now very secure and sturdy.
The top wing is attached with only the outer struts so alignment is very critical. Building the kit out of the box, this problem does not exist as there are excellent locating holes on all of the wings. After they attached and squared, you will have to make your own cabane struts as they are not part of the kit. They are an inverted V and were put in one piece at a time. As fragile as it looks, this section is actually very strong.
Another change I made was to replace the undercarriage spreader with a Fokker D.VII unit.
Final construction is the installation of the wings tip skids, prop, wheels, tail skid, machine guns and wind screen. A little touch up here and there and the kit is completed in under 15 hours.
As you can see, I used a lot of parts from the Revell and Roden Fokker D.VII. My reasoning on this is that both planes were under development at the same time and parts would have been exchanged where possible. This opinion, like the plane, is not based on any known facts.
I enjoyed the kit and it is another my growing number of strange kits. It is number 195 in my growing collection.
Last Revised 4/3/2010