Scale Aviation Modeller International – March 2019

THE BUILD

If you have been toying with

the idea of building a biplane

but have been deterred by the

prospect of the dreaded rigging,

then the Fokker D.VII could be

the perfect solution. For having

been constructed around a

welded tubular steel frame,

the aircraft had very little in

the way of tensioning wires. As

far as the model is concerned,

with just two crossed lengths

that span the undercarriage

struts and some short control

wires that protrude from the

fuselage and wings, rigging a

D.VII is straight forward. What

is advisable before beginning

assembly of any model biplane,

however, is that you have a

plan in mind about the way in

which you intend to go about

construction and painting.

I ind it useful to initially

separate the majority of parts

and group them into painting

order. So, for example, I will

have a small pot containing

all those parts that require a

metallic inish, another with

those requiring a Lozenge

inish and so on. Unless you

are incredibly skilled and

patient and intent upon hand-

painting the complex lozenge

camoulage yourself, these

latter items will of course be

treated according to the decals

you are intending to use. A

comprehensive set of wing, tail

and fuselage lozenge decals is

provided by Eduard, and they

are conveniently split into

sections for ease of application.

Individual rib-tapes are also

provided on a separate sheet

and there is a comprehensive

placement diagram within the

instruction booklet. However,

because the colours in which

the Eduard items had been

printed seemed to me to be

somewhat inaccurate, I opted

instead to use the decals kindly

provided by Richard Andrews

of Aviattic. Anyone interested

in World War One aero subjects

who has not yet visited the

Aviattic website is missing a

trick. As well as the excellent

range of thoroughly researched,

transparent lozenge decals

(more of which below),

Aviattic also produce RAC/

RAF colour fabric decals, resin

pilot igures, aircraft models,

ground equipment and vehicle

kits and are also the creators

of Luftkrieg 1919. The latter

is a ictional scenario based

around a Bolshevik takeover

of the German military at the

end of the Great War, which

has so far led to Richard

expanding his idea to include

resin igures of some of the

characters in his imaginative

scenario and many pieces of

artwork to further expand his

personal universe – which

should be seen to be believed.

DECALS

Aviattic lozenge-print decals

are transparent in nature –

which I believe makes them

unique, though I stand ready to

be corrected. Practically, what

this means is that the surface

colour of the model greatly

afects the appearance of the

decals once in place and should,

therefore, be light in nature.

Any darker-painted areas

beneath the decals will appear

as shadows, meaning that pre-

shading can be utilised to great

efect to create a sense

of depth. With this in

mind, the wings of my

D.VII were assembled

but not attached to

the fuselage, and both

sets airbrushed in Humbrol

satin white enamel. Once dry, I

used temporary masks against

which I sprayed a contrasting

colour along the edges of

the raised rib detailing – in

this instance dark-earth. A

generous gloss-coat was

then applied, which once

thoroughly dry, was wet-

sanded and polished to create

the perfect surface upon which

to secure the Aviattic lozenge

decals. These are available to

buy in four and ive-colour

patterns with both a faded or

factory-fresh appearance and

with a selection of rib-tape

colours. They come as either

A4 sheet-sized decals that

require cutting to size or

shaped decals appropriately

proportioned for the required

aircraft type. Those I chose

to use on this occasion were

the pre-sized, faded-fabric

variety featuring pale blue rib-

tapes. The decals were itted

in their pre-cut sections and

they itted the Eduard parts

perfectly, settling smoothly

into place with an application

of Micro Sol solution. Once

the decals had dried, small

sections of decal were removed

to expose the inter-plane strut

mounting brackets on the

underside of the mainplanes

and these were painted

green to match the struts.

COCKPIT

The woodgrain efect on the

cockpit loor panel was created

by initially applying a sand

enamel basecoat followed

once dry by a red brown coat,

which before it had hardened

completely was partially

removed to create linear

patterns. This was again left

to dry thoroughly before, yet

darker shades were applied.

The propeller was similarly

treated, though masks were cut

MARCH 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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