H9 Fokker DVII

[Ken Lighten]

I thought I would show off my re-hashed Fokker DVII from Hangar 9

 

I thougfht it would make a nice change from red and blue ones!!

[Stephen Grigg]

I think youve done a grand job there Ken,i am very impressed with the redesign,thats what I call presence,bet it looks great in the air

[Ken Lighten]

It does look the biz in the air Stephen and flies like a dream

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Very nice Ken,

[Ken Lighten]

I thought I would have a go at a few scale methods so I replaced the tail feathers with more scale like structure (balsa core and ribs), replaced the kit guns with williams brothers ones, put closed loop on elevator, rudder and aileron controls, replaced the kit wire tailskid with a proper sprung wooden one, replaced the plastic engine side panels with lithoplate panels to see if i could do louvres (they look pretty good if I say so myself and were dead easy!) and re-covered the fuselage and tail with solatex and the wings with lozenge covering from Wildmann Graphics (arm and a leg donated to the American economy). I painted it in the colours of Rittmeister Bolle of the Jasta Boelcke of 1918 and sprayed all the markings (again to see if I could) I think it looks good and it flies as good as it looks (I think so anyway!)

[Phil 9]

Very interesting Ken. This is something I have been debating myself. That is improving (hopefully) and changing ARTF kits. The problem with ARTF’s especially popular ones is that they don’t sand out and are not unique. Some customising can make your model stand out from the crowd and make it your own.

The debate is though how far do you go? You model looks fantastic but with all that effort and expense you get to the point where you might as well started from scratch?

But with the busy lifestyles of the modern day I think customising already build kits could but modelling future. And if you do not at too much weight you are almost guaranteed to have a good flyer.

[Ken Lighten]

I agree Phil that a scratch build would have been better, but I got the kit at a very reasonable price with a new engine and the only other costly item was the covering. This was really more of an exercise doing some scale detailing and painting methods that I have seen and read about and will be using on future builds which will be scratches/proper kits. I think the effort was worth it as I have ended up with an aircraft which has enough of my input in it to make it worthy of further work if I want to, unlike the other ARTF's which are put together, flown and then interest lost in them (thats how it is for me anyway)

 

[Phil 9]

Ken you have a fantastic looking model there

 

 

[David Davis]

Superb model Ken, I have a 1/6th scale version in my kit mountain!

 

Have you flown it yet?

[Ken Lighten]

Yes David and it looks lovely in the air