Fokker Dr.I (Part 4) Fuselage Assembly

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April 15, 2024 

Started work on the fuselage at the end of March, slow progress with a week’s vacation in between. After looking over the drawings and lots of photos of the fuselage there is some improvements needed. The cockpit floor is too large and sits way to high so some work will be required to get this to look right. Also, the seat metal bracket will need some attention as well. The overall fit of the parts have been very nice with some clean up of the plastic parts required from the molding process. This has been pretty minimal really, just the size of the parts being so large that requires the extra time in getting thing clean.


Started to add some detail with plastic punched out in the shape of bolts and flanges.
 



The kit cockpit floor is incorrect, it's too large and the wood provided is to thick at 3/32". The Dr.1 cockpit floor was actually two separate piece of plywood bolted to the metal frame. After doing some research I decided on fixing the issue with 1/32" plywood cut to the correct shape. The bolts from the kit are to large as well so I will replace them with some miniature bolts that are more inline with the scale of the model.



I made one half of the cockpit floor to the correct shape and then clamped the other half to finalize the shaping of the set.


As can be seen here, the bottom wood pieces are the final cockpit floor boards. They look more realistic then the kit set. 



April 22, 2024

After reviewing the cockpit area, I noticed some things I would like to add for detail.


First thing is to make the cockpit floor bracket more realistic. I removed the plastic molded ones as they were out of position and just didn't look right at all. The rear missing tubing that supports the wood floor I made out of brass tubing with soldiered uprights. I added little guide pins to help locate it in the correct position and to provide strength after it us glued into place. 


I made the vertical post a little longer and will just trim them to the correct height. All cleaned up and ready for the install process. 


Test fitting the floor boards after the rear tubing unit has been installed.



I install micro bolts to the floor board that are more in the correct scale, the ones with the kit are way to large.


Next, I wanted to add the wing nuts that were attached to the pilot seat bracket so they could quickly adjust the seat to fit them. I purchased some micro brass wing nuts at (4.0mm) and made the brackets out of brass tubing.




April 29, 2024

The ammo box supplied with the kit will need to be corrected, the one supplied is way to small and there should be two ammo boxes not just one. The one closest to the pilot is the ammo feed box and the one in front is for the empty fired cartridges'. After studying photographs and drawings I started to create the first ammo box out of .04 styrene plastic.




Doing some test fitting of the ammo box with the machine guns temporary taped into place. The Ammo feed units that come with the kit are not correct either, another item I will need to create from scratch. 




May 03, 2024

After pondering on how to create the ammo feeds, I decided to laminate several layers together to achieve the proper width needed and then just drew the basic shape and started to whittle away. 




Test fitting the first ammo feed unit to make sure its the right size and all the angles are correct.


Sketching the location where the bullets will sit. I ordered some 1/8th scale bullets to use as a reference to make sure things looked in scale. I will attempt to make bullets out of brass for a more realistic looking belt feed.  




August 29, 2024

Finally had time to update my progress. The ammo boxes are done and now I'm working on improving the discharge chutes, the ones that came with the kid are way to small and not the right shape at all. I used large diameter solder that is bend into the correct shape and then I covered it with Milliput and sanded it to shape. The picture below shows the basic shape getting sanded to the proper scale.

Using a 3d rendering of the ammo discharge chute to get the final look of the chutes.


Sept, 11

The new ammo boxes are finished along with the discharge chutes. I also started to add detail to the fuel tank to make it look a little more realistic. I'm redoing the side mounting brackets and adding the other fuel inlet, should be two not just one as the kit provides. Looking ahead, I made a test bullet out of brass so I can add the correct ammo belts to the model. Trying to get everything ready to prime and paint so I can finish the cockpit install and then add the fuselage rigging. 






10/02/2024
Adding the fuel tank mounting brackets

The fuel tank had two inlets but the model designer's only had one for the kit. I made two inlets with caps that looked a little more real.

Fuel tank is now complete and ready for paint.

I thought my gun sights were a little to big so I decided to make new ones a little smaller. I used brass this time and they turned out great.



10/15/2024
Gave all the pieces a coat of primer last night. I see a few areas that need a little cleaning up and then all shoot some paint.


 


 
NEXT: (Part 5) Skid Assembly 

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