akbowen

My Feedback: (7)

It's been sitting on my workbench for a couple of weeks. Tonight I dug in. What an intimidating box of sticks. This is gonna take a while.

Toysareforkids

My Feedback: (4)

Let the fun Begin!

Mine a Scratch-a-planeDR1, with a Quadra 35 on it.I've had mine 20+ years, sold it to a guy, second time out flying, he re-kited it. I now have it back, I rebuilt it better then ever, but still needs to recover it, I have all the coverite to do it. I just need to take time and do it, then paint it..

They a fun plane to fly!

Pat

WacoNut

It is not as bad as it first looks. I framed the plane up in 3 weeks. I powered mine with a DLE-30. I lost the plane after about a dozen flight due to the rudder horn pulling out. The build is pretty straight forward. About the most difficult part is soldering the cabane wires to hold the top wing. If you can build a simple jig it isn't too bad. I have a thread here in the kit build forum on the DRI.

Later!!
Anthony

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

It's an easy build.One piece wings,no dihedral,and flat bottom airfoil.The fuse is a box,and stick built tail feathers.If you can stick build,and solder it won't be a problem.-jeffo

ARUP

Fun!

M_Callahan

And it is a very well mannered plane. If gas isn't your thing, mine has a 1.80 four-stroke and it flies it great.

Welcome to the Fokker Scourge.

Mike

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I WANT ONE!!!! Now if my wallet would just cooperate...

akbowen

My Feedback: (7)

Thanks for all the input, guys. WacoNut, I have looked over and bookmarked your build for reference. Sorry about the loss of your Dr. 1. I'll be doing some of the streaked camouflage covering, so I know I will be looking at your technique for that. My club has a nice grass runway, so I'm thinking about a steerable tail skid and I'll probably purchase the Fiberglass Specialties cowl for this one. It will be gas powered with smoke. There are so many cool covering schemes that I have not decided on one yet, other than not red.

I'm flying tomorrow, so it had to share the work bench tonight.

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

I put a top trailing edge piece on the wing.It makes it much more rigid,guys were complaining when covering how flimsy it was.-jeffo

M_Callahan

The wing(s) are supposed to be sheeted from the forward spar to the leading edge,
at least thats what my instruction book and plans show.

Mike

akbowen

My Feedback: (7)

Finally finished the bottom wing. I had some family in town and some business problems that slowed me down. It doesn't take much. And, I'm taking a few days to repair the Eindecker I built last year. It got damaged on a windy day after I was finished flying for the day. The wind got hold of the wing while I was disassembling the plane and pulled some of the rigging wires loose.

I'm trying to decide on a painting scheme. How about Dr 1 545/17 Lt. Hans Weiss Jasta 11? I like this one or Lothar von Richtofen's with the yellow tail instead of white.

WacoNut

It is looking good so far,
I may build another one of these in the future. I will probably go with the 1/3 scale the next time. I like both of the paint scheme's you are considering. They both should have enough contrast to make them show up well in the sky.
Later!!
Anthony

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I would lean toward the Lothar von Richtofen's with the yellow tail instead of white and possibly add the eyes and mustache like Voss did. Both are good looking schemes.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

My new one being covered now. Just need to cover the top wing and ailerons now. Q35 for power.

lazyace

My Feedback: (126)

here is my scratch built 32% blown up busa plans , maidend her last week flys great , g-62 for power

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

I took some pics tonight of my progress, and some upgrades I incorporated.

First up is my spring loaded tail skid. I carved it out of solid hickory. Will add some metal plate attachment where it contacts the ground. It took a pretty stiff spring. THis unit is removable for maintenance and replacement if needed. I have this type of system on my DVII and it works great.

Notice in other pic, the little brass tube. What you are looking at is the bottom of the landing gear struts by the axel. That tube is the overflow vent for my fuel tank. This way when the tank is full, it will run onto the ground without hitting the axel wing, and preserving it to some degree.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Some more.

This is the engine install. Q35, with Bennett muffler and the flex hose they sell. I cut the exhaust sting off the muffler and used brass fitting to angle the exhaust down. On the end of the flex tube, I JB welded the cut off Exhaust tube into the flex tube. In the last pic you can see the clean, exit out the bottom of the plane. I have run the engine this way and so far so good.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

My engine had to be moved back really far to utilize the very scale GTM cowling. It makes a big difference in the looks.

Dummy cylinders for more scale look. Best pilots Lothar von Richtofen at the controls. I just need to cover the top wing now. Should happen tomorrow.

I modified the interplane struts to be single items between each wing. Much stronger and way more scale. Need to clean that one up some. In the middle of priming, almost ready for paint.

I used lightweight Dacron and dope for covering. It works fantastic. Great being able to sand all the seams smooth.

I am really pushing hard on this now and am hoping to have it flying within 3 weeks. The biggest chore left will be the rib tapes and stiching on wings, and the painting of the insignia. The airbrush will be used here. All of the small nomenclature I have as dry transfers from GetStencils.

Ritter von Tutschek mount will be the paint scheme.

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

nice work!! V.G.-jeffo

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Jeffo


A word of caution to those building this kit. I was very particular about sorting the wood before starting and marked everything before I started. This saved a lot of time and mistakes for sure.

Look out on the spars as they need to be splice glued for length (scarfed). The problem is the wood supplied is not long enough to give the recommended splice. And certainly not as long I as I would have like. Close attention mus be paid here, otherwise you can end up short.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Sorry for taking over the thread, but I wanted to post the final build progress on mine if that is OK.

All covered now. Most everything is installed so it is basically time for some rib tapes, color paint, final assembly, then maiden!

I love how you can sand all of the covering seams smooth when using dope to seal the fabric. It is by far my favorite method of covering.

Made a walnut backer for my instruments. This is actually more than any documentation I have shows for the DR1. There were essentially only a couple of instruments in this plane. These are in there for effect mostly. The rectangle cutout is where my radio switch and fuel dot go. I like to keep those in the cockpit on my WW1 birds.

akbowen

My Feedback: (7)

VG, keep posting. It's all good stuff. I clearly am not the craftsman that you are. Hats off to you, your Dr 1 is looking great. And, I love the mods you are making. You and WacoNut are making my build easier.

Speaking of WacoNut, I was thinking about covering and finishing the plane, so I looked over his build tread. I will be covering with solartex. I'm thinking about using the linen color and then applying olive paint for the streaked camo effect. I've got a partial roll left over and think I will try that.

Got the center wing finished. One more wing to go.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

The Solartex is a good way to go. That is what I used on my first tripe and it held up well for 9 years.


From my recent research on the streaking, you are most likely going in a good direction with the natural linen color. On the real DR1 what happened was the streaked olive (brush marks) dope was applied over white fabric, but there was a sealer applied over the entire plane that yellowed. This came from the top wing folding. Hence, this gave a yellow tinge to everything. So the white linen that was seen through the olive streaks turned yellow by the clear coat. Also, this caused the lower surface to look somewhat turquoise.

On another note, through some recent docs I got on the triplane, some studies on the design have revealed a major flaw in that the top wing took the brunt of the flight loads, because of some poor engineering. This contributed greatly to the wing failures.

We will not have the same problem though. I plan on flying the crap out of mine!

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

V.G.
There is a real good book,Fokker V5/Dr.1,a Schiffer military history book.It tells all the problems and fixes the tripe went thru.WW1 aircraft advanced quite rapidly,The Dr.1 filled a void when the Allies had the advantage,its reign was around a half a year before coming obsolete.In my opinion from all the reading I've done,a lot had to do with poor workmanship,and moisture getting thru the covering separating the glue joints.V.G. you are correct they had wing failures,the Germans set up a commission to evaluate the Dr.1 after having failures just months being released.Ten main fixes had to be made before re-entry into service.
The book also tells of the entire construction process,from the welded frame to the 3" wide paint brush,great read.-jeffo

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

I will look for that book Jeffo, thanks.


The DR1 is such an interesting aircraft. So simple really, but they are so much fun to fly as models. I kinda like mine a little overpowered! Not sure how the Q35 will do, but I have heard it is a good combo. I flew my previous tripe with an 18-6 prop, and the Q-35 seems to want an 18-8. Should be fine.