spaceworm

I am thinking I remember (senioritis) that the original natural latex rubber for airplane and auto tires was white (amber). They found this natural rubber decomposed with exposure to UV (sunlight). They added lampblack (carbon black) to the mix to protect the rubber and this turned the tires black. Is this revisionist history or not?

Sincerely, Richard

jeffEE

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So how did you get the new struts to attach to the wings and body?

vertical grimmace

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Well, the way I attacked this ended up working great. I already had used the existing landing gear strut, Cabane strut and interplane strut wire. I just cut it about 2" long from the mounting position where it would attatch to the plane. The strut material is hollow so you want to stuff cotton or something else to create a dam inside to prevent your JB weld from running all over the inside. JB weld is used to glue the strut wires into the airfoiled strut material. The great thing here is you can grind on the jb weld to create a smooth joint. The hard part here is to cut a grind to create a good miter joint with the struts themselves. It is important to maintain the lengths so your incidence and alignment is still correct. If anyone is seriously interested, I could go into more detail and provide some photos probably.

jeffEE

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A few close ups would be great. But I think I have the idea. I was going to do about the same thing only using hard wood struts. I used wood on the "N" struts at the wing tips. I put Ball joints in the ends and a small bracket on the wing to hold them in place. How strong are the metal struts? Any flights with them yet? And will the JBweld hold the struts together for the N struts? Thanks for the info.

Warbird Man

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Interesting bit of history.

Warbird Man

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Been working on getting those tedious little louvers made.

These also varied grately on D VIIs.

Pic shows approx louver placement of the plane I'm modeling.

Warbird Man

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O.K. Now that all the main parts are built and covered, I'm getting things ready to paint.

The paint scheme I'll be going with on this one will be that of Carl Degelows plane from Jasta 40. Carl Degelow was the last German ace of WWI to receive the Orden Pour le Merite ( Blue Max)
He was credited with 30 kills (officially)

The planes fuselage is painted black and white and the wings will be painted with the factory 5 color Lozenge ( pronounced Lotzanga ) camo pattern.

NOTE* Just so I don't open up a can of worms here. I'm not claiming to be an authority on the accuracy of the colors that will be used for the Lozenge patterns.

I've studied this scenario for quite some time and have found there is no definitive proof or documentation of the accuracy of the correct shades of colors in the patterns. What I have found is that the colors and patterns varied greatly between and within aircraft manufacturers and the color dyes used in the manufacturing of the fabrics. Even with existing pieces of the actual fabrics used are subject to aging and deterioration of colors.

I'm not building the plane for scale competition. Just making it look nice.

I know there are a few available coverings and paints out there. I'm not into doing the dope and fabric thing and with the other iron on type the colors are way off.
It's just my personal opinion that the German Lozenge patterns were meant to be a type of camouflage not some bright razzle dazzle color scheme.

So with that all being said, I'll show what I came up with and how I'll go about it in my next post.

Warbird Man

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As I recall, the Lozenge covering used on full scale Fokker DVIIs were a pre dyed printed fabric that was applied "cord wise" not span wise in about approx. 50" wide panels. I got this document off the web and is what I'm going to use as a reference. I increased the pattern up to 1/4 scale which makes the panels about 12-1/2". These do not line up with each other pattern wise when placed side by side across the span.

Note, The top and bottom of the wings used different colors. so there will be 10 color shades used here.

jeffEE

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Here are the two I am trying to pick from. The black and yelow is how it should have looked the first time. And here are the guns and wheels. Now to try to turn the wheels white.

jeffEE

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IS the photp size thing a problem with RCU? I checked the size before I posted. WOW is that big [X(]

Warbird Man

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Yea, The thing to do is edit your post, delete the pic and then re down load it.
I've had this happen a few times every now and then.

vertical grimmace

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So how were you planning on duplicating this? The full scale was a pr-printed fabric that was applied with dope. It does not get more scale than that. Also, I do not believe hand painting them is easier than just brushing clear dope over the GTM fabric. Once you get rolling, that whole process was very enjoyable for me.

Warbird Man

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After I enlarged the pattern to scale, I made a few copies and then transfered the pattern image on a piece of construction paper and made a master pattern. I then placed 5 more pieces of contruction paper together under the master and "pinned" all the pieces together at all the points or intersections and made a total of six identical patterns. then just connected all the dots. (The construction paper is to heavy for the printer)
After that I took each color and cut out each shape and made the individual patterns for it.

Warbird Man

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This now allows me to draw out the pattern by each color on the wings.

Warbird Man

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Vertical, I'm going about this the old fashion hard way. This is more of a cost less - more time consuming method vs an expensive - less time consuming method.

Plus I just don't want to fume up the whole house using dope. It's now too cold out to be doing that stuff out in the garage so I'm just going to hand paint it all on with latex paint down in my shop.

Had there been no pre printed covering available with the lozenge pattern on it, hand painting it all on would be the only option.

( I know... I'm nuts, [sm=spinnyeyes.gif] but I got all winter)

Again, I'm not entering it in any scale competitions. It's just supposed to look good

Warbird Man

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As for the colors, I just down loaded them off the web and printed them out.

I then matched the colors using the Behr master color index cards from Home Depot and chose colors that were muted or shaded vs using colors that were vivid or saturated.

Home Depot now has these little Behr int. flat 7.25 oz color sample paints available for 2.94 ea. Custom mixed, any color you want. It's perfect for what I need and much better than having a whole quart made up.

10 custom color mixed jars plus black and white: total cost w/tax= $40.13

vertical grimmace

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Yah, those new little bottles are great. I have hand painted losenge before and it is not too bad. It just takes a while. Getting the colors to match was the hard part I believe, but Home Depot does a great job. I understand the smell of dope and it really only works well if it is hot outside. It looks like you are on the right track. Good luck and have fun.

smkrcflyer

Warbird Man
I love how your doing the lozenge pattern. I'm very interested in how the panting goes.

jeffEE

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I like the idea if painting the colors. I just suck at that sort of thing. But here is my first day of building.

jeffEE

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oh, I think I got the wheels white, but I do not know how well it will hold up at the field. Time will tell.

Warbird Man

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I like how you did the leading edge sheeting. I didn't catch that scale detail until I already had one wing panel done and decided it wasn't worth re-doing it.

What did you use to make the tires white?

Warbird Man

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Thanks smkrcflyer.

I'll post some pics as I go.

jeffEE

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Wheels are an under coating of white shoe polish and over sprayed with natural canvas color paint. The polish was too shiny but it keeps the spray paint from soaking into the foam tires. The leading edge was something I got wrong on the first DVII and had to get it right this time. You can't see it at all once everthing is covered. So you are correct, it's not worth the fuss. But I just had to get it correct this time. I put the points over the ribs last time and they should be between the ribs.

Warbird Man and others.....A full cockpit or just a false floor and bust pilot?

Warbird Man

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Got all the wings drawn out and ready for paint. Did one whole wing while watching Tora, Tora, Tora. So it didn't take too long. (Plus I'll have to admit, I spent more time watching the movie)

JeffEE, Your call on the pilot. I'm just going with a Modified STD. Williams Bros. like the one I put in my DR-I.

jeffEE

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I thought long and sort of hard about doing a full set up, pilot, stick, all the rest. I think not. I just don't think it adds that much, and I am lazy. A few knobs and a compass but thats about it.