My next contribution to this group build is this model from the Roden range. It's one of these kits you might buy on a whim and then lose a bit of interest in, but when you finally get started, it can turn into quite a project. I had intended to use some old WnW lozenge transfers in order to cut down the cost of extras, so I stuck with the kit's engine cowling but changed my mind on the lozenge transfers and gout a couple of Aviattic sheets.

The Fokker D.VI does lack in interesting colour schemes, which is a bit frustrating as I try to avoid doing the same scheme as suggested in the instruction sheet unless, of course, I think it's a good one. On the credit side, this kit is a good one to build if you have a rigging phobia, as there is little in the way of rigging to do.

The main issues encountered so far are the fit of the lower wing into the underside of the fuselage, and the fit of the engine cowling to the backplate. Ulitmately, I decided to forego the attachment of a support spar of any description for the lower wings and simply modified the inner edge of these pieces - after removing the connecting spar - to get a good angle and attached them directly to the side of the fuselage using superglue. Once the glue took hold, I padded out any spaces with water-based filler and smoothed it out immediately for a decent presentation. I still think it's a bit hit and miss, but at least I don't have any 'enforced' anhedral on the lower wing as a result of retaining the connecting spar. I also replicated the work of another modeller by perforating the rear bulkhead in order to add in some stitching. Not bad for a first attempt but when I realised the lower section of the bulkhead was unlikely to be seen, I restricted myself to doing the upper section only.

The interior of the fuselage sides needed some additional detail and I added in framing which is visible behind the kit's cockpit frames and this brings a little more life into quite a sparse cockpit area. On bringing the upper and lower wing parts together, a little attention was needed to fit the separate wing tips, and they needed a little filler and careful sanding to complete the assemblies. The fuselage sides closed up well but also needed some filler. After this, I cut two sections of plastic card to act as panelling on the underside of the fuselage and got a little bit creative with the the fuselage stitching. As the model does not provide for this, I attached a thin piece of Tamiya tape along the underside, then cut a slightly thinner length of plastic card and wound some elasticated thread around it, anchoring it first to the underside of the strip with CA glue. It took the lozenge transfer very well, so hopefully when I apply a little blackwash, it will give this a good appearance. I notice online now, that HGW Models are producing 'stitching' in 1/72 and 1/48 scales. If they'd been available sooner, I would've tried the 1/48 scale product to see if that would've been suitable, despite the scale difference.

The last few photos show the lozenge transfers applied and a rather hazardous attempt to use some lettering from old transfer sheets to create the name 'Jette' under the cockpit; they must have been very old as they virtually disintegrated on contact with the model but I managed to save enough to tidy them up with careful painting and some additional thin strips of white transfers. They look very rough in the photo, but I think I've managed to improve them slightly since I took these photos.

The colour scheme is taken from a colour profile online and an original photo of this aircraft; from the latter, it is not possible to determine if the horizontal tail was painted blue or remained in lozenge pattern but the profile showed the tail as blue, so I went with that. The colour of the panelling in front of the cockpit and also the cowling was suggested as possibly being a light gray-green but the photo appeared to show it as a darker colour, so I settled on a dark green for these areas, the undercarrage and all of the struts.

Anyway, that's things as they stand at present. I'm hoping to get the wings and undercarriage attached during the coming week, so hopefully more photos in due course. Thanks for taking time to look in, and I trust this finds you all well... ;-).

14 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very nice entry and ditto progress, Paul @paulh

All looks great in the end, Paul @paulh
A lot of work on that upper wing but looks perfect now.

A lot of pain to get to this point, Paul @paulh, but it certainly looks good now. I don't do many WW1 planes, and I am never sure if the struts will actually survive the build. Well done.

Amazing result after all these challenges, my friend @paulh! Kudos to your skills!

This is the final sets of photos for this build, guys. The drive to the finish line comprised attaching the tailplane, elevators, rudder and ailerons along with the smaller pieces - stirrup, hand-holds and rigging the control surfaces; elasticated thread for the rudder and elevators but I decided to use some more thin, stretched plastic for the aileron cables. After that, some blackwashing on the undersides and a final gloss coat followed by a satin varnish sometime later. The propellor logo was added to the blades and the cockpit surround was painted leather to finish off.

In summary, an interesting kit with its challenges. The lack of many interesting alternative colour schemes is a bit of a disappointment but you have to remember only 59 of these were built before production began to concentrate on the D.VII. But for the D.VII, the D.VI would very likely have become as good an aircraft and as it was, it was faster at lower speeds that its famous stablemate, despite it being an amalgam - neither a fully-fledged triplane nor a D.VII, but rather a design with the fuselage and tail of the former, and a smaller version of the latter's wings. Ultimately, most were used for home defence on quiet areas of the front line, such as Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine - at this time part of Germany) or relegated to training units. However, I like this colour scheme as the bright blue chimes well with the lozenge pattern and makes it stand out in the cabinet.

The model is finished as Fok.D.VI 1661/18, in the colours of Jasta 80b during the summer of 1918; originally the mount of Staffelkapitän Lt. Erwin Wenig, it became the D.VI of Lt.d.Res. Josef Filbig at which point the black fuselage panel was repainted blue. My source photos are contemorary from the time but they do not clearly show whether the tail was finished in logenge pattern or blue. However, the two colour profiles I found showed either one or the other, so artistic licence kicked in again and I chose blue. if you want to see the build video, you can find it via this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDb3QzJbjrk&t=36s. I hope you like the end result, and thanks for looking in... :-).

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, John... much appreciated ;-).

Great model, and cool video, Paul (@paulh). It was fun watching this one come together.