My last build, a Condor Legion Bf-109A, acquainted me with a period in history that I really knew very little about. The Nationalist side was supported by the Germans and Italians, so you get a lot of their planes being tested in the crucible of war. The Republican side was supported by Russia and France, so you get a good selection of their planes. My research that I did for my Bf-109A led me down a rabbit hole that revealed a huge number of unusual paint schemes, especially on the Republican side. When you research the two sides, you discover that the Nationalists used only 7 or 8 different types of airplanes, whereas the Republicans used 40 or 50 different types, many of which was represented by only one airframe.

Typical of this single airframe deployment was the Fokker D.XXI, which was being license-built in Spain before the war. The factory was captured by the Republicans during the war. No one really knows how many of these planes flew with the Republicans, but most historians believe there was at least one example used as a fighter. I have been searching for documentation on this aircraft, but all I have been able to find are two depictions of the plane based on Nationalist pilot recollections.

After the really good experience I had building the Dora Wings Bf-109A, I decided to take a chance on the 1/48 Special Hobby Fokker D.XXI. For the most part, the kit looks really nice, and includes some resin parts and a nice set of photoetch. There are no decal sets for my plane, so I will be one my own there. I also purchased a really nice resin and photoetch set by SBS for this plane which allows you to build 3 different versions of this plane.






Work started in the cockpit, as usual. All of the internal tubular framework for the cockpit area is constructed from separated plastic parts that are scale thickness. Good news and bad news here. Good news: I think it will look really nice when it is done. Bad news: There were mold lines and large sprue attachment points on every single piece of the frame. I have started cleaning up these pieces, but a lot of care must be used to keep from snapping the frames into a bunch of little pieces. The plastic in this kit is very hard, which means that it is easy to snap and hard to clean up.



The resin set includes a very nice seat and framework that is very thin. I didn't appreciate how thin it was until I started to clean up the attachment points. As I was carefully sanding the seat from underneath, I discovered I had sanded completely through the resin in two different places. I sealed the holes with some superglue and accelerator. I also built the rudder pedals that came with the SBS set, which are much improved over the kit parts.



I discovered that the resin parts that came with the kit were sticky. I suspect this is just leftover mold release, so I cleaned all of the parts with some soapy water and a brush. When I was cleaning the cockpit floor parts, I discovered that in addition to mold lines that needed cleanup, that none of the required holes for parts that would be added were present. I drilled out two holes for the seat frame, as well as a hole for the control stick. The SBS set has three different sticks and three different instrument panels, one for each country that used the plane, so I will need to do some more research to see which will be appropriate.

Hopefully more tomorrow. Cheers.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). I think this will be a fun one.

Nice choice George! I went a similar route down the rabbit hole by getting sucked into Finnish struggles of WW2 - they also used around 40 different kinds of aircraft (15 different fighter types!) so as you can imagine, my Fokker will be carrying blue swastika in the end. Looking forward to further progress pics!

What better than building a model and obtaining crucial reference for it, my friend @gblair!

Indeed, very interesting internal framework, my friend @gblair! Painting the back of the acetate IP sheet is an excellent idea. Interior kooks great so far.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). The plastic is very hard, which makes the normal plastic glue less effective, especially on this frame where there isn't a lot of gluing surface to start with. I am trying to go slowly with the frame, gluing one section at a time and letting it dry before moving on, but sometimes it is hard to be patient.

Made some good progress today. I completed the internal framework and got the seat completed. Work on the instrument panel started with attaching the acetate instruments to the plastic instrument panel using clear craft glue. When that was dry, I added the previously painted photoetch panel sections using Looks Like Glass from Deluxe Materials. This product is designed to be used like Future on canopies but can also be used to glue the canopies in place or to glue photoetch. In addition, it makes the instruments look like there is glass over them. That's it for today. More tomorrow. Cheers.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very nice progress, George @gblair
Your framing looks way better than what I achieved back then.
Looking forward to see the IP mounted in there.