Fokker D VIII build.

 

 The nights are starting to draw in, and the building season has started. I managed to pick up a balsa USA Fokker D VIII 1/6th scale kit for a reasonable price, the box had been opened, but it looks like all the parts are there, only time will tell. The instruction manual is very comprehensive, and the hard wear kit looks to be OK. 

I've made a start on the wing, and it's going well, at the moment.

Inner wing panel. 

 

 

outer wings  

 I've joined the 3 wing sections together, there was quite a bit of fine adjustment to get the spar lined up straight when clamped together, but it went together OK in the end.

 The fokker is coming along nicely, I've made the elevator fin and rudder, hinged them and sanded down flush. The only issues was when rounding off the laminated edges, the laminates would sometimes separate, due to the cyno not soaking in enough. Easily fixed with a bit more cyno, and a finish with a coat of thin cyno and a light sanding down.

 

The fuselage is coming along OK. One problem is the drawings are very large, and I've had to cut them to fit the building board, which makes referring to other parts of the drawing difficult.

 

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The wing struts have been made which was a bit of a pain as they didn't line up with the former, got them in with a bit of bending and twisting.Top wing sheeting next.

 

I've 3d printed some wheels, the tyres are lightweight foaming TPU stained black with a bit of ink, they are quite soft. The hubs are ABS, hopefully strong enough, they are lighter by about 25gms than the dubro one's.

 

I've made a couple of light ply hatches to go in the bottom of the fuselage to aid access to the tank, RX, and servos. Also fitted a mounting plate for the servo's. Going to use snakes for the rudder and elevator.