Finished: Merlin's Valom Fokker DR1

[MerlinJones]

You know how sometimes, just sometimes, things come back to bite a chunk out of your botty..?

Look closely at the photoetch fret, specifically at Parts MP4 and MP5, the undercarriage legs.



NOTE the lack of a join on each part. I appreciate that the parts are extremely fine, so as to remain in-scale, but having to position four separate legs was not something I fancied getting involved with.
Fortunately...



This made undercarriage assembly a tad easier and, whilst slightly overscale, the end result will do for me.

[MerlinJones]

So I picked the Valom Triplanes as a means to get my eye in for some teensy rigging and modelling practise and I got myself some of that rather special looking Uschi rigging thread. To be honest, the Superfine is at the extremity of my visual capacity, so I opted to work with the Fine. Again, towards the limit of my in-aided vision, I found I was just about able to use it and more practice is required.
I have good, bright, daylight bulbs in my lamp, but my magnifier is currently in storage and, therefore, unavailable.

Another unforeseen issue was the apparent inability of the thread to absorb any useful quantity of Zipkicker. Normally, I have my thread already dipped in the stuff, so that applying a thread end to superglue results in an instant bond. Not so with the Uschi thread. I'm thinking I might have to try applying glue to the thread end and applying that to a Zipkicker-soaked surface. We'll see what happens with the next build.

Any road, two little Fokkers ready for inspection...

[MerlinJones]

Valom 1/144 Fokker DR1, Ltn. Joseph Jacobs, 450/17, Jasta 7, May 1918

[MerlinJones]

Valom 1/144 Fokker DR1, Ltn. August Raben, 479/17, Jasta 18, March 1918

[smeg1959]

First one to the finish line, a nose ahead of ajmm. And what a great little pair of dreideckers to get the ball rolling!

Footnote: The first version of this reply went out with the phrase "pair of firecrackers". This is what happens when I respond using my mobile phone with its bloody recursive auto-correct function. Going to disable that sucker!

[ajmm]

Great job - beautiful work and my god those are tiny! Staples are an underused material for sure.

[MerlinJones]

Thanks Smeg. They're not bad and I should do better.