Red Baron's Fokker Dr.1 (Marek 1:50)

[niebla de fuego]

It was the year 1986. I was 9 years old, and one afternoon my parents gave me one of the best gifts I’ve got. It was a kit of two or three pages to cut and assemble an old red plane.

Nothing I knew about paper modeling, airplanes, or a legend called “The Red Baron”.

The kit itself was very simple. Less than 30 pieces (probably just 20), and was a pure joy to assemble. That plane has been long lost. But it was the beginning of a love for paper planes.

For several reasons I’ve only built a handful of paper models since then, but the interest remains. My latest model was Ghibli’s Howl Castle (finished 2009), but my last airplane was built in 1995 or so.


This year a new interest has awakened in me for paper models. And I thought it was a good idea to “go back to the roots” by building again the first plane I built as a child.

After looking for a nice, cheap, and simple model, I decided to go for the Marek 1:50 version of the famous triplane.

Though small, and good looking, it was by no means “simple”. The scale made the built very complicated (at least for me, with very little expertise).

In total, I spent 29 hours. I enjoyed a lot the process, and found that I could do things I hadn’t imagined. Probably in the hands of an experienced modeler the result could be a lot better, but I’m happy anyway with how I got it


Instead of talking too much, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. They show how I made this plane, and the mistakes are self-evident for the experienced eye.

All feedback is very welcome so I can improve my work.

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[niebla de fuego]

More pics...

 

[niebla de fuego]

and more...

 

[niebla de fuego]

more pics..

 

[niebla de fuego]

more...

 

[niebla de fuego]

more pics

 

[niebla de fuego]

The last pics show the finished model with a magazine I found in old books store and I bought to use as reference for details of this model.

 

[lehcyfer]

Judging from the photo of the other side of sheet with wings, with indented lines of ribs you've seen this thread already.

What I see that you could fix in your technique is bending of front edges of wings - the best way is to press from behind using a metal rod, with the part lying face-down on a rubbery material -like the underside of some mouse-pads. This way they are fluid and bereft of marks and creases.

 

[niebla de fuego]

Judging from the photo of the other side of sheet with wings, with indented lines of ribs you've seen this thread already.

What I see that you could fix in your technique is bending of front edges of wings - the best way is to press from behind using a metal rod, with the part lying face-down on a rubbery material -like the underside of some mouse-pads. This way they are fluid and bereft of marks and creases.

You are right on that link

And for the bending of the wings, it was a hard part for me. I completely forgot to use a rod, and besides smoothing them with water before bending I did nothing else. The use of a rod to curve them would have provided better results indeed. I will surely follow your suggestion next time, since I do happen to have a good amount of that same material you mentioned. Silly me I didn't tought about it ops:



Here are some more pictures I took this morning from the roof of my house, using a metalic device and nylon threads to hang it.

Versions without and with Photoshop.

 

[ekuth]

Looks great to me! :thumb:

 

[Bengt F]

niebla de fuego,

A beautiful build! Very nicely detailed. I especially like the two last photos outside, where the red Fokker comes flying overhead! Try the 'swirl' tool for the propeller, too!

I also recognise the airplane magazine - I have it in English somewhere.

Allthe best from Stockholm,
/Bengt

 

[cgutzmer]

swirl tool? can you demo it for us here?

 

[liftline]

That's a model to be proud of and great documentation of the assembly process!

I'm new to this forum, but have designed my own model kits since the late 1990s when I got my first Mac with vector drawing software. Mostly hand launched gliders, 10 g all up weight, span around 9". An early effort was a none-to-authentic free flight DRI powered by a pager motor. It puttered nicely around the gym and even lucked a few 3 point landings before giving it's "final measure" into a wall. Alas, no photos survive (that I can find anyway).

Attached are two photos of my latest effort, an Se5a at 1:24 scale intended for radio control. The airframe weighs in at 17.5 g, I'm hoping to keep total takeoff weight to around twice that with RC, motor & battery.

Like all my flying models, it is built from light weight 75 g/m3 paper and requires a fair amount of internal structure to compensate. The wings are internally braced, with flat bottoms and semicircular upper surface sections. The ailerons are hinged and fully functional, as are the rudder and elevators. The paper wheels rotate on paper axles. Since crashes are inevitable, I want my airframes cheap, quick to build and easy to repair. Paper, white glue and ink, that's it. I'm in WAY over my head concerning ultra light RC sets and especially servo linkages for the control surfaces. Anybody out there with some suggestions?

Two photos attached, one of the painted prototype and a non painted fit and finish prototype showing the ailerons.

 

[Bengt F]

'Twirl' Tool in Photoshop for Propeller Effects

Hi Chris,

The tool I meant is called ''Twirl' not 'Swirl' - it is to be found under 'Filters - Distort'. You first determine the area you want to distort, using the oval marquee tool in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and make the area round or slightly oval, whatever suits the photo best.

Then you select 'Twirl' and set the value on the slider below the test image, and in the image you can see how it affects your image. You can do it once or twice until you are satisfied with the result. What you get with this filter is a kind of threaded look, and it might not be appropriate for all images. Using a blur filter (Gaussian Blur) beforehand might also be useful, because the propeller blades are often blurred to us, because of the high rotating speed.

Best,
Bengt :thumb:

 

[niebla de fuego]

Liftline: that's a very nice model. Hope to see more of your works.


Bengt: I think you meant something like this:

(excuse the poor quality, it was a 30 seconds edit)

It's true: it adds a touch of realism if properly applied :thumb:

I didn't use the twirl tool because it distorted too much the selection. Instead, I used the Blur/radial blur filter at about 50%. But I hope it is close to what you were suggesting ^^

 

[lehcyfer]

Take cover! Red Baron incoming!

 

[named50]

Liftline: that's a very nice model. Hope to see more of your works.


Bengt: I think you meant something like this:


(excuse the poor quality, it was a 30 seconds edit)

It's true: it adds a touch of realism if properly applied :thumb:

I didn't use the twirl tool because it distorted too much the selection. Instead, I used the Blur/radial blur filter at about 50%. But I hope it is close to what you were suggesting ^^

just want to add suggestion, hope you don't mind If I edit the pic

I will do some layers to the photo above in following order

top layer= image of blurred vertical propeller (radial blur ~15%)
third layer= image of blurred horizontal propeller (radial blur ~15%)
second layer= image of blurred section of propeller and nearest section (radial blur ~10%)
bottom layer= original pic (untouched)

picture will come soon, I hope :mrgreen:

I still cannot upload pictures

---pic uploaded---

 

[lehcyfer]

Oh, one more thing I've noticed just now - the rotator blades are incorrectly modeled - they should rotate the flat edge first, which means the curved edge has to be pushed to the back to give the forward pulling force - like here:

not like here:

not mentioning that they're curved to the back:

 

[niebla de fuego]

just want to add suggestion, hope you don't mind If I edit the pic

I will do some layers to the photo above in following order

top layer= image of blurred vertical propeller (radial blur ~15%)
third layer= image of blurred horizontal propeller (radial blur ~15%)
second layer= image of blurred section of propeller and nearest section (radial blur ~10%)
bottom layer= original pic (untouched)

picture will come soon, I hope :mrgreen:

I still cannot upload pictures

Sure, no problem It sounds like a proper and more careful work than my hasty edit

Oh, one more thing I've noticed just now - the rotator blades are incorrectly modeled - they should rotate the flat edge first, which means the curved edge has to be pushed to the back to give the forward pulling force - like here:

not like here:

not mentioning that they're curved to the back:

Thanks a lot for your comments on the details of the propeller!!
I will try to correct it properly thanks to your information.
I wll also keep that in mind, because I'm thinking on building again this model, but maybe at a bigger scale.

 

[cf1]

Is there a way to scan the pages so it is available for others to print and build?