Fokker F.XXXVI - 1/100 (1)

Hi there. I realised what was wrong with my blogging stuff. The last years I only tend to post after I finished a model and that often can take a long time nowadays. I have many other things to give my attention to so I do not have as much time as I like for making paper models. And when I do, I often am not able to concentrate enough. Might be the isolation restrictions from these days (I have had my first jab this very week, though) but also the things I have on my mind. Anyway, I decided to start a build report although I already am in a much more advanced state in the build now. Let me take you back to April.

A second coming, this is. No one has seen the first one.Well, until now. It is not bad. it really isn’t bad at all. The shape is great, the parts all fit extremely well. It was the print quality that made me stop.
I must have messed up the settings. With printers these days, I always end up being like a Quixotic figure, fighting, shouting and cursing the damn machines. When the robots finally will take over this messed-up world, I will be put on trial for insulting them so severely, I am sure.

Anyway, Far advanced in the building process already, fuselage, wings and empennage finished, I looked at the original sheets on my laptop again. And I discovered so many detail that was missing, I immediately was disappointed in my build. I just couldn’t go on. There wasn’t any other option than to abandon it. Right after that decision, a moment of doubt followed, as always: Should I actually abandon the build? Start something new? That often causes disinterest, because of having to do all those steps over again. But no, this plane has something special. It is a wonderful shape, a very rare plane as a model - and it is Dutch. The design is very well executed and so i decided to try again. Quite unique.

More photos of this version in the previous post. I didn't destroy it, it now lives in the pile of abandoned and discarded models.

The upper part is new, the lower, darker part is from a spare print from the first attempt.
Now look at that colour difference. And the detail. The crispness of the black and those thin lines.

Step one: reprint. While the first print was made on 160 gram standard paper I use for my regular builds, I thought this one deserved better so I used my recently bought 180 gram matte photo paper. This turned out to be such a significant difference that it made me enthousiastic again. Even the scale now was correct and I had a 1/100 scale model in front of me. Let's go.

Time for step two. Framework. Cereal cardboard box, simple 80 gram A4 paper with the printed parts, and some cutting and pasting. And drying. I put a weight on the glued cardboard parts for a somewhat straight shaped set. I did all this before so I guess this time it went a little faster.
The ‘skeleton’ of the Fokker is very sturdy and perhaps a little over-engineered. But it gives the plane a lot of strength. The flat shape of the fuselage and wing spars are 3D-ed by the cross-section inserts. Pieces of cardboard are placed laterally between the parts to provide sturdiness and prevent skewing.
I am not very experienced in building these inner skeletons. The first attempt I did ended up in a disaster because I didn’t know I had to sand. This build is great in getting more experienced in this type of reinforcing models.
The tail skeleton section is perhaps a little tricky because of its small parts. When the frame is ready, you might think the ‘cladding’ with the skin might be peanuts. But. Prepare yourself for some sanding. Nothing fits perfect. The frame needs to be sanded down the frame at least a millimeter all together. The pre-shaped and glued fuselage parts have to smoothly slide over the frame.

Test fit. The cover of the mid-section of the wing was my idea to make the wings attach a little more evenly.

Okay, more next time! Which also will be very soon. Thanks for stopping by and until next time.

--PK