View allAll Photos Tagged Brezza
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
Yea!! Today Is Mother’s Day! So if your 87-year-old mother happens to be a lifelong fond fan of the adjacent Circus-Circus Hotel & Casino, do not allow yourself to be frustrated, sad, or mad. You can bring your elderly mother here to Resorts World for Mother’s Day Brunch at someplace really nice and luxurious like Brezza, Stubborn Seed, Bar ZAZU, or VIVA, and still allow your mother the liberty of staying in her cozy little guest room at Circus-Circus. 😏 Happy Mother’s Day!!🌹🌷💐🌺
Whatever is your religion, your gender, your country, your language, your culture or your spare time to read this, I wish all of the best to you in this time of the year...
May it be the dawn of a whole new period of happiness and smiles.
And... a special thank to you, my dear friend, for having been with me so far... looking at my beloved clouds or storms, staring with me at the starry sky above my head, listening at the whisper of the morning breeze. Without getting all the cold and the hassle of the early wake... :)
Just kidding.
But about this, I am serious: Thank you for the words, the tips, the smiles.
Ciao
Rob
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUCbZhIfQbA&feature=related
Un augurio ed un ringraziamento
Qualunque sia il tuo credo, il tuo sesso, la tua nazione, la tua lingua, la tua culture o il tuo tempo libero per leggere questo, vorrei farti i miei migliori auguri in questo momento dell'anno.
Possa questo essere l'alba di un nuovo periodo di gioia e sorrisi.
E... un rigraziamento speciale a te, caro amico, cara amica, per essere stato con me fin qui... a guardare le mie amate nuvole e tempeste, ad ammirare con me cieli stellati, ad ascoltare il sospiro della brezza del mattino.. senza patire il freddo, la penitenza della sveglia... :) Scherzo, ovviamente.
Su questo però non scherzo:
grazie, per le parole, i consigli, i sorrisi...
Ciao
Rob
Cartagena, Colombia.
Follow Me: Twitter || Website || Instagram
Alejandro Tejada
Travel Photography
Cartagena or Cartagena de Indias "Cartagena of the Indies"), is a city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of the Bolívar Department. The port city had a population of 892,545 as of the 2005 census. It is the fifth-largest city in Colombia and the second largest in the region, after Barranquilla. The Cartagena urban area is also the fifth-largest urban area in the country. Economic activities include maritime and petrochemicals industry, as well as tourism.
Are you seriously considering bringing your mother here to Brezza for dinner on Sunday night? Start with the Tuscan Beef Tartare as a means to show your mother how Brezza has been one of your top ‘Go To’ dinner destinations at Resorts World for the last few years. Afterward, order the Lumache Bolognese with the beef, pork, and veal ragú. Your mother should be impressed with your culinary sense of adventure. Do not neglect the Brezza Tiramisu! It’s very good!! And if your very lovely lady from back home just happens to show up unexpectedly on the Las Vegas Strip, then bring her here too! Generally, your mother and your very lovely lady tend to get along reasonably well. 😏😅 Generally...
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
mein heißgeliebtes Rügen (Sellin):
altro che Adriatico, ragazzi, questo è un mare :-)
Kennst du das Land, wo die Strandkörbe blühen,
im dunklen Laub die Kreidefelsen glühn,
ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
die Kogge still und hoch der Leuchtturm steht -
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin
möcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn!
(AnnA frei nach J.W. von Goethe ;-)))
Qua ho voluto prendere in giro Goethe e la sua Mignon:
Conosci il paese dove fioriscono i cesti da spiaggia,
fra le fronde scure le rocce gessose splendono,
una dolche brezza spira dal cielo azzurro,
la Kogge/cocca immobile e alto il faro stanno,
lo conosci forse? Là! Là
vorrei andare con te, mio amato!
(AnnA liberamente da J.W. von Goethe ;))
And through the dancing poppies stole
A breeze most softly lulling to my soul.
John Keats
E attraverso i papaveri danzanti alla mia anima arrivava
una brezza che con tocco soave la cullava.
John Keats
{ Everything dies, baby, that's a fact.
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back } .
This is dedicated to Deb: thanks to her I finally bought PSE!
See it on Fluidr.
All my images are copyrighted. Please, do not use them without my allowance. Thank you.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
Cari amici, oggi giornata dedicata al mare e sole! Sono sdraiato sotto l'ombrellone sulla spiaggia di Jesolo Lido e mi godo il calore del sole e la brezza del mare! un saluto e un pensiero affettuoso a tutti voi, vi auguro una buona giornata e buoni scatti a tutti :-) --- Dear friends, today is day dedicated to the Sun and sea! I am lying under an umbrella on the beach of Jesolo Lido and I enjoy the warmth of the Sun and the sea breeze! A greeting and an affectionate thought to all of you, I wish you a nice day and good shots :-) -
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
The Fiat Macchi C.170 Brezza ("Gust of wind") was a single-seat biplane fighter which served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica before and in the early stages of World War II. The aircraft was produced by the Varese firm, and entered service, in smaller numbers, with the air forces of Italy, Austria and Hungary.
In spite of the biplane configuration, the C.170 was a modern, 'sleek-looking' design based around a strong steel and alloy frame incorporating a NACA cowling housing the radial engine, with fairings for the fixed main landing gear. The C.170's upper wing was slightly larger than its lower wing, carried only by six struts and a few bracing wires. Only the upper wing featured ailerons while the lower wing carried large flaps. Although it looked slightly outdated, the aircraft proved exceptionally agile thanks to its very low wing loading and a powerful, responsive engine.
Power was provided by a 650 kW (870 hp) Fiat A.74 14 cylinder radial engine, which also drove the contemporary Fiat CR.32 fighter. With the "direttiva" (Air Ministry Specific) of 1932, Italian industrial leaders had been instructed to concentrate solely on radial engines for fighters, due to their better reliability. The A.74 was actually a re-design of the American Pratt & Whitney R-1830 SC-4 Twin Wasp made by engineers Tranquillo Zerbi and Antonio Fessia, and in the C.170 it was geared to drive a metal three-blade Fiat-Hamilton Standard 3D.41-1 propeller of 2.9 m (9.5 ft) diameter. This allowed an impressive top speed of 441 km/h (272 mph) at 6.500 m (20.000 ft), and 342 km/h (213 mph) at ground level.
The first C.170 prototype flew on 24 December 1934 in Lonate Pozzolo, Varese, with Macchi Chief Test Pilot Giuseppe Burei at the controls. It was followed by the second prototype early the next year, which flew with an armored headrest and fairing in place (the C.170 lacked any further armor!) and other minor changes that were incorporated for serial production.
Despite Macchi’s proposal for a closed cockpit canopy the cockpit remained open – Italian pilots were rather conservative. Additional protection was introduced through armored side panels, though, which would protect the pilot’s shoulders. Radio equipment was also not included, as in many other Italian fighter aircraft.
During evaluation in early 1935 the C.170 was tested against the Fiat CR.42 and the Caproni Ca.165 biplane fighters, and was judged to be on par with the CR.42, although the Ca.165 was a more modern design which boasted a higher speed at the cost of maneuverability. An initial order of 99 C.170 for Italy's Regia Aeronautica was placed to Macchi factory in summer 1935, followed by foreign interest and order options from Austria, Belgium and Spain.
Anyway, what looked like a prosperous design was soon rendered obsolete: Following the end of Italy's campaigns in East Africa, a program was started to completely re-equip the Regia Aeronautica with a new interceptor aircraft of modern design. The 10 February 1936 specifications called for an aircraft powered by a single radial engine, with a top speed of 500 km/h, climb rate at 6,000 meters of 5 minutes, with a flight endurance of two hours, and armed with a single (later increased to two) 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine gun. That was more or less the premature end for the C.170, as Macchi and other manufacturers quickly turned to more modern monoplane designs.
Therefore, orders and production of the Macchi Brezza remained limited. Beyond the original 99 aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica only 24 further C.170s were delivered. These aircraft went in spring 1936 to Austria to equip Jagdgeschwader II at Wiener Neustadt. Immediately after their delivery the Brezza fighters were retro-fitted with radio equipment, recognizable through the antenna installation on the headrest fairing. The potential orders from Belgium and Spain were soon cancelled, due to political tensions.
As a side note, the Austrian C.170s fighters were the first aircraft to sport the new national emblem, which had been the result of a competition and won by flight engineer Rosner from the Graz-Thalerhof base. The white, equilateral triangle with the point facing downwards in a red disc was a completely new design and had (other than the flag or coats of arms) no prior basis.
The C.170s' career in Austrian service was short, though: in March 1938 the Austrian units were absorbed into the Luftwaffe, and after a brief period the aircraft were handed over to Hungary where they were used for training purposes.
Although an obsolete design, it proved to be robust, durable and effective especially in severe conditions. In spring 1943, surviving C.170s were rounded up from training schools and delivered to night ground attack units operating on the Eastern Front. The C.170 was used to conduct night harassment sorties on the Eastern Front until September 1944, when the units were disbanded, due to a lack of serviceable airframes and spare parts.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Wing area: 323 ft² (30.0 m²)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant
1× Fiat A.74 R.C.38 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 650 kW (870 hp) at 2,520 rpm for take-off
Performance
Maximum speed: 441 km/h (238 kn, 274 mph) at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (187 kn, 210 mph)
Range: 780 km (420 nmi, 485 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,210 m (33,500 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.8 m/s (2,340 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Wing loading: 69,6 kg/m² (15,3 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 311 W/kg (0.19 hp/lb)
Armament
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT synchronized machine guns above the engine, 370 rpg
Some aircraft were field-modified to carry up to 8× 15 kg (33 lb) or 2× 50 or 100 kg (110/220 lb) bombs under the wings
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends. From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
The latter was taken from a vintage Matchbox Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft - probably 25, if 30 years old... Size was O.K., but the struts had to shortened by about 5mm, as thge HS 126 is a much bigger/longer aircraft than the C.200. A cut was made just above the wheel spats, material taken out, and the separate parts were glued back together again.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
Painting and markings:
I would not call the Austrian 3+1-tone pre-WWII-scheme spectacular, but the colors are unique. My scheme is based on an Austrian Ju 86 bomber from 1938, so it fits into the intended time frame.
The colors were puzzled together from various sources and are subjective guesstimates:
● A pale, yellow-ish beige (Humbrol 74, ‘Linen’, out of production)
● A rather brownish green (Testors 1711, ‘Olive Drab’, FS 34087)
● A dark green with a yellow-ish hue (Humbrol 116, ‘US Dark Green’ FS 34079)
● Light blue for the undersides (Humbrol 65, ‘Aircraft Blue’, RLM 65)
In order to add some details I painted the area behind the engine cowling in aluminum. The respective part under the fuselage, where the exhaust gases would pass, was painted in Steel – both Testors Metallizers.
The interior surfaces were painted in a neutral Grey – but with the engine and the pilot in place you cannot see anything of that at all.
Markings are minimal: the Austrian roundels come from a TL Decals aftermarket sheet, the flag on the rudder was laid out with red paint (a mix of Humbrol 19 and 60), the white bar is a decal. The tactical code is fictional, puzzled together from single digits in various sizes (also from TL Modellbau sheets). The original documents how purely black fuselage codes, but I found these hard to read. So I chose digits with a white rim (actually, these belong to modern German Luftwaffe tactical codes in 1:32), which improve contrast a little.
The kit received a thin black ink wash and some shading/dry-painting with lighter basic tones (Humbrol 103, 155, Model Master 2138,‘Israeli Armor Sand Grey’, and Humbrol 122). After decal application, another turn with overall Hemp and Light Grey was done in order to fade contrast and to emphasize the surface structure. The wires were also painted, but only with thinned black ink and a VERY soft brush.
Finally, everything was sealed under a spray coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Voilà, and done in just about a week!
Way back in the mid 1990's, it took you and your very lovely lady many years before you two truly felt like y'all had taken the full measure of the Stardust Hotel & Casino and all of her fine bars and restaurants -- And now the Stardust is Resorts World! So do not allow yourself to be impatient with your mission of fully taking the measure of this massive Resorts World guest campus. And that applies especially to Brezza! Take your time in exploring this magnificent Brezza Italian dining destination. You must believe that one day you and your very lovely lady will dine here for lunch and dinner and so you need to be able to walk your very lovely lady through Brezza's extensive menu.
Dine Here Often!
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Showroom Address
Maruti Suzuki ARENA, Tirunelveli
Aadhi Cars Pvt. Ltd.
No. 340/1A, 2A, North Bypass Road,opposite to Galaxy hospital,
Vannarpettai, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu - 627002
Nel mio cielo al crepuscolo sei come una nube
e il tuo colore e la tua forma sono come io li voglio.
Sei mia, sei mia, donna dalle labbra dolci,
e vivono nella tua vita i miei sogni infiniti.
La lampada della mia anima ti fa rosei i piedi,
il mio aspro vino è più dolce sulle tue labbra,
oh mietitrice della mia canzone d'imbrunire,
come ti sentono mia i miei sogni solitari!
Sei mia, sei mia, vado gridando nella brezza
della sera, e il vento trascina la mia voce vedova.
Cacciatrice del fondo dei miei occhi, il tuo bottino
ristagna come l'acqua il tuo sguardo notturno.
Nella rete della mia musica sei prigioniera, amor mio,
e le mie reti di musica sono ampie come il cielo.
La mia anima nasce sulla riva dei tuoi occhi a lutto.
Nei tuoi occhi a lutto inizia il paese del sogno.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
En mi cielo al crepúsculo eres como una nube
y tu color y forma son como yo los quiero.
Eres mía, eres mía, mujer de labios dulces
y viven en tu vida mis infinitos sueños.
.
La lámpara de mi alma te sonrosa los pies,
el agrio vino mío es más dulce en tus labios,
¡oh, segadora de mi canción de atardecer,
cómo te sienten mía mis sueños solitarios!
.
Eres mía, eres mía, voy gritando en la brisa
de la tarde, y el viento arrastra mi voz viuda.
Cazadora del fondo de mis ojos, tu robo
estanca como el agua tu mirada nocturna.
.
En la red de mi música estás presa, amor mío.
y mis redes de música son anchas como el cielo.
Mi alma nace a la orilla de tus ojos de luto.
En tus ojos de luto comienza el país del sueño.
P. Neruda
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
"...Perchè non passa un giorno in cui io non ti pensi..."
"...Dalle montagne, attraverso gli alberi
Posso sentire che mi sta chiamando
La sua voce cavalca la brezza..."
"...From the earth, up through the trees
I can hear her calling me
Her voice rides on the breeze..."
Megadeth - Lady Jane
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
The kit and its assembly
Inspiration for this little, whiffy biplane came when I posted a pic of an Austrian Ju 86 bomber as a reply/ suggestion to a fellow modeler's (NARSES2) search at whatifmodelers.com for “something” to make from a Gloster Gladiator.
When I looked at the paint scheme a second time I remembered that I still had some Austrian roundels in stock, as well some very old biplane spare parts... hmmm.
Biplanes are tricky to build, even OOB, and kitbashing this kind of whif would not make things easier. Anyway, I love such challenges, and the potential outcome would surely look nice, if not exotic, so I decided to tackle the project.
Basically, the following donation ingredients went into it:
● Fuselage, engine, cockpit/pilot and tail from a Revell Macchi C.200 "Saetta"
● Upper wing from a Matchbox Gloster "Gladiator"
● Lower wings from a Matchbox SBC "Helldiver"
● Wheels from a Matchbox Hs 126 (shortened)
Pretty straightforward, but even though it would be a small aircraft model, it would come with two big challenges: mounting the lower wings and shaping the resulting, gaping belly, and the custom-made struts and wirings for the upper wing.
Work started with the Macchi C.200’s fuselage, which was built OOB - just without the wing, which is a single part, different pilot (the included one is a pygmy!) and with a free spinning metal axis for the propeller.
The wing installation started with the lower wings. I glued the Helldiver wings onto the C.200 fuselage, so that the wings' trailing edge would match the C.200's wing root ends.
From that, a floor plate was fitted under the fuselage and any excessive material removed, the gaps filled with lumps of 2C putty. That moved the lower wing's roots backwards, creating space at the lower forward fuselage for the new landing gear.
With the lower wings in place I started building strut supports for the upper wing from styrene strips - tricky and needs patience, but effective. I started with the outer supports, carving something SBC-style from styrene. These were glued into place, slightly canted outwards, and their length/height adapted to the upper wing’s position.
When this was settled, the upper Gladiator wing was glued into place. After a thorough drying period the short fuselage supports in front of the cockpit – again, styrene strips – were inserted into the gap. This allowed an individual lengthening, and was easier than expected, with a stable result.
After having the upper wing glued in place I added some wiring, made from heated and pulled-out styrene sprues. This not only enhances the kit's look, it also (just like in real life) improves rigidity of the model. Also a tedious task, but IMHO worth the effort. I tried thin wire, nylon strings and sewing yarn for this job, but finally the styrene solution is what worked best for me.
The exhaust installation had also to be modified: the new Hs 126 struts with spats would have been where the original C.200’s hot exhaust gases would have gone, so I added new exhaust pipes that would go between the new legs.
Other small added details included, among others, a pitot on a wing strut, a visor in front of the cockpit, a radio antenna, a ladder made from wire.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
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Would you invite your woman here to BREZZA Con Amore for dinner! 😅 You know she likes Italian more than she likes Asian.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
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Dine Here Often!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Fokker D.XX fighter was designed in 1935 by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker as a conservative export alternative to the D.XXI monoplane. The latter had been developed in response to requirements laid out by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL), but Fokker saw a good deal of market potential for the aircraft in Europe, too, but was afraid that many smaller European air forces still preferred conservative biplane designs.
As a consequence, the D.XX was developed in parallel to the D.XXI and both aircraft shared many components, primarily the fuselage and the tail section. Like its D.XXI stablemate the D.XX biplane was designed as an inexpensive, rugged, and compact fighter aircraft that would possess respectable performance for its era.
Following standard Fokker design practice of the period, the D.XX featured a welded steel tube fuselage that was largely covered by fabric, including the flight control surfaces, but elements forward of the trailing edges of the wings were covered by detachable aluminum panels instead. The wings were of a wooden construction, being composed of two box spars attached to ribs made of plywood, and covered by fabric, too. The aircraft was outfitted with a fixed, spatted undercarriage with cantilever legs, and braking was provided by independently-operated pedals using compressed air.
The cockpit of the D.XXI was fully enclosed by a plexiglas hood featuring large sliding sections. The canopy was entirely jettisonable in an emergency situation to enable pilots to bail out. Pilots were protected against turnover injuries by means of a pylon built into the structure of the aircraft set behind the seat. Fuel was housed in a 77-gallon tank located aft of the engine, and an auxiliary fuel tank could also be installed behind the pilot seat.
Main armament consisted of two pairs of 7.92mm M36 FN-Browning machine guns, two being housed within the forward fuselage above the engine, requiring the latter to be synchronized in order to shoot through the propeller blades, and another pair was carried in fairings under the lower wings, outside of the propeller arc.
Initially, the Fokker D.XX was powered by the 830 h.p. Bristol Mercury VII or VIII engines, but for export customers a number of alternative engines were considered, too. These included such power plants as the 650 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel V and the 750 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior. There were even plans to mount the 1,050 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin and the 1,090 h.p. Daimler-Benz DB 600H, both coupled with a radiator installation under the fuselage.
However, interest in the Fokker D.XX was low, since the monoplane promised much superior performance and future development potential. Compared with the Fokker D.XXI, the D.XX lacked top speed and acceleration, but it had, thanks to its much bigger wing area, a better rate of climb and was the superior dogfight aircraft.
Anyway, with the D.XXI as direct in-house competitor and very similar aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator on the market, Fokker's last biplane aircraft was not a success. A major contract with Sweden for an initial batch of 30 aircraft and rights for further license production did not materialize. Other prospects, e. g. Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, settled upon aircraft of British production, and in the end only Norway and Denmark bought the biplane fighter.
Total production, including two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, only reached a mere 46 machines, and none of them survived the first months of the 2nd World War.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 8 ½ in)
Height: 2.92 m (9 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 28m² (300 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,594 kg (3,514 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Mercury VIII 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 620 kW (830 hp)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 338 km/h (210 mph; 186 kn)
Stall speed: 85 km/h (53 mph; 46 knots)
Range: 930 km (578 mi; 502 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 11,350 m (37,240 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.7 m/s (2,300 ft/min)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Power/mass: 0.309 kW/kg (0.188 hp/lb)
Armament:
4× 8 mm (0.315 in) machine guns with 500 RPG in the fuselage and 300 RPG under the lower wings
The kit and its assembly:
I had found the spare wings from a Gloster Gladiator in my donor bank, and wondered what I could do with them - and eventually stunbled upon a PM Model Fokker D.XXI. Why not retrograde this early monoplane fighter into a biplane, with relatively modern features?
Said and done, and the respective conversion/kitbashing was a rather straightforward affair, even though not without some challenges.
The biggest issue became the lower wings: the Gladiator wings are much thinner and have less depth than the original Fokker wings, so that much of the wing roots on the fuselage had to be sanded away. This resulted in gaping openings, which had to be filled, including a resculpted trailing edge intersection. Not a complicated feat, but messy.
Another issue arose through the fact that the D.XXI's fuselage is wider than the Gloster Gladiator's - resulting in a wider span of the lower wings than the upper! In order to correct this, the lower wings' tips were clipped and I used the occasion to re-sculpt all wing tips, trying to get away from the Gladiator's characteristic round shape.
Once the lower wings were mated with the fuselage, the upper wings were added with the help of the outer support struts only. Once dry, the additional struts between the upper wing and the fuselage were added - the latter were scratched with styrene strips. Thin styrene was also used to add some diagonal bracing struts, once more in an attempt to change the wings' look away from its Gladiator origins.
The spatted wheels were taken from the PM Model kit, but shortened by 2mm - OOB they are IMHO much too long, and the result would be a very stalky stance. The tail wheel was also taken OOB, but moved aft and shortened, too.
Inside, a different seat was used; a box was placed behind it, filling the gap, and a dashboard was added under the windshield. The canopy (very thick material!) was cut into three pieces, for a potential open presentation.
Engine and cowling were taken OOB, but the propeller was replaced with a better-looking scrap box find, which also received a longer axis for better balance and free spinning.
The rigging was done with material derived from heated, black IP sprues, which I like because it bonds well with the kit's plastic and can be attached with standard glue. Additionally, the wire's strength can the individually tailored.
Painting and markings:
I used this occasion to apply the somewhat obscure camouflage of the Royal Danish Air Force from the late Thirties. While the scheme itself is rather simple, the colors remain obscure. In profiles and painting instructions you can find a wide range of recommendations - ranging from sand or a greenish yellow and olive drab to dark green and dark earth! The undersides were supposed to be "bluish grey".
I eventually settled upon a relatively simple choice, with Humbrol 83 (Ochre) and Revell 46 (NATO Olive Drab, RAL 7013 a.k.a. Gelboliv), which looks almost like a dark brown together with the greenish sand tone. IMHO they make a good combo for the Danish scheme. For the undersides, I went for Humbrol 128 (FS 36320). Interior surfaces were painted in a dark slate grey tone, the propeller received an aluminum front and flat black back surfaces.
The kit received a light black ink wash and a post-shading treatment with various shades of the basic tones, including ModelMaster RAL 7028 (German WWII Dunkelgelb) as well as Humbrol 155, 163 and 247. Finally, the fabric structure on the wings was slightly emphasized with dry-brushed light grey, and exhaust soot under the fuselage was added with grinded graphite.
The markings come from various sources: roundels from a D.XXI sheet from PrintScale, the flags on the fin belong to a Danish F-100 (XtraDecal) and the tactical code was puzzled together. The nose art, the charging knight on the cowling, which I added because I found the overall aircraft to look pretty bleak, comes from a ModelCollect tank model sheet.
Finally, the whole kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Not a spectacular whif, and this one does not really stand out between similar builds (e.g. the Macchi Brezza or the Gloster Glaive) I did before, but I find it interesting how good and plausible the retrograded Fokker D.XXI looks. The new/old wings blend in nicely, and the Danish scheme looks good on this biplane, too, even though I wonder why these colors were chosen? It looks rather like a desert paint scheme than something for Northern Europe, with lots of water and mostly green, flat landscape?