Completed! Eduard 1/48 Fokker EV in Polish Service

A nice subject but unfortunately Eduard perpetuate some common errors about this aircraft.

First it was an E.V not D.VIII.

The serial number was 193/18 not 183/18. Poland possessed fifteen E.Vs and one D.VIII, none of them 183/18. The number is obscured by Bastyr's personal emblem and has been misinterpreted from photographs.

The aircraft still had its original German camouflage and the green of the wings was streaky not a solid colour.

Only the rudder was painted red and white. The horizontal tail surfaces including the elevators were lozenge fabric. At the time the various regional groups adopted different distinctive markings on their aircraft. A red and white fin/rudder was used by the Lwów group and for some reason some people have extrapolated from this that they also painted the tails read and white which was not the case.

In November 1918 a war developed between Poland and the Western-Ukrainian Republic for the possession of East Galicia and the City of Lwów. In March/April 1919 two Fokker E.Vs were presented by the province of Wielkopolska to the defenders of the City of Lwów. These aircraft were used by the 7th Eskadra Lotnicza, flown by Bastyr and Stec, in operations against Ukrainian forces, not Bolsheviks as is often stated. In May 1919 the 7th Flight had three Fokker E.Vs, three Brandenburgs and a LVG CV I. By June the flight had almost ceased to exist because of a lack of equipment. With war with Russia looking increasingly likely, Stec suggested that all Fokker E.Vs in the Lwów. Area be brought together in the 7th Eskadra, transforming it into a fighter unit. This was agreed by HQ and in August the eskadra received 12 Albatros (Oef) D IIIs purchased from Austria. Elsewhere the Fokker E.V saw only limited combat use, with other Polish Eskadras never having more than three machines at any one time. NB. At this time the 7th Eskadra was not called ‘Kościuszko' (correctly pronounced Kosh-TSYUSH-ko not Ko-shew-sco.) The name originated only after the flying personnel were replaced by American volunteer pilots in Autumn 1919. In December the Eskadra was officially given the title ‘7 Eskadra Myśliwska im. Tadeusza Kościuszki.' Bastyr died in a Fokker DVII crash during the Battle of Lwów in 1920. Heart failure is thought to have been the cause. Stec survived the Russo-Polish war but was killed in an air accident in 1921.

Stec's regular, or original E.V, was 185/18. This aircraft was similar to Bastyr's but had no CWL number on the fuselage and Stec's personal emblem was a horizontal letter S with a four-pointed red and white star superimposed on it. Stec had used this emblem while serving with Flik 3 (Austria) in WW I. Evidently Stec's emblem was the model for Bastyr's horizontal 8. Stec also flew 187/18. This aircraft had the later style chessboards with contrasting borders on the wings. The fin and rudder were completely white with a chessboard painted on. The CWL number 001 was painted in white above the black ‘Fok E.V. Later Stec's emblem was painted on the fuselage side and the CWL number moved forward (like 193/18) suggesting that it might have become a replacement for 185/18. The fin and rudder were also painted red and white.

Bastyr's E.V was later destroyed in a crash while being flown by Lt Idzikowski.

It looks like you have your hands full with this one, but you're doing a smashing job so far. Can't wait to see how your well practiced hands beautify this kit.

Looks like a nice little kit. Looking forward to seeing it complete. There is something about those early birds that I really like.

BK

Jay Jay and BrandonK - Thank you! Just got the clear coat applied and hope to get to decals tonight.

Antoni - wow, that's too bad Eduard got it wrong. I appreciate the history, and now I'm wishing I had known all that before I got this far into it. At this point, I don't think I can really go back and fix the issues, although I suppose I could just make it a German plane.

Speaking of Polish planes, though, I have the Mirage kit of the 1/48 Lublin seaplane, and I've got the Part PE set for it. I've done some research on it, but there doesn't seem to be too much that's authoritative in English that I've been able to find. Do you happen to have a bit of history for that one? I'd love to know I'm getting it right, even if this one is more fiction than fact.

Thanks again, all!

-BD-

Well, I got the lozenge decals down on all but the landing gear subassembly, and I have to say, they went down pretty painlessly. I still need to trim around the cockpit and cowling once the Micro-Sol is dry, but that should hopefully go well with a fresh blade.

I'm going to spray another clear coat to protect the lozenge before I go forward with the rest of the fuselage decals. Kind of a bummer knowing it's not accurate, but for this kit, I don't think I have the patience to try to fix the issues.

-BD-

Brandon - nice looking build and I'm glad that you chose a Polish subject! Very nice timing, too, as today, 11.11 in Poland we celebrate our Independence day. Your model is closely connected to the day of 11.11.1918 when we regained our nationality after over a hundred years when Poland as an independent country just didn't exist.

I don't know much about WWI planes, but I can tall you that the fixes Antoni mentioned still can be done - I mean it's all about markings. I just checked it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_D.VIII - E. V and D. VIII were basically the same design (markings would be different), the serial number also can be re-done. You could even try to do some dry-brush streaking on the wing in places where you still don't have any decals. So good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

There are issues of which you have fully under controlled.  Everything looks fantastic!  Great job.

Toshi

There has only realy one reference for the Lublin in English, from Profile Publications in the 1970s. It can be found on EBay, Amazon and the specialists like Kingkit.

http://www.kingkit.co.uk/product_detail.php?prodID=10775

Pawel - Thanks for the additional information. Happy Independence Day!

Antoni - at first when I read your response, I thought, "D'oh! Well, it's going to have to be OK as-is, because it's too late to fix."

But I actually owe Eduard an apology of sorts - while the box lists it as a D.VIII, the markings sheet actually lists this one as an EV, and it has decals for an EV with SN 197.18. The sideways S blocks much of the serial number, so I made sure it blocked the 7.

As for the wing, I had already applied decals, but thought that if I'm not building it to look accurate, why am I building it at all? So I took out my Tamiya thinner and my Tamiya Buff and, by dipping a 10-0 brush in thinner, then paint, I put it on the wing and streaked it, re-dipping in thinner as needed.

I ended up with the effect you can see below.

I also painted the rudder, added lozenge decals to the fillet, and then glued it on tonight, along with the guns.

Next up will be gloss clear on the wing, then a panel line wash to highlight the ailerons, and then a flat clear on the whole thing.

After that, it's mounting the wing.

Thanks again for all the info. I'm happy with how it looks now, and I'm glad I was able to stay away from the decals with my streaking. Also, thanks for the info on the Lublin reference.

-BD-

That is a pretty cool effect with the streaking. It looks really really good. This is shaping up to be a beautiful build.

BK

At this point all I can say is WOW in admiration.

BrandonK and Jay Jay - thanks!

Just a quick update tonight. I got the wing attached, which was not without a couple of hiccups, but here it is. This is the first time I've built a plane with a wing that doesn't attach directly to the fuselage, and I had to enlarge the holes on both the wing and the fuselage to get the pins to fit.

Hopefully I can make progress on the landing gear tonight.

-BD-

BrandonD

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This is really looking like it's gonna be a real beauty.   And nice you don't have to deal with any fragile spindly parts 

Lol, Wing_Nut. I got the wheels done, but still need to mount them. Rightnow I'm trying to paint the propeller realistically. Hopefully I can pull it off.

Then it's trying to decide if I really want to add all the fiddly PE bits (Yes, but will I?).

-BD-

Well, I am going to say this is done. This kit was a huge challenge with incredibly thick and badly-molded plastic with huge sprue gates, terrible fit and lots of little issues. I'm glad that most of the detail was PE, as I had to sand a ton on the fuselage and wings. That said, I still had a blast building it, though I imagine Eduard's new tooling of this one is much, much easier.

Here are the pics:

Thanks again to everyone who helped point out the differences between the D.VIII and the EV.

-BD-

Looks great to me.  I built the Eduard Siemens Schuckert D.IIIa, I think it was their first kit and it sounds like this one was also pretty early for them.  Same issues with thick plastic and approximate fits, same pe interior.  Nothing like the finesse and dqintiness of the later kits.

Marc and John - thanks! I think my biggest area of improvment for WWI-vintage aircraft is going to be props (oh, and rigging). I have some of Eduard's newer offerings in the stash (a Dr.I and a Spad) as well as a Roden D.VII. I might have been bitten by the biplane bug (even though this, of course, isn't a biplane).

-BD-

This is not the first first or the last time that a model company messes up with being accurate with markings and color call outs.  

BD you did an outstanding job on a little jewel of a kit.