Fellow PM's,
Time for a new build but first "Happy New Year" to you all!
There's a story behind everything and I hope you don't mind I start off with a bit of history. Puts the model and why I chose it as my new project in a certain perspective.
My father was an aeronautical engineer and when I was a kid he brought home a calendar one day he’d received as a gift from the Fokker factory at Schiphol Airport. Each month the calendar showed a detailed technical drawing of civil and military Fokker aircraft built throughout the years.
My brother and I were deeply impressed by the level of technical detail shown for each aircraft and we studied every bit of it. My favorites were the Fokker D-XXI fighter, G-I fighter-cruiser and T-V cruiser-bomber. These were all aircraft designed and built during the 1930’s with the typical Fokker mix of wooden wings and steel frames covered with aluminium sheeting and canvas for the fuselage. My father kept the drawings we fancied and pasted each of them on a piece of board, and they decorated the walls of our bedrooms for many years. Unfortunately over the years the drawings got lost.
In 2005 Modelik published this model of the Fokker D-XXI (also referred to as D-21) in Dutch Air Force livery used in the Thirties and 1940 May war when Germany invaded western Europe. The basic colour scheme is brown with green and sand like camouflage pattern. As models in Dutch Air Force colors are rare it caught my attention right away, and in the meantime also the G-I (G-1) and T-V (T-5) have been published by Dutch publisher Paper Trade; the very detailed G-I is available in 1:33 scale and the T-V in 1:50 scale. Along with Modelik’s D-XXI they form an interesting triplet of early WW2 Dutch military aircraft.
In the Interbellum, out of the usual Dutch thriftiness and general reluctance to arm, The Netherlands was not really concerned with its defense. In the period leading up to WW2 the country thought to remain neutral once again like in the First World War but as we all know Herr Adolf shared a different vision.
When the threat of war became all too serious in the late Thirties the Dutch government rushed to increase its defense spending but by then it was too late. So when war finally came on the 10th of May 1940, among others only 36 Fokker D-XXI were available to fight the German Air Force, of which even less than 30 were actually ready for combat. Yet they took on the Me-109s, Ju-52s and Heinkel 111s relatively successful as the D-XXI was very manoeuvrable, which compensated for its relatively slow speed.
Air force and especially anti-aircraft guns brought down an astonishingly great number of German aircraft on the first day of war and a fact not generally known to the Dutch, let alone the outside world, is that the German airborne landings around Ypenburg Airfield near The Hague (with the aim to capture the government and Royal Family) and surrounding air fields became a complete failure. Almost half of the Ju-52s used were obliterated; hundreds of German airbornes were either KIA or taken POW after a few days of war and some 1300 were sent as POW to Britain just in time before the hostilities ended after 5 days. This resulted in a serious blow to the German air transportation capabilities later on in the war.
In any case, although the German onslaught was only delayed by these heroic actions the charming little D-XXI fighter played its part well.
The aircraft was also used by the Finnish Air Force, in greater numbers and in a version suitable to withstand winter conditions. The Fins proved to be very successful in their 1939/40 winter war with the Russians and used the D-XXI to their maximum advantage. The slow Russian bombers were no match but in the end Russian quantity and increasing quality prevailed. Modelik also published the Finnish version, with skis, and the Fins ultimately phased out the D-XXI somewhere in 1948.
The Dutch “221” as portrayed in the model was part of the Eerste JachtVliegtuig Afdeeling or 1st JaVA (1st fighter squadron, spelled in early 20th century Dutch) at De Kooy Airfield near Den Helder, some 50 km north of Amsterdam. I believe it was flown by the tallest flight lieutenant of the Dutch air force at the time, Herman Doppenberg, who managed to shoot down a Me-109 on May 10th. Later on the aircraft was stationed at a field just outside Amsterdam.
At the end of the May war, the 221 was burnt by the Dutch to deny the aircraft to the Germans after capitulation.
At least one very good book is available that describes everything there is to know about the D-XXI, illustrated by many interesting pictures.
A replica of the actual 221 is on display in the National Military Aviation Museum at the former Soesterberg Airbase. It is in fact a refurbished Finnish D-XXI. Some details are therefore not entirely correct but Modelik is forgiven as to my knowledge this is the only publisher of a Dutch D-XXI in paper up so far.
I have made this model before, between 2009 and 2013 but somehow lost track of it with the finish line in sight. Also the paper print got damaged for some unknown reason and this couldn’t be repaired anymore.
It was my first detailed Polish aircraft model and therefore a learning curve. It was far from perfect and I felt I just had to give it a try again.
Alright, enough said, time for action. The work starts with the skeleton of the aircraft. The structure is a bit unconventional because rather than the usual formers it's an internal structure to minimize seams at the bottom. Then come the instrument panel and internal cockpit lining. No issues here but it is important to use 0.8-1.0 mm thick cardboard and nothing thicker. The instruction drawings are clear and although it's not necessary to understand the Polish building instructions, it is very useful to translate the notes on the drawings by e.g. Google Translate.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you find this new project interesting to follow along...
Erik
Time for a new build but first "Happy New Year" to you all!
There's a story behind everything and I hope you don't mind I start off with a bit of history. Puts the model and why I chose it as my new project in a certain perspective.
My father was an aeronautical engineer and when I was a kid he brought home a calendar one day he’d received as a gift from the Fokker factory at Schiphol Airport. Each month the calendar showed a detailed technical drawing of civil and military Fokker aircraft built throughout the years.
My brother and I were deeply impressed by the level of technical detail shown for each aircraft and we studied every bit of it. My favorites were the Fokker D-XXI fighter, G-I fighter-cruiser and T-V cruiser-bomber. These were all aircraft designed and built during the 1930’s with the typical Fokker mix of wooden wings and steel frames covered with aluminium sheeting and canvas for the fuselage. My father kept the drawings we fancied and pasted each of them on a piece of board, and they decorated the walls of our bedrooms for many years. Unfortunately over the years the drawings got lost.
In 2005 Modelik published this model of the Fokker D-XXI (also referred to as D-21) in Dutch Air Force livery used in the Thirties and 1940 May war when Germany invaded western Europe. The basic colour scheme is brown with green and sand like camouflage pattern. As models in Dutch Air Force colors are rare it caught my attention right away, and in the meantime also the G-I (G-1) and T-V (T-5) have been published by Dutch publisher Paper Trade; the very detailed G-I is available in 1:33 scale and the T-V in 1:50 scale. Along with Modelik’s D-XXI they form an interesting triplet of early WW2 Dutch military aircraft.
In the Interbellum, out of the usual Dutch thriftiness and general reluctance to arm, The Netherlands was not really concerned with its defense. In the period leading up to WW2 the country thought to remain neutral once again like in the First World War but as we all know Herr Adolf shared a different vision.
When the threat of war became all too serious in the late Thirties the Dutch government rushed to increase its defense spending but by then it was too late. So when war finally came on the 10th of May 1940, among others only 36 Fokker D-XXI were available to fight the German Air Force, of which even less than 30 were actually ready for combat. Yet they took on the Me-109s, Ju-52s and Heinkel 111s relatively successful as the D-XXI was very manoeuvrable, which compensated for its relatively slow speed.
Air force and especially anti-aircraft guns brought down an astonishingly great number of German aircraft on the first day of war and a fact not generally known to the Dutch, let alone the outside world, is that the German airborne landings around Ypenburg Airfield near The Hague (with the aim to capture the government and Royal Family) and surrounding air fields became a complete failure. Almost half of the Ju-52s used were obliterated; hundreds of German airbornes were either KIA or taken POW after a few days of war and some 1300 were sent as POW to Britain just in time before the hostilities ended after 5 days. This resulted in a serious blow to the German air transportation capabilities later on in the war.
In any case, although the German onslaught was only delayed by these heroic actions the charming little D-XXI fighter played its part well.
The aircraft was also used by the Finnish Air Force, in greater numbers and in a version suitable to withstand winter conditions. The Fins proved to be very successful in their 1939/40 winter war with the Russians and used the D-XXI to their maximum advantage. The slow Russian bombers were no match but in the end Russian quantity and increasing quality prevailed. Modelik also published the Finnish version, with skis, and the Fins ultimately phased out the D-XXI somewhere in 1948.
The Dutch “221” as portrayed in the model was part of the Eerste JachtVliegtuig Afdeeling or 1st JaVA (1st fighter squadron, spelled in early 20th century Dutch) at De Kooy Airfield near Den Helder, some 50 km north of Amsterdam. I believe it was flown by the tallest flight lieutenant of the Dutch air force at the time, Herman Doppenberg, who managed to shoot down a Me-109 on May 10th. Later on the aircraft was stationed at a field just outside Amsterdam.
At the end of the May war, the 221 was burnt by the Dutch to deny the aircraft to the Germans after capitulation.
At least one very good book is available that describes everything there is to know about the D-XXI, illustrated by many interesting pictures.
A replica of the actual 221 is on display in the National Military Aviation Museum at the former Soesterberg Airbase. It is in fact a refurbished Finnish D-XXI. Some details are therefore not entirely correct but Modelik is forgiven as to my knowledge this is the only publisher of a Dutch D-XXI in paper up so far.
I have made this model before, between 2009 and 2013 but somehow lost track of it with the finish line in sight. Also the paper print got damaged for some unknown reason and this couldn’t be repaired anymore.
It was my first detailed Polish aircraft model and therefore a learning curve. It was far from perfect and I felt I just had to give it a try again.
Alright, enough said, time for action. The work starts with the skeleton of the aircraft. The structure is a bit unconventional because rather than the usual formers it's an internal structure to minimize seams at the bottom. Then come the instrument panel and internal cockpit lining. No issues here but it is important to use 0.8-1.0 mm thick cardboard and nothing thicker. The instruction drawings are clear and although it's not necessary to understand the Polish building instructions, it is very useful to translate the notes on the drawings by e.g. Google Translate.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you find this new project interesting to follow along...
Erik
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