1/72 Fokker D.XXIV, Netherlands Army Aviation (LVA) 1941

[Old Wombat]

 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

i hit a snagg in the painting progress, the camouflage turned out to be a bit harder to spray then i thought.
paint started to run underneath the maskingtape while applying the second color (sand) and remasking and respraying to too much of a haslte.

so, for the duration of this build, for the final colors, im reverting back to the old school hairy sticks.

[Old Wombat]

Bugger!

[NARSES2]

Bugger!

Exactly.

The Dutch use of that chocolate as an underside as well as topside colour has always struck me as odd.

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

i saved what i could, all in all it turned out not too bad.
i think the thick paint will thin down once the humbrol clear varnish goes on.

[chrisonord]

That's very striking in  that scheme Nils, very nice 
Chris

[buzzbomb]

 

[Old Wombat]

Good save!

[Dizzyfugu]

Really looking Fokker-ish. 

[NARSES2]

Really looking Fokker-ish. 

It is, isn't it 

[Spey_Phantom]

okay, im calling this one done:

Back History:

after the Spanish Civil war, it became clear to Anthony Fokker that his company's latest fighter, the Fokker D.XXI, was inferiour to the German Bf109D. in limited service of the Spanish republican forces, they were shot down in numbers. in March 1938, the LVA wanted to equip its forces with a new fighter that would be on par with the German Messerschmitt and british Spitfire fighters. as a stop-gap, they ordered 36 Fokker D.XXI's.

looking at its competitor, the Koolhoven FK.58, it was clear to Fokker that its rival had an aerodynamic edge over the sturdy and lumpy D.21. the design team at Fokker started work on the new fighter immediatly, wich was to the company's first all metal fighter. the company was already working on the D.23, a twin engine heavy fighter, but that design was facing many problems, largly cololing problems and issues with the underpowered engines.

using the D.21 as a starting point, it was clear that a retractable undercarraige was a must, the wing was made longer and had a 3° forward angle to improve lift and roll rate. it was clear that the increase in weight meant that the Bristol mercury VIII engine did not provide enough power, and it was envisioned to be powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin engine. but an embargo on that type of engine meant they had to look for an alternative. the Bristol Taurus engine had various problems and the American Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine was in short supply. eventually, they went with a French Gnome-Rhone 14K radial engine, wich was seemed as the best alternative.

in terms of armament, it was first envisaged that this would be 4 .303 machine guns, same as the Fokker D.21. but Fokker wanted the aircraft to be a heavy hitter and have more firepower then the D.21, so it was fitted with 2 synchronised FN Browning .303 machine guns in front of the pilot, and 2 FN Browning 13.2mm heavy machine guns, with an extended barrel, in the wingroot. later variants would be equiped with a pair of 20mm canons in pods below the wings. on a later version, bombs could be fitted under the centerline.

supply problems meant that the first aircraft, now designated Fokker D.XXIV, was not ready for its first flight until december 1939. when it took off, its test pilot, Joost Meers, praised the aircraft's superiour handling and performance. after a 20 minute testflight, he noted that there were no problems with the aircraft and the design was sound. in terms of performance, it was equal to the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1.

the first 6 D.24's were delivered to the LVA on May 8th 1940, and during the opening days of the war, they proved to perform as advertised and they mananged to be be equal or better then the Bf109. unfortunatly, the aircraft were delivered too few and too late. after the Dutch surrender, 10 D.24's that were under construction at the Fokker factory were rolled out and set on fire to keep it out of the hands of the enemy, but 2 aircraft were captured by German troops and taken on by the Luftwaffe for evaluation. it was found the aircraft was exceptional and designer Kurt Tank took the design and used many of its features in the Focke-Wulf Fw190.

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yes, that looks EXCELLENT Nils. 

The colour scheme suits it perfectly.

[Old Wombat]

 

[TomZ]

Very good. I love it!

TomZ

[Leading Observer]

That looks good