Fokker G-4

[PR19_Kit]

It seems that G-1 to 3 have already been used by Fokker themselves, and David 63cpe has used G-5 for his excellent bomber version of the G-1, leaving G-4 for me. 

This idea came about because I bought an ancient (1978) Rareplanes Fokker G-1 vacform at Telford for the princely sum of £5.99, what's not to like, eh? I rather like Fokker's designs of that period, and I've already built an RW Fokker D.XXIII, also a twin boomer. There are numerous kits of the G-1 out there, but they're all priced in the £25-45 range, so mine is much more economical. 

OK, I KNOW it's a vacform, but I've built a few of them in my time, so why not another one?

Here's the 'box lid' pic, but actually it's a clear plastic bag, as many of the early Rareplanes kits were.



The kit is all on one sheet pretty much, apart from the cockpit nacelle, which is all moulded in clear styrene, rather unusually, but there's a lot of transparencies in that nacelle, so it'll need some complex masking later on I'm sure.

I cut out the upper wing moulding before I thought to take any pics, which is why it's not connected in the pic below. As age has embrittled the plastic a little it was surprisingly easy to cut out, just a light scoring and I could snap the scrap styrene away easily.



Naturally this won't be built RW, or even OOB in a different colour scheme, it's slated to join No. 323 (Netherlands) Squadron of the RAF during WWII (and no, there never was a 323 Sqdn. back then....) as night fighter unit after a number of G-1s had escaped across the Channel after the Nazi invasion of Holland in 1940, after being re-engined with twin Merlins by FG Miles Aviation and fitted with early airborne radar sets. (one G-1 really did escape, and it was evaluated by FG Miles too, but they scrapped it later on, pure sacrilege!)

And that's the nub of my Whiffing for this one.

[The Wooksta!]

Early Mosquito cowls are probably best but a Lancaster power egg might be better. Or a Rolls Royce testbed with a pair of early Griffons, using Novo Firefly cowls?

[PR19_Kit]

I've got Lancaster engines coming out of my ears, but they're 120 miles away from me at the mo. The Griffons may be a bit late historically for my imagined time line.

I've got to build the booms before I've got a proper idea of what will or won't fit really.

[The Wooksta!]

I've Lancaster nacelles to hand, I'll include a pair.

Hercules?  May make it easier as those booms are circular and having to modify them to take unlined could be...interesting.

Griffon Spit prototype was flying in early 41.  WHO's to say RR didn't keep a team on Griffon development despite Beaverbrook's edicts re engine production?

[Old Wombat]

Better you than me, Kit, I have no intention of ever even trying to build a vacform kit!

Good luck! 


Although I would have thought a pair of Bristol Pegasus (or, possibly, Hercules) engines might have been a more logical upgrade, a pair of Merlins works.

[PR19_Kit]

I want to get radically away from the original radials, thus the idea of swapping onto  Merlins.

[The Wooksta!]

Whitley or Wellington style Merlin cowls are much wider. 

Annular cowl sabres?  I have some Warwick ones kicking about.

Now thinking about Sabre Brigands...

I'll just assemble a care package of various cowls and pass back what you don't need/want.

[PR19_Kit]

Sounds like a plan, thanks so much. 

I took the Spitfire V back to Hobbycraft and got my money back. 

[The Wooksta!]

Sounds like a plan, thanks so much. 

I took the Spitfire V back to Hobbycraft and got my money back. 

Lolages!

I found them to be hateful kits, especially the Vbs, I've tried offloading the few Revell ones I have for a relative pittance each but no takers.  Pah!

[PR19_Kit]

Now it's the tedious bit of vacform modelling, the sanding down. You have to sand the edges of the cut out mouldings so there's a decently sharp trailing edge etc. and it's just a case of having at it until it's done.

The upper and lower wing mouldings of the G-4 took about an hour all told, which I didn't think was too bad, it'll take a LOT longer than that doing the wing roots/engine nacelles on my Master Mariner when I get round to it. 

Here's one half of one of the booms being sanded, and the difficult bit is just holding on to it. Sometimes I stick a loop of tape onto the upper surface to give me something to really grab hold of.



Having ploughed through that step with the wings I scored the lower wing just inboard of the booms and bent the outer sections up to match the pre-moulded dihedral of the upper wings, a clever bit of design on Rareplanes part I thought. They matched together pretty well, but will need some trimming later of course, you always do with a vacform.

So here they are taped and glued up together, looking pretty much like a wing, I'm pleased to say.

[sandiego89]

And who needs skin on your fingertips anyway?!  Ha!

My Ryan Fireball was to date my only vacuform and took ages to sand. 

[loupgarou]

Good job, Kit. I don't envy you, I have done a few vac-form kits when I was young, and don't plan to  build anymore. 

[NARSES2]

I have a vacform Vickers Windsor in the stash, and it's staying there 

[PR19_Kit]

I have a vacform Vickers Windsor in the stash, and it's staying there 

I think I have too, and that's a LOT of plastic to sand down! 

The wing of the G-4 is nicely tidied up now, LEs and TEs as thin as they're ever going to be anyway, and I'm sanding down the booms now. They're not as simple to do as the wings and the very devil to hold on to as I'm sanding, but I'm getting there slowly.

I read the small print more closely and it seems the clear plastic fuselage pod needs to be glued with ACETONE! I'm not sure you can still buy it over the counter, so I test glued some strips of the clear stuff with gel superglue, and it sticks nicely and doesn't seem to fog the windows like liquid superglue does.

Has anyone tried gluing with acetone before?

[kerick]

No but it sounds tricky. It's as thin as water so guaranteed to get everywhere. It's something I'll keep in mind when working with different plastics. If you can't find it at the hardware store try the cosmetic counter among the fingernail paint.