DFW T.28 Floh - WIP

I gave up Ebay. Shipping costs are ridiculous as sellers are trying to reduce Ebay fees. 50 USD for shipping? I rather print my own kit.

I am new to this 3D print stuff, so I tried to print a fuselage piece with the largest surface at the bottom

Looks OK, but I realised that the curves in XY-axis will always be better than in Z-axis, where they will always be "pixelated"

I am printing two "port" fuselages, one is the mirror

Printing now the fuselage on upright position, so we can have a better curve

Much better pieces, a little filing and it should be smooth and curvy. The engine holes turned out much better than expected.

Comparing both pieces

Printing all pieces at once, plus one wing flat (back when I was unsure if the printer could print it without messing it up)

Turns out, printing wings like this is perfect: thin enough, and still has the airfoil curve. Print lines are along the cord, so the wing is strong. The only problem is that the spar indents are not present.

Comparing wings, not comparable

the wings are really thin, I hope there will be no problem adding metal pins

I am using sprue sheet to make the tail for the second prototype

Not a very busy interior, but I am not planning on doing fine detail in

Base tamiya yellow to do some experiments with clear orange. Propeller was kindly donated by a Eduard Fokker D VII

tamiya clear orange brushed with a wide brush. the 3d print lines helped with the wood grains

Adding decals from a Fokker D VII, they fit. Made a control stick with leftover 3D print plastic.

the 3D print of the seat looked like vickers seat, so I went along with it, and added brown and clear orange while enhancing those reliefs.

Seatbelt from the Sopwith triplane. Probably not the best choice for a german airplane, but it does the work.

Puttying the wings. Plastic putty works great.

Adding 0.4mm brass tube. The wings are very thin, this was not easy. I would thicken the wings a little more if I was going to redo this.

Measuring the panel lines for the radiator and tanks

Not great, since this plastic is way harder and a little more difficult to work with, but I hope with a layer of primer, it goes bette

Closing the fuselage with sprue glue. I think it's great, as it fills out all gaps, creates a very strong bond, and I think it will leave no seams.

Final touches on scribing, wings are done.

relocated vents, by gluing some sprue rectangles with sprue glue, and filing it to get a smaller widt

doing a better radiator by using leftovers from a 3D print base

Not perfect, hoping that a primer layer smooths the rought

Adding first primer layer, to see how rough the surface is

second primer layer, to really hide the print

wheels in XF-1 black and olive drab (should be gray-green but now it's done)

Just using a simple circle template. Some black panel liner to add some dirt and to mark the edge will come soon.

good that the masking tape had exactly the targeted thickness between ribs, half the work

XF-1 black 1:1 with X-20A for the ribs pre-shading

unmasking, need another masking across now

done, note how I made it thicker on the ailerons. The 3D model had smaller ailerons than the real model, so the spar placement is not great, but it works for now

using sprue glue to make a better cockpit leather border, whatever the name of that is

using stretchable mask tape, cutting tiny slices

I try to give some slack to the tape next to the prop center, but the masks can rise up. I will fix tat later.

Made triple stripes to look like the real prop.

Adding 1 mm steel pipe as prop cube, some leftover decals from a Fokker E III as prop logos, and I don't remember what is that photo etch part coming from, but close enough