Casey the Red Baron

I wonder if Casey's birthday gift had anything to do with his choice of fighter plane at the amusement park?

Happy Birthday Casey!

For Casey's 5th birthday, I finally presented to him his WWI Red Baron Fokker DR-1 Triplane.

He sure liked it, especially the turning propeller!

Happy Birthday Casey!

Touch Ups!

Today’s the day and at the last minute I had to repaint the nose section since the propeller rubbed on the white section when I was adjusting it with a paper clip back on July 14th. A lot of masking and a can of spray paint did the job and all looks good (had a bit of a panic with family due to arrive shortly). 

Tonight’s the night to present the gift, hope this unique present will please Casey...

According to my notes, it took me 35 hours to build not counting any research time.

Complete!

My goal was to complete the project for Casey’s 5th birthday which is on July 18th.  My wife kept telling me I it would be close and with only 4 days left (technically 3 days since his party is on the 17th) and tonight I am very glad to have competed it. It wasn’t an easy build but was lots of fun and it will sure look great hanging from his ceiling. I had some difficulties making the propeller spin properly but got it to work thanks to a paper-clip and the machine guns look menacing! Can’t wait to present it to him at the party!

Iron Crosses

Tonight I finally got to place the iron crosses on the tri-plane! I’ve been waiting a long time to get to this point and find that it has added a lot of personality to the aircraft.

Fixing Old Wounds...

After a long delay I finally found the right moment to go outside when there was no wind, not too hot, not too cold and the family was quiet. I painted the repairs from the January crash and completed the white areas, everything is looking good!

I might as well fix it...

Since I will have to add new tissue to the damaged sections I decided to correct another issue with the wings which I was not happy with.

The two white sections on the top of the wings had been painted flat white and unfortunately underneath was a gloss red coat which created an undesired cracking effect. It was light but noticeable so I went ahead and removed the sections so that I can add new tissue and repaint it with a gloss white.

Examining the Damage...

Well, after yesterdays nightmare event I examined in detail and started the process of determining the repairs that will be needed. I removed the damaged sections as can be seen in the photo below.

Crash!!!

Tonight I wanted to pick up where I had left off several months ago and continue work on the tri-plane. While setting up the plane and getting some cardboard to commence spray painting some red I knocked over the plane it took a 3 foot nose dive and it crashed into the floor!!! My wife who was upstairs heard a few curses and came running down to see what happened. The only damage was to the top wing bit it was major. The struts broke and pierced the top tissue and the wing fell off. I glued it back on and will analyse tomorrow what tissue needs to be replaced (lets just say I'm not in the best of moods).

Playing in the backyard...

Here I am outside in my backyard spraying the completed body of the DR-1 with Krylon to harden the tissue. I attached the rubber band used to make the propeller spin to a coat hanger to make it easier to spray.

Signature

The artist must sign his masterpiece…
Photo and signature is just below the machine guns.

Landing Strut

The landing strut proved to be very complicated to cover with tissue due to the landing strut sticking out of the fourth wing. All I can say is that a bit of patience and a lot of cutting did the trick in completing this section of the aircraft. Despite being a hard piece to work with the challenge made it fun sub assembly to work on.

Dope & Krylon

After a lot of research and testing several techniques, I came to the conclusion that the best method to cover the plane was to use a simple glue stick with tissue paper and spray it with fine particles of water then apply in a spray can Krylon clear finish. I tried the traditional technique of using what is called dope to cover the aircraft on a test piece and despite the good results the product earns its name for a reason. With strong fumes and less forgiving then the non-toxic glue stick and Krylon spray, the choice was not hard to make.

Landing Strut Assembly

Despite the DR-1 being called a tri-plane due to its three principal wings, it actually has fourth one hidden in the landing strut as can be seen here.

Mid Wings Assembly

Mid wings assembly completed.

Bottom Wing Assembly

Tonight I completed the bottom wing assembly.

Stabalizer

Just completed the stabilizer for the tri-plane which was a little tricky since multiple parts were needed to create the outer frame before placing the inner ribs which unfortunately proved to be a similar experience to when I was building the rudder but on a larger scale. With the help of a bit if tape I managed to build it and ensure that the whole piece remained flat. The total build time was 58 minutes.

Rudder

Completed the rudder tonight, was a bit tricky since I had to glue the whole outer frame at the same time and make sure nothing moved out of place. Total build time was 38 minutes.

Top Wing

Completed the first of the three wings (and the biggest one), all went well. I was not sure about smoothing out the edges since I was afraid that it would require a lot of sanding. I quickly found out that sanding balsa wood is too easy and only required a few minutes. Total build time was exactly 2 hours.

Fuselage Complete

Just completed cutting and gluing the ribs to the fuselage of the aircraft. In all I am surprised at how quick it is to build and fun. The fuselage has taken a total of 4 hours and 27 minutes to complete.