SCALE MODEL AIRCRAFT

The only Focke Wulf A43 Falke (Falcon) was a tandem 3 seater light transport aircraft built in 1932. Powered by a 220 hp Argus AS.10 engine, it became for a few weeks the fastest transport aircraft before being outpassed by the Heinkel He 70. See this link for the only technical data available on the web.

I had never seen this aircraft untill the Dujin kit bag appeared to me in a model shop. I decided to purchase this beauty immediately, well aware that it was not an easy build to expect.

Once the bag opened, I stated that the wings were warped with a negative dihedral, which got fixed using the heat from my workbench lamp and two CD boxes to get the correct dihedral. After about 30 minutes, I removed the lamp and applied some weight on the wings for them not to warp again while cooling. It worked pretty well for a first try of this method.

  

Scratchbuilding the windows was another first for me, as the windshield was the only transparency provided, with a small acetate sheet (two windshields were provided, but one of them had a blister in the middle of a panel, and therefore could not be used). I precut the windows to the approximate shape, to reach the needed shape by progressive sanding and dry fitting. They were then dry inserted, to be pre-sealed from inside by brushing Future Floor Polish on them, which also improves the transparency and prevents from CA glue fogging. Finally, CA glue was applied along the seams on the external sides, then sanded flush from coarse to fine to polish, in order to recover a good transparency. Note that he rear door window had to be corrected to the proper angle.

  

Once the wings were glued on the fuselage, the windows were masked prior spraying a coat of Tamiya "Silver Leaf". The main problem was to round the side window corners but everything went OK. Then an other tedious masking session began prior to spray a coat of Tamiya "Satin Black". I wasn't sure about the exact colors and do not believe they are red on white as said in the kit's instructions. The truth seems actually half way between, as a pic unfortunately seen once the model was completed, seems to show a black paint on white (or light cream or light grey) background. But there's often a part of mistery in interpretation of black & white photography.

  

For the wing struts, I didn't use the brass parts provided with the kit, but Evergreen type plastic struts. The upper part of the struts was made using a modern jet weapon set from the spares box.

The landing gear needed many test fitting and adjustments before being glued on after the painting process .

   

This kit being one of the first Dujin kits provided with decals, my sample decals were unfortunately not well printed enough to be used, except for the rudder markings. So I scanned the 3 view drawing at the back of the instructions sheet, and purchased clear decal sheets for my ink printer. However, as ink is water soluble, a coat of Satin Varnish Humbrol Spray was necessary prior to use (not Future polish. I tried that first, but my decals became totally blurried after a few minutes!) 

 

Two coats of handbrushed Future Floor Polish were applied in 24 hours to get a glossy finish, but also to seal the decals,  to improve the transparencies, and to get the silver color closer to an "aluminium dope" shade (similar to what can be seen on some FW.44 Stieglitz).

The whole propeller was silver coated, which should be the case for the spinner only, as the prop appeared later to be made from wood.

Finally, the "Venturi" type dynamic pressure probe, belly intake, door handles, and tail wheel, where made from scratch.

        

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