Subject: Re: Fokker D.XXI
From: "Steve Bamford ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Fam. Willekens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 12:01:10 -0700

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fam. Willekens 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 10:02 AM
  Subject: Fokker D.XXI

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  Gallery Template #02

  "Classic Airframes 1/48 Fokker D.XXI" 

  by Robert-Jan Willekens

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here

       

  This is my first mixed-media kit. Being Dutch myself, I went for Classic Airframe's Fokker D.XXI. The aircraft first saw service with the Dutch Airforce (Luchtvaart Afdeling)after its first flight in 1936. Initially, the aircraft had the red-white-blue roundels, which were replaced with the orange "neutrality" triangles and rudder in 1939. The Dutch had 29 airworthy D.XXI's when the Germans invaded the Netherlands on the 10th of May, 1940. My model shows an aircraft of the 1e Ja.Va. (Jachtvlieg Afdeling - fighter squadron) based at De Kooy airfield near the naval base of Den Helder in the north-west of Holland. They had eleven operational fighters at the time of the invasion... There were many heroic exploits by the pilots flying their D.XXI fighters, but by the third day of the German invasion the surviving aircraft were out of ammunition and could not participate any longer in the closing stages of the campaign, which lasted from May 10th until May 16th in 1940. The model has no special modifications, it's OOB. I did have quite some difficulty in creating the complex interior which represents the tubular welded frame of the aircraft. Not much weathering, since these aircraft were partly fabric and partly wood covered. Colours are by Humbrol, applied with a Badger airbrush.

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 02.jpg here

       

  Photos and text © 2003 by Robert-Jan Willekens