AIRMODEL 1:72 VFW 614

 

Reviewer: Pete Noyle  (peternoyle@kw.igs.net)
Kit Review submitted:  11 April 2003

Kit Details:

Airmodel 1:72 scale VFW 614 vacuum formed kit  -  Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke VFW 614

Aircraft History:


Photograph from DaimlerChrysler Aerospace

VFW was a merger of Focke-Wulf, Weser and Heinkel. In 1969 it became an equal trading partner with Fokker although both functioned seperately. VFW now opperate under DASA.

The VFW 614 first flew on July 14th 1971 and had a very curious appearance. The engines sit on pylons on top of the wing rather than hanging underneath like a Boeing or Airbus. The over wing position of the engines has so many advantages. The engines are out of the way of FOD thrown up from the runway, clear of water spray from the nose wheel in rain and it provides a full width flap area for slow speed flying, having no break for a jet exhaust. Maintenance can be done when standing on the wing and the undercarriage is shorter (and lighter) meaning that the passenger entrance steps can easily be installed in the door. There were only two disadvantages, the engine obscured the view for the passengers and the jet exhaust impinged on the tailplane. It was tail flutter that caused the loss of the prototype. Twelve aircraft were built up to 1978 when production ended.

The Luftwaffe took delivery of three aircraft in 1977/1978 and put them into service for special missions and VIP transportation.

Muk Air is recorded as being the current operator of VFW 614’s.

Anecdotes

I had been involved with the development of the M45H engine for several years and the 614 became a frequent visitor to Rolls Royce’s plant at Bristol, England. My signature was on the second engine to fly in the prototype – the one that crashed. A few sleepless nights I can tell you! I have always thought that the aircraft had a lot of things going for it and I was just waiting for a kit to appear so that I could have one of my own. There were no kits so I decided to scratch build one and to this end I contacted DaimlerChrysler Aerospace in Munich and they sent me a whole host of information about the aircraft – information that proved invaluable. I sat down at my drawing board and drew up a detailed three view layout of the aircraft, adding the livery of Air Alsace (I liked the colors) to the drawing.

From the information supplied by DaimlerChrysler I was able to make pretty accurate detail drawings of such things as the undercarriage and antennae. I used my own memory to draw the engines. I could not see how I could make a ‘hollow’ fuselage with the equipment that I had so the project was put to oneside as I thought about the problem. Then along came Airmodel with a vac-formed kit – my problem was solved (so I thought).

The Kit:

Airmodel is a manufacturer of vacuum formed model aircraft with its facility in Germany. In North America, Aviation Usk act as their distributor.

The notes on the construction are not intended to be a ‘how to’ for building vac-formed kits, they are just my observations as I struggled to get this thing together.

The kit arrived in a large plastic bag inside a robust box supplied by Aviation Usk. Inside were four sheets of vacuum formed parts in white plastic, one cockpit window and roof (this formed from one clear plastic sheet), and an instruction sheet, nothing else. Examination of the parts showed that the engines, wheels and flap actuator cowls should be discarded. The engines have rudimentary detail and the wheels were nothing short of insulting in their crudeness. The fuselage sides, wings and tailplane are quite usable but need the control surfaces and other detail enhanced with a scriber before use.

The instruction sheet calls for several parts to be made from styrene sheet which is not supplied.

This was the first model that I have made based on a vacuum formed kit and as such it has needed a great deal of thought on my part to complete it satisfactorily. Many vacuum formed kits do not come with any detail accessories and this kit was no exception.

Instructions:

The instruction sheet refers exclusively to the VFW 614 in service with the Federal German Air Force (one of three flown by that Air Force) and there is an accurate three view drawing at 1/72 scale of the aircraft – except for a couple of omissions! The reverse side of the single sheet of paper gives an exploded view of the main components but is inaccurate in that the windscreen is shown as a glazing area only, whereas the clear vac-form incorporates the cockpit roof as well. Accurate patterns are provided for bulkheads, cockpit and cabin floor and for the ‘undercarriage diaphragm.’ Sketches of the cockpit layout, cabin seats and undercarriage are shown together with some idea about engine detailing.

As I was to make a model of a 614 in Air Alsace colors, some detail differences become apparent, mainly with the antennae placement.

In addition there is a single sheet describing the history of the aircraft, colors for the Federal German Air Force version and assembly hints.

Construction:

The first thing to do is discard the wheels, flap actuator cowls and engines, the molding is simply too primitive to be usable in a scale model. The remaining moldings are accurate for dimensional scale, but the panel lines and recesses to represent flaps, ailerons, elevators and the rudder have very shallow definition and need to be enhanced using a suitable scriber.

Removing parts from the vac-formed sheets

So, to make a start. I cut out the parts using both a sharp knife and a saw. I had already glued a sheet of 200 grit sandpaper to a flat surface (an off cut of counter top), allowing the glue to dry for several days under very heavy weights. This made an ideal sanding plate and I sanded the parts against this flat surface. With the flatter parts such as the tail plane it was a finger damaging exercise - so I wore gloves! I used a blob of  'Blutac' stuck to the part to act as a handle. The Blutac removes easily and leaves no residue. This sanding exercise does not take long, about an hour, but it does create a lot of dust. Wear a mask.

FUSELAGE

General note - The vac-formed parts have shallow troughs giving the positions of windows and doors. The underside hatches lose this detail due to the manufacturing process and need to be scribed once the fuselage halves are joined.

Cut-outs –

Windows

It's time to cut out windows. There's only 32 of them. I use a scalpel blade but a #11 blade will do as well.

APU

The APU exhast duct is not refered to in the instructions, but this also needs to be cut out of the right side fuselage half.

Passenger door.

If you want to model the aircraft with the passenger door open, now is the time to do it.

Cockpit

Cut out the rough area where the cockpit roof will go.

Nose and main wheel well.

With the craft knife cut out the nose wheel door and the main wheel door and well (note - on this aircraft there is no door covering the main wheel when the gear is retracted. This is shown on the drawing).

Exterior cleanup.

Remove all the molding pips from the fuselage sides, some of these pips are so large that removing them will produce holes.

Antennae.

I like to produce slots where the antennae are located and this can be done now.

Tailplane location.

Cut slots at the tailplane location to accept location tabs.

Rudder.

The molding does not define the rudder hinge point very well, it should be deeper. I removed the rudder, refurbished it and re-attached it when the fuselage halves were joined.

This completes the first fuselage cut outs, there will be more but they should be done as construction proceeds

Fuselage location tabs.

Using 0.010 stock, glue small tabs to the edge of the joint centerline to act as locators (there are no peg and hole locators as in an injection molded kit). Position the tabs so that they form alternate locations for the later stage of joining the two halves together. Apply the plastic cement to the inner edge of the tabs so that there is a slight amount of spring to the tongue of the tab. This springiness will make up for not having contoured tabs.

Interior painting.

Mask the forward area of each fuselage side where the cockpit will be and paint the interior at the window height a light cream. Do not paint above or below the windows at this stage, the window glazing may not adhere to the paint.

Interior partitions and flooring.

The instructions in the kit give outline drawings for the interior bulkheads, cabin and cockpit floor and wheel wells. I used 0.040 plastic sheet to make these parts. Constant trial fit is the order of the day here, especially for the forward cockpit bulkhead (F). This bulkhead should be cut in half vertically and the two halves glued to their respected places on the fuselage molding. Using fishing weights from your local store, glue some weight forward of this bulkhead under the cockpit floor using Weldbond or other white glue that will stick to both plastic and metal. The forward cabin bulkhead (C) is shown in the instruction sheet as being three quarters open to the passenger cabin. That would be OK for a military aircraft but in a civil airliner this would not be allowed so bulkhead (C) should be fully round but with a cockpit access door.

I drilled a 5mm hole in the area of the nose wheel well so that additional weight could be added if the model turned out to be a tail sitter (see ‘Strengthening’ below). The radio bulkhead (D) does partly cover the rear right window on the original aircraft.

All the 0.040 parts can now be glued together ensuring that all parts lie on a centerline and that all parts are perpendicular to each other.

Strengthening.

Several additional parts need to be cut out of the 0.040 sheet. Using the pattern provided in the instructions make the main undercarriage framing. Make sure that this frame is installed under the cabin floor exactly either side of the wheel cutout when the floor is in its completed position. Cut out and install a box about 20mm square and attach it to the rear of bulkhead ( C ). This will be the container for the additional weight that may be required, the 'lead shot' fishing weights being fed through the hole in bulkhead ( C ) that has previously been drilled. The weights are secured by the glue, also applied though this hole. Cut and install a forward supporting gusset between this box and the front main undercarriage ‘diaphragm’ – this is not shown in the instructions. Do not forget to cut a slot for the mainspare. Cut and install a similar gusset between the rear main wheel diaphragm and the rear bulkhead (G), contouring the lower edge to the drawing. Both of these gussets will support the cabin floor.

Main wheel well.

Find some plastic tubing of 15mm inside diameter. (I was lucky here, the plastic tube of the fax machine paper is exactly this size). Cut two 10mm lengths then cut out a 7mm segment so that you end up with something that looks like a letter 'C.' Glue these to the wheel well location in each fuselage half. Using 0.040" sheet cut out the undercarriage well side panels, takeing care to match the fuselage contour. These walls will also be part of the lower wing location. Leave them sticking out for now, they will be detailed later. Cut two covers for the wheel wells. Saw parallel slots in these covers to simulate the strengthening ribs of the cabin floor. These ribs should be transverse, i.e, across the fuselage centerline. Glue these parts into place making sure that the 'ribs' line up, in other words don't let one cover become glued at an angle to the other as I inadvertently did.

Nose wheel well.

Using the drawing as a pattern cut from 0.040" sheet two nose wheel well sides, trimming the lower edges to fit the curved fuselage in both directions. My drawings show that the inside surface of this well is strengthened with pressed recesses. Reproduce these with 0.010" sheet and secure to the sides and rear with superglue.

Main spar.

The wings need to be supported by a main spar that secures to the fuselage floor. From 0.040" stock cut a piece of plastic 16cm wide by 13mm high. Mark the vertical centerline and using the drawing as reference mark the wing chord and wing surfaces (allow 0.045" for the upper and lower wing halves) to produce a 4 degree dihedral. Site this main spar in front of the main wheel well. Cut slots in the fuselage wing root and the wing halves to accommodate this spar.

APU.

Make up a box corresponding to the APU exhaust opening, curving the walls so that it looks as though the APU sits within and glue to the APU location.

Tail plane location.

From 0.040" sheet cut two half discs, the curved surface of which corresponds to the inside profile of the fuselage at the tail plane location. Using the previously cut slots as a datum, mark out a slot at 10 degrees to the vertical. The locating tabs for the tail plane will sit in these slots.

Cockpit canopy location.

The transparent combined cockpit window and roof molding does not locate at all well and a lot of trial fit and trimming needs to be done. To provide a location for this molding glue lengths of 0.010" strip (about 5mm wide), to the fuselage.

Rudder.

At the rudder location cut a tapered piece of 0.040" stock and glue to one of the fuselage halves. Glue a similar, but slightly narrower strip to one of the removed rudder halves but allow it to project forward by about 0.5mm and then glue both rudder halves together. Round off the front edge of the rudder so that it fits comfortably in the fin cavity that has just been made.

Passenger window glaze.

Passenger cabin glazing can now be fitted

FUSELAGE INTERIOR

Cockpit

The instruction sheet shows the control yoke attached to the dash – this is incorrect, the yoke is attached to a floor mounted column. Scratch build two crew seats, instrument panel and centre console, adding instruments as necessary. The instrument panel is illustrated in the instructions but no centre console details are given. I used the information supplied by Daimler-Chrysler to make these parts.

Passenger cabin.

I made 44 seats, each with seat, backs and arm rests and painted them 'Almond.' Opposite the entrance door is the galley and here I had to make up something that looked like a commercial aircraft installation (my model has the door open). The width of the galley can be derived from the panel markings in the right fuselage form. I cut an interior partition from 0.040" sheet to fit the fuselage contour and as wide as two passenger seats. Using odd scraps of plastic I made s sink with a water spout and some storage bins for the dreaded airline food.

Most of this you will not see once the glazing is in place, but I know it's there!

Fuselage interior painting.

The area of the passenger window glazing has already been painted so now paint the rest of the passenger compartment walls a light cream, this will make the seats stand out clearly. Paint the walls of the cockpit, the cockpit floor and the cabin floor a mat gray. Scribe lines down the cabin floor to represent the emergency floor lighting strips.

Assemble the two fuselage halves using super glue.

Cockpit glazing/roof

This did not fit the fuselage well and I had to cut three 2 cm slots in the molding to allow the roof section to reduce diameter to mate with the fuselage diameter. A fair amount of filler was needed to cover the slots and smooth in the joint line. The interior of the roof was painted mat gray before attaching to the fuselage.

WINGS

Cutouts

Lower wing half - Remove the undercarriage doors.

Cut slots to take the main spare.

This completes the wing cutouts.

Undercarriage wells

Make up sides and ends of the wells from 0.040 sheet and cover with 0.010 sheet. Trial fit upper wing to ensure no interference and then assemble the wing halves,

Once dry cut out the landing light location and the navigation light recesses. On my model the left wing molding was poor at the tip and I had to cut it off completely and fashion a scratch made wing tip.

Attach the wings to the fuselage at a 4 degree dihedral.

When dry produce a 3.5 mm diameter intake hole in the wing root.

Flap actuator cowls

Scratch build the six flap actuator cowls noting that the outer one is shorter than the two inner ones. Attach them to the wing undersurface at the points shown by the kit molding.

TAILPLANE

No work needs to be done here and this can be assembled and attached to the fuselage at a 10 degree dihedral.

Scratch build the undercarriage, undercarriage doors and antennae.

PAINTING

Mask all the windows and apply primer as normal. Fill all the cracks and holes.

Apply a second primer coat and then a couple of clear coats.

Spray the roof flat white and then with Future to bring out a polished finish. Mask and apply paint as per the chosen prototype.

ENGINES

These are the last things to be made and are fitted after the fuselage and wing painting. I made one engine with the cowl doors open so that the starter, hydraulic pump, fuel control and piping etc could be seen – all this from my memory of my times with the full sized engine. The other engine sits in its pod. The M45H-5 engine was supplied to the airframer as a power plant complete with cowls intake and all accessories installed and tested. All the airframer had to do is bolt the engine to his pylon, connect throttles and fuel lines and away it goes.

DETAIL MARKINGS

At last the closing stages. Excitedly I said to “she who must be obeyed” that I had nearly finished. “That’s nice, dear,” she said. Nice?!

I chose Air Alsace as the airline to model. There are no decals available for this airline and this aircraft. I toyed with the idea of making my own decals and then fate decided for me. As I was making the last airbrush pass of the last colour to be applied I dropped the bloody thing – I dropped it! Half of the seats fell out and the cabin glazing went somewhere else. The nose cracked open and a long split opened up along the cabin roof.

I said to “s w m b o” “Guess what?” She said “You dropped it.” How did she know?!

(It is at times like this that reading a very good dictionary seems like a more sensible thing to do. Or, perhaps reading some of the more outstanding Klingon erotic poetry. There is one that I particularly like – Ode to Ear Wax and Smegma by the well known Lust Poet, Bouncer Gonads. It goes something like this – ‘How long I to wrap your bakleth around my scarf.’ Oh! What poetry, such a mixture of words and yet describing eternity – breath taking. Wait a minute, just who are those guys dressed in white?)

Strangely I laughed – it was a releaf! I did not have to finish it! But finish it I did – I made it into a diorama of an aircraft wrecker’s yard. Now I had my little plastic people swarming all over it, saws and cutting torches in hand. There is a crane there from an old kit of 30 years ago when I used to be into model railways, an old caravan to act as crew rest hovel, an air conditioner unit, new from a Hasegawa kit and scratch built boxes and bits. A much more fitting end than the trash can!

Was there an Air Alsace VFW 614 in a wrecker’s yard? Well, I expect so, a photograph of F-GATI appears in the Airliners.net web pages. She sits forlornly in the long grass, sans engines, on the edge of an airfield in Germany. In the background is another 614 feeling lonely.

Versions:

There is only one version of the VFW 614 although it has appeared in the livery of Cimber Air, Air Alsace, TAT, Federal German Air Force (the last 614 retired on 30th September 1998 after 21 years in service) and Muk Air. One was used at Airbus (DASA) in Bremen to evaluate new flight control technology and another used by DLR as a technology testbed.

Decals:

There are no decals supplied with the kit.

Accuracy:

The dimensions of the model are spot on and agree with the information supplied by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace.

Summary:

Tackle this kit only if you are familiar with the prototype and have extensive experience with vac-formed kits and scratch building. If you have all this then you will have made a model of a distinctly attractive and unorthodox original. It will be a labour of love – be warned!

References:

Other websites too numerous to list.

Model Photograph titled 'A busy day at the Graveyard.'

About the Diorama:

Base

A simple off-cut 18 ins * 18 ins of ¾ inch styrene foam with no contours added.

Grass

I used a piece of fake fur for the grass. I first glued the fake fur to the styrene and when thoroughly dry I laid out the principle items to see if a ‘workable’ scene resulted. I did this several times, I had to make sure that things like the crane could actually drive around the site without running over the odd box left lying around. When I was satisfied I cut the ‘grass’ in the work area with scissors leaving the rest to illustrate ‘wild’ grass. The wild grass fur is about 25 mm tall.

Using a scrap piece of fur I tried various grass colors and application techniques to get the right shades of green to represent mature grass stems, recently cut grass and bruised trampled grass. I used artists acrylic paints stippled into the fur. For dried stems I picked out bits of fur with a shade called ‘Golden Straw.’ I added wild flowers using parts from dried flowers that are usually available in any local store.

Concrete runway

This is an off cut of a piece of 0.046 inch plastic painted with a mix of ‘Antique White’ with just a spot of ‘Westport Gray’ acrylic paint and stained with oil drips and scuff marks.

Gravel

The wide gravel strip between the runway and the grass was represented by sifted clumping cat litter, glued in place on a bed of Weldbond, a builders glue. The actual size of the cat litter grains are larger than precise scale, but the effect is a convincing gravel and for me, that is what matters.

Let us now take a walk around the site, so put on your shrinking cloak, set it for 2.5 cm and off we go.


© Pete Noyle 2003

We are on the concrete just by some of the aircraft seats. These have been wrapped in plastic and are waiting to be carted off to a buyer elsewhere. We walk forward, past the fire extinguisher and over the gravel. The first thing to be noticed is the registration number F-GATI – it has been painted over. Then we see that aircraft does not sit right. Ah, the wheels have been taken off and she sits on the undercarriage legs and they are slowly sinking into the earth,

Two mechanics are involved with the left hand M45H, one is obviously telling the other what to do. Careful, girl, that cowl was made by Shorts in Belfast. She is working on disconnecting the fuel line and throttle linkages prior to craning the engine away. The M45H was sold by RollsRoyce as a power plant that included all cowls and accessories. All the airframer had to do was plug in and play.

We walk on around the wing and we see that the passenger door is already off and lying in the grass. Seats lie about everywhere, some will be sold and some will have to go for scrap. A ladder leads up to the doorway and a worker stands there for a rest. He is dressed in a mop cap, breathing filter and goggles and his arms and hands are clad in white barrier gloves. He has been deep in the cabin, pulling out the internal furnishings and some of the insulation. Just nearby is an airconditioner unit thrumming away, providing cool fresh air to the inside of the cabin through a long yellow trunk.

Around the front of the aircraft we see a large portion of the cockpit roof lying on the grass. It was cut off in one piece after a crane had backed into the aircraft and smashed the front in. The cockpit door lies close by. Now we can see inside the cockpit, the seats are still there and so are the instruments. The nose wheel doors lie in the grass.

No wonder she sits funny on the ground, there is no undercarriage at all on this side, the right wing sits on bulks of timber.

We walk further around. Over on our left is an old lorry, wheel-less and with an open bonnet – I wonder what the story is there?

There is a Coles Mark V1 crane slinging one of the tailplane’s off while another wrecker’s man steadies it as it is lowered to the ground. Nearby by is an old caravan used by the wrecking crew as an office and canteen. In there the paperwork will be raised to enable the salvaged parts to be shipped out. We can now see that the wrecking company is called ‘Aero Salvage.’


© Pete Noyle 2003

We wait respectfully until the crane has finished its work and then hurry back to the runway. Now we can see where the missing undercarriage leg went, it’s in a case waiting for the paperwork before the lid gets nailed on.

Within a couple of days this once proud airliner will be just sheets of aluminium waiting to be made into kitchen foil and cake trays.

Take off your shrinking cloak.

Such is life!

I like this room. I like the simple white walls and the window high in one wall. The walls – they are so soft, it’s like having a mattress all around you. Where was I – ah yes, back to Bouncer Gonads. “Above the silvering sea in all her greenery” Shear poetry, I’ll read some more…………….

 

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