This year has undoubtedly been the "year of the DVII" ! The building of Peter Rake's prototype 1/6 DVII took nearly 11 months with only a few breaks to fix damaged models.........
Why did it take so long? I guess the devil is in the details....I had been fascinated by the amount of up-close info available on the DVII and once started, I found it hard to resist! Still not 'museum scale' or championship stuff but it stretched most of my modelling skills considerably. Getting the concept of 'layers of detail' in my head was critical. Some stuff just had to be done before major assemblies were finished, then decisions made about what could and couldn't be added after the model was assembled and finished....the build thread tends to reflect that.
Unfortunately, the more TLC the Fokker got, the more precious the model became and consequently the greater my nervousness about flying it!

Winter is never a great time here in eastern Australia - August through September is always windy but odd lulls occur between fog/frost dissapating and the wind starting. One of those lulls gave me an opportunity and as always, my fears and nervousness were unfounded. The Fokker D.VII flies beautifully - plenty of discussion in the build thread:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1438691

Big question is what's next? Although I'd sworn to give myself a break from the stress of prototype builds, I approached Peter for something a bit simpler as a task to research and build - he had a civillian model that appealed to me so next winter will probably see another Rake design flying.
Meanwhile, I still have a Lysander and a SPAD to finish so no rest for the wicked.........