Fokker D.VIII

[Stephen1918]

I'm still thinking of the Polish-Russian war. This is the Fokker D.VIII, which was released during the final months of WWI, and was used by the Poles and other nations, in the years after. The model is pretty much finished, now I'm working on the cockpit and the LODs. Then I have to do all the FM stuff - min/max extents, collision points, remove and detach nodes, etc. I'm planning to make a German skin, and maybe a camo.

 

[JulioJunqueira]

Another beauty! I can't wait.

[Wilches]

Wow!!!!! Wonderful news!!!!!!!

[whiteknight06604]

thank you!!!  After all these years nothing gets me more excited than seeing new aircraft being released for FE. 

[GKABS]

Really nice work 

[erafitti]

Thank you for your beautiful airplanes.

Un saludo.

[Coupi]

I didn't know this plane ! Many thanks ! 

[Wrench]

Just out of curiosity, was this supposed to be the plane that Moraine parasol was 'standing in' for at the end of "Blue Max"???

[Stephen1918]

2 hours ago, Wrench said:

Just out of curiosity, was this supposed to be the plane that Moraine parasol was 'standing in' for at the end of "Blue Max"???

As I recall, in "Blue Max" they were acting like a monoplane was a radical new concept and so it failed, and killed George Peppard, during the test flight. We of course know that monoplanes had been around since before the beginning of the war. The writers may have been thinking of the Fokker D.VIII when they made the film, but it was not named and it's failure in testing was not realistic.

[Silberpfeil]

No CGI back in the mid-'60's, so the Blue Max movie used a Morane-Saulnier MS.230 for the flight-test monoplane that Bruno Stachel used to create a smoking hole in the ground.  That aircraft model was primarily a two-seat trainer so for film-making purposes, the front cockpit had to be covered in order for it to remotely resemble a single seat fighter.  And among many other discrepancies, FE aficionados will immediately recognize the use of incorrect Luftstreitkrafte insignia for late 1918.  Not really sure why I had trailing in my archives (except maybe I was going to model it at some point)...

       

[VonS]

"...now show us some real flying Stachel." 

Looking forward to the Fokk. D.VIII Stephen - it will be a welcome update to the old (Laton?) model.

Cheers all & good flying in the FE2 skies.

[Stephen1918]

Yes, Laton made a Fokker D.8 almost 20 years ago. It used the old FE1 pilot and it used the cockpit from the Fokker D.7. Von Deutchmark made the skins.  I considered just making a cockpit for it, but it wasn't rigged to accept decals and all the skins were on one sheet. I'm using his FM as starting point, Ojcar will upgrade the FM when I get the model finished..

[Stephen1918]

I've slowly been making progress, I'm having to unlearn a lot of things I learned for 3D Max because Blender is different. But, the cockpit is nearly finished, still tweaking the skins. I've made a German skin and am working on a camo for Poland.

[whiteknight06604]

looks amazing....as always. Thank you for the hard work that went into this. 

[Silberpfeil]

Saw your note and pix sent to Mue, Stephen1918, and just wanted to chime in that your new Fokker E.V / D.VIII model looks great. Are you going to include blank templates with your package?

The reason I ask is Laton's D.VIII attracted several FE skin artists (among them quack74, JFM, von Deutschmark, matzeb, and Saltfiskur - sadly, names we don't hear much from anymore) with the result being a variety of late-1918 Luftstreitkräfte pilots flying that type could now be encountered in missions and campaigns.

       

[Stephen1918]

Yes, I'll include my skinning templates in the download, but I doubt if they will match von Deutschmark's layout so the old skins won't work on my model. We have some good FE skinners around here now, JulioJunqueira, Trotski, Eugene2, among others. Perhaps they will take up the task of creating new skins for the D.VIII.

[JulioJunqueira]

Amazing work Stephen!

I'm currently involved in a series of projects for the SF2, I also need to finalize a large number of readmes for the Dr.I Triplane series that I
painted some time ago and not release yet, but as soon as I finish them, I'll certainly paint your Fokker EV/DVIII. It, along with the Fokker Dr.I, are my favorite German planes from WWI. 

[Stephen1918]

The Fokker D.VIII has been uploaded. I included a small grenade loadout, three skins, and my skinning templates.

My thanks to Ojcar for making the FM and for test flying the plane.

My thanks to Mue for making the LOD Exporter utility for Blender.

[Flanker562]

I brought it up on the Staff forum, but the file announcement should be in  File Announcements not in eneral Discussion, it'll hopefully be fixed by Erik sometime in the future.

[Spear_Head]

On 3/27/2026 at 8:31 PM, Wrench said:

Just out of curiosity, was this supposed to be the plane that Moraine parasol was 'standing in' for at the end of "Blue Max"???

I read the book a long time ago, but if my memory serves me correctly, a Fokker D.7 biplane appeared in it. And Bruno Stachel survived the war; he didn’t die in a crash. But the filmmakers decided to make the ending as dramatic as possible. The plane in which Stachel crashed wasn’t named specifically, other than the fact that it was a monoplane. So, most likely, it would have been a Fokker D.8. But it could just as easily have been a Condor E.3/D.1, which looks more like the MS used in the film. 

Edited Tuesday at 03:19 PM by Spear_Head

[HvitiVikingurrin]

Since this isn’t related to the topic of working in Blender, I decided to start counting the rivets here. I did a little research and found that the Fokker does indeed have fuel tank caps. But they’re not directly in front of the pilot’s eyes—they’re on the sides of the cowling. This detail is rarely shown in aircraft schematics, but it’s clearly visible in these photos. This is a restored aircraft, but it’s been reproduced very well.

I think it would be great to add these details to your main model—such as cylinders protruding slightly above the cowling—and attach “ears” to them. What do you think of this idea?

As for the direct view from the cockpit, instead of the large crosshairs of the sight, a fuel gauge behind the air fairing would look more historically accurate. And, of course, it would be nice to add a small windscreen, which really should be there.

[HvitiVikingurrin]

And a few more photos...

 

[HvitiVikingurrin]

And just a little bit more )

[HvitiVikingurrin]

The windshield could vary in shape or even be missing entirely. But in old photographs, it’s present in most cases. The same goes for the fuel gauge cover...

You might be interested in these simple ways to improve the appearance of your 3D Fokker model and the view from the cockpit.

[Stephen1918]

I asked for this, didn't I? 

The fuel caps could be added to the skin rather than to the model.

I knew about the fuel gauge between the guns, but deliberately chose to place it in the cockpit to make it easier to see and so I could put a cross hairs for the gun instead. In the game, the pilot can't lean over to sight down the barrel like a real pilot can, so  sights at the end of the gun are just decorative, I was trying to make it more functional. I did spend a lot of time making the sight line up with where the tracers cross when you fire the guns. (In real life the guns would be fired individually to keep you in the fight longer.)

For the windscreen, I just plain forgot. I deleted it when I was adjusting the gun sight and never put it back. Were they able to make a windscreen without a frame in WWI, before plastics?