Model Airways Sopwith Camel 1/16 scale [COMPLETED BUILD]

Very well done, Dean. The model is superb and deserves to be displayed accordingly. The photos are also very good. Sharp and well exposed.
Just a thought, but when photographing, say a model, using an SLR or DLSLR and you want it all in focus without going too far away from the model, is with the camera in manual mode to choose an aperture of about F22 and a shutter speed of around 2 secs, with the camera mounted on a tripod. You may want to play around with the settings to achieve the results your'e happy with. There is a discussion on depth of field in the section on photography on this site "Discuss photographing your ship" under Forums.
Trevor
Thank you! I am just using my cell phone on auto focus. ;)
 
Dean, absolutely fantastic! I missed the grand finale when you posted it but I have to say that this is one of the best renditions of this kit I have seen on any forum - Brittmodeler, Finescale, or any of them - when I bought this kit I looked at many excellent builds to get an idea of what I was in for and you have produced a beautiful and very realistic result and not only that, you have provided a great tutorial for other builders to follow! Your skill is really on display with this one - the closer you look, the better it gets! Just an awesome result!
 
Dean, absolutely fantastic! I missed the grand finale when you posted it but I have to say that this is one of the best renditions of this kit I have seen on any forum - Brittmodeler, Finescale, or any of them - when I bought this kit I looked at many excellent builds to get an idea of what I was in for and you have produced a beautiful and very realistic result and not only that, you have provided a great tutorial for other builders to follow! Your skill is really on display with this one - the closer you look, the better it gets! Just an awesome result!
Thank you very much Lou! I appreciate the compliment and kind words. This kit was fun for the most part. I would have preferred resin detailed parts verses the castings. ;)
 
Hello Dean. Paul sent me this link. I’m sorry I missed your build. Was awesome to go through your log none the less. looks like you had fun and produced a wonderful Sopwith. Very interesting seeing some history and facts about an airplane I knew very little about. Those pilots were very brave chaps seeing that it was held together with wood and wire. Awesome Job. I will most certainly follow your next one. Cheers Grant
 
Hello Dean. Paul sent me this link. I’m sorry I missed your build. Was awesome to go through your log none the less. looks like you had fun and produced a wonderful Sopwith. Very interesting seeing some history and facts about an airplane I knew very little about. Those pilots were very brave chaps seeing that it was held together with wood and wire. Awesome Job. I will most certainly follow your next one. Cheers Grant
Thank you Grant! It was a nice change of pace, and I learned a lot about WW1 airplanes and rotary motors! ;)
 
Great job Dean. I too missed out on this build altogether while it was in progress, but really enjoyed seeing the final product, well done! Thumbsup
Of course, I'm so used to looking at model ships now that the cables on your Sopwith Camel's wings look like stays and I'm wondering whether you need to assemble a few ratlines to fill in the gaps ROTF
I'll be keeping an eye out for your Neiuport 28 build ....
 
Great job Dean. I too missed out on this build altogether while it was in progress, but really enjoyed seeing the final product, well done! Thumbsup
Of course, I'm so used to looking at model ships now that the cables on your Sopwith Camel's wings look like stays and I'm wondering whether you need to assemble a few ratlines to fill in the gaps ROTF
I'll be keeping an eye out for your Neiuport 28 build ....
Thank you Mark! I appreciate you looking in on my airplane build. I love them as much, if not more than ships. But don’t tell anyone! :p
 
Stage 1: Building the Engine & Propeller

So the first step is to build the engine. It is the 130hp Clerget 9B rotary engine.
Here is the real engine…
View attachment 290272

There is over 100 parts, all metal. Assembly is straight forward, however there is a lot of clean up of the castings due to flash, etc. so a lot of file work.
Then I did some washes with black and some dry brushing with antique silver, etc. I added a few small details, and chose to leave the push rods copper for contrast.
View attachment 290273View attachment 290274

Now I have to build the propeller and add the plug wires.


What technique did you come up with to get the plug wires through the tiny holes on the gear plate. I drilled them through but working the string from the cylinder side through is giving me fits.. Thinking of trying a toothpick with a dot of glue to catch the plug wire and then pull it through....not a lot of space there to work in.

Thanks for any tips.
 
What technique did you come up with to get the plug wires through the tiny holes on the gear plate. I drilled them through but working the string from the cylinder side through is giving me fits.. Thinking of trying a toothpick with a dot of glue to catch the plug wire and then pull it through....not a lot of space there to work in.

Thanks for any tips.
I used a very fine tipped set of tweezers. Grab the thread close to the end, leave about 3mm past the tip of the tweezers. Make sure the thread is perpendicular to the tweezers, and then push thread behind and through the gear plate. If you have to, you can stiffen the end of the thread with super glue. Then just cut that off after fishing through the hole. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks for the advice. the superglue helped a bit and I took a dremel to modify a set of tweezers. Having the proper tools always helps. Sometimes I get tunnel vision and don't always see the obvious solutions.
 
I cut 9 lengths of the provided black thread to install the plug wires. Each one going to 2 plugs.
I have a dowel and wood clamp as a makeshift motor stand. Actually works quite well. ;)
View attachment 290436

Looking at the back of the motor, I realized the intake runners were void of bolts on both ends where the flanges are…sigh. So I decided to add some bolt heads (simulated) using an old technique where I add a drop of glue with a straight pin, to be painted afterwards.
Below I added bolts to the upper flanges and started on the lower flange bolts…
View attachment 290437View attachment 290438

I used bright silver to add contrast, to help make them stand out.
View attachment 290439

I add the paint with a toothpick dipped into the jar of paint, so it adds more height and is a controlled drop which remains round. At least that’s my logic verses using a brush for this task.

Then I decided to dry brush a little antique gold on the intake runners closest to the flanges on both ends. This is where the most heat would occur, and attempts to simulate heat cycling after much use. Once again a personal logic, but at the same time makes the model more interesting visually. ;)
Before and after below…
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Now after being side tracked with adding additional detail (always happens!), I began adding the plug wires.
Here are the first 4, only 14 more to go!
View attachment 290442

And from behind…
View attachment 290443

The termination of the wires goes thru a hole, however I am certain this should not have gear teeth, but be a smooth diameter. I should have filed the teeth off prior to installation…sigh!
See you after I install the other 14 wires! :p
I was thinking same thing Dean, I'm at this point in the engine and it just don't seem right. If anything you would think it would have been milled at a u shape.
 
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