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So, I am still out here, and I have resumed working a bit on the Sopwith Camel. The "handsome hound" in Ken/Canute's words found another (permanent, I hope) home a few months back. I then did a couple other smaller modelling projects before getting back to the Camel after the first of the year. The picture below shows the current state. I am now through step 16 in the instructions, out of 47. The primary thing done since the last update are all the control cables for the elevator and rudder. The next step involves the tensioning cables that go diagonally across each of the rectangular spaces in the fuselage, 40 of them in all. Before proceeding with that, I need to decide if I am going to use the photo-etched turnbuckles or try to create something that is a little more three dimensional. I did a few experiments already though want to do more before I decide. There are probably about 100 of the things on the whole model. The stuff I did was not without trials and tribulations. There was one picture in the instructions that was clearly wrong....two parts were glued together, then a couple steps later when they were used, one of those two parts was oriented 180 degrees differently from the picture shown where you glue them together. I am also getting more and more suspicious of the order of the steps. For example, there was no reason to glue in the seat before running those control cables, and all of the cables went under the seat. It would have been much easier to glue in the seat after doing the control cables. Oh well, nothing too serious or too different from most other models.

The alclad line of paints also have chrome, though not sure if how well they work on brass. I've used their chrome just a couple times on plastic parts. They are also applied by air brush. For chrome you first apply a gloss black base layer, then apply the chrome, then apply a clear top coat, so it is not a quick and easy process. I think, but am not certain, this might be a little more durable than the molotow chrome markers. I've used that once or twice as well, using the marker instead of the refill/airbrush suggested above.

Happy New Year! Glad to see another Bluejacket America build here. I'll follow along to see how it goes. Looks like you are off to a good start. The "cut out the template and flip it over" is basically the analog version of what I did with the scanner and flipping over the image in photoshop as described in my build log. As for the inner surfaces of the frames....you might want to do at least a little work there. The bilge clamps and sheer clamps run along the inside of the frames and provide a lot of strength to the hull while fairing and planking. Having the inner surfaces smooth and fair may help with attaching the clamps to every frame which should help avoid accidental breakage of the frames.

Well done! Beautiful boat. I am sure your FIL will appreciate it very much.

Welcome to MSW! Former Raleigh resident and NC State grad here. I lived in Raleigh in the early and mid '90s.

Wow, congratulations on finishing this beautiful, intricate build! She's a real show stopper. I very much enjoyed following along.

Looking good! So I guess Nantucket blue is sort of a blue-gray color...I had to google it. I think that is a good choice. As for what to paint, it sounds like you are thinking about a scheme similar to what cathead had in his kit review linked above, except with the blue in place of the green. I think that scheme looks good, but you can double check the review yourself to see what you think.

I've never tried this, but seems like an airbrush would be perfect for this. You could attach the silkspan to the frame and then first just put water in the airbrush and spray the silkspan to wet it. Then after it is dry and shrinks to be tight, use the airbrush with diluted paint to apply the color.

It may depend on how you are holding your phone when taking the picture, assuming it is a phone pic. It will automatically include rotation data in the picture which in this case is wrong. It would be helpful to know what you are using to take the pictures and what you are using to create the post (windows pc? mac? creating it right on your phone?) See the pinned "uploading pictures" thread in the "How to use the MSW forum" category, particularly posts 15 and 16, especially if using a windows pc to create the post.

Nice progress. I think your stand is a huge improvement over the kit supplied cradle...it is detailed enough to add some interest to the display yet it does not hide the beautiful lines of the hull.

Wow, so many small details on this build. Really a lot to hold the viewer's interest. Looks great so far.

Greetings and welcome aboard from a fellow Texas resident.

Looks like you are off to a great start! I'll follow along....built this kit 6 or 7 years ago. If you have not seen the thread with the review of this kit by @Cathead you might find it useful. However, as mentioned in that thread, Bluejacket was possibly going to update the kit so maybe some issues have been fixed. Edit: Fix the link to point to the top of the review, not the negative comment from another user.

Beautiful! Really well done, and like all the upgrades you did with the lifeboat and brass railings and new prop, etc.

Just catching up a bit on this cool project. A nice mix of mechanical engineering and software. As for the "if (minsweep <= sweep <= catchend)", I am not an expert on the arduino language but have done C programming for more years (more decades actually) than I care to admit. That is syntactically valid. A condition evaluates to either 0 or 1, so in the second comparison, it is using either 0 or 1 instead of sweep, assuming it evaluates left to right. In other words, it replaces the first "minsweep <= sweep" with either a 0 or a 1, then checks if the 0 or 1 is <= catchend. So both of the <= have a number on both the left and right side, and no reason for the compiler to complain about syntax. Ok, sorry for the pedantry....carry on!

I think they heard you......

Beautiful result! Agree with you about the beauty of the natural wood in several different colors. It would have been a shame to paint it, so I think you made the right choice there.

Wow, what a cool idea, thanks for creating and sharing! The execution is great, both the models and the illustrations.

Looking really nice, and getting close to the end I guess. As for the white running rigging line supplied by Bluejacket, I just used regular brown fabric dye (Rit brand in the US) to dye the line. It was a little bit of a pain to have this extra step and then wait for the line to dry, but I thought the results were acceptable. Hmmm, looking at your model, I realize that my standard for "acceptable" may not be as high as yours. Oh, I see now it looks like you have some running rigging in place so I guess you've already resolved the issue.

Nicely done. Looks like you met the planking challenges head on and got a wonderful result!

I'll follow along as well, as I have done several bluejacket kits. Unless I am missing something, it looks to have a challengingly small number of frames/bulkheads. And the other build logs you mention do not progress to planking. Be interesting to see how you meet that challenge and any others that arise.

Allen...welcome to MSW from a former and possibly future Hoosier.

That reworked porch railing looks much better, definitely worth the effort!

You clearly have too much time on your hands! I'll follow along as well. I am confused though....I noticed the front of the box says "Solid Hull Construction for Easy Building!"

Off to a good start. I don't think I've seen a build log of this blue jacket kit.