Sopwith Camel by gsdpic - Artesania Latina - 1/16th scale

[gsdpic]

When I posted the Clerget 9 cylinder rotary engine a while back, I mentioned that I also had and intended to build the Artesania Latina version of the skeletal Sopwith Camel in 1/16th scale.  I've now started on that build.  I don't really intend to do a full build log but will try to occasionally post progress pictures.  But I will start with some unboxing pictures.   The kit has laser cut parts (both plywood and solid wood), strip wood, cast metal parts, a bunch of photo etch stuff, some miscellaneous stuff, a poster and a CD.  It is missing a printed manual....that is on the CD in PDF form.  I am still getting used to that.  I've transferred the PDF to my iPad and have used that, but the danger is touching the iPad with a finger that has glue or paint on it.  Otherwise the contents of the kit seem to mostly be high quality, and the laser cutting seems to be well done, with a bit of char but no scorch marks.  Many of the laser cut parts are actually jig parts to hold the fuselage and wings during construction.

 

There's a lot of work ahead, but I have already started thinking about possibly doing some sort of diorama for this....e.g. displaying it on a grassy field with the front of a WW1 style hangar, perhaps with the engine I previously built displayed on a stand.  We'll see once I get to that point.  Who knows when that will be.

 

 

 

[gsdpic]

As mentioned, I have started the kit, and am on about page 18 (of about 270) in the instruction manual.  The build starts with a jig for the fuselage frames and then building up the fuselage.  And yes, 2 of the first 4 parts I glued together I did incorrectly.  But that is inconsequential I think.  

 

For the "required supplies" the instruction manual lists only CA but I have also been using wood glue for some of these bits.

 

Fuselage jig:

 

Frames around the cockpit and main wing spars.  Some of these frames are quite delicate and easy to break, as I have already done a couple times.  The photo etch pieces here I felt did not fit great as they were a bit larger than the wood piece that the wrap around.

 

 

Remaining frames in place, followed by front structure/firewall:

 

[Tim Moore]

Hi Gary glad to see you doing this beauty - looks like a pretty sweet project. I actually had this pegged as my next build but inexplicably careened off track and decided to try an italeri kit of a Grand Prix car for something different. I’ll be watching with interest to see how you make out, Diorama sounds like a cool idea.

[ccoyle]

Great! I love these large-scale models. Ever thought about covering half with fabric?

[gsdpic]

11 hours ago, Tim Moore said:

Hi Gary glad to see you doing this beauty - looks like a pretty sweet project. I actually had this pegged as my next build but inexplicably careened off track and decided to try an italeri kit of a Grand Prix car for something different. I’ll be watching with interest to see how you make out, Diorama sounds like a cool idea.

 

I think you and I have similar ideas of what we like to build.   Are you going to do a log of the Fiat, or at least post a few pictures when finished?

 

11 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Great! I love these large-scale models. Ever thought about covering half with fabric?

 

Thanks, I think I'll leave it completely naked.  As I recall, one of the build logs of the Model Airways Camel did that half covered/half uncovered look.

[gsdpic]

Did a bit more work on the tail wing and some supports around the cockpit which I did not capture in a photo.  That completes most of the wood work for the fuselage.  I also used the airbrush to lightly spray on some "Golden Oak" stain and also some light brown Tamiya paint just to give the bass wood a bit more color and to hide some of the laser cut char which I had also partially filed off.  The kit instructions suggest leaving the char but painting over it with a "light wood" color.  I am very much enjoying using the new air brush.

 

The next steps are mostly painting some of the smaller metal bits for the cockpit controls, some engine bits, fuel and oil tanks, etc.  At least some of that work means waiting for the UPS delivery of some paint.  I may skip ahead and do some other subassemblies if I get impatient with that wait.

 

 

[Tim Moore]

11 hours ago, gsdpic said:

 

I think you and I have similar ideas of what we like to build.   Are you going to do a log of the Fiat, or at least post a few pictures when finished?

I plan on doing a summary log once I have some of the major elements started. Right now I’m waiting on a magnifier light delivery - there are some incredibly small screws etc that I think would be difficult to work with unaided. 

[Old Collingwood]

Fantastic build,  so love these early planes  and seeing them at Airshows  so brings home  how delicate they were.

 

OC.

[Tim Moore]

On 1/2/2022 at 10:18 AM, gsdpic said:

 

I think you and I have similar ideas of what we like to build.   Are you going to do a log of the Fiat, or at least post a few pictures when finished?

 

Gary: your sopwith build inspired me to pick up a couple of these small kits I found on sale, to fill in the gaps this winter after the checkered flag drops on my Fiat build!

[gsdpic]

First, thanks all for the likes.  

 

OC....yea, delicate is a good word.  I cannot imagine flying one while being shot at.  Something about sitting in a wicker seat surrounded by sticks and fabric would not give a lot of security.

 

Tim....had not heard of "Dancing Wings Hobby".  A little googling showed me more about those kits, looks interesting.  Looking forward to seeing some pictures of the Fiat.

Edited January 9, 2022 by gsdpic

[gsdpic]

Well, Tuesday came and it was back to work full time....that seems like a bad habit I need to break one of these days

 

With that, progress slowed a bit.  The next steps in the instructions were mostly for assembling and painting some of the metal bits around the cockpit, including fuel and oil tanks.  I am still waiting on some Alclad Aluminum paint that I want to try on the tanks, but have painted the other bits.  I then skipped ahead through the instructions looking for other small subassemblies to build and paint.  So here's what I have:

 

Miscellaneous tiny bits:

 

Seat

 

Guns.  I did some dry brushing with silver, might have overdone it a little bit.

 

Tail skid:

Rudder and elevator:

 

And the instrument panel.   The kit includes some decals for instrument faces but I have not applied them yet.

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by gsdpic

[mtaylor]

9 minutes ago, gsdpic said:

First, thanks all for the likes.  

 

OC....yea, delicate is a good word.  I cannot imagine flying one while being shot at.  Something about sitting in a wicker seat surrounded by sticks and fabric does would not give a lot of security.

 

Tim....had not heard of "Dancing Wings Hobby".  A little googling showed me more about those kits, looks interesting.  Looking forward to seeing some pictures of the Fiat.

Don't forget the "no parachute" as it was "unmanly" nor that fuel tank on many were either rigtht in front or right behind the pilot.  

[mtaylor]

2 minutes ago, gsdpic said:

I also have a picture of the instrument panel but I am being hit by the dreaded "error 200" and cannot upload it.  I've tried multiple times, resizing and resaving the image but it won't go through.

 

Try going back and hitting "edit" after "submitting" when this happens.  Or just open a new post for those that won't go up.

 

BTW, I like the weathering on guns.  They appear to have seen some usage.

[gsdpic]

Just now, mtaylor said:

Try going back and hitting "edit" after "submitting" when this happens.  Or just open a new post for those that won't go up.

 

BTW, I like the weathering on guns.  They appear to have seen some usage.

 

Thanks, yea after I hit submit I went back to look at the thread about that problem to see what the solution....doing the edit worked for me.

[CaptnBirdseye]

Good to see you coming on strong with this Gary. I, too have it in my stash, but got waaaaayyyyy to many on the go to start another one yet 😀

I'll follow alng and see if i can steal, er i mean borrow any tips and tricks 

[yvesvidal]

Beautiful build and great model. 

 

Yves

[gsdpic]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and the likes, and for just looking in.

 

I received the Alclad aluminum paint and was pleased with it on the fuel tanks and oil tank.   Though especially looking at these pictures I think I need to try again to fill in that seam on the oil tank and repaint it.

 

Otherwise, I mostly glued in some of the cockpit bits that I previously painted and took the big step of removing the fuselage from the jig.   I am mostly through the first 10 steps out of about 50 in the instructions.   The next steps have a lot of rigging of sorts, for both the control lines and the tension wires.

 

I did run into one issue that I hope does not present problems down the line.  The two vertical pieces by the cockpit were a bit too short, indicating the upper and lower lengthwise stringers were a bit too far apart.  I knew that the lower one was not fully seated into the slot, though I did not think it was off by much.   I ended up putting a new piece of the 1.5mm square wood stock on top of the lower stringer and then placing the vertical pieces on that.   You can see the extra piece on the third and fourth pictures below.   My fear for the future is that the metal cowling pieces might not fully meet up, there may be gaps between the panels.  We'll see.

 

Oil tank:

 

Gravity tank:

 

Cockpit and fuselage pictures:

[gsdpic]

Well I was a bit ahead of myself, there were one or two more steps before I had to worry about any rigging.   First, I did redo the oil tank to better fill in the seam.  It is a bit of an improvement but still not perfect.  I then put the four horizontal wood pieces on each side of the cockpit.  This was affected a bit by those ill-fitting vertical pieces, but none of that will be visible from the outside once I put on the front fuselage panels.

 

Then it was on to the tail, adding the tail skid, the elevator, and the rudder.  That all went fairly well, though the elevator was a bit of a tight fit between the tail and the vertical part of the rudder.

 

And so now I am through step 13 in the instructions, with the next thing being the control line for the elevator, then the rudder pedals and all the attendant control lines for them.

 

Oil tank:

 

Cockpit

 

Tail assembly:

[CaptnBirdseye]

Looking good 👍

[popeye the sailor]

the framing looks excellent........well done!  

[gsdpic]

Thanks all for the comments and the likes and to those who just looked in.

 

So, does this look at all like 1/16th scale wood?   As you can see in the very first post, there are some exposed wood panels.  Artesania Latina sells a photo etched mask/stencil to give a wood grain affect but I thought I'd try by hand, as I am not sure how available that stencil is.  I started with the two pieces below, on the side that is on the inside of the cockpit so will not be very visible.   I just airbrushed on some Tamiya flat earth, then used some stiff bristle brushes to add streaks of a few other brownish colors, all Tamiya acrylics.  I've also heard of people using oil paints as the long dry time allows more time to make streaks and such in the paint.

 

Any comments , critiques, and especially suggestions would be very welcome, even if it is just "buy the stencil and use that".

 

[Canute]

It looks good for the wood effect. Good technique.

[mtaylor]

Looks like wood to me.  I wouldn't bother with the stencil.

[BobG]

Wonderful work, Gary!

[gsdpic]

11 hours ago, Canute said:

It looks good for the wood effect. Good technique.

 

5 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Looks like wood to me.  I wouldn't bother with the stencil.

 

4 hours ago, BobG said:

Wonderful work, Gary!

 

Thanks all for the votes of confidence, that helps.  I did try a slightly different technique tonight on a scrap bit of plastic but did not like the results quite as well.  I want to practice a few more times but I think I'll need to get more of the "flat earth" Tamiya paint.  I am doing this now because the next steps involve the piece of the cowl on the underside, and I'd like to paint all of the cowl pieces at the same time, as I plan to mix a little black or brown with red, so will not be using the color straight out of the bottle.

 

[gsdpic]

Thanks all for the comments and likes. 

 

I did not make a lot of progress this week, though I did work on painting the various metal cowling bits.  I toned down the wood look a bit for these.  For the metal parts, I first primed with grey primer, then used the normal Tamiya X-7 red, followed by a light coat of a mix (about 70/30) of X-7 Red and XF-9 which is a dark reddish brown color, using the air brush.  I've not coated the parts yet, thinking I may add a coat of semi gloss clear of some sort.  Also the "wood" pieces have a raised edge that you can see in the pictures.  The pictures in the instructions just show those as brown/wood but thinking about maybe doing something else with the edges....red, silver, black, I don't know.  Anyway, here are the pictures.  Oops, I see now I should have been more careful and consistent with the white balance adjustment. 

 

[gsdpic]

Just a quick note that I am still here, though some other projects and life in general have gotten a bit in the way of late, so I have not been making any progress on this project.

 

[Artesania Latina]

Great work Gary, we will love to see it finished.

[popeye the sailor]

that is the way of modeling Gary........no one is immune.   I've been drowning in the same fate.......probably the reason I've come to combining modeling and computer time    beautiful work on wood simulation and paint......gonna look great when you get the cockpit assembled! 

[gsdpic]

Thanks everyone for looking in and hitting the like button and commenting, despite the lack of recent progress.   The pic below is a large part of the explanation for why I have not made progress for the last 2 months.  It's a long story, and I am still only claiming to be the "foster dad", but we'll see.   And I swear this is not just a cheap ploy to get more likes.