Another 1:72 Sopwith double build: Revell Triplane and HR Models Pup - Pup also finished

[Brandy]

17 hours ago, TheBaron said:

As per usual the detailing and woodwork are exquisite Ian. I'm also thoroughly enjoying your explanantion of the various corrections required. 

Tony

Many thanks tony, glad you're enjoying it!

 

I did take some pics of the interior after fitting the control column and rudder pedals, but my phone seems to have eaten them....not the first time pics have disappeared! Anyway, the fuselages are now closed up!

 The Triplane cockpit opening was then adjusted by carefully adding a little Mr Dissolved Putty around the rear edge with a small brush, to bring it forward, and the rest of the leather combing was added in the same way.

 The underside of the nose also needed some attention...this is as it comes, but the recess needs to extend to each side, so that was opened out with a file.

 It is also a TERRIBLE fit, and will need some major fettling and filling to get it looking good...oh joy!

 Finally today, I looked at the cowling. It will need the vents drilled out, but my first job was to narrow the frontal opening as it is too wide. Opening a cowling up is not too bad, but narrowing it?

 I decided to cut a small circle with my circle cutter - here's a tip - rotate the cutter backwards! If you try to cut a small circle by rotating the blade in the correct direction, the blade pushes outwards and the radius is always too big! Do it backwards and scribe the circle rather than cutting it. (I won't say how long it took to figure that out....) Finally I managed to get a disc of around 10mm inner diameter and just under 1mm thick, which I placed into the cowling front, then glued with PlasticWeld.....

 1mm doesn't sound much, but it makes a huge difference! A little Mr Dissolved Putty and the next step will be marking and drilling the slots for cooling......

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[AdrianMF]

They are both coming along really nicely. The Triplane is quite a rough kit in places, but better than the Revell (or Airfix!) Camel.

 

Excellent tip about the cutter and how to get a thin ring. I have a vac build where I completely messed up the front of the cowling and your tip will be just the ticket!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brandy]

 Did I mention that the nose and under cowl was a bad fit?

 Not even close! So out with the .020" card. I added 2 pieces each side to level the bottom, then one more each side to reprofile the drip channel. I also added one of my rejects from yesterday's cowling work to clean up the firewall face....

 Some PPP and sanding, and we have a much more acceptable front end...

 Much better, I'm happy with that!

 I also tidied up the top of the cowling area which was pretty poor. More PPP to fill the sink marks and get rid of the slight dip which was visible in the profile view, and I think the nose is about right! Some minor details to take care of such as the carb air intakes and rescribing the access panels, but mostly done in that area now.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[pheonix]

Excellent updates Ian. You people really surprise me with the speed that you construct your models - this lot would have taken me a couple of weeks not a couple of days!

 

P

[Brandy]

16 minutes ago, pheonix said:

Excellent updates Ian. You people really surprise me with the speed that you construct your models - this lot would have taken me a couple of weeks not a couple of days!

 

P

Thanks P......it certainly helps that I only work 13 days a month and even when I do work, I'm home before midday!

 

Ian

[Brandy]

 The next step with the Triplane was to reskin the cockpit sides and turtle deck To do this, I stuck a piece of masking tape on the area I was working on and cut it to size. That was then stuck on a sheet of .005" card and cut out. The ribs/longerons were marked onto the back side with a ballpoint pen, with enough pressure to leave a mark on the outside face.

 It worked out ok for the Pup and the cockpit sides, but the rear decking on the Triplane was not the best....

 I really wasn't happy with the Triplane decking so off it came. I then realised that the rear of the fuselage was too narrow, so added some pieces of .010" card to the sides to thicken it. 

A little filler, some sanding, a little more filler, a little more sanding etc, etc, and the fuselage was thick enough and ready for reskinning..

 Two more attempts were made at the rear decking before I was happy with it, and then I applied another coat of white to see what else might need attention....

 There are still some small areas which need a little more filler and sanding, but I'm happy with the overall result, and after taking care of those tomorrow I can move on!

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[TheBaron]

On 06/04/2017 at 0:02 AM, limeypilot said:

Thanks P......it certainly helps that I only work 13 days a month and even when I do work, I'm home before midday!

You....you're not royalty are you Ian? Should I be calling you something more formal? 

 Your work on the turtle decking and cowling is exemplary in terms of the precision of  technique.

Tony

 

 

[clive_t]

Great work, I will have to remember that trick of scribing with a ball point pen, works a treat!

 

Out of interest, where do you get the scale drawings from for these models?

[Brandy]

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You....you're not royalty are you Ian? Should I be calling you something more formal? 

 Your work on the turtle decking and cowling is exemplary in terms of the precision of  technique.

Tony

 

 

 I do fly a King Air...does that count? Besides, I think being Royalty is historically far too dangerous an occupation for anyone wanting to have a little fun now and again. Them as don't have any fun at all seem to get a little upset with them as do, and that tends to get a little messy!

4 hours ago, clive_t said:

Great work, I will have to remember that trick of scribing with a ball point pen, works a treat!

 

Out of interest, where do you get the scale drawings from for these models?

All the plans I use are from Windsock Datafiles. The scribing trick was one I picked up from the master, Mr Harry Woodman. It works very well indeed, but you have to be VERY careful attaching the 5thou sheet so as not to melt it with the glue!

 

Ian

[stevehed]

Looking good Ian. I've used the scribing trick several times and usually use superglue gel. Even with that medium I managed to get a couple of dimples when the glue appeared to pull at the thin card. Keep the glue thin seems to be the way to go.

 

Regards, Steve

[DaveyGair]

Watching with interest to see how you do this rigging malarkey!

 

 

Davey.

[Brandy]

Thanks Steve!

Welcome aboard Davey....coming soon!

 

 I have been distracted by the garden these last few days, getting to that time of year again, thankfully! However, I do now have the "wood" done on the cockpit decking For those looking for ideas on how to do it, here is how I do it for small areas such as these.

 First, a coat of CDL, or any other light beige colour... (I used Misterkit Acrylic RFC CDL)

The second step involves the following: acrylic "leather", thinner, and a wide brush..

I dip the brush in the thinner, then the paint, and use a piece of scrap plastic to test it on to see that it's not too thin and covers as I want it. If it's too thin it will pool on highlights and run around corners on props or struts leaving dark blobs....too thick and it won't be translucent enough to give the right effect - just a matter of practice (and it took me 3 efforts to get this acceptable on these!) The trick is to do very thin coats and add more if necessary, advice I often find hard to follow myself! Don't try to work the paint as you would oils, it will cause dark streaks and/or remove too much paint leaving dark streaks and bare patches. Just make one, even, pass of the brush from one end to the other.

 It's still a little darker than I would like but it's acceptable.

 Stage 3...

 Again, apply with thinner on the brush first and don't add too much...and you should end up with a reasonable (in 1:72) wood effect

 Once it's tidied up around the edges by the surrounding colours that should look ok.

 In other news, I have removed the ailerons (all 10 of them) and am preparing those for pinning and reattaching

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[pheonix]

This paintwork and those turtle decks look great Ian. These two are turning inoto your usual little gems. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

P

[CedB]

Great wood effect Ian - bookmarked!

Not 'my theme' but I'm here for the rigging tutorial like some of the others. No pressure then!

[corsaircorp]

Hello Ian

Ooookaaaaayyyyy ! And this building is supposed to be a kind of respite before to go back to the Muromets ?, Respect

I already enjoyed the muromets, and this is same magnificence !

Thank for the tip on wood paint, clever one ! I will give it a try.

May I stay in a corner and follow (take some lessons) the building ?

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[AdrianMF]

The wood effect looks nice.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brandy]

12 hours ago, CedB said:

Great wood effect Ian - bookmarked!

Not 'my theme' but I'm here for the rigging tutorial like some of the others. No pressure then!

Cheers Ced, welcome aboard! No pressure whatsoever.......

 

12 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello Ian

Ooookaaaaayyyyy ! And this building is supposed to be a kind of respite before to go back to the Muromets ?, Respect

I already enjoyed the muromets, and this is same magnificence !

Thank for the tip on wood paint, clever one ! I will give it a try.

May I stay in a corner and follow (take some lessons) the building ?

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

Of course you may, plenty of room for all!

 

Just a little update this time around....I added .020" x .040" strip where needed on the ailerons to reshape them after removal from the wings. The Pup ones didn't need any correcting, but because of the moulded gaps on the Triplane, I had to add strip to regain the correct dimensions.

 I have also opened up the rear fuselages on both, and added .016" brass rod for the stern posts....

 Those posts will help support the fins and tail skids. 

 

It looks as though I'm going to have to finish these two before getting back to the Muromets, I seem to have made my own noose! Oh well, all good fun!

 

Ian

[TheBaron]

Aaah. The patent LP wood process in action - I'd been waiting to see this again Ian. Lovely.

Tony

[The Spadgent]

Looking rather grand LP. I'm going to remember that ribbing effect, great idea also the wood looks very nice.

 

Johnny

[Brandy]

I have been a little distracted by the good weather and getting work done in the garden, but I have made some progress, mainly on the rear end of the Triplane....

 First I had to make the tail surfaces. I copied the plans, cut out the tail parts, and drew around them on .020" sheet. They were cut out, then carefully sanded to the exact shapes required with constant reference to the original plans....

 The horizontal stabiliser now fits nicely between the rear lip of the turtle deck and the tailpost....

 The next step was to correct a couple of small details on the rear fuselage. The Triplane has a quite distinctive tail arrangement, with a small lip in front of the tailplane, bringing the turtledecking up level with it. The front of the tailplane also sits on a small deck, and has adjustment at the rear for the pilot to set the angle of incidence. To achieve this, I added two small fillets of .020" x .030" strip to the sides of the fuselage, then filled them in with PPP. A small strip of .010" card was added just aft of the turtledeck for the front of the tailplane to sit on. A little more PPP to blend it all in and this is what I have now.....

 This is how the tail will sit....

 After drilling the tailplane and fin, and adding a couple of pieces of .016" brass rod, a quick trial fit showed that the fuselage was actually a tiny bit short. I removed the tailpost and added a couple of drops of CA to the rear of the upper and lower fuselage. When that was set, I replaced the tailpost. Another dry fit shows that it is now in the right place.

 
 As a result of moving the tailpost aft I now have to add a thin strip to the rear of the tailplane. I had though it looked a little narrow, and this explains why. I will trim a strip off the elevators and reglue it to the stabiliser, to move the join between the two pieces back to the correct place. I will also need to move the rear fin mount very slightly aft. Nothing too major, but it needs to be done to get it looking right.

 Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[Martian]

Coming along nicely Ian!

 

Martian

[The Spadgent]

Now that's! Proper modelling.

 

john

[CedB]

Seconded! 

[Horatio Gruntfuttock]

Following this build with great interest as I have a couple of these in the stash. Great skills shown there Ian.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I've come a bit late to this one, but some splendid stuff going on.  I've always had a huge soft spot for both Pup & Tripehound; I have the WNW RNAS Pup & Triplane kits in my stash (no doubt to be joined eventually by a Ship's Camel).

 

Respect to anyone who can do such effective, neat work on such an old kit in this tiny scale.  1/72 is too small for me at the best of times, but for wee aircraft like these two...