crookedmouth

noooo! Stop right there Martin! That way lies madness.

I'm calling the first Pup done. The wheels are screwed and there's a strange mark on the tailplane that may be toothpaste (!?!) but I'm happy enough and hopefully Pup #2 will be the better for this one.

Im afraid I have neglected this build badly Foz. Those 50 cals though. Awesome!

yes thanks. and had a good scratch too ;-) pics to follow.. of the Pup, not me scratching.

CA glue, Winenut. Pulled finger tight for a few seconds till it sets. But be careful! I ended up with a 1/144 Sopwith Pup superglued to my fingers. Which makes scratching your bum a bit tricky...

having spent a few weeks contemplating the build and doing stuff, I recently picked the models up again and got No1 Pup rigged and decalled... While the kit comes with parts and decals for two planes, there is only one fin flash , so Im scratching Chin Chows using scrap decal. Ive seen beter renditions of this kit, but Im pleased with progress.

Well I will now. There was a sudden but not entirely unexpected twang! and now the Lewis is eminently accessible Back to the drawing board, Hoskins

So today's installment... setting the struts. Getting the top wing on... ...and then pull through the wires. Now looks like it's grown a healthy crop of... ahem... short and curlies And guess what? I forgot to paint the bloomin' Lewis gun

Hole punch winscreens! D'OH! I wish I'd thought of that. I'm nicking your idea and caling it mine

Beautiful. A real masterpiece.

And last of all, because rigging the so-and-so wasn't hard enough, I now discover that Valom want me to manufacture the exhaust stubs myself. Thanks for that. And the PE painted ready for that make-or-break moment...

Rigging a 1/144 scale model biplane is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. First you have to ream out all the holes. Next, thread the fishing line through each one. Then slap a coat of paint on her and pull it all tight

Johnny - mind-numbingly, disappointingly sane, I'm afraid. I find the process quite relaxing... actually, I think I see what you mean. Wibble.

Lovely work and a gorgeous colour scheme. I've found it's not too hard to scratch the seats for old planes like this from spare plasticard. A small "D" does for the seatpan. Cut out a slightly larger "D" and wrap it round the curved edge of the pan to form the back. Makes a surprisingly convincing basket seat if you get the proportions right..

No. Not normally - I'm not sure I'd trust it, to be honest. But then There's the easy way of doing it and the "Crookedmouth Way" :-)

That's never a first build! :-) I've been building for quite a few years no and I wish I could turn 'em out looking half that good. There are some pretty advanced skills on display there Fleet

..or just foolish? To be honest, so far it's no worse than doing it in 1/72 and it's probably a lot easier than that B17 of yours. The rigging ain't the hard bit. The tricky stuff is setting the top wing onto the struts and then having to sit there holding it all in place until the glue sets. Years of alcohol abuse doesn't help with THAT, I can tell you. Seeing as the interplane struts are photo-etch and I've never really got on very well with PE, I'm relly not looking forward to that bit.

Like two hedgehogs mating... ...carefully.

You and me both mate. ;-)

I say. This is interesting.

Spiders? We don' need no steenkin' spiders This can only end in tears

Tonight... Made sure the lower wing was square to the fuselage (there's a lot of slop in the fit) in an old-school stylee Trying to reposition the ailerons. The plastic is quite brittle and they snapped off. Fortunately the break was clean, so a little glue solved the problem. Hint: instead of simply bending the ailerons into place, soften the hinges with a little glue and they'll bend without snapping. Hint 2 - those photos are about 3x actual size

Nicely done. Good work on the rigging. It's a real rat's nest isn't it?

I built her a while ago. Not as nicely as yours though. But there's something about the kit that I don't quite like. The whole thing, built up looks too big for it's scale... ...or is it just me?