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After a very barren 2023 on the workbench, where I just couldn't get my act together and get in the right headspace to sit down and model for a few hours of an evening, I decided to scratch the balsa itch again, that's never far under my skin. I finished the ancient Matchbox Dornier at the very start of the year, and despite an accident at the final hurdle, recovered it and was really happy with the finished result. An Eduard Albatros III got started late summer, but never got off the ground. It's still on the bench waiting for me to get the shot of enthusiasm to continue. That's the only plastic kit started in 12 months! Why I couldn't enjoy hobby I love so much is beyond me, who knows what goes on in our heads though! I usually only build one kit at a time. I know not everyones cup of tea, but for an undisciplined builder like me it's really the only way to go. With these desperate measures I deciced to break that self enforced rule though. I very occasionally build balsa kits. Started when a good pal who helps me keep my Kombi on the road was buying some RC parts in the States, and saw a Guillows Nieuport in the bargain bucket bin, and thought it was up my street. I really enjoyed the whole build process, but the scale of these things just put me off building another. Then last year I spotted the DH Puss Moth @bigbadbadge made a lovely job of, and looked for one in a more forgiving scale to build for my clumsy fingers and eyes. No go, but hang on - West Wings do a flying balsa kit! That search sent me off on a balsa kit rabbit hole! While I was waiting for this discontinued kit to surface at an affordable price, the Camel popped up, and here we are. Built for display, and more or less out of the box, although I was always thinking how much I'd like to super detail one of these. The big Guillows kits are like a basic little kit scaled up, rather than the real thing, scaled down, if you know what I mean. I've seen better detailed pilots in 1/72 scale. But that's not the point with it, I just had fun for the several weeks it took over the kitchen table, and it reminded me what I love about building again. I did think if balsa kits are allowed on here? They don't really fit in? Anyway, forgive me, hopefully normal service will resume shortly. Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr Guillows Sopwith Camel by Mike, on Flickr

Wingnut Wings Sopwith F.1 Camel “Clerget” So having finished the Mk.VIII Spitfire it was time to decide what to build next. I don’t have too big a stash, unless you talk to my wife, so my choice is reasonably limited. I have mainly 1:48 kits, 1:72 is far too small for my tired old eyes, in the stash, in no particular order, I have a Tamiya Swordfish and a Lancaster, an Eduard Starfighter, a Revell/Monogram PBY-5A Catalina and B-26 Marauder, ICM Beechcraft C-45, Hobby Boss Sukhoi Su-17M4 Fitter-K, Hasegawa P-38J Lightning (with no instructions!?) and the beautiful 1:32 Sopwith Camel ‘Clerget’. The Lancaster, Catalina and B-26 are going to be “big beasts” and at the moment I’ve nowhere to display them, also the B-26 has been started, by my Father-in-law who’s since passed away so I want to “do something special” with the kit once I finish it, I just have to make up my mind what that will be. I was tempted by the P-38 but I can’t make up my mind if I should go for a NMF or a well-worn green and grey version? Also I was very tempted by the Starfighter but having a look at the Wingnut Wings plastic swayed it, the quality of the moulds is remarkable, so I can only butcher it! The kit has 5 markings: B3834 “Wonga Bonga” Manston Flight RNAS B3889 “B1” 70 Sqn RFC B3893 Sqn 9(N) RNAS B6289 Sqn RNAS B6313 139 10(N) Sqn RAF B7406 4 Sqn AFC I can’t resist “Wonga Bonga” apparently Wonga = Gotha, because of their distinctive engine sound and Bonga = smasher Another reason I chose this scheme is because it has the Sopwith factory detail on the tail and as I grew up near Kingston Upon Thames it has some personal (although tenuous) meaning to me. Last year I went to the show at Telford where I was lucky enough to meet Robert Lane who sculpted this figure I’ve never painted any figures, only one of the aircraft I've built has had a pilot?, so I thought I’d have a crack at this one, what can go wrong? I’m planning on taking my time building this, it'll be the most expensive kit I built, also the most detailed? I’ve never built a 1:32 kit before and everything I’ve heard about Wingnut Wings is positive so I want to enjoy the process as much as I can. As usual I’ll be starting with the cockpit until next time as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

Sopwith 2F1 Ship's Camel N6818 Do you know the Windsock Datafile 170 about the Ship's Camel? It contains a wonderful big color profile created by Ronny Bar. After Eduard released in June the new kit of the Ship's Camel in 1/48 as part of the new Camel series I had to built it immediately in that livre. As this marking is not part of the ProfiPack offering I had to mask it myself and used only some small stencils from the kit decals. Now it is finished so this is my model number 6 of this year. The last few days I made a wooden platform, and as I was able to finish the Camel today I had a bit of luck with the weather today to take outdoor photos at a lake. The following sets was used: 82173 Profipack Sopwith 2F.1 Camel 648725 Sopwith Camel 2F.1 Lewis gun (only the mounting, as the profile do not show a Lewis MG) 648677 Bentley engine 648660 Vickers Mk.I gun 648659 Camel seat 648674 Rotherham air pumps 3DL48038 Sopwith Camel SPACE The rigging was done using Gaspatch parts: RAF wire terminals and some turnbuckles of Type C. Additionally a lot of scratch work as usual in my projects. The airscrew, the outer struts and parts of the undercarriage are made from wood. Many parts are metal: undercarriage (soldered from brass), tail skid, inner struts, engine bearing and more. A detailed build log can be found at Scalemates. I guess this is one of my best models so far and I'm happy to have it in my collection now. And now have fun with the pics! The mentioned undercarriage: Cheers, Frank

"Lord Flasheart : The first thing to remember is: always treat your kite, like you treat your woman! Lieutenant George : How, how do you mean, Sir? Do you mean, do you mean take her home at weekends to meet your mother? Lord Flasheart : No, I mean get inside her five times a day and take her to heaven and back. Captain Blackadder : I'm beginning to see why the suffragette movement want the vote. Lord Flasheart : Hey! Any girl who wants to chain herself to *my* railings and suffer a jet movement gets *my* vote!" Right then lads! , and ladies for that matter....on to the next build, and the first of 2020!! As part of my Christmas haul, my brother gifted me the rather splendid Revell 1/48 scale Sopwith F.1 Camel.....I suspect that those in know on this fine forum is aware that this is basically a re-boxed Eduard kit (even has Eduard on the spru!) This is the first time I've build a string bag and any attempt at modelling rigging as well. I currently have MIG Ammo's 0.03mm rigging on order and on its way for later on. I did also read a lengthy post by a fellow member here on how to rig correctly. Most helpful, but I have forgotten whom it was, so my apologies. Anyways....one with the show! The kit in question and the splendid box art too! Full colour instructions too Lovely set of sprue's there.....the paint pots were for the previous build and have since been updated for the Camel. Some clear parts too for the wing inspection panels Nice little decal sheet for 2 Camel variants too. Variant 1 - of No. 139 Squadron, Villaverta, Italy July 1918 Variant 2 - of No. 73 Squadron, Ruisseauville, France July 1918 I'm not entirely sure which variant I will go for yet,...a decision for later on. To help with the build, I found this fine publication in "The Works" just before new years to help with the finer details on the kit too. So far with the build I managed to prep and paint the inner walls of the cockpit, which took a while and a very steady hand, as well as making up the oil tank for the engine bulkhead. I'll dirty this up a little prior to installation. Next up on the instructions was the engine build. I'll be doing some reading on this to ensure it is painted up correctly. Any hints, tips or Flasheart quotes....all welcomed!

I am building a WnW USAS Camel with the 160 HP engine and am getting to the end of painting. I thought this would be a simple question to answer, but I can't figure out where the exhaust (and the associated staining) for a rotary engine should go. I know the whole engine rotates, so I assume the exhaust just blows straight into the engine bay, but where does it go? Looking at the cowl there are two square ports that could be vents other wise there is the large hole at the bottom. This is a first WW1 build for me, so any advice from the Britmodeller community would be great. Many Thanks Yeoman

Hi everyone, Sopwith Camel bracing wires for Wingnut Wings kit off to the printers for test shot. Thanks for looking

It's been a while since I posted a new project due mainly to the fact that I've been working away from home during the week so not much opportunity for model building. I've been wanting to get my teeth into something challenging so decided to have a shot at the Wingnut Wings Ship's Camel. I've quite a few WNW kits in the stash at this stage but this will be my first attempt at building one. 2018-01-03-21.37 by Martin Fay, on Flickr My first task was to experiment with wood effect finishes. I took some old, out of date business cards and gave them a blast of primer followed by a base colour. I did one each of Tamiya XF-55: Deck Tan Tamiya XF-59: Desert Yellow Mr Hobby H4: Yellow Mr Hobby H37: Wood Brown Mr Hobby H329: US Navy Yellow I then applied Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna to each giving me 15 sample colour swatches to choose from for the desired wood effect. 2018-01-03-21.24 by Martin Fay, on Flickr I know, I know; I'm worse than the missus choosing finishes for a new kitchen!

I've been working on this one for the last couple of months, but it's a loooong term build, so I've still got a long way to go with it! It's the 1/16 kit from Model Airways. Here's some of the progress I made so far Putting together the wing ribs (each one needs capping with strips of wood): These are then pinned into position: Leading edge and wing tips are added next: Then the trailing edge, and compression bars are added So far the only modification I made was to replace the compression bars with wooden parts (including brass mounting points for all the internal rigging), and reshape the wingtip to match the plans properly (shown below- you need to do this to avoid problems with joining it to the leading edge).

The camel has always been my favourite WW I aircraft. perhaps it was all those Biggles books as a kid :D.. So when WNW finally released a Camel (or 5) I figured it was time to build 1. This kit will be a number of firsts for me 1st WNW Kit First WW I kit First 1/32 kit I've got a nice pilot figure from blackdog which I'll try to paint to a reasonable standard. Other Aftermarket is a Barracuda seat, eduard steel belts and HGW Seat belts I've chosen the Australian Option (flown by a Kiwi) , purely as it will be easier to get rid of when I eventually want to move it from the cabinet. After a week or so here's where I'm at I realise stuff all of this will be seen I wanted to try out some techniques. The seatbelt is from HGW - it does look great but the pieces split easily when bending them, which was annoying. I've since found out that this was backing and should be removed.. Perhaps HGW should have added that little piece of info in the instructions .. I just glued it back together The Seat is from Barracuda Studios and the casting is amazing... But I don't think I'd bother using one again because the kit seat is already pretty nice, most of the seat is covered in the seat belt and the whole thing will be buried in the aircraft when I put the fuselage together. Wood effect is oil paints over Tamiya. I really enjoyed doing this and like the effects you can get. Details are painted with mainly Vallejo. Instrument panel is from the kit. The instruments are decals and the glass effect is done with drops of UV activated glue. I also added some extra copper wire to extend some of the pipelines. Rigging is Ezy line and invisible mending thread, I should have used plastic rod.... Turnbuckles are just paint.

The latest 2 kits in Revell's "British Legends 1918-2018" series of kits celebrating 100 years of the RAF are now in stock. First up is the 1/48 Sopwith Camel based on the Eduard kit The other new arrival is the Eurofighter Typhoon of 29 Squadron in battle of Britain markings.

Hello everyone. Here's my latest - Wingnut Wings excellent Le Rhone engined Camel, featured in the latest issue of Model Airplane International. Haris

Sopwith F.1 Camel Sets for Wingnut Wings 1:32 Eduard Wingnut Wings recent release of six different Sopwith Camel kits seem to have been very well received by the modelling community, judging by the comments around the internet and the number of builds that have appeared on Britmodeller alone. Eduard have now released some neat little set to complement these kits, which will be useful on all six of the Wingnut Wings releases. It must be pretty difficult to come up with items that will improve a Wingnut Wings kit, as they are already very complete. However, Eduard have chosen wisely here and provided some very useful items. 32911 Sopwith F.1 Camel. One area that proved to be really fiddly on my first Camel build was adding the control wires to the rudder pedals and joystick. It is do-able with ‘invisible mending thread’, but the challenge is getting them all ‘double’ and neatly lined up. Eduard have provided etched versions, already correctly spaced, thus making this job simplicity itself. For other areas in the cockpit have a fine etched throttle assembly to replace the one molded on part A26, the port interior frame. The seat in the full size Camel had a woven wicker back piece, with a noticeable band of exposed ‘X’s of framework along the central part. Due to molding limitations part A34 does not have the gaps, but rather is a solid piece. The Eduard fret provides a replacement that will need to be rolled to a semi-circular shape and added to the rounded edging of part A34, once it has been cut from the solid plastic wicker work. The seat is then finished off with a very nice set of pre-painted seat belts, with very fine detail that I find almost impossible to paint by hand. Moving to the exterior, a very complete and moderately complicated looking bomb rack is provided. Some bending and folding is required, so a ‘hold and fold’ type of tool will probably be needed to help with shaping all the components. The plastic one in the kit is already an impressive piece of molding, but this etched version will no doubt give you a very fine and delicate rack. I expect it would look best if displayed without bombs loaded on, in order to show off all the fine detail. One of the best things on the fret is the tiny 5 bladed propeller vanes that fit on the bombs, to arm them as they fall. These are not on the WnW etched fret, so it is great to see these really useful items here. They would be almost impossible to scratch build, and almost all photos I have seen of cooper bombs have them fitted. If you are going to build a ‘bombed up’ Camel, then these alone probably justify the purchase of this set, with all the other items being a bonus. Finally, we get some very delicate little brackets and pulleys to go under the clear inspection panels in the wings. There are some molded in the kit wings, but these will make painting them a lot easier as you can do so before fitting them. You’ll need to scrape the kit detail away first though. A very well thought out set that provides some useful items that are either not in the original kit (Cockpit control wires, Bomb vanes), or will improve the kit parts (Throttle, Seat back, Bomb rack), or just make things easier (Seatbelts, Bracket/pulley details). You could probably use this fret to enhance more than one model, particularly if you purchased an extra set of a pair of seat belts to go with it (see below). I am not a fan of using etched brass for its own sake; rather I like to see it used where it is the appropriate material for the job. Happily this set does exactly that, and will definitely enhance any of the 6 Wingnut Wings Camels. Especially those bomb vanes! 33170 Sopwith F.1 Camel Seatbelts. I have often said that there seems very little that Wingnut Wings could do to improve their kits, but one aspect would be pre painted seatbelts. You do get a set of etched seatbelts in all WnW kits, but they are plain brass and need priming and painting. A pair of these is supplied here, appropriate for all the Wingnut Wings Camels (you did buy more than just one didn’t you?). They are virtually the same as the ones on the bigger fret mentioned above, with the same fine detail that is almost impossible to hand paint. JX202 Sopwith F.1 Camel Mask set. This die cut set of items comes on Eduards usual yellow kabuki tape. It will mask all those awkward areas such as the clear parts of the windshields (all three types - Parts C1, C2, & C3), the clear pulley inspection hatches, propeller boss, and the tyres. These are always handy sets to have in and if you are careful you can often use them a second or third time. I would advise gently burnishing the edges down with the tip of a cocktail stick, and spraying paint with an airbrush if you can. Spray or brush the paint lightly from on the mask to the model, and not the other way around, or you risk building up a ridge of paint along the mask edge, or worse getting paint creeping under it. Conclusion. A very nice set of three ‘extras’ that will be genuinely useful, and perfectly complement the gorgeous Wingnut Wings F.1 Camel range. Review sample courtesy of

Anyone familiar with these particular markings, or by chance have this book to look it up? Specifically trying to figure out the appearance of the first victory scored by the Sopwith Camel (N6347), as flown by Alexander MacDonald Shook on June 5th, 1917. regards, Jack