Scratchbuilt Sopwith Dolphin in 1/72nd scale

[Quentin]

Well, it's taken all weekend but I've finally got the upper wings on. This time, the one-piece strut construction should ensure a much stronger assembly. And I've managed to avoid getting blobs of glue all over the wings. And I've convinced myself that there is slightly less of a gull-wing effect. I have to face the fact, though, that all the wings are a bit warped and there's not a lot I can do about it. If I ever do another project like this (very unlikely, it has to be said) I'll have to work out how to make straight wings.

Anyway, here's how it's looking:

You may have noticed that there is one strut missing. The reason for that is that it's the one with the pitot tube, and I'm still working out how to represent the mounting bracket. I had a go at hand-painting it a week or so ago but the result was rubbish. So today I got round to drawing up a tiny little decal in TurboCAD and tomorrow I'll print it off on a laser printer.

Meanwhile, I've been working on the wheels, which I borrowed from an unbuilt Salamander. And here I've run into another slight snag. The machine I'm building had small white circles on the hubs and It's proving surprisingly difficult to reproduce them. Simple enough, I thought.Just punch a small hole in some masking tape, centre it over the hub and spray a few coats of white. But it was no good. The hole made by the punch was a bit ragged, and I got a lot of seepage under the masking tape. So I'm trying to think of alternative techniques. One idea is to cut the mask out of plastic card, neaten it up with some fine wet and dry, and then use a permanent marker with white ink. Any suggestions are welcome.

On the whole, though, I'm beginning to feel I'll eventually see an end to this never-ending project. Or have I said that before?

Edited August 20, 2012 by Quentin

[Jessica]

Punch out a disk of white decal trim film?

[Quentin]

Hmm, yes, I did think of that, but decided that it wouldn't want to conform to the conical shape of the wheel. On the other hand, there's always Microsol...

I might try it on a wheel from the spares box.

[airhead]

Yes that would work or you could try to punch trough scotch tape, the low tack variety.

The gull wing effect will probably only be visible for the very critical observer in a full frontal view.

(But you know it's there of course )

[Quentin]

Talking about wheels, here's a bit of nostalgic indulgence. Rummaging through the spares box, I came across something I didn't realise I still had. It's all that's left of a SPAD XIII I built some time in the 70s for wargaming purposes, representing a machine from the US 94th Squadron. Close study shows that I drew the chequerboard pattern with a pencil and then filled in by hand. I wouldn't attempt anything like that now. (By the way, it was that pattern all over the plane).

... the point being, I suppose, that in those days I was much bolder, didn't obsess over tiny imperfections, and had much more fun in the process. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

Yes that would work or you could try to punch trough scotch tape, the low tack variety.

The gull wing effect will probably only be visible for the very critical observer in a full frontal view.

(But you know it's there of course )

Yes, that would be worth a try. Thanks.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Quentin

[Martian]

It that fails PM me with the diameter of the white rings. I might just have something. Well, I have got something but whether it will do the job on your wheels remains to be seen!

Martin

[Quentin]

It that fails PM me with the diameter of the white rings. I might just have something. Well, I have got something but whether it will do the job on your wheels remains to be seen!

Martin

OK, thanks!

[Quentin]

Nearly a year ago, I decided to make the parts for an undercarriage.

First, after drawing up a cutting guide in TurboCAD, I cut some lengths of aerofoil section to the right angle using my miniature guillotine and glued them together. While I was at it, I made the split-axle bar from lengths of plastic rod and sanded to an aerofoil shape:

Back into the guillotine to be cut to length:

Then I drilled out the axle slots and added some detail:

You can see where this is leading, can't you?

And that is the last really fiddly job over with, I'm glad to say. You can see, incidentally, that I've had another go at pinning the tail on the Dolphin. I've realised during this build that CA glue isn't really the ideal adhesive for all occasions and is really the wrong choice for joining large parts edge-on. So this time, I took the trouble to scrape away the paint from the joins, and used good old tube cement instead and then left it overnight before doing any more work.

While I'm at it, I've finally got the wheels sussed out. It was just a matter of doing what I had been doing, but better. So I had a rummage in the tool cupboard, found a whetstone, sharpened the hole punch I had been using and got nice clean holes. I also took the advice of "Airhead" and used Scotch tape instead of Tamiya masking tape. This looks less stretchy to me, so less likely to distort. But to make it easier to see what I was doing while positioning the tape, I actually punched a hole through a layer of Tamiya and Scotch. Then I peeled away the Tamiya tape once it was all in position.

Anyway, here are the wheels:

Tomorrow, I will start work on the remaining details:

• Tail Skid
  
• Propeller
  
• Lewis Guns
  
• Control Horns
  

While I'm doing this, I will think about how to do the Palmer cords. I'm not very good at freehand painting, so will probably go for masking and airbrushing again.

More soon hopefully.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Quentin

[keefr22]

Almost there Quentin....

Keef

[p-26luvr]

Quentin, really superb modeling. I only dream of being able to do such fine work.

For future reference, Dullcoat & Glosscoat are laquer based not varnish.Put on too thickly they can cause paint & decals to wrinkle, & clear parts to fog over. It can also change the color of the model. I did a Hasegawa 1/48th scale F4U-7 in French Suez colors with the yellow & black stripes. Dullcoat changed the gloss sea blue to a very dull dark greyish blue with very little blueish effect.

Part brand etch-brass have WW1 seats of various styles, including wicker, in both 1/72nd & 1/48th scales. They look very realistic. I have used them in some of my models. The lazy modelers way out of that problem.

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR STICKING WITH THIS MODEL. Carl; T

[Quentin]

Almost there Quentin....

Keef

Yes, I can't believe how long I've taken over it. I'm looking forward to getting on with other projects.

Quentin, really superb modeling. I only dream of being able to do such fine work.

For future reference, Dullcoat & Glosscoat are laquer based not varnish.Put on too thickly they can cause paint & decals to wrinkle, & clear parts to fog over. It can also change the color of the model. I did a Hasegawa 1/48th scale F4U-7 in French Suez colors with the yellow & black stripes. Dullcoat changed the gloss sea blue to a very dull dark greyish blue with very little blueish effect.

Part brand etch-brass have WW1 seats of various styles, including wicker, in both 1/72nd & 1/48th scales. They look very realistic. I have used them in some of my models. The lazy modelers way out of that problem.

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR STICKING WITH THIS MODEL. Carl; T

Thanks for the tips. You're right about the wrinkling, as I can attest from experience. Luckily it only happened on a test piece. And you can see the effect on colour by the difference between the wheels (above, before Matt Cote) and the other bits. And luckily, I'm quite happy with the final dark colour - not sure how it works as an authentic PC10.

By the way, not wanting to get people's hopes up, can anyone recommend a good make of standalone display case? I have a couple from a company called The Showcase Company, which I'm quite happy with, but I don't think they're in business any more.

Edited August 30, 2012 by Quentin

[airhead]

It really looks like a Dolphin now it's on its feet. (although that sounds pretty weird )

As for the difference in colour. I think that only adds to the realism.

[Quentin]

It really looks like a Dolphin now it's on its feet. (although that sounds pretty weird )

As for the difference in colour. I think that only adds to the realism.

Yes, I always find that WWI subjects suddenly come to life a bit when you get them sitting up on their undercarriage. By the way, the wheels have a coat of Matt Cote now, so they match the rest of the plane. So much the worse for realism.

(I really like the finish of Matt Cote, as I've mentioned before. The only trouble is that it takes after the paint in that Professor Branestawm story, and never seems to get dry. I might try something different for my next project, if there is one, and while I'm at it, I might give acrylics a go.)

[keefr22]

I've found that Mattcote dries somewhat quicker if you thin it with cellulose thinners (but be wary of cellulose possibly attacking rubber o rings in your airbrush - I used an Aztec for years with no problems as they don't use seals, but melted one in my Iwata when I started to use that). I also think that stirring it for about 5 minutes with a bit of thin dowel in a dremel power tool seems to help in its drying.

Keef

[dekenba]

Really enjoying this build - it's the antithesis to the WNW kits.

[airhead]

Yes, I always find that WWI subjects suddenly come to life a bit when you get them sitting up on their undercarriage. By the way, the wheels have a coat of Matt Cote now, so they match the rest of the plane. So much the worse for realism.

I think nobody will question the level of realism you've achieved with this build.

Really enjoying this build - it's the antithesis to the WNW kits.

Yes but only in scale and the extra effort. In detail it is on par at least.

[Quentin]

I was hoping to have some real noticeable progress to report this weekend. As usual things have gone a lot slower than expected, but even though there hasn't been much in the way of results, there has been activity; so to take some of the pressure off and reduce the temptation to rush things, I'll just tell you about that.

The wheels first. After the last post, I cut their individual axles from piano wire and CA'd them into place. I should have done this earlier. It makes handling them much easier during painting. So, the tyres next. I made a little conical mask for each one...

... then after airbrushing and some handpainted detail:

And here it is up on its wheels:

As you can see, the suspension is sagging a bit in anticipation of the weight of 4 machine guns.

The next job was the tailskid. My machine would have had the earlier wooden type, and this is my representation of it in plastic:

I was quite pleased with the look of it. It's vaguely reminiscent of the real thing. The trouble was, when I tried gluing it into place I just couldn't get a rigid join that could take any weight. I ended up stripping off the detail and just mounting the skid on a sort of internal post. This is the second attempt in progress:

This attempt was quite successful, except that when I got the whole thing the right way up I realised that it was far too high at the tail and the whole stance was wrong. After sleeping on it, I ripped out the tailksid, but broke it in the process so had to make a new one. This time I looked at the photos a bit more closely and noticed that there should be two control horns. Here's the second version, looking like a tiny little cruise missile:

Meanwhile, I've got the Lewis guns painted. These are from Miniworld, and I'm very impressed by them. They've even got little etched brass carrying straps for the magazines. Unfortunately I broke these while trying to bend them into shape, so I replaced them with stretched sprue. I had used a Humbrol metallic colour on the Vickers guns, but I wasn't very satisfied with the result, so this time I just used Satin Black mixed with a bit of white, then did some very restrained dry-brushing with 27003. Here's how they look:

And then there's the propeller. Simple enough, I had been thinking. Just get one out of the spares box. But when it came down to it, I realised there was a snag. All the propellers in my spare box are right-handed, but for my geared Hispano I need a left-handed one. My next idea was to find a suitable right-handed propeller and convert it to left-handedness by cutting off the blades and rotating them through - careful now - 90 degrees. An unbuilt Roden SE5A provided a suitable candidate which was a beautiful match to the Windsock plans, apart from being the wrong way round. So I set to work:

Only after getting the blades off did I realise that this idea was no good at all. The blades have a twist in them and the twist is in the wrong direction. So there was only one remaining option: scratch-build the propeller. Funny I didn't think of that to start with.

Right then. To start with, cut out the blades from a bit of plastic card:

... then sand them to shape. Here, I used the Airhead permanent marker technique to make sure I got an even sharp edge. The idea, once I've finished them a bit more, is to physically twist them in the right direction and then use Milliput to get the correct fillet effect at the hub. The hub itself is just a section of sprue. And the boss will be a thin bit of card with tiny bits of stretched sprue for the bolts. Here's where I'm up to so far.

So, as I said, plenty of activity, and the prospect that it will all come together before long.

Thanks for all the interest and encouragement and flattering comparisons to WNW kits.

[keefr22]

What a cute looking aeroplane it was!! Great work as usual Quentin!

Keef

[Arpie]

Truly beautiful work and a great instructional in scratch building.

[Rizzo]

Beautiful work- I have to keep reminding myself that it's not 1/32 when looking at the photos

[Quentin]

Thanks! More to come soon hopefully.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, this is great, amazing too in this scale.

Thanks for sharing

All the best

Chris

[airhead]

Someone has actually read a post of mine

The finish line is in sight!

Now I am not a snipe expert by anyone's standard but somehow she looks a bit too heavy to me.

Maybe it's the angle from which the photo's were taken or maybe the gear legs are a bit short.

And as for the propeller, I would personally completely carve it from plastic card.

I don't think it will be more difficult then trying to sculpt it with milliput.

Getting both blades exactly the same shape by force is to much of a challenge for me but if anyone can do it it's you!

[Quentin]

Someone has actually read a post of mine

The finish line is in sight!

Now I am not a snipe expert by anyone's standard but somehow she looks a bit too heavy to me.

Maybe it's the angle from which the photo's were taken or maybe the gear legs are a bit short.

And as for the propeller, I would personally completely carve it from plastic card.

I don't think it will be more difficult then trying to sculpt it with milliput.

Getting both blades exactly the same shape by force is to much of a challenge for me but if anyone can do it it's you!

Hmm, I think you're right about the undercarriage legs. They are too short. I probably didn't take the outward slope into account when drawing them up. Doh! I think one day I might revisit this project and correct a few things but for the moment I just want to draw a line under it and move on. I might add a list of mistakes when it's finished, in case anyone wants to do it properly.

I'll see how my propeller technique goes, and then try carving if it doesn't work.

[Vulcanicity]

Super work as usual! I somehow don't think anybody else can physically do this any more "properly" than you are Quentin!