Sopwith Camel cockpit frame - who has it right?

[JackG]

Currently working on the interior of Eduard's 1/48 kit on said subject.  Looking at both real (refurbished/replica?) aircraft and models in various scales, there seems to be quite different interpretations of what is going on behind the wood side panels - is this a reflection varied construction on the Camel during the war, or are some designers incorporating guesswork/simplification on their model designs?

 

It looks like Eduard copied what Hasegawa had done with their 1/8 scale offering:

 

 

... but here is another Hasegawa kit in 1/16 that shows a different pattern in the framework, couple less vertical frames and no horizontal ones, so which is more correct?

 

 

regards,

Jack

 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Try these:

[JackG]

Thank you for those photos, they are telling me to keep things as is with the Eduard kit.

 

regards,

Jack

[redcap]

Great photos Benwaters and they should greatly help the rest of us in getting the wood effects the right colours for the WNW kit. Many thanks for posting these.

 

Gary

[wmcgill]

The real thing... admittedly the side panel has been ripped off...

 

[redcap]

I think I have seen the above WW1 period picture before with an accompanying text saying the panel was ripped off to extract the injured pilot. No idea if that is an accurate assessment but it may explain the absence of the wood spars. It also begs the question of why the restored (?) aircraft shown in the photos kindly shared by Bentwaters would have it when the original thing didn't? Deleting stuff I understand, but why make extra work adding things if the original never had it....?

 

Gary

[JackG]

In the period b/w photo, pretty certain I can see horizontal spars in the shadows of the starboard side?

 

regards,

Jack

[bentwaters81tfw]

The 'restored' airframe belongs to the Shuttleworth collection, and is a reproduction from the original drawings. As Sir Thomas Sopwith had some input into the actual build, I think you can say it is accurate.

[Beardie]

In the period photo I am pretty certain that the who area has been cut away. If you look you will see that even the upright support for the rear cabane strut is gone and that would most certainly have been there. I am guessing that they cut it all away. Probably, as mentioned by Gary, during the act of getting the pilot free of the aircraft or it may have been done just to give  interested German troops an unobstructed view of the cockpit internals from the outside.

[FZ6]

If you look at the sprue shots of the Hasegawa 1:16 Camel on the link below you'll see that the detail is included on the reverse of the wooden side panels.

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=1099

 

So I think all evidence points towards this being correct. I'm pretty sure that framework detail is also included on the drawings in the Windsock Datafile on the Camel

 

Hope this info is of some use,

 

Mark