1/32 Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe (Early)

[Stew Dapple]

For this group build I'd like to have a go at the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe (Early) which was a gift from my friends and evil overlords at Sovereign Hobbies, Gill and Jamie  I've not built a Wingnut Wings kit before but the unanimous opinion of the BM Hive Mind and beyond indicates I should have an enjoyable build as long as I don't make a total hash of it through some gross stupidity or carelessness of my own (and let's not rule that out until I am finished).

 

Forgive the quality (or lack thereof) of the pictures, the light is pretty poor here at the moment but I didn't want to use the flash... here's the (very sturdy) box:

 

 

The instructions and the large sheet of transfers - there is a little etched fret in with the transfers too, mostly seatbelt details and gun parts:

 

 

The fuselage sprue:

 

 

Wings:

 

 

Mostly internal parts:

 

 

Engine parts, clear parts and various ancillaries and a card showing it was purchased from BlackMike Models :

 

 

... and finally something I bought just to see how it looks, the HGW fabric seatbelt set designed for this kit. As the open cockpit will give a lot away I thought I might need all the help I can get

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

The Snipe! My favourite WWI aircraft. Stew, you shouldn't have!

[CedB]

Ah, a Wingnuts... I'm in Stew

[DaveyGair]

Stew, 'Gross stupidity and carelessness' was the order of the day when I did my Camel build on the RAF 100 year anniversary GB.

Take care with the large roundel decals and grow an extra arm and hand to help with the rigging, apart from that it'll be a doddle!

 

Davey.

[Basilisk]

Great choice for your first WNW kit.

Cheers, Peter

[Stew Dapple]

Thank you gents

 

The instructions are rather impressive, more like a booklet in fact, with plenty of colour pictures of the interior of a replica Snipe and profile and plan views of the various schemes offered in the kit. I have decided on this one:

 

 

E8069, “2” Captain Thomas Charles Richmond Baker  DFC, MM & Bar, 4 Australian Flying Corps Sqn, Serny, France, October 1918. Captain Baker was credited with 12 victories and was shot down and killed less than a week before the end of the war, aged just 21.

 

On a trip into the city yesterday I stopped off at The Works and got these:

 

 

The pastels just for general weathering and the oils so that I can attempt to emulate @Procopius at painting woodgrain using his preferred method. Not a bad haul for less than a tenner, even though I will probably never use the more brightly-coloured pastels or oils  

 

Most of the woodgrain that requires painting for this kit will be in the cockpit, the interplane struts and propeller blades being painted in 'Service Grey'. The instructions do include a note on the colours used and matches to the Tamiya and Humbrol ranges - I will of course be using Colourcoats, I'll sort those out later.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

[CedB]

Nice choice of scheme Stew  

I'll be following with interest as I have 'Jon's Camel' in the stash. Have you seen the Tips on the Wingnuts site? I'll be reading up on those before I start as well as PC's woodgrain method.

 

I must get some oil paints too - I have some gouache (little used) but I see that it's water based so may not react the same... perhaps I'll give it a test.

[Stew Dapple]

Thanks Ced  

 

I decided to spray the internal fuel tanks before attempting the wood effect, reasoning that this would be easier than attempting to mask the wood parts to spray the tanks afterwards:

 

 

I used Colourcoats ACRN07 Ocean Grey for these, as the kit instructions recommend Tamiya's Ocean Grey for the same colour (which the instructions list as Service Grey) and I imagine there can't be that much difference between them; in any case I might give them a random mist of a slightly lighter grey as part of the weathering to add a little tonal variety.

 

Thanks to the link that @CedB posted I did also try detailing the wicker seat back by scraping off most of the backing plastic so that the holes show rather than a solid back with a raised effect...

 

 

It was a pretty terrifying experience I have to say, given the cost of the kit and the potential for ruination so while the end result was worth it I wouldn't recommend you try this at home unless you are pretty damned sure of yourself, especially as I'm not sure how visiible this will actually be when the belts are fitted and the seat installed in the cockpit  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Fortune favours the brave! Nice seat back Stew, good stuff  

[wimbledon99]

These WnW kits look wonderful. If only I could pick one up for a song!

 

No worries, I shall enjoy watching this one come together

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Wanted to follow a WnW build for a while, they do look very impressive indeed and I've no doubt that you will get the best from the kit. 

[Stew Dapple]

On 8/14/2018 at 7:48 AM, CedB said:

Fortune favours the brave! Nice seat back Stew, good stuff  

 

I'm given to understand that on occasions it also favours the naïve  

 

On 8/16/2018 at 11:26 PM, wimbledon99 said:

These WnW kits look wonderful. If only I could pick one up for a song!

 

No worries, I shall enjoy watching this one come together

 

I've been very impressed with it so far but I can't imagine ever seeing one of these really cheap; you never know though...  

 

11 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Wanted to follow a WnW build for a while, they do look very impressive indeed and I've no doubt that you will get the best from the kit. 

 

I will do my best Sarge, I hope it will, at the least, turn out acceptably

 

So I need to have a bit of a catch-up... I've started on the Instrument panel: first a coat of 'nearly-black':

 

 

Then a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil, a black acrylic wash:

 

 

It's a subtle effect providing a bit of definition between the panel and the raised instrument bezels, the effect is a bit more apparent in real life... then I started applying the instrument transfers - the transfers are printed by Cartograph and are really really nicely printed and a pleasure to apply:

 

 

Next that will get a spray of matt varnish to seal everything in, then I'll paint the metallic parts (the ammunition boxes for the Vickers MGs at the bottom of the panel and some of the copper and brass instruments). 

 

I de-sprued all the parts that need to be painted 'wood-colour' and masked off the fuel tank, which doesn't need to be painted 'wood-colour':

 

 

... and primed them in black enamel:

 

 

Later (today I hope) I will spray the relevant parts with the base yellow-brownish colour prior to attempting the wood-effect technique on them.

 

Finally, in a fit of insomnia, I made up the HGW seatbelts set, surprisingly (to me at least) quick and easy to do:

 

 

The manufacturer recommends giving them a dark wash of oil paint to age them a bit and bring out the detail; my instinct is to leave them as they are but I will follow the instructions with a very thin wash because if you don't try new things you don't learn new things.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Very nice panel Stew, very nice indeed!  

I have a Camel in the stash so, as a favour, could you please do a step-by-step on the wood grain effect?

Not that I'm nervous about it or anything...

[Sgt.Squarehead]

What are the belts made from Stew, oil paints can stain anything absorbent or porous quite strongly? 

 

I can already tell that following this thread is inevitably going to cost me.....Dammit! 

 

PS - @CedB  Why be nervous about oils, they're an absolute doddle to use and you have a couple days or more to decide whether you like what you've done.....Jump in and have a play, they're fun! 

 

[wimbledon99]

14 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

 

I

 

 

 

[wimbledon99]

6 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I can already tell that following this thread is inevitably going to cost me.....Dammit! 

Hey Sarge, If you mean you are now going to have to buy one, don't worry, you are not alone. I have already initiated 'Operation - Bargain Hunt' 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure that I'll wind up with at least one WnW kit in the stash, probably more knowing me. 

 

[DaveyGair]

Always interesting to see how others deal with a wood effect, will be looking on with interest.

 

Well done with the seat back scraping, I didn't bother with my Camel build. It's surprising how much you CAN'T see in the cockpit.... all that effort!

Still, you know it's there 🙂

 

 

Davey.

 

[Stew Dapple]

On 8/18/2018 at 11:43 AM, CedB said:

I have a Camel in the stash so, as a favour, could you please do a step-by-step on the wood grain effect?

Of course Ced, will do

 

On 8/18/2018 at 2:06 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

What are the belts made from Stew, oil paints can stain anything absorbent or porous quite strongly?

 

They are made, allegedly, from some sort of fabric, they feel pretty papery and I agree, my first thought was... what? However the instructions do say "Impregnate the belts with very diluted oil colour (mix black and brown) - it will highlight the texture" - however this is step 7, after step 6 which is "Spray by the glossy varnish" so that presumably provides a prophylactic layer to stop the oil impregnating  

 

On 8/18/2018 at 8:24 PM, wimbledon99 said:



 

Why thank you  

 

On 8/19/2018 at 1:41 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Yeah, I'm fairly sure that I'll wind up with at least one WnW kit in the stash, probably more knowing me. 

 

I seem to have collected three, so far, this, the Pfalz D.III and the S.E.5a,

 

On 8/19/2018 at 4:12 PM, DaveyGair said:

Well done with the seat back scraping, I didn't bother with my Camel build. It's surprising how much you CAN'T see in the cockpit.... all that effort!

That is what I feared, still, if that is the case it will not be apparent what a rough job I ended up making of it  

 

I sprayed the interior parts, this took considerably longer than necessary as I wanted to do it all in one go and ended up taking three airbrush sessions on account of I kept missing bits, first the rearmost interior of the fuselage where the tailskid fits in, then the centre of the propeller which is laminated wood as opposed to the service grey of the blades themselves. Eventually I got there:

 

 

It doesn't show very well in the picture, I used Colourcoats IJN09 IJN Deck Tan for both the base coat for the wood and the clear doped linen parts of the fuselage interiors. Those will be getting a couple of days to dry before I start applying oil paint to them where required.

 

The next stage for the IP was a varnish coat; the ammuntion boxes were given a first coat of Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium and the intrument dials were 'glazed' using Micro Kristal Klear (the compass in the upper centre and the tachometer to the right of it are not fixed, only added for illustration purposes):

 

 

Next the ammo boxes will get another coat of aluminium before dirtying up a bit; the bells to call the butler or matron (lower left on the panel) and the buttons on the box on the right will be painted in brass and a couple of other bits in brass and copper.

 

I finished the fuel and oil tank which will be located behind the instrument panel and will therefore, presumably, be invisible:

 

 

Anyway that's where I'm up to, stick around if you like, I'll keep you posted  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

 

 

[Procopius]

7 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

They are made, allegedly, from some sort of fabric, they feel pretty papery and I agree, my first thought was... what? However the instructions do say "Impregnate the belts

::bites stem off pipe:: My word!

 

8 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

with very diluted oil colour (mix black and brown)

Seems a bit foreign.

[Stew Dapple]

1 minute ago, Procopius said:

::bites stem off pipe:: My word!

 

I know!  

 

2 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Seems a bit foreign.

 

From the Czech Republic, no less. In fairness, better English than I would be able to reproduce in Czech  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Lovely work Stew, that little tank looks brilliant (cue Allo Allo...)  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I'm pleased you're enjoing this Stew, but it looks like a lot of work!

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I've never really felt the desire to praise an oil-tank before, but the subtle (filter?) shading and weathering you've made contrast beautifully with the metallics. 

[Andwil]

On 8/21/2018 at 3:20 AM, Stew Dapple said:

 

I know!  

 

 

From the Czech Republic, no less. In fairness, better English than I would be able to reproduce in Czech  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a tyre shop guy outside Prague a few years ago, when I needed to replace a tyre I had ripped open on a very rough kerb stone, a conversation that took place on his office PC using Google translate as he could not speak English and I cannot speak Czech.  At one point he seemed to be telling me that having non-matching front tyres could land me in trouble with the "shelves".  I can only assume that the Czech words for shelves and police are rather similar .

 

Love the IP and other internals, those Wingnut Wings kits really are works of art.

 

AW