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1/72 - Sopwith Triplane by Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) - released


Homebee

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27 minutes ago, IT_Man said:

Has anyone built one of these? Got the old Revell one about 5/6 years ago when re-released but ended up nose-diving into the bin (really flimsy kit).

Yes. and  I was unimpressed, despite myself. I reviewed it in the newsletter of the Great War sig, Cher Ami. Free to download at https://sites.google.com/site/greatwarsig/Resources

I did an in-box review in the last but one issue, and built it for the last one, starting on page 28. Rambles on a bit I'm afraid.

 

Paul.

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35 minutes ago, IT_Man said:

Has anyone built one of these? Got the old Revell one about 5/6 years ago when re-released but ended up nose-diving into the bin (really flimsy kit).

 

Haven't built one, but here are some photos of the plastic compared to Revell (KP grey, Revell khaki): https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?p=2399160#p2399160

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10 minutes ago, ptarmigan said:

 

Haven't built one, but here are some photos of the plastic compared to Revell (KP grey, Revell khaki): https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?p=2399160#p2399160

I did that in my review because I'd noticed that the KP wings used the Revell wings as masters, which leads to non-trivial fit problems later because the KP fuselage is new, and not the same width, as I found when building both side by side.

 

Paul.

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On 21/05/2021 at 12:28, Paul Thompson said:

Yes. and  I was unimpressed, despite myself. I reviewed it in the newsletter of the Great War sig, Cher Ami. Free to download at https://sites.google.com/site/greatwarsig/Resources

I did an in-box review in the last but one issue, and built it for the last one, starting on page 28. Rambles on a bit I'm afraid.

 

Paul.

Thanks, very interesting. Still have hopes that Eduard might do one at some point, have a few of their Dr. I, and always liked them.

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  • Homebee changed the title to 1/72 - Sopwith Triplane by Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) - released - new boxing
  • Homebee changed the title to 1/72 - Sopwith Triplane by Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) - released - new boxing in June 2022

Note that Paul’s review is no longer in “the last but one issue posted” of Cher Ami, as a few more issues have been posted since he wrote that.   You want Volume 10-1, from Feb. 2021.  It is well worth the effort to download and read his review, IMO

 

I was about to fall for “ooh, a shiny new Special Release”,  when I re-read Paul’s article, which reminded me why I sold my KP kit and kept my Revell one last year….!

 

-Bill

Edited by RC Boater Bill
fixed typos
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3 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

Note that Paul’s review is no longer in “the last but one issue posted” of Cher Ami, as a few more issues have been posted since he wrote that.   You want Volume 10-1, from Feb. 2021.  It is well worth the effort to download and read his review, IMO

 

I was about to fall for “ooh, a shiny new Special Release”,  when I re-read Paul’s article, which reminded me why I sold my KP kit and kept my Revell one last year….!

 

-Bill

I'm sure I can remember being able to count. But it was a long time ago. Alegedly.

 

Anyway, long enough ago that I think I'll give it another go, having bought two of the things at the time.  If the experience is significantly different I'll make a quick post - I don't want to be negative as a reflex.

 

Paul.

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On 5/28/2022 at 3:33 AM, Paul Thompson said:

 

Anyway, long enough ago that I think I'll give it another go, having bought two of the things at the time.  If the experience is significantly different I'll make a quick post - I don't want to be negative as a reflex.

 

Paul.

Looking forward to hearing about your 2nd build!  
 

After re-reading your article, I was wondering-  Is adding some material to make the fuselage a little closer to the Revell fuselage in width a valid option to fix the strut alignment issues?   (Or is Revell’s fuselage too wide?)

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3 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

Looking forward to hearing about your 2nd build!  
 

After re-reading your article, I was wondering-  Is adding some material to make the fuselage a little closer to the Revell fuselage in width a valid option to fix the strut alignment issues?   (Or is Revell’s fuselage too wide?)

Iirc all I had to do was to add or remove a bit of material on the middle pair of wings. The upper and lower were pretty much aligned. The only trouble is to drill the holes for the wires, but some careful trigonometry or in-situ measurements can solve it. 

 

A big peeve of mine is the out-of-register cockades though, I hate those :( 

 

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17 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

Looking forward to hearing about your 2nd build!  
 

After re-reading your article, I was wondering-  Is adding some material to make the fuselage a little closer to the Revell fuselage in width a valid option to fix the strut alignment issues?   (Or is Revell’s fuselage too wide?)

Don't think so. The fuselage is indeed narrower, but the problem with strut alignment is that the middle wing span is too great compared to the bottom one. The easiest fix I think is what Torbjorn said - remove material from the middle wing. I'd also gouge out the centre section strut locations on the fuselage a bit so their bases are closer together. I'd expect the upper wing interplane strut locations to then be too far apart, but filling the dimples for them and drilling new ones isn't hard. What I don't know is how accurate the result will be, irrespective of whether or not the struts then look parallel, and how out the ribs will be compared between wings. Probably won't be a problem to the Mark 1 eyeball. At least the struts are all aligned seen in profile.

 

I'll tell you, having just re-read my review to make sure of what I did, I find my style of writing thoroughly confusing, compounded by a memory like a Swiss cheese, which is another good reason I should build another one and write it down straight away before it jojns all my other memories in la-la land.

 

Paul.

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Well you've frightened the Kitcat but it does seem to me that every time I do an allied aeroplane I end up cross kitting so do you think it could work in this instance?

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10 minutes ago, KITCAT said:

Well you've frightened the Kitcat but it does seem to me that every time I do an allied aeroplane I end up cross kitting so do you think it could work in this instance?

I'd been musing along the lines of doing just that, but on reflection don't think it would help Whatever bits get used, something will need adjusting due to the lower wing centre section having been shrunk to fit the narrower fuselage while not changing the other wing spans, all 3 of which should be the same once assembled.   But at the very least then the end result should be that all 3 wings look the same span seen head on. I've just reread the other in-box review in Cher Ami (volume 9 number 3) by Rob Willis, and he caught more dimensional discrepancies than I did - the fuselage not being deep enough for a start. Coupled with the poor moulding, which his photos show more clearly than mine, then I think the choice is to mess with the kit wings, whatever it takes, to overcome the alignment problem and bring the final spans acceptably close - and substituring Revell wings won't help there. Or, bite the bullet and stick with the Revell kit, adding the missing details and replacing the worn out bits the old fashioned way with bits of plastic. What should have been superior bits from the KP kit like guns, engine, cowling, seat and prop, are so poorly moulded that it's a very expensive way of buying new parts, and many of them (like the cowling) wouldn't be fittable anyway. The one thing that should rescue the kit would be the decals, but at least in my two boxings they're terrible quality. Perhaps I was unlucky, but the only way to find out is to buy another one, which frankly I won't be doing.

 

Now my head hurts.

 

I recommend getting hold of the Ray Rimell Revell upgrade article he did for Scale Models years ago if you haven't bought the KP kit yet. Then you'll have a better idea of the pros and cons.

 

Paul.

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11 hours ago, Paul Thompson said:

I recommend getting hold of the Ray Rimell Revell upgrade article he did for Scale Models years ago if you haven't bought the KP kit yet. Then you'll have a better idea of the pros and cons.

I'm looking for a Collishaw-marked Tripehound for a friend so if anyone has a scan of the abovenamed article I'd love to see it.

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4 hours ago, k5054nz said:

I'm looking for a Collishaw-marked Tripehound for a friend so if anyone has a scan of the abovenamed article I'd love to see it.

PM me your email and I'll sort it out. March 1974, Scale Models, if you happen to have the issue yourself (It cost 20p. There's a number to conjure with).

 

Paul.

Edited by Paul Thompson
More info.
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Limey pilot did a detailed build on the Revel kit on this site about 3 years ago. A good article, dig it out. Oh and thanks Paul for your honest article but will I ever be able to use my Pheon decal sheet. Dreams dashed.

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  • Homebee changed the title to 1/72 - Sopwith Triplane by Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) - released

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