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[Finished] Two Sopwiths and a Funeral...


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9 hours ago, Andwil said:

You are getting the full Roden “experience” Chief.  Hang in there, you are showing it who’s boss.

 

AW

 

3 hours ago, Brandy said:

Aah, Roden decals!

Lovely job on the home printed ones though!

 

Ian

 

Thanks guys for the encouragement - so I've learned this is a regular issue with them? Lucky me, I ordered a BE2 and DH9 from them in the meantime, looking forward to more issues 😉 (the kit quality itself with these looks much better, though).

Decal Printing is rather easy, as long as it's dark on light with transparent sheets, maybe even better than some kit's decals. But White on dark is an issue, and white lettering on dark background seems almost impossible.

 

With Roden it's about rare subjects, kit engineering at least on this is a bit basic. Yes, it's kind of a battle, but to be honest my conflicts with other things on my schedule is a the bigger enemy... 😉

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, RichieW said:

Excellent home printed decals, not something I've tried before. These great results are tempting me into having a go.

 

Richie

Honestly, it's rather simple, the process works easily given the limitations I mentioned above. I use a simple colour laser printer from our office, and sheets from Mr. Decal Paper. I'm sure others work as well, but I stumbled across them on Ebay and use them since. Inkjet is said to work as easy as well, but you have to spray an layer of clear coat (and letting it dry) before putting them into water.

 

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And some more work on the wings. Painted the metal structures (or at least which I think are such) and drilled the rigging holes.

 

Has someone ever done those PE-wiring things? I can't think of...

 

Top wing, upper side - the masking of the inspection windows not removed;

 

41998759ch.jpg

 

Top wing, bottom side;

 

41998761qe.jpg

 

and the bottom wing. I placed the holes for the rigging amidst the struts. Might not be 100% according to the rigging diagram - which is a bit on the basic side - but makes sense to me.

 

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  • 3 months later...

So many models, so much laziness in this world, and so little time. Another four months, and little went on.

 

But at least a bit; I managed to put the Strutter on it's feet, put on the engine and the Vickers and mounted one of the half-struts. Is it a quarter strut now? Anyway, here's how it looks:

 

42728526ve.jpg

 

And I managed to put on the decals. I used some leftovers from a future build, Rodens BE2c.

 

42728529yv.jpg

 

Having made not the best experiences with Roden decals, I was a bit hesitant, but taking extra care they went on quite fine. They might have been just in a better shape than the ancient strutter decals, which tore apart in a minute, but it might just be that the Roden decals just need more time? So I left them bathe for about 15 minutes or so, and with very gentle work they applied fine. Interesting.

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With the Camel I am about to mount the lower wing,and for that I prior have to install the stick. Eduard didn't provide a proper hole, so, to avoid a buttjoint I took a small brass tube to create a proper mount.

 

Here's the state:

 

42728547hd.jpg

 

Hope one can see it, it's quite tiny.

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Also I remebered the tail skid has snapped of at some point.

 

42728559dk.jpg

 

Revell sent a replacement, but mounting it would take too much surgery by removing the remainders of the original part, so working with the brass tube I thought I could use it here as well, and scratch build a new skid.

 

So I cut off small piece, bend it into shape and mounted a styrene rod, which I then will cut to correct length.

 

42728588rp.jpg

 

The tailpiece I will just form with some putty, I guess.

 

It's the small pieces, that cost you time.

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On 12/30/2021 at 9:04 PM, Johnny Tip said:

Don't they always... 

Well, they do - that part is hardly a centimeter long, and what do I fuss about it...

 

42749885vh.jpg

 

It's so little progress, that I had to work at least a bit on the landing gear parts (which was part of a bigger painting session yesterday), so you see this as well.

Oh, and I did mount the lower wings on the Camel, which snapped of again in an incident with one of our cats involved (the one which acquired the suitable name of Cat A.Strophe) and mounted them again. So much work for so little time.

And, to add to that, I found a weakness of the Strutters manual, about the main/center struts; the parts for the front and rear struts are the same, so stupid little modeller me thought, these two struts are both mounted straight, as are the front struts. Well, they aren't. They are slanted towards each other, the front slightly bent backwards, and the rear slanted to front. Manual shows only if you look very closely, and stupoid me didn't look.

Of course I found out the way you don't want to learn these things; by incorrectly having mount these parts - and seeing it won't fit. Having mounted them with CA doesn't make the repair much easier.

I didn't make some pictures, so will post some cat content instead of Emil, the forementioned cat of doom and evil. In this pose, pretending to be a nice little lovely cat, spending it's time by reading books and be a joy for it's owner. Well, he isn't. Trust me!


42749927lv.jpg



 

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Emil probably thought "wot is zat? Are ze Tommies now fielding zeir oalt crep from ze Great Woar? Anyvays, I vill damage it and claim it destroyed beck home" (Sorry, couldn't help it, though you must have heard a variation of it for some hundred times - I love the cat's nickname btw😂)

That strut story and the likes are keeping me from starting my SE5a... (besides short time, no days off and a 3year old) but those challenges are what we are looking for isn't it? 

 

...I'm not sure.

Is that skid prepared for reinstall? Hope it works😬

Edited by Johnny Tip
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On 30/12/2021 at 13:31, Chief Cohiba said:

Hope one can see it, it's quite tiny.

Said @general melchettto the drag queen from the trenches! (Fnar, fnar, snurf, snurf)

 

Martian 👽

 

PS: Don't let the General see this, he's quite touchy about his "Georgina".

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1 hour ago, Johnny Tip said:

love the cat's nickname

The nick isn't really a nickname, but a hard-earned, hard-proven title. well, more of a warning. Emil, his "real" name, doesn't come from a 109, but from Kästners famous kid's novel. I loved it when I was a kid and, well, still do. We gave it to him when we believed in his good character, long ago...

 

1 hour ago, Johnny Tip said:

Is that skid prepared for reinstall? Hope it works

Hopes are high, dry-fitting looks good.

 

1 hour ago, Martian said:

he's quite touchy about his "Georgina"

Touchy about his tiny pieces? I have no idea what you could possible be talking about... 🔍

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52 minutes ago, Chief Cohiba said:

The nick isn't really a nickname, but a hard-earned, hard-proven title. well, more of a warning. Emil, his "real" name, doesn't come from a 109, but from Kästners famous kid's novel. I loved it when I was a kid and, well, still do. We gave it to him when we believed in his good character, long ago...

 

Hopes are high, dry-fitting looks good.

 

Touchy about his tiny pieces? I have no idea what you could possible be talking about... 🔍

Emil and the detectives. Loved it too and love that Sopwith. Great results! Thanks for posting this.

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And the Camel stands on it's own feet - or is it hooves? Anyway, I did test is, it holds it's weight, but here it is still pictured on the jig: 

 

42769066ki.jpg

 

Also the construction with the tail skid seems to hold:

 

42769068fz.jpg

 

It slipped on rather easily and, with a drop if CA, sits tight and strong. The small strut was made with a small piece of string and also glued in with CA

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

The venerable Sopwiths had to rest for a while, until I finished the Junkers DI. But once done, I want to go along with these two birds and hopefully finish it rather earlier than later - I must admit I lost my mojo a bit on these. 

 

Even more so, as it come to the most demanding (read: pesty) part of most biplane builds: mounting the upper wing. Sure, there are kits which are so cleverly engineered that this is a walk in the park (how do I look forward to the Gaspatch Salmson in my stash), but make an educated guess, if this is the case with the strutter.

Right; not so much. So, this is the battle I'm currently fighting. I'm kneedeep in CA, and having a jig is the absolute minimum in required tools. Although I think of an alternative jig, as the rough balsa wood is not so easy to handle and rather unprecise. Suggestions are welcome.

 

But here's where it's at:

 

43186853ek.jpg

 

It's one connection point after the other: align, drop some CA, drop some accelerator, hope it holds. And just like fastening the cylinder head on an old car: the correct sequence is key to prduce some (more or less) straight result. With the minor difference, that there is no manual available. If it all snaps off, it wasn't the right one.

 

 

 

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Looking very good.

 

I’ve tried a few jigs over the last few years and find at the end of the day this ( or occasionally Lego) works best

9756-D788-F64-F-432-E-8723-916535-A28-D3
You can of course use the kit box but I find Tupperware more robust.
 

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I tried to use sort of jig like this with some toolbox I have, but the struts (at least the inner) didn't follow. I think I should have started to mount them in a different order, but now I have to make the best out of it. 🥴

 

Anyway, painting the outer struts and trying to give them sort of a woodish look.

 

43187179cv.jpg

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Still shying away of glueing it all together - so I did some more tinkering on the struts, here with the air probe.

 

43193608lh.jpg

 

43193609op.jpg

 

Don't just say it; I know there's a term for it. Procrastination...

 

But then, a modeller's got to do what a modeller's got to do: mounting struts on a biplane...

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And nailed this thing together:

 

43195135lb.jpg

 

43195136ax.jpg

 

43195138dl.jpg

 

43195139pg.jpg

 

43195140hg.jpg

 

43195141sq.jpg

 

It's only slightly tilted and more solid than expected. Rigging shouldn't be that much of a problem.

 

But next is the Camel again...

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In the meantime; that's what this double build is about. Two Sopwiths in the making, aligned, with some progress visible and clear tasks as a next step ahead.

 

Here: mount the upper wing on the Camel.

 

43202220om.jpg

 

It's jig building time:

 

43202228ty.jpg

 

The strut missing on the jig can be seen in the front and is waiting until the glue is drying on the small propeller of the anemometer.

 

Holds its weight already, with only three mounted

 

43202288is.jpg

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