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Hendie takes the hump: 28 Sqn Camel.


hendie

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Looks great in primer.  

Re the wing struts on the Camel i am doing the wing and interplanetary struts are a bluey grey colour so have been painted, at the start of my build I did paint them I  wood effect oils but when looking at picks of F2137 you can clearly see the lighter colour and a trip to the WNW website really helped too. 

Great work 

Chris

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At some point in the last week I decided to start throwing paint at the Camel,and feeling a bit adventurous I even went as far as to try a touch of preshading.

 

PB160002.jpg

 

lo and behold, it turned out okay

 

PB160003.jpg

 

as I was edging closer and closer towards paint and tying all these wings together,  I needed to make sure I had all the necessary holes drilled.  For the most part they were straightforward even though they ate a few drill bits, but there was a real pig of a job awaiting me. 

Checking my reference photos I noticed that a pair of front rigging wires disappeared into a square hole that was positioned just outboard of the wing root. It could have been at the wing root could it? oh no, it had to be into the wing itself - that meant I had to cut a square hole into the wing.

Now that in itself wasn't so bad, but Eduard give you absolutely no indication where that hole should be.  Sods!  It took me ages measuring up and test fitting to see where the top of the struts would be to try and align that hole with the top end of the struts. Only time will tell if I got it right.  If someone bumps into Eduard in the street, give them a slap from me.

 

PB170004.jpg

 

With that taken care of, I followed Ians' madvise and used metal pins in the cabane struts.  I also stole an idea from someone on BM (and my sincere apologies to whoever came up with this as I cannot find the post again to give credit) where they transferred the strut locations from the upper wing onto a sheet of clear plastic, and used that to align the struts.

What an absolutely simple and elegant solution!

 

PB170006.jpg

 

After that it was on to those elbow intakes on the breather tube.

I tried bending tube but it was impossible in such a small diameter (1.2 mm) without the tube collapsing - even when I filled it with solder.  After many abortive attempts, I opted to go with some aluminum rod left over from Pegasus.

The rod, being solid, was much easier to bend, especially with that tight radius. Once I was happy with the bend I drilled out each end of the elbow. One hole to fit over the tube already sticking out of the fuselage, and the other hole to make it look like it is an actual intake

They were pretty small

 

 

PB180007.jpg

 

but look convincing once in place

 

PB180008.jpg

 

a touch of black paint in that hole and no-one will be any the wiser.

 

PB180009.jpg

 

Next up - Rat-a-tat guns.

The kit offerings weren't too bad - except for the barrel, which was a joke. Really. It was horrible.

So, off came the plastic barrels to be replaced with some brass tube

 

PB190012.jpg

 

inside of which was placed a smaller diameter brass tube. Then, three holes were drilled around the end of the plastic cooling jacket. I know there should have been five, but three was all I could reliable manage

Here's an end on shot.  That'll all get painted back and no-one will ever be able to see any of the detail whatsoever. Hey ho.

 

PB190014.jpg

 

The barrels were then glued to the body of the rat-a-tat and I took this awfully blurry shot for posterity

 

PB190016.jpg

 

To finish off the day I threw some paint on the Camel

 

PB210017.jpg

 

even remembering to mask up some of the important bits

 

PB210021.jpg

 

 

PB210023.jpg

 

Oops... almost forgot. I also had an attempt at whittling that wooden teardrop that sits between the front cabane struts.

After failing miserably to drill brass rod with any degree of accuracy and sacrificing yet more tiny drill bits, then making a real hash of some plastic bits, I went down the toothpick route.

I used the end of a toothpick dipped in superglue to harden it up, then drilled two holes sort of perpendicular to each other, fitted some wire through it so I stood a chance of being able to handle the little beggar, and sanded it to shape with some micromnesh.

 

PB210022.jpg

 

 

and I'm still swithering on those colors!!!

 

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Regarding the colours, I will quote from the Windsock Datafile:

"Although Camels with overall PC10 doped fuselages were seen, many others had their cowlings, upper metal panels, side and undersurface metal shields either left in natural metal or finished in "Battleship" Grey. The ply-covered areas behind the metal side shields and around the cockpit and rear decking were frequently coated with a glossy Copal varnish. This gave a slightly reddish, warm tinge to the natural ply and is easily distinguished from the adjacent PC10 on photographs".

 

Looking at your pics I'd be pretty much 100% certain that the nose metal panels are PC10 and the wooden side panels under the cockpit, plus rear decking just behind it, are varnished ply.

 

 I think the apparent difference in strut colour is due to the sun - the second pic has the sun low and from the side, illuminating them better than in the first pic. Look at the right rear strut where it has shadows, I think that is what we are seeing. The first pic is in much more subdued light as there appear to be no sharp shadows. This could also account for the overexposed tail markings on the second pic, making the blue look lighter. It's also from a slightly different angle which can have a huge difference on the apparent colours. See if you can find some pics of aircraft with the ailerons deflected and note the apparent difference in colour of the cockades.

 As for the white lines, I'm afraid I can only guess. There appears to be a pennant attached to the tail, so could the stripes be fittings for another pennant on the rear strut? Mu best guess I'm afraid! As for the drop shadow, shadows are usually not coloured, so I'd go with black! Having said that, if you want it coloured, I doubt anyone could prove you wrong!

 

The rigging passes through the wing and attaches to the top of the rear landing gear strut like this. (Middle row, 4th from left)

 

 

Ian

 

 

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Just found your build Alan, been away in the Kalahari desert for a couple of weeks, so catching up on BM today. Not good, the quality of the moldings as you say for this day and age! Shock, horror!

 

I've got my popcorn ready for the remainder of the build.

 

Colin

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On 11/22/2020 at 3:35 AM, Hamden said:

 

Coming together nicely now, nice paintwork and micro engineering as well

   Stay safe        Roger  

thanks Roger

 

On 11/22/2020 at 3:38 AM, Teuchter said:

Hi, great work as usual. Re the struts, could the ground crew have painted them around the Sopwith transfers, rather than over and reapply? Would they even have had spare transfers in the field?

Don

 

that is a great idea Don, I never considered that - though I have now gone for the wooden option so it's a moot point

 

On 11/22/2020 at 3:40 AM, Brandy said:

Regarding the colours, I will quote from the Windsock Datafile:

"Although Camels with overall PC10 doped fuselages were seen, many others had their cowlings, upper metal panels, side and undersurface metal shields either left in natural metal or finished in "Battleship" Grey. The ply-covered areas behind the metal side shields and around the cockpit and rear decking were frequently coated with a glossy Copal varnish. This gave a slightly reddish, warm tinge to the natural ply and is easily distinguished from the adjacent PC10 on photographs".

 

Looking at your pics I'd be pretty much 100% certain that the nose metal panels are PC10 and the wooden side panels under the cockpit, plus rear decking just behind it, are varnished ply.

 

 I think the apparent difference in strut colour is due to the sun - the second pic has the sun low and from the side, illuminating them better than in the first pic. Look at the right rear strut where it has shadows, I think that is what we are seeing. The first pic is in much more subdued light as there appear to be no sharp shadows. This could also account for the overexposed tail markings on the second pic, making the blue look lighter. It's also from a slightly different angle which can have a huge difference on the apparent colours. See if you can find some pics of aircraft with the ailerons deflected and note the apparent difference in colour of the cockades.

 As for the white lines, I'm afraid I can only guess. There appears to be a pennant attached to the tail, so could the stripes be fittings for another pennant on the rear strut? Mu best guess I'm afraid! As for the drop shadow, shadows are usually not coloured, so I'd go with black! Having said that, if you want it coloured, I doubt anyone could prove you wrong!

 

The rigging passes through the wing and attaches to the top of the rear landing gear strut like this. (Middle row, 4th from left)

 

 

Ian

 

 

 

Brilliant information once again Ian, thanks

 

On 11/22/2020 at 4:49 AM, giemme said:

I'm absolutely speechless after reading this update, Alan :gobsmacked: And the toothpick idea is sheer genius! :clap:

 

Ciao 

 

thanks Giorgio

 

6 hours ago, heloman1 said:

Just found your build Alan, been away in the Kalahari desert for a couple of weeks, so catching up on BM today. Not good, the quality of the moldings as you say for this day and age! Shock, horror!

 

I've got my popcorn ready for the remainder of the build.

 

Colin

 

oooh get him... Kalahari no less :D !   Glad you could join Colin

 

 

Got just enough time for a quick update.

 

Based on Ian's very informative post, I decided to take his advice on board and do the wooden thing.

Masking was tedious and took a very long time  - just the beginning shown here - the fuselage was adequately protected from stray spray

 

PB220001.jpg

 

Then using Testors "wood" color - don't worry, that intake is getting painted black later

 

PB220002.jpg

 

I don't know what's up with my masking recently.  I was never bothered with paint pulling up until the last few months and now it seems to happen on every job.  Buggrit.

 

PB220003.jpg

 

While the MRP paints spray beautifully, you can't really brush paint them - I tried and it just started dissolving what was already laid down.  I wasn't going to mask everything up again just to spray that little patch and luckily I have a US Marine Corp green which was very close - so that was touched up.

 

I then applied some Mr Dissolved Putty on the coaming padding to remove that uniform look and make it look a bit more worn and lived in.

 

PB220004.jpg

 

Then painted up with red oxide.  Top Tip For The Day folks - don't try any detail painting in a cold basement so cold your hands are shaking!

 

PB240005.jpg

 

The errant stroke was at the rear of the coaming.  I managed to clean most of it up, and I think the wood effect will hide the rest of the damage

Here's another shot of the leather padding showing what I think is a more realistic effect

 

PB240006.jpg

 

I also added the aileron pulleys and control wires.  Was it worth it I ask myself.  Now, somehow I need to make a small curved inspection window to close those up.  To quote Ced.... Drats!

 

PB240007.jpg

 

The rat-a-tat guns were finished off - just dry fitted here. I used a flat black for the main color, then highlighted the detail with a standard graphite pencil. It's not brilliant, but it does the job I think.

 

PB240009.jpg

 

Wheels got painted. I'll try and highlight that lacing - might be worth another try with the pencil to see if that works.  As far as I am aware, rubber tires back in WWI era were not black, so I've gone with a dark grey.

The access hole to the valve will get colored in later, and maybe even a small valve looking thing if I feel up to it.

 

PB240013.jpg

 

The airscrew also got the wood treatment - burnt sienna oil paint

 

PB240011.jpg

 

My original thoughts on doing the wooden paneling on the fuselage was to use the Uschi (?) wood decals I have left over from Pegasus, but on consideration, trying to cut them accurately to fit around the coaming may have been a bit difficult, so I bit the bullet and went for the oil paint again

 

PB240012.jpg

 

I don't think it looks too bad and it appears to match the color of the ply seen on any color photos of camels I have come across. Anyhow, it's done now and I don't fancy doing it again and I fancy even less trying to clean it all off if it's wrong. 

That shall now sit for a few days to let the oils dry. 

In other news I spent most of the day trying to source decals fro this Camel, the F2b, and the Audax.  Why is it always so difficult to source these things?   I don't have Illustrator or any of those fancy high end graphics programs and draw all my artwork out in AutoCAD.  That's the easy part - only took a few days.  However, trying to find someone who can accept a DWG file (or anything that AutoCAD can output, DXF etc.)  for decal work is impossible.  I had about a dozen emails back and forth with a Canadian company today before we decided it was going to be financially out of the question for him to redraw everything. 

I can see these three builds stalling while I disappear off on a decal safari hunt.

 

 

 

and the wife just gt home so I need to rush of and pretend I've done some chores today...

 

 

 

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Lovely work. Have you tried printing your own decals? I’ve had reasonable results both with laser and inkjet printed decals.

 

50575858671_63833ba441_c.jpgAll bar the national markings were inkjet printed.

 

50488896798_b12a7b1f23_c.jpgthe red Pelegro makings were inkjet printed.

 

you can get both types of paper off eBay. My one big learning is to make sure to put a few coats of clear varnish over the next inkjet decals after printing otherwise they curl up and can’t be applied properly.

 

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I don't know why you posh executive types don't roll up your sleeves and roll your own transfers either.

Can't your program just pop out .jpgs or other ordinary images?

16059633406033180598548591582849.jpg

 

These will be for my Norwegian Merlin and in bigger scale 1/48 for Steve (IV Plumb's) build of the same machine.

 

Probably cost in the order of twenty pence, drawn in Paint Shop Pro 4 which was a free download

This on clear because going to be added to a white airframe but white print paper is just as cheap.

 

Think on lad.

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That was a nice catchup on this Dreich day in Lincolnshire. Paint, guns, woodwork, prop, wheels, very small wooden thing.

Yep, it's all there and looking rather nice. What could possibly go wrong?

Aside from decals and rigging, that is. :winkgrin:

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Just tripped across this thread and spent an enjoyable few minutes reading up on the fabulous job you are doing Mr Hendie, I love the wicker seat and the brass parts you have made. (I've also been lurking in your Pullman coach thread for some time now, absolutely gobsmacked by your skills).

The Eduard Camel is one of the few kits that I gave up on in recent years, everything that possibly could went wrong on my first one. Being a mug, I had another go and went on to successfully complete two more. It is no beginners model though.

 

On 21/11/2020 at 21:27, hendie said:

I also stole an idea from someone on BM (and my sincere apologies to whoever came up with this as I cannot find the post again to give credit) where they transferred the strut locations from the upper wing onto a sheet of clear plastic, and used that to align the struts.

What an absolutely simple and elegant solution!

PB170006.jpg

 

 

 

 

Ah, I think that was probably me I posted this a while ago, and was somewhat shocked to see it was 9 years ago. How time flies! Glad you found it useful, Part of the fun of modelling is the problem solving, and the Eduard Camel will certainly give you plenty of opportunity.  Your solution to the rigging 'acorn' using a toothpick is excellent, If I ever feel the need to build another Eduard Camel, I'll be nicking that idea!

 

Cheers

 

John

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14 hours ago, Brandy said:

Nice looking woodwork. A coat of clear orange once the oils are dry will really make it pop!

Ian

 

ah... that gives me a chance to use my new bottle of clear orange.

 

and redo all that masking again :wall:

 

10 hours ago, Marklo said:

Lovely work. Have you tried printing your own decals? I’ve had reasonable results both with laser and inkjet printed decals.

All br the national markings were inkjet printed.

the red Pelegro makings were inkjet printed.

you can get both types of paper off eBay. My one big learning is to make sure to put a few coats of clear varnish over the next inkjet decals after printing otherwise they curl up and can’t be applied properly.

 

I've printed my own decals before Marklo and would have no problem doing so again, if I had a printer.

 

7 hours ago, perdu said:

I don't know why you posh executive types don't roll up your sleeves and roll your own transfers either.

Can't your program just pop out .jpgs or other ordinary images?

These will be for my Norwegian Merlin and in bigger scale 1/48 for Steve (IV Plumb's) build of the same machine.

Probably cost in the order of twenty pence, drawn in Paint Shop Pro 4 which was a free download

This on clear because going to be added to a white airframe but white print paper is just as cheap.

Think on lad.

 

As mention in the previous pigeon, had I a printer, (most of) it would be no problem. However, read on MacDuff

 

7 hours ago, giemme said:

It looks very effective to me :clap: And what a progress, it's almost done now!

 

Ciao

 

and now boxed up pending arrival of the next red cross parcel

 

7 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That was a nice catchup on this Dreich day in Lincolnshire. Paint, guns, woodwork, prop, wheels, very small wooden thing.

Yep, it's all there and looking rather nice. What could possibly go wrong?

Aside from decals and rigging, that is. :winkgrin:

 

Rigging?  pah... if Ian can do it, I can too (maybe just not as good though!)

 

5 hours ago, Massimo said:

Fantastic interiors, those brass square tubes are great addition , superb barrels for the MG and the paint job looks really good!!!

Well done Hendie!:clap2:

 

Thanks M

 

5 hours ago, Viking said:

Just tripped across this thread and spent an enjoyable few minutes reading up on the fabulous job you are doing Mr Hendie, I love the wicker seat and the brass parts you have made. (I've also been lurking in your Pullman coach thread for some time now, absolutely gobsmacked by your skills).

The Eduard Camel is one of the few kits that I gave up on in recent years, everything that possibly could went wrong on my first one. Being a mug, I had another go and went on to successfully complete two more. It is no beginners model though.

Ah, I think that was probably me I posted this a while ago, and was somewhat shocked to see it was 9 years ago. How time flies! Glad you found it useful, Part of the fun of modelling is the problem solving, and the Eduard Camel will certainly give you plenty of opportunity.  Your solution to the rigging 'acorn' using a toothpick is excellent, If I ever feel the need to build another Eduard Camel, I'll be nicking that idea!

Cheers

John

 

 

That is a fantastic looking F2b Joh - and thanks for that tip.  It seems so obvious once you are aware of the trick.   (and thanks for the compliments on Pegasus!)

 

Panic over Mr. Mainwaring.  I found someone who can do the decals.  While searching through my emails, I discovered that the guy who did the wood inlay decals for Pegasus can handle DWG files without any problems - so I contacted him again, and payment was sent off this morning.  Hoping to see the proof probably late next week.

This is the full decal sheet, with stickers for the Camel, the Audax, and the next (just started this morning F2b).  I'll need to go through this entire process again when I do the Hurricane.  I really should plan ahead.

 

Capture1.png

 

I could have printed most of those without any issues.  The black, and the black and white transfers would have been straightforward, however this little blighter would have been an issue

 

Capture3.png

 

Those characters are only 4 mm high.  I could have printed a black outline on white decal paper but there was no way on earth I I could have trimmed those characters off the sheet without serious damage, so it just wasn't worth attempting.

Also, this one  is less than 2 mm in diameter. I could maybe have got away with printing it on clear paper, but it would really need white decal paper for the green to show up properly.

 

Capture4.png

 

Fortuitously, when searching for photos of Audii, I came across this shot of the tail insignia.  It doesn't show up on most photos due to the poor quality and this was the best shot I could get.

 

hawker.audax.28.sqn.badge.jpg

 

Based on that, I came up with this simplified version. Simplified because the star from top to bottom is only ~7 mm high

As always, it's guess the colors game.  The Demi-Pegasus is easy enough, but I could find no information on the background or Star outline.  Since the background on the current emblems is blue, I went for a lightish bluish sort of color, and just plain black for the star outline.  

 

Capture2.png

 

and that's the current state of play.  I'm waiting on paints arriving so the Camel is back in the box for the moment.  I'm still continuing (albeit very slowly) with the Audax, and I just started the Eduard F2b this morning though that was mainly removing parts from the runners and a lot of clean up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Not sure why I missed this one hendie but caught up now…

 

Your usual high level of modelling skills and scratch building on show - great stuff matey! :) 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Time for a little update.  This has taken a bit of a back seat recently as I needed to lay my hands on some clear orange for the wood work before I could really proceed any further.  Since Model Master have all but shut up shop, I am switching my paint of choice over to Mr Aqueous color, and unfortunately suppliers in the US are not as abundant as I'd like. Anyhoos, the paint was ordered probably 3 weeks ago and it only just arrived this week.

 

without further ado, the masking job began - taking no chances as usual

 

PC220015.jpg

 

a few minutes later

 

PC220016.jpg

 

Yes, I managed to knock two of the cabane struts which I'll need to fix later. I think I am going to leave them off for the moment until the ceremonial sticking on of the transfers is done. 

I'm still waiting on my custom decals but I don't think it will be too long now.

There were some kit generic decals that I could be getting on with. 

In hindsight I should have left off the rudder and stuck the transfers on before I fixed it to the airframe.  It was a lot more fiddly this way.

 

PC220017.jpg

 

Unlike other tail trasnfers which are usually too short, the tail flash from Revell was slightly larger than the tail.  I thought this was a good thing...

 

PC220018.jpg

 

but getting that wraparound was impossible to accomplish without some degree of wrinkling on the reverse side as you can see above.

A light sanding took care of the wrinkles and it was ready for part two

As you can see, the wraparound caused more issues, particularly with the red and white sections... and more wrinkles.  Again, a light sanding and some paint touch up will take care of that.

 

PC230031.jpg

 

More concerning is the width of the red stripe - it looks very narrow in the shot above.  I'll need to mull this over and may end up painting the damn flashes if I can get a decent color match.

Moving forward I realized that I still had to fit the observation windows in the wings and I wanted that job out of the way before the wings got fitted.

Some clear packaging was retrieved from the bin

 

PC220003.jpg

 

Cut to shape and stuck in place with (wait for it Ced...) diluted PVA.  It looks a bit messy at this point

 

PC220004.jpg

 

but soon dries nice and clear.  I find that adding a few drops of water to the PVA helps with the clarity

 

PC220010.jpg

 

I'm a bit confused with those observation windows - the placement of the roundels obscures the majority of the windows, so I trimmed the decals back. (keeping the off-cuts in case some one tells me that they were obscured in the 1:1

After the roundels went on it was up with the gloss coat... and more frustration.  I gloss coated (Alclad) the entire top surface, but on the bottom edge you can see that I ended up with a patch that the gloss just wouldn't coat. Annoying or what?

 

PC220011.jpg

 

I considered respraying the center section and gloss coating again, but took a chance and went ahead with the alclad semi matt and the gods must have been less annoyed with me that day as the patchy bit disappeared

 

PC220019.jpg

 

We're al ready for assembly - IF only I had the decals in place.  So once again, this little Camel is going back into the stable until the transfers arrive

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Well, what have I been up to over the last few weeks?  Not much to be honest.  The first load of decals I ordered got lost in the post - of course we had to wait to make sure they had actually got lost and not just delayed before my source could send out a new batch.

They arrived earlier this week!  Wahoo!

 

P1300008.jpg

 

The next question begging to be answered was: Were they going to fit?    HHmmnnnn.... looks a bit tight

 

P1300012.jpg

 

But whaddya know - everything fell into place nicely.   The 'bump' in the white square is actually the opening for the vertical stabilizer cables.

 

P1300015.jpg

 

The custom decals were a dream to work with.  Nice and thin, they laid down nicely and without any issues.   The only issues I have with them are all of my own making.  The serial E1502 is a bit on the bold side.  I could have done with making it just a bit smaller, or created narrower characters.  As I don't have a printer at home anymore, there was no way for me to print them out for a look-see before committing to ordering them.  (That may be a valid reason for considering a printer in the future)

An all weekend decaling session saw these three aircraft get their markings

 

P1310026.jpg

 

Next session - gloss coating, so I'll need to find some other work to be getting on with while they are all curing up.  A Vampire perhaps?

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, hendie said:

(That may be a valid reason for considering a printer in the future)

There's always one, hurry up and go get it :D 

 

Awesome stickering, BTW :clap: 

 

Ciao

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