Sopwith 5F1 Dolphin ***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Yes, this one has actually got wings!

I managed to find where I had hidden it so I might as well have a go. John Masters built one in the recent "Interceptors" GB and it seemed to go together pretty well though he decided, probably wisely to replace the resin struts and do a bit of reinforcing. I will see how I get on - it will certainly take longer than my small tanks! This is the last resin model/kit in my stash and I have swopped all of my vac forms with Pat so this will definitely be my final entry.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Ray S]

What a great subject for a finale Peter! It looks good from here.

 

Ray

[Mjwomack]

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

Yes, this one has actually got wings!

Now you're messing with my head!But the mystic spreadsheet is very relieved that this thread has only got one build in it so far or will you be bundling in some grand equipment later on?!

 

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

managed to find where I had hidden it so I might as well have a go.

The delights of the second, or even third reserve stash; think I've only got two stashes but who knows?

 

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

so this will definitely be my final entry

Never say never again, this is the reason for eBay, KingKit and many others.

[PeterB]

Only one stash but split between 6 different places as far as I can remember as my other half keeps moving them! Still, it is a bit easier to find things after 2 years of GB - probably done something like 70 excluding the tanks so that has thinned it out somewhat.

 

Pete

[stevehed]

Looking forward to this. The Dolphin has been on my kit bash list for a while but haven't made a plan as yet.

[PeterB]

Ok, I will admit it - I have been putting this one off as I am outside my comfort zone a bit. I have not built a biplane for quite a while, and that was a decent plastic kit whilst this is resin with struts of dubious strength. Not only that I guess I will have a go at rigging it which is not one of my favourite pastimes on ones as small as this. Anyway I have made a start.

The cockpit interior is painted and assembled and I will give it  coat of matt varnish shortly. I have also managed to get it in the fuselage and close it up with a bit of a struggle.

I am working on the coaming that goes over it, and have added a crude IP and replaced the gun barrels with some Aeroclub Vickers ones.

 

So time for a little background.

The Sopwith Aviation Company was founded in 1912 and went into liquidation in 1921 but in that short time it produced a number of aircraft that are very well known to modellers – the “One and a Half Strutter”, Pup, Triplane Camel and Snipe. However that is just the tip of the iceberg and the Putnam's book on Sopwith lists over 50 types, and that does not include the many variants – in those days aerodynamics was often a matter of trial and error and the relatively simple construction of the planes meant it was fairly easy to make changes, such as building and fitting a completely new set of wings in a couple of days. Our fellow modeller @Marklo has scratch build quite a few of the less well known types in recent GB and continues to do so as I type this.

 

Most of the aircraft built by Sopwith used rotary engines, which were fairly reliable, light and compact but generally low powered. They also burnt prodigious amounts of oil, a fair bit of which ended up on the pilot's face! Because the whole engine rotated at high speed they could produce a considerable gyroscopic effect which could be both a blessing and a curse, particularly in the Camel which would turn very fast to the right with the torque but rather slower to the left against it. Also, due to the pilot and engine being very close together in the very short nose, the concentration of weight made it difficult to handle for less skilled pilots and trainees as it would get into an uncontrollable spin very quickly, resulting in many fatalities. Although the Germans also used rotary engines in quite a few machines such as the Fokker Dr1 Triplane, they increasingly used inline engines such as Daimler and Benz. These were bigger and heavier but also more powerful and seemed to have more development potential than the rotary, which came to be replaced by the radial engine which was actually fixed and did not rotate. These were coming into use by the end of WWI though it seems to have taken a while for them to become widely used.

 

The French and British did develop inline engines of course, notably the Hispano Suiza and Rolls Royce range, and Sopwith's design team under Herbert Smith decided to build a fighter with a Hispano engine at about the same time the Camel was entering production in the spring of 1917. This became the 5F1 Dolphin which entered service in late 1917 but although in some ways superior to both the Camel and the later Snipe and apparently well liked by its pilots, it only served operationally with 4 RFC/RAF Squadrons though several others were equipping when the war ended. Although getting on for 1500 were built, many went straight to storage and is not one of the better known Sopwith products.

 

More on the Dolphin next time.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Quite a bit of progress - the fit was less than perfect but judicious filing and a touch of filler have sorted that out.

Like John in his build in the Interceptors GB earlier this year I put a pin in the wings to strengthen the joint. Next up I will paint the fuselage and both wings and perhaps put some of the decs on before getting ready to fit the upper wing - I will leave off the exhaust pipes and tail feathers as they are fragile and might not survive the handling needed in the next stage of construction and rigging.

 

So final part of the background.

With its combination of a larger airframe and a heavy water cooled inline engine the Dolphin was not as manoeuvrable at the Camel but it was better than the SE5a apparently, and it was a bit faster than the Camel. Also it maintained its performance at altitude better which was important when dealing with the Fokker D VII and the high flying Rumpler observation planes. One of the main problems with most normal biplanes was that the upper wing obstructed the pilot's view upwards so Smith decided to mount the top wing very close to the fuselage so that the pilot's head actually was sticking out above it. This raised concerns that if it nosed over he would be killed so some early versions had a “roll cage” fitted, but this was soon dispensed with. The disadvantage of the low wing was that although it gave a superb view upwards it was poor downwards so Smith reluctantly moved the top wing 13” back to give a better view. This sort of backwards stagger had been used on various planes before but I have read that there were some aerodynamic disadvantages. Like all new machines there were various teething problems with it – the fuel and cooling systems needed modification, the props kept flying off until changes were made, and like the SE5 the Hispano engine and its Wolsley Viper clone were not entirely reliable.

 

In spite of these problems it entered service in early 1918 with 19 Squadron, followed closely by 79 Squadron. 87 and 23 were also equipped with the Dolphin before the war's end, though at one stage they had to give up their aircraft to other squadrons due to losses incurred, primarily as a result of them being used for ground attacks during the German Offensive. The Osprey book in their Aircraft of the Aces series lists no less than 29 pilots who made 5 or more kills when flying the Dolphin, the highest scorer being Captain F W Gillet of the US when flying with 79 Squadron – he claimed 20 of which 3 were balloons. Of the 29 pilots, 13 scored double figures and between them they totalled 266 claims though 114 of those were kite balloons so that was either a sign of the nature of the combat at that period or else the Dolphin was good at shooting up balloons.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Paint on. The pic colours are wrong - both the "green" and "cream" are somewhat browner. May look better in natural light, when we get a bit of sun!

When I first started building biplanes I was under the impression that although the metal panels at the front of RFC planes such as the DH 4 could be overpainted in the camo colour, they were sometimes left in a natural metal finish and mostly painted dark grey. The kit says “Battleship Grey FS 35622 but for a start that FS number seems to be a light blue used by the Israelis. I picture “Battleship Grey” as dark but of course it depends which admiralty colour scheme they refer to – the dark grey Home waters one or one of the lighter other ones. Anyway all the references I have show a lighter grey so I have followed John in using Medium Sea Grey.

 

As to the camo colours they are somewhat contentious to say the least – PC10 must be about the most argued over colour in aircraft modelling! Opinions range from Green to Brown with all shades in between. The basic ingredients appear to have been lampblack and yellow ochre which some sources say must be brown, but faded quickly with weathering whilst others suggest that the protective varnish could at times cause a “green shift” - take your pick! My first few kits used Humbrol Authentic “RFC Green” or the replacement Hu 108 WWI Green and of course they were dark brownish greens – I still have tins of them. Xtracolour X22 was initially labelled RFC Green but later renamed RFC PC10 Khaki and is similar to the Humbrol colour. The original Precision paints did at least 2 versions of PC 10 which were more of a dark chocolate colour and now Airfix are saying use Hu 155 Olive Drab which is a slightly lighter green. In fact on this build I have used an old tin of White Ensign Colourcoats AC GW 02 Khaki which Jamie now sells as AC GW 02 PC10 (Khaki) though whether or not he has changed it I have no idea, but it is an interesting colour - the colour change in different lighting conditions is noticeable!

 

As to the linen undersurfaces, well the various names used by the paint manufacturers are perhaps indicative of the problem – Natural Fabric, Doped Linen, Doped Natural Fabric and Clear Doped Linen to name just those I have in my paint stock. All are cream sort of colours, some lighter, some yellower and some slightly brownish. I have used old White Ensign Colourcoats AC GW 10 Doped Linen and again I am not sure if Jamie has made any changes to it when Sovereign Hobbies took over the Colourcoats range. Those who have seen any of my previous builds know that I am not averse to sensible discussion, but this is one topic where it can get rather heated at times so I would prefer not to spend too much space on it!

 

Now I will drill the holes for the struts and rigging and then the fun really starts.

 

Pete

 

[PeterB]

Half the struts on and so far so good.

Having drilled all the various holes I stuck on the kit cabane struts having shortened them a bit - the gap seemed a little too much to my mind. Once they were dry I mounted the fuselage/lower wing unit in my simple jig to ensure I got about 10^o of back stagger - a bit reminiscent of the jig Airfix used to provide, but two of them on a base and no locating slots for the wings. I then glued the top wing on to the struts with a bit of Clearfix to give me some wiggle room. After 4 hours I reinforced the joints with CA, and began adding the front struts. Rightly of wrongly I decided to try the kit resin struts - they are actually stiffer than my old Contrail strutting which is a bit flexible, but of course they are also a lot more brittle - time will tell if I have made the correct decision but once the rigging is on then I hope it will stiffen up the assembly. I dry fitted the struts, shortened them slightly and then used CA to glue them in place.

 

I will leave them overnight and then adjust the jig so I can get at the back ones - bit of poor planning there! I suspect I will have to clean out the rigging holes as some CA may have got into them - I will need to be very careful not to stress the struts when I do that! If it does not work I can always replace the struts, but being a Yorkshireman I thought that as I had paid for them I may as well give them a try! I don't normally bother with wood grain effect on props, but something like this on a Bristol in the War Museum would be rather nice,

Probably make a mess of it knowing me! Now that is what I call a battleship grey cowling and for what it is worth the canvas does look a bit brown to me, but this was taken with flash on an old manual camera at least 40 years ago, and at that time the plane would have been anything up to 60 years old, so had probably been repainted more than once.

 

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Must have been half asleep when I wrote the above, the cowling on the Brisfit is clearly Blue!

Edited May 26, 2021 by PeterB

[stevehed]

Looking good. Too green for me but a valuable guide. So far I'm wondering if I can combine a Revell Camel to a Heller Nid 622 nose section.

[PeterB]

Yeah - I am not entirely happy with the White Ensign Colourcoats take on PC 10 myself - may repaint it before I start rigging, though in fairness the colour in the pic is not right - I may try to get some daylight shots as the sun is supposed to make an appearabce on Tuesday.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

This is a bit more like the true colour but in some lighting it looks almost brown!

I think I will leave it as it is and start the rigging.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Basic rigging done.

At this scale I did not bother with the double wires it actually had, neither will I rig the controls though I may do something with the undercarriage. I need to do a bit of touching up, then I can glue the tail on and make a start on the decs.

 

After that it is just the undercarriage, prop, and the tail skid which will be the last part to go on - I will probably make a windscreen and fit that as well. The Dolphin was armed with a pair of air cooled Vickers 0.303mg in front of the pilot, but it could also be fitted with one and sometimes two Lewis guns mounted on the wing spar at the front of the cockpit. Presumably, like the SE5a this was useful when attacking German 2 seat recce planes as instead of approaching from the rear where they were exposed to return fire from the observer's gun, they could slip in underneath and fire up into the target. One or two pilots also added a fixed Lewis gun under each wing outside the arc of the propeller operated by cables from the cockpit, so whilst the single drum of ammo on them lasted they had 4 forward firing machine guns – useful perhaps when attacking kite balloons. I may mount a Lewis gun on the right side of the cockpit frame.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

The decs are on and until now the fit has been pretty good - I even managed to use the kit resin struts with a bit of adjustment. However my luck ran out slightly with the undercarriage. I cut the legs and axle off the "sprues", cleaned them up, and tacked the axle in place with Clearfix to make it easier to get the alignment right - or so I thought. However I found that it was impossible to push the top of the legs close enough together to fit in the locating holes without seriously bending the axle which seemed perhaps a little long. I therefore attempted to shorten it but it broke! No big problem I thought and inserted a length of brass rod instead, but somewhere in the process I managed to mess up the geometry slightly and as a result the wheel track is about 3mm short.If this was a "normal" plastic kit I would have just taken the whole assembly off and adjusted it but as it is fragile, brittle resin fixed with CA glue I decided to live with it - not that obvious if I had not mentioned it I guess.

 

All I need to do now is knock up a pillar mount and add a Lewis gun, and then finally fit the fragile tail skid. I will be using an Aeroclub metal gun as with the 2 Vickers as the kit offerings are a bit "undernourished" to my eye. Incidentally, unlike some other kits I have built such as the DH4, photos do not seem to show that the ends of the prop were wrapped, or should that be "frapped" as the Navy might say, with grey canvas to strengthen the wood, and neither can I see any signs of the brass leading edge insert to further reduce potential damage to the prop.

 

Should not be long now!

 

Pete

Edited May 30, 2021 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have added a windscreen from some scrap packaging, painted and fitted the Lewis gun and the tail skid, and am calling this last entry done.

I will post some more pics in the "competition" gallery shortly.

 

This has been a most interesting GB - it has thrown up a whole host of non injection plastic builds and I must thank @Mjwomack & Co. for thinking it up. It gave me the incentive to build all my Milicast resin 1/76 tanks which had been lying about for several year, no doubt boring most of you to tears in the process but I enjoyed it. This Dolphin is the last non injected plastic thing I have in my stash and I have no intention of buying anything else in the near future so this will be my final entry in what has a most enjoyable GB. Quite a refreshing change from the normal plastic bashing!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by PeterB

[stevehed]

It looks fine to my eyes. I wouldn't have noticed the undercarriage if you hadn't mentioned it. For the second time in this GB one of your builds has inspired me to look again at an old project. I've got a couple of Revell Camels en route which I'm hoping to kit bash into a Dolphin.

[PeterB]

That will be an interesting project Steve - you are braver than me!

 

Pete

[pheonix]

I have only just found this! Nice to see another WW1 type being modeled, and a less well known subject too. I think that you have made a first class job of that and I for one could not see any errors in the completed model. Hats off to you for tackling a resin kit too - personally I give them and vacuforms a wide berth - I will stick with sheet plastic, rod, strip and wood - so much easier!

 

P

[Steben]

aaaaaaaah rigging .... it is the best and the worst part of ww1 modeling

[Mjwomack]

On 5/31/2021 at 3:19 PM, PeterB said:

I have no intention of buying anything else in the near future

'in the near future' that's a great get out clause - never say never again. Glad you've enjoyed this GB as much as I've enjoyed all your builds.