Sopwith Triplane

[marvinneko]

The wife told me her fave plan was the Sopwith Triplane, something we saw at the national museum a couple times (Black Maria of the Black Flight) but she'd never mentioned it before. I won a $5 bid on eBay but it's missing box, decals, instructions. However the sprues look like Eduard 1/48. That means photoetch is missing as well. I d/l the instructions off Scalemates and it has an image of the photoetch so maybe I can scratchbuild them.

 

My aim is to treat this as a practice build and maybe do a proper one, maybe even a 1/32 in the future.

 

I have zero WW1 experience. A couple builds of this seem to have fizzled out here on BM. Others seem to have lost all their photos.

 

There seems to be some great Canadian history behind this plane and maybe the wife will enjoy 3d designing some parts for it. 

 

Any advice (or rolling eyes, laughter, admonishments for the naïveté) are welcome 😛 

 

I did do a 1/144 Eduard Avia biplane with rigging in the 2023 Xmas Blitzbuild.

[JackG]

Never built a tri-plane but yes, Black Maria is synonymous with Raymond Collishaw.

 

https://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/collishaw.php

 

[Grey Beema]

@marvinneko Could you use some of the Eduard resin / etch from the Camel to cover off the etch parts that are missing?  Not sure myself, haven’t got into WWI RNAS aircraft yet…

[Paul Thompson]

       There is  a detail set available from Tom's Modelworks, set no. 211. Available direct online for $7.25 plus postage, which should be do-able to Canada from America. It doesn't cover all of the Eduard areas, but is a good start.

        It's a long time since I built one, but the thing I recall needing some care is getting the centre wing incidence to be the same as the top and bottom. The other thing concerns the rigging - there's a wire going through the middle wing. I no longer recall if Eduard worked out where and indicated it with a dimple, but anyway it needs care to get in the right place (the wing is thick enough that if drilling through it, the angle of the hole needs to be spot on to avoid kinking whatever you rig with).

        IIRC it was also issued by Smer with one of the ancient pre-Eduard Albatros kits, without PE, so not unbuildable without it, but much more detailed with.

 

Paul.

 

 

[Seawinder]

12 hours ago, Paul Thompson said:

       There is  a detail set available from Tom's Modelworks, set no. 211. Available direct online for $7.25 plus postage, which should be do-able to Canada from America. It doesn't cover all of the Eduard areas, but is a good start.

        It's a long time since I built one, but the thing I recall needing some care is getting the centre wing incidence to be the same as the top and bottom. The other thing concerns the rigging - there's a wire going through the middle wing. I no longer recall if Eduard worked out where and indicated it with a dimple, but anyway it needs care to get in the right place (the wing is thick enough that if drilling through it, the angle of the hole needs to be spot on to avoid kinking whatever you rig with).

        IIRC it was also issued by Smer with one of the ancient pre-Eduard Albatros kits, without PE, so not unbuildable without it, but much more detailed with.

 

Paul.

 

 

Eduard does provide some indication of where the wire(s) go through the center wing, but they were not correctly placed when I built the kit a few years ago. Could have been user error, but I would recommend lining things up by eye as well as you can rather than relying on the dimples.

 

A lot of the most prominent photo-etch parts are the reinforcement plates on the struts where they meet the wings. They could definitely be scratchbuilt from sheet styrene and would be easier to attach then metal.

[europapete]

Check out worldwar1aircraftmodels.com, and go into the forum. A bunch of relevant builds and good people to help. ( Just like here, but dedicated to WW1 models)

[marvinneko]

Thank you all!

 

The item arrived today. Hm... I think I overpaid with the shipping.

 

Def seems like Eduard sprues. It's a 1/48 Triplane with some work to do to address the missing photoetch. I looked at Tom's models photoetch set. This "cheap" impulse buy has become expensive 😛 

 

[Seawinder]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the photo-etch parts for the engine, which make it barely acceptable. Aftermarket engines are available, but there goes another price jump.

[marvinneko]

Thanks for the referral to ww1aircraftmodels.com, great site

 

I contacted Eduard to see if they have spare parts for any of the boxings of the triplane

 

I'll be at a show in a couple weeks. Any tips on a starter ww1 kit for practice? For Canada, I'm thinking maybe Nieuport 17,  SE5, or Sopwith Camel. May not be much choice there. 

[Seawinder]

If 1/48, I'd recommend Eduard's Fokker Dr.I (a whole level of magnitude beyond their Sopwith Tripe kit) or a Fokker D.VII, for which both the Roden and Eduard kits are quite good. Both aircraft types have minimal rigging. Of the three kits you mention, the Nieuport will definitely be the least complex.

[marvinneko]

Eduard has located spare bits but the shipping is US$28 for these tiny 1/48 items ($10). 

 

I have been trying to rationalize it by adding other stuff to meet the 1kg limit for that shipping cost (eg Albatros D.V + Fokker D.VII overtrees in 1/72 plus PE, but the all in cost blows up pretty fast.

 

It would've been cheaper to buy a new Roden!

 

 

 

 

[Paul Thompson]

If it's any consolation, shipping to Scotland isn't a whole lot better.

 

Paul.

[RC Boater Bill]

The 1/72 Eduard D.VII is a joy to build.   Only downside is that most markings options involve lozenge decals for the wings.  The Eduard decals fits nicely, but adding all the rib tapes is a real pain.

 

 

[KITCAT]

Use Aviatic lozenge with tapes already on and yes they fit