Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin, CSM 1:48, Upd 15.5.2020 Finished, done, over!

[gbrivio]

How much and beautiful work since my last visit, and the overall look is not less impressive then tiny details. The blue livery is really eyecatching.
Ciao
Giuseppe

[Alexis]

She looks good with the top wing mounted 


Terri

[GazzaS]

Nice!

[Bughunter]

Thank you Richie, Giuseppe, Terri and Gaz!


RAF wires

To rig a British biplane was always a problem.

I guess most of you know this, but may be not all readers so here a short explanation.
The RAF wires are no ropes, but flat steel bars in an aerodynamic shape with threads at the ends. This bar was mounted in special terminals. According to WNW the size is in 1/32 0.1x0.3mm for main rigging.

In 1/48 EZ line is a good representation, but the terminals are problematic. I cant handle the old metal turnbuckles from Gaspatch of this type in a good way so I tried different things, PE from Part on my DH.2 Strip down, self made terminals with a lot of metal parts on my Bristol Fighter, but her the effort was very high.

Now a solution was on the horizon in Greece so I ordered a new resin set from Gaspatch Models.
As usual safely packed, according to the pack are 100 RAF terminals provided. In real there are 8 rows with 13 pieces in each row.



This little beasts have a hole! Gaspatch recommends EZ-line:


... or a 0.1mm wire:



I put some on a 0.1mm wire for metal paint. So here you can see how small the terminals are!



Prepared some for mounting:



The bad thing was, that I had mounted the kit PE, struts and upper wing already. This was bad idea! I tried to use the new terminals anyway, but hat some trouble with broken paint on the PE (I had to remove the ears), so this will not be my best model.

Here are some impressions of the better connections:





I think this new solution is the best available one on the market! The bigger 1/32 are may be easier to handle, but this smaller 1/48 can also used in bigger scale for rigging inside the fuselage.
My preparation of this model was only to far for best usage of this new toy. Thank you Costas!

Now I have the add the remaining RAF wires ...

Cheers,
Frank

PS: If you order some, please tell Costas that you got the hint from me

[RichieW]

Great looking attachments Frank, the package from Greece was well worth waiting for then. Looking forward to seeing the guns too.

Richie

[RAGIII]

Anchor points and rigging look Fantastic to Me. You are an Awesome Modeler!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Neat solution for fixing the wires , Gaspatch has some neat products out . Rigging is excellent Frank , nothing to be disappoint with .


Terri

[GazzaS]

Amazed!  I was at first believing you were rigging a larger scale model.

[Bughunter]

Thank you Richie, Rick, Terri and Gaz!

Looking forward to seeing the guns too.

Both Gaspatch Vickers are already mounted

You are an Awesome Modeler!

An Awesome Modeler would not make my mistakes, but
- do not twist the EZ-Line
- drill holes for the EZ-Line prior mounting
- shorten the mounting ears of the RAF Wire Terminals a bit
- do not use PE in parallel
- rotate the terminals on the small inside crosses by 90°

But no project is useless. It can still serve as a bad example. So I can try to do better on the Sopwith Triplane.
Speaking of which, what is "experience"? When you realize you've made the same mistake before.

One side is done by now.

Cheers,
Frank

[kensar]

Those fittings look promising.  Now we need rigging line that is flat through the middle with round ends.

Great work all around on this build, Frank.

[Bughunter]

Those fittings look promising.  Now we need rigging line that is flat through the middle with round ends.

Ken, in your scale you can take a 0.2mm wire, cut threads at the end and roll the middle between two steel rolls flat until it reaches the 0.1x0.3mm nominal size.
I don't know what size the hole in the 1/32 terminals is. A 1/24 version is available too.

Cheers,
Frank

[FAf]

Ha, that was a nice solution... I’m struggling with the rigging on my Pup. Struggling in sense of not being able to decide on  which method to use. But having seen this I’m now thinking that this might be the way to go!

If I understand the method correctly; you simply drill a hole, slide the anchor point on to the line and glue the line into the hole? I can see why an elastic line is preferable.

Great work on the model! Very inspiring!
/Fredrik

[Bughunter]

Yes, Fredrik. That is the way Gaspatch recommends.
At first glue only the line into the whole, then slide the terminal also to end and fix it.
And you are right, the Pup uses also RAF wires. My 1/48 Pup got a lot of small slotted metal pipes for that, so the new solution saves a lot of effort.
I only don't know rigging material of the WNW recommended size of 0.1x0.3mm. I have seen a model with such flat fishing line, but this is not elastic.

Just finished the wing rigging But I'm no more able to continue today with the control wires - enough is enough!

Cheers,
Frank

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks also from me for the clarification, I was wondering about that. So essentially you're using these terminals as some would use small brass tubes. Interesting for sure, and they look great!

[Bughunter]

Control wires


After finishing the wing rigging I noticed, that the gear needs also some lines. So after pictures I added those wires using nickel silver pipe pieces.



Here again the model alone:



The ailerons are mounted and rigged, together with a line between the ailerons.



Here I'm doing the tailplane control wires:



All actual wires together:



There are still many lines missing, for example on the tail.



A lot of small details needs to be added too, for example the great multiple part PE from the kit for the pitot.



And that is a view of the actual state. All what you see is mounted.



There's a light at the end of the tunnel, or is that an oncoming train?

Cheers,
Frank