When I could not work on my D.VII, I contemplated what to do next... I have accumulated a few more WNW kits as well as a host of 1/72 kits, most of them off-topic to this forum.
However, I had, and have, so much fun with my D.VII I figured a new 1/32 WWI build would best suit my mood for now. I went through my smallish stash, and having built a few German aircraft in succession, I wanted something Allied, and something with a rotary engine.
A Pup, Snipe and Camel would suit, and after comparing colour schemes, rigging, and avaiability I went for the Camel. In my case, it's the USAS boxing, as I liked the schemes and for some reason it seem less popular as the other boxings, as I could get a nice discount on this one. As I said, I like the schemes as well, so a definate win-win for me!
Most will probably know how it looks, but to be sure...:
However, the scheme selection is always the tough part. This particular Camel kit comes with 2 engines and as a result there are some other differences that have to be taken in account when selecting one. (fuselage halves, instrument panel cut-out, etc)
I liked E.W. Springs (a pretty standard Clerget Camel) and E.M. Kelton's box-art version (less standard Gnome engined night-fighter) the most. Eventually I settled on E.W. Springs 148th Aero Sqn's D8250, primarily because it still has the original cdl undersides (Kelton's has them in PC10) and also because it has the large center section cutout, allowing a better view of the cockpit.
This one will be it:
(borrowed from the WNW site but oploaded to my photo host)
With that settled I cut off all the parts marked not for use and went to work. Unlike the Fokker, the Camel has quite a few pinmarks on the insides of the fuselage and also on the visible sides of many interour components. After cleaning up all those parts I filled and sanded them, and that's how the parts are now.
I always like the WNW engines so I started with that, as I had to paint metallics for the D.VII as well, so I combined them. Painted as usual with Revell Aqua metallics, 99 (aluminium) for the pushrods and induction pipes, and 91 (steel) for the cilinders. The difference is kind of hard to photograph, though...
This is still a dry-fit, and will have the parts glued together after painting the details (spark plugs etc) and adding the spark plug wiring. I was very happy with my DSPIAE sprue cutters, as it allowed me to remove the extremely fragile pushrods from the sprues without any issues at all -like their circle cutter, highly recommended as far as I'm concerned.
Then the difficult part... what colours to paint it?
D8250 apparently had the upper surfaces overpainted in a lighter matt camouflage paint, which makes the scheme more interesting I think. However, I do want the colours sort-of to match to each other (I don't like the PC12 combination with PC10 on the engine cowls for example!).
So I set about for a bit of testing in the remaining fuselage halve and wing center section:
The colours are kind of hard to photograph with the dark weather we have a the moment, but they are from left to right (in Revell Aqua numbering):
46 (Nato Olive, Olive Drab) -> suggested for the overpainted upper surfaces
46 + 9 (anthracite black) 3:1 -> useful for PC10 paint for the cowlings, surprisingly the black makes the OD look more greenish!
37 (brick red) + 9 (anthracite black) 1:1 -> very nice chocoloate brownish colour for PC12. I think this would look nice on a Snipe, but not too happy with how it looks compared to the pure OD.
I also mixed up the PC12 mixture with OD (46) to get a more brownish colour, that looks really nice next to the pure 46. I think I'll settle on that for the main fuselage colour, with the upper surfaces in pure OD, and the cowlings with the middle colour.
Other than using it for mixing and writing down the mix recipe in my Snipe box, I'm not using the pure dark brown on this Camel.
I'll keep working on the D.VII first, but might sneak a little update here and there in here, too!
Jeroen