Completed - Sopwith Triplane & Rolls-Royce Armoured Car, Roden

[Bluesfan]

Blimey, nearly a month since I updated this, sorry - not that great at this build log thing. Anyway, here are a handful of recent snaps to show that 'something' has been happening. FWIW I still expect to beat the deadline, even if a stopwatch is required. Almost a fortnight left? Loads of time!

The first one shows Roden's approach to the wire wheels on the RR Armoured Car kit. They offer four of those formers in fact, for the various wire discs. The whole building operation was mildly stressful(!) but overall I think the end result was worth it. Good for Roden, really, because it was only the early 1914 version of the AC which employed wire wheels, but they put a decent effort into them.

Second pic: the Triplane's propeller, for which I've managed a fair 'woody' look which'll do for me.

[Bluesfan]

First pic here: work so far on fin and rudder. I'm a little dubious about the fit as per the instruction sheet, but I'm sure it'll all be okay in the end...
A minor note: you can just see a small black dot at the top/front of the fin. They often don't bother to mould anything there, on the Triplane and other contemporary types, but I've noticed from photos that rather than running through the edge of the fin, support wires often went through a small extension of the vertical post, so I've placed a tiny piece there to suit.
Also (sadly) the fin will indeed be green, because this is supposed to represent Collishaw's earlier machine. I gather he only painted the fin black on his two gun machine.

Second: the underside at an early stage. Yes, I've had a go at filling some very noticeable sink holes! I'm generally quite forgiving of sink marks, but in this case... wow.
And now I look at it again, and despite all the double checking I did, I'm wondering again (this being a single gun machine) if I actually removed the correct shell case chute... Yes, I did

[Bluesfan]

I'm not doing myself any favours showing this pic - here's my Triplane's instrument panel. Honestly, it doesn't look too bad at normal size; and the random mix of natural and room lighting, and the reflections on the dials, probably didn't help. But consider this a public service. The intention here is to show what others have no doubt considered doing when no instrument decals are provided. Before now, I've sometimes rendered the dials with a few simple dashes of black or white, depending on the background, and even in 1/32 scale it can be okay (for me!) if the panel isn't too prominent or visible. However, I decided in this case to see what would happen if I found some photos of Triplane instrument panels and printed the dials out to scale size.

Here's the result. I don't think I'll do this again, decals are obviously always going to look better. But it was kind of interesting, especially while researching, and observing how different individual panels could be between different machines.

[Bluesfan]

And finally for today, here's the chassis of the Rolls-Royce Armoured Car 1914 pattern.
I think it looks great, even as I start to twitch nervously at the thought of ever building one of these again.
Like so many of the vehicles of the era, the chassis is extraordinarily complicated. I'm not sure Roden could have done anything to make it easier, but we'll find out soon, because I believe somebody else (Meng?) are bringing out their own 1/35 scale R-R Armoured Car.

Of course, most of this will be invisible under the armour. I'm hoping that the rest of the kit will be much more straightforward (famous last words).
But the best bit, those wire wheels, will still be gloriously on show

[RAGIII]

Great to see some progress on this one. As for the panel your level of satisfaction is what counts! The chassis for the car looks great!
RAGIII

[pepperman42]

Both projects seem to be moving along well.

Steve

[Bluesfan]

Thanks Both!
Pic - this may seem like a distraction at this stage, and in fact this fellow will only appear if I find the time to paint him.
I picked him up ages ago, and will include him in the scene even if that's after the deadline because I haven't any other suitable RNAS project. He's the Naval Division rating from Tommy's War. When I got him I don't think anyone had produced any obviously Naval personnel in 1/32. It's kind of annoying to me that since then we've had quite a few, but only officers. Unless of course you count the rather good personnel Copper State have produced for their Lanchester AC. Sometime I might add one of those to this scene, sitting in the back of the Rolls-Royce.
However, there might be somewhat of a scale issue. The Tommy's War figure is a good 6cm tall, which scales up to 6 foot 3 or 4. Ah well, not impossible, but...

[Bluesfan]

Nearly there on this one.

A little cross with myself that the issue of tire colour slipped my mind earlier, until it popped up on another thread last week. It's an interesting topic; as far as this model is concerned, I recognise that it's unlikely that the car would have had tires as dark as this. But I'll leave them as they are, partly because I'd end up with a very grey model indeed if I tried (a very messy!) repaint.

The interior is fairly basic. I have 'suggested' some instruments on the bare board provided with some dabs of paint

Mark

[RAGIII]

Your car is looking terrific! Great progress.

RAGIII

[Alexis]

I like the black tires, looking excellent so far Mark 



Terri

[Bluesfan]

Thanks for looking in!

Here's the complete Rolls-Royce Armoured Car 1914 pattern. I hope it'll make a final appearance next week in the intended scene along with the Sopwith Triplane.

Work proceeds also on that front, it's just been hard to take worthwhile pictures, but that will change over the next few days.
I'm sure everyone finds themselves facing unexpected obstacles at times. Currently I'm being slowed down by the heat, which is making painting (with acrylics) a bit of a struggle.

As for the Triplane, it really is the oddest aircraft. I mean, the rigging isn't that complicated, but it is weird. Those double wires passing through the leading edge of the middle wing... And all those drag wires...

[Bluesfan]

A couple more.

Pity about the silvering. Those decals look so simple, don't they? But they were hell to deploy. I had to cut the large R.N.A.S. ones into several pieces, because there was no way they were going to settle over the pronounced rivets etc. And they did break up in places - I know Roden decals have a poor rep but in this case it was down to my necessarily rough handling. I'm okay with the end result.

The interior is even murkier than I expected; maybe I should have left the roof hatch open.
Anyway, I love the suitably naval look of this vehicle in battleship grey

Cheers
Mark

PS Those familiar with this kit will wonder where the flag is. Well, I suspect it's not appropriate for 1917 - and yes I know that in reality by then the car would probably have been sent to Macedonia or the desert but never mind. However, the practical reason is that the large white ensign is provided as a decal and I'm certain that there would have been no practical way to make it look vaguely realistic. Assuming it stayed in one piece. All I could think of was maybe photocopying it onto a suitable grade of paper, and then seeing if one could give it a rag-like texture. No, too much effort for marginal reward I reckoned.

[RAGIII]

Lovely Armored car! Can't see the silvering but I will take your word I am looking forward to the triplane pics and final scene!
RAGIII

[Alexis]

Really nice job on the armour car 



Terri

[kensar]

The armoured car looks good and does remind one of a battleship.