Author Topic: Completed - Sopwith Triplane & Rolls-Royce Armoured Car, Roden (Read 6894 times)

Bluesfan · « **Reply #30 on:** July 27, 2019, 08:35:06 AM »

Another bulletin from the battlefront...

Fraid it's somewhat messy in there, in the Triplane's cockpit. It's true that I tend to deliver glue via the proverbial garden hose; and as you may guess from these two pics, I had intended to include some token internal rigging but forgot before I stuck together the side and the floor-lower wing piece. So I'm sort of pleased that I managed to insert some rigging after the fact. Thanks to blobs of superglue and cocktail sticks. (Does anyone else regard cocktail sticks as essential modeller's tools?)

But look at that odd strut behind the seat in the first pic. Definitely something wrong there. I've done a lot of staring at Datafile plans as well as photos and the WNW and Roden instructions, trying to figure out all sorts of odd features of the Triplane cockpit. I think what we're seeing there is part of the fallout from the fuselage length debacle with this kit. So, in the second pic, it's still visible thanks to the lighting, but I painted over it and the rigging now makes sense. Thank goodness it'll be less visible once the top decking goes on

I hadn't tried those HGW fabric belts before - they're very nice, though not cheap.

Cheers,
Mark

RAGIII · « **Reply #31 on:** July 27, 2019, 10:35:53 PM »

Your interior is looking great. Nice save on going back and doing the interior rigging!
RAGIII

Bluesfan · « **Reply #32 on:** July 29, 2019, 06:41:16 PM »

Inching forward... At last, it's beginning to look like a plane

Hmm. It just doesn't have enough wings yet, for our tastes, does it?
I love the big black look of that front end.

Mark

Bluesfan · « **Reply #33 on:** July 29, 2019, 06:52:46 PM »

A couple of details.
The first one to show what I was aiming for with that instrument panel, in place, with that kind of visibility. And the dials look like dials

The second, very interesting to me after a lot of time spent puzzling over the tail assembly. It seemed to me as if the fin and tailplane and fuselage couldn't possibly fit together. And they are fiddly. But examining pictures of the real thing, it's clear that the Triplane did have visible gaps between these parts.
The plastic pieces joined up surprisingly well in the end. It'll look great with the rigging (hopefully).

Mark

RAGIII · « **Reply #34 on:** July 29, 2019, 09:47:10 PM »

Panel and Rudder look great in place. Keep hammering away

RAGIII

Bluesfan · « **Reply #35 on:** July 31, 2019, 09:10:39 AM »

Good evening. More hammering to report, see below my last couple of pictures.
I usually find the raising of the wing the moment of greatest tension, especially when there are a multitude of wobbly struts. Of course, with this plane we're talking about raising two extra wings rather than the normal one. It was certainly tense here, but the Triplane's big broad struts took away most of the usual worry. No, my main concern was to do with the double wires running through the leading edge of the middle wing. I cut out the patch section, and crossed my fingers that the wires would be in roughly the right area when I pulled them taut. Things look good; I'll fill the space tomorrow.
And finish the rigging, and all being well, do the decals.
By the way, interesting the different approach by Roden to the wing construction, compared with Wingnuts. WNW build up from below, and split the outer two struts, whereas Roden split the inner struts and have you bring the top two wings as an assembly down to the fuselage/lower wing. It worked pretty well.

I must admit, I didn't actually expect to find myself getting SO close to the deadline - sorry for that. Yes, I've even looked up the time zone difference. I think I have until 3pm on Friday

As a footnote, one thing has only become obvious today, which I bet most would have spotted straight away. With three wings, the model is a bit heavier than you'd think; and those undercarriage struts while beautifully to scale are rather slender. Yes, this (and maybe the WNW kit too?) is one of those kits which could benefit from metal replacements for the undercarriage. Too late for me, though.

Cheers
Mark

Alexis · « **Reply #36 on:** July 31, 2019, 11:34:29 AM »

Wow , you making excellent progress Mark

Terri

Brad Cancian · « **Reply #37 on:** July 31, 2019, 04:56:51 PM »

Looking great Mark - you're so close to completion; here's hoping you get to the deadline - you can do it!

Cheers,

BC

RAGIII · « **Reply #38 on:** July 31, 2019, 11:25:00 PM »

You are really progressing well! You can do it Mark!
RAGIII

Bluesfan · « **Reply #39 on:** August 02, 2019, 01:09:08 PM »

Well, somewhat of a miracle to have got to this point, but here is the best Sopwith Triplane I've ever built (the other was the old Revell 1:72 kit)
Never mind what time it is here in the UK... Not the first time I've pulled an all nighter

If I wake up in time tomorrow I mean today, I'll post a picture of the scene with both kits.
But the two models are both finished.

Mark

Bluesfan · « **Reply #40 on:** August 02, 2019, 01:26:49 PM »

Another couple of pictures.
As noted before, this is Collishaw's earlier Triplane, a single gun machine, in which he scored 18 victories. In fact it was overall the most successful Triplane; thanks to other pilots' efforts, it racked up a total of 23 I believe.
Originally, I wanted to paint it in PC12, but in (I think) Norman Frank's Osprey book of the Triplane, I read some of Collishaw's own comments, including that their Triplanes were all in the standard khaki. It's hard to interpret that as indicating chocolate brown. But this is fine, it's a handsome aircraft.
Also, going by the one photo I found, it had the earlier roundels without the white surrounds, hence why I've put on these plain blue white and red decals.

Cheers to everyone in the group, whether they managed to complete or not; I've really enjoyed it, it had a great atmosphere, and the results I've seen elsewhere are definitely a fitting tribute. Thanks to the organisers and sponsors!

Mark

Brad Cancian · « **Reply #41 on:** August 02, 2019, 05:22:34 PM »

Wonderful work! Great to see you got this one over the line - bravo!

Cheers,

BC

Juan · « **Reply #42 on:** August 02, 2019, 06:15:41 PM »

Congratulations on getting both completed.

RAGIII · « **Reply #43 on:** August 02, 2019, 08:55:23 PM »

Great to see that you were able to complete this Beauty! Looking forward to the photos of the scene!
RAGIII

Bluesfan · « **Reply #44 on:** August 02, 2019, 09:50:50 PM »

Many thanks, the encouragement all the way through has been really appreciated!

Here is a final batch of pictures, of the whole scene.
I guess it's a little odd for all sorts of reasons, not least the compression of the different elements, but on account of its RNAS theme I'm very happy with it.

Mark