Sopwith 'Swallow' 1:32 scale

[Bughunter]

Hmm, some more pictures or infos would be nice
I can't help with the wing, but if you have  £11,500.00 available, you can buy the tailplane of the Swallow or Scooter at ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WWI-Royal-Flying-Corps-Sopwith-Swallow-Scooter-Plane-Tail-/163334936855

Is it really that special tail, or from a Camel or so?

Your question about the wing spar is very interesting!

Cheers,
Frank

[dtomko]

Mike, looks great.  I came to same conclusion as you about the cut outs: I think they may have provided access to the bolts that hold the wing halves together.  It does not appear they had any covering.  In the second photo you posted in reply #25, you can see what looked to me like the framing of an inspection window.  I went with that and made a pulley and covered the window with thin clear plastic.

Drew

[Mike Norris]

Frank - I very much doubt it or it would have been snapped up my a museum etc.
Besides it looks to be in too good a condition to be original.

Drew - I took another, closer look at the photos and I think you're right - there does seem to be a faint outline of and inspection window, as illustrated by in the resin set sheets.
I'll go with that as well - thanks.

The rear cockpit decking panel was tricky to do, but then I didn't expect it would be easy.
Once all of the flash and the mounting block was cut away, I sanded the bottom edges and rear face.
The 'Wingnut Wings' kit fuselage was temporarily joined with elastic bands and the shoulder at the rear sanded away as it stopped the resin decking panel from dropping down.
I soon found out that, no surprise, the resin decking panel was not wide enough to sit correctly on the fuselage.



So I cut the panel down the centre and rejoined them, but with a 1.0 mm thick plastic card insert.
Carefully sanded to the decking profile.



 

The front decking panel  - that's another story!!

Mike   

[Alexis]

The front decking doesn't sound good Mike and it looks like you are going to have fun blending in the rear decking . Good idea on spliting the rear decking and adding a spacer . Less putty which is always a good thing . Looking forward to your next up-date 



Terri

[kensar]

Not completely suprising about the rear deck panel, but as a great modeller, you handled it.

I suspect the slots in the wing were for torsion bar operated ailerons, but for some reason, the idea was abandoned.  At least they are positioned in the right place for that.  Perhaps with the flex encountered with one wing, the torsion bar would bind up.

Continuing to follow along...

[RAGIII]

Excellent work on the rear decking! I am looking forward to how you handle the front panels!
RAGIII

[Mike Norris]

Hi all,
After Drew got my attention regards an aileron inspection window, I decided to go with it.
The wing had an inspection window for the aileron control cable and pulley, similar to other Sopwith types, such as the Pup, Camel and Snipe.





I've cut out the recess at two levels - one for the window and a lower level for the aileron pulley.



The aileron pulley was made from the 'HGW Models' photo-etch set for the Sopwith Triplane.
The inspection window is a spare from a previous 'Wingnut Wings' Sopwith Pup build.





Mike

[Mike Norris]

Hi Ken,
Torsion bars - I hadn't thought about that possibility. Good thinking,
That might explain why there doesn't appear to be visibility of a wing rear inside the two wing slots. 


Mike

[lone modeller]

I miss a day and half an aircraft has been built....! How do you modellers do it I ask?

The details that you are adding are superb - this is going to be a real show stopper.

Stephen.

[Mike Norris]

Stephen - easy - it's called retirement 

Hi all,
Whilst 'working' on the resin front decking panel I spotted an error on both decking panels.
The rear decking panel has a pre-moulded fuel tank filler cap, which although in the correct position, is proud of the decking surface.
The actual aircraft had, like the Camel', an opening to gain access to the filler cap lower down inside the fuselage.
The front decking panel had a filler cap forward and between the gun troughs.
However on the resin panel this was just a stump of resin - not sure if it was a mis-mould?
Anyway I cut the filler cap from the rear decking panel and drilled out the location (the filler cap on the 'Wingnut Wings' tank will need to be moved to the other side to match).
I then drilled out the front decking panel location, filled the hole with modelling putty (from underneath) then inserted the filler cap from the rear panel. 
So two faults corrected with one filler cap!!

Mike

[RAGIII]

Excellent work as always!
RAGIII

[Mike Norris]

Hi all,
The resin set is intended for the Hobby Craft/Academy Camel kit, a'though I'm using a Wingnuts kit.
The sheets in the resin set state that due to differences in reference drawings, the front decking is too short (for the intended donor kit).
Now you can see just how short the length of the resin forward decking panel is, even on the Wingnut fuselage.
It's supposed to butt up against the rear decking panel.

Onward, upward,

Mike

[Bughunter]

I can learn here every day a lot about this little plane from a century ago

Again for the wing: the addional 12 strips on top of the wing, do you think it a enforcement?
May be it is additonally to allow the mechanics to check the rigging on top? Drew show them as wood on his model.

Cheers,
Frank

[RAGIII]

Quite a bit short indeed! Is the difference in the rear, front, or elsewhere?
RAGIII

[Mike Norris]

Hi Rick,
It's the front decking panel that's too short. Adding an insert at the front wouldn't work and that would move the cockpit opening further rearwards.
I think the only option is to lengthen the rear sides somehow to join the rear decking panel.

Hi Frank,
There's not much information on this aircraft as only one was built in 1918 and scrapped in 1919.
Personally I don't think it was reinforcement for ground crew, as there is nothing like them on other high wing monoplanes, such as the French Morane Saulnier L or the German Pfalz equivalent.
I think it's more likely to be reinforcement for the wing structure, but as there is no information on the construction of the wing, it's anyone's guess,

Mike