WW1 Aircraft Modeling > WW1 Aircraft Dioramas

Camel crash scene 1:72

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Bluesfan:
Hi I was given an Academy Camel kit a while ago. It dates from the '80s I think, it's very simple, only 20 parts. I wondered if I could make something interesting out of it; and also get some experience in double rigging in this scale  ::) . This is the result. I'm afraid there's some very crude work here but I'm pleased with the general effect.

I looked at a lot of pictures of Camel crash scenes, and noticed that a surprising number of them showed little damage except to the undercarriage and propeller. Maybe the tip of the fin/rudder; and the rigging would be slack in places. I suppose these were some of the very many instances of Camels turning over on landing. One or two pictures showed Camels in a very similar state to that seen here.

I'll add a few more pictures of the Camel afterwards.

Mark

Bluesfan:
So, the aircraft would be upside down: perfect, I thought, because I didn't fancy building a proper cockpit to replace the utterly unreal Academy 'space'. Very naive of me, I didn't consider two areas which become very visible on the underside, behind the engine, and at the tail around the tailskid.

As regards the tailskid, I picked a spare one from a Roden Camel kit (I also purloined two spare Vickers guns - honestly, these are noticeably better than the originals), and dug out the under tail area to more closely resemble the actual plane. And noticed something that I hadn't before, that the Camel had a couple of control lines to steer the tail skid, so I did those as well.

But one feature I think is really characteristic of the Camel is the scoop or cut out behind the engine, entirely absent in the Academy kit. So, at the risk of derision, I took the same area from that Roden kit and inserted it here, and added the cross bracing etc. I know, I know, this sounds ridiculous, maybe making a better kit unbuildable in order to improve a worse one? The thing is, it was the TF.1 Trench Fighter Camel kit. This aircraft did happen to have armour plate covering up that 'scoop', so hopefully if I did ever decide to build it, it wouldn't matter.

Mark

Bluesfan:
Glad to have practised some double rigging, and completed as much of the whole rigging set as I could. The fact that it's a crashed plane is a great excuse for some of it being less than taut.

And frankly, I'm awarding myself a medal for including in 1:72 another feature very characteristic of a Camel, the 'acorn' or bullet fairing above the guns. It's a little overscale, but I'm ridiculously chuffed to have even got it in place, with the rigging at roughly the right angles. That was a long afternoon's modelling... I know someone will demonstrate, if they haven't already, a bullet fairing in 1:144 scale: all I could say to that is, what a legend!

When I look at it now, my biggest regret is having marked out the gaps between wings and control surfaces. It doesn't look great. Too late, when I considered it, but another time I will cut them away and reattach. Never mind.

Mark

Bluesfan:
View of the whole scene from the back. The Roden ambulance is a very nice little kit, it even includes a set of stretchers in the back. I was struck by the fact that the Academy Camel kit consists of 20 parts, but this little ambulance required 71!

As for the figures, there's some great examples of scale madness. The nurses, medic and casualty come from a set made by Bachman for model railways, ie. OO scale, which supposedly = 1:76. The other figures (forget the German Shepherd; it's meant to be 1:72 but I'm not sure they ever get quite that big) are officially 1:72 but to my eyes they're smaller and slighter. Anyway, I put them towards the rear, and the bigger figures towards the front, for the visual effect. The pilot and officer are from Gunthwaite Miniatures, and I wish I could have done them better justice, they're beautifully sculpted.

I fondly imagine the nurse is checking whether the pilot is okay, while the pilot despite his bruises and being shaken up, is maintaining some bravado, and also trying to put off the moment when he has to explain to his C.O. standing behind him how he's managed to bend another of the squadron's planes.

Mark

KiwiZac:
Excellent work Mark, with some extra touches and detailing work that really set it apart - when I saw "Academy Camel" I thought it was the 1/32 version!

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