W. M. Alexander's Sopwith Triplane 'Black Prince'

[GAJouette]

  Chris,
As always outstanding progress my old friend.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[Ian from Doncaster]

Great looking undercarriage Chris! - no innuendo intended....

This looks the same assembly as the WNW Pup.  The locating tabs for the struts to go into the fuselage are small too, but the whole thing comes together with rigging.

With the Pup (and several others) I used the fuselage locating holes as a guide to making the u/c assembly as accurately as possible.  It can be very fiddly to hold the u/c legs to fuselage in place without glue, but once in place I then rest the model on its legs (without wheels) to check the alignment with Mk1 eyeball.  Then I removed the u/c assembly whilst its glue set.  Typically I then dropped the whole thing from the shelf and had to start again!  I would also leave the u/c off the model until the wings are attached, despite the order in the instructions, except if the u/c struts need to fit to the wing roots.

I am really liking these Tripe builds, as I have one in my stash.  My problem is I have 4 or 5 kits I want to start next, but have to choose 1...

[rhallinger]

The undercarriage assembly looks great Chris!   I hope it works out well in final aircraft assembly.   Carry on!

Regards,

Bob

[RAGIII]

The gear looks terrific Chris. I was noticing that there isn't much to hold the parts together, spreader bar and so forth. I think I might try assembling the spreader bar and just placing the struts on then attach the wheels. hopefully I can then adjust the struts to fit the fuselage before gluing them in place on the spreader bar ?
RAGIII

[Chris Johnson]

Thanks again for all of your comments guys.

The gear looks terrific Chris. I was noticing that there isn't much to hold the parts together, spreader bar and so forth. I think I might try assembling the spreader bar and just placing the struts on then attach the wheels. hopefully I can then adjust the struts to fit the fuselage before gluing them in place on the spreader bar ?
RAGIII

That sounds similar to Dave Wilson's approach where he told me that he assembled the undercarriage using the fuselage mounting points to ensure the correct angle on the legs. Having already built the Pup a couple of years ago, I have no excuse for not thinking of this approach myself. 

Things are moving right along as I now have the fuselage buttoned up and a base coat of paint applied. 'Black Prince' may or may not have had a woodgrain coaming section, but for the purposes of my model, it does. I was fortunate that Dave Wilson told me beforehand that it's necessary to insert the coaming between the struts before gluing them to the cockpit floor as it would be problematic to coax it into position between them once the struts are in place. Once I had the coaming in place, everything else literally fit like a glove. I applied a wash of 502 Abteilung 'Engine Grease' to the firewall. I considered flicking some on it with a paint brush to represent some oil blow-back spots and stains but virtually none of the firewall will be visible, so I didn't bother.

Once again guys, I know the weathering on this model is pretty intense and perhaps not reflective of the weathering you would see on a WWI aircraft, but I'm just feeling my way along, transferring some of my AFV techniques to see what shakes out. It's definitely a learning experience.











Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Chris

[uncletony]

That's looking great Chris. You've got some interesting and convincing material effects going on. Bravo!

[rhallinger]

Well done Chris!  I'm looking forward to your additional weathering and assembly of this beauty.

Regards,

Bob

[Dave W]

Thats looking really good Chris. Once you get past the cockpit tub/ lower wing fit issue and the non-fitting fuselage coaming, it's a fairly straightforward build.

Special kudos to Des who was the first to identify the cockpit tub/ wing fit issue with the Pup and show us the fix on his website.

It's unfortunate that Wingnuts has not alerted modellers to the flaws in its Pup/ Tripe kits. Excellent models but if you did not know of the fit issues, it could sour the build experience.

Fortunately once you get past the problems, the model looks terrific with no evidence of any corrective surgery.

cheers

Dave Wilson
Gold Coast
Australia

[GAJouette]

  "Black Prince' may or may not have had a woodgrain coaming section, but for the purposes of my model, it does"
 Chris,
I like that! Besides that your wood graining is too well done to cover with PC-10. Awesome job on her weathering my old friend.The paint chipping is outstanding although it's in some locations I wouldn't have thought of. Did you use the salt technique for the chipping or use a liquid masking ? Whatever you've used the end results are superb. Keep up the outstanding progress my old friend I've got a feeling the Tripe is going be be your best yet.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[coyotemagic]

Looking fantastic, Chris.  I'm gonna have to give the hair spray technique a try.  I look forward to how you weather the fabric.  I'm planning on doing Donald MacLaren's Camel and, according to all the photos I've seen, it was pretty well beat up.  I'll follow your lead on this one.
Cheers,
Bud

[pepperman42]

Nice work. Your woodwork paint looks more like a real veneer. On the Pup/Tripe floor issue, Ive been quietly working away at my Pup and what I did was glue the floor, unthinned, to the lower wing and with test fitting of the side frames etc and the fuselage sides fitted onto the wing, there doesnt seem to be a gap. It all fits fine. As I say, its all dry fitting so when it comes to glue time I have no options other than filler if a gap arises. We'll see. 

Steve

[RAGIII]

Nice work. Your woodwork paint looks more like a real veneer. On the Pup/Tripe floor issue, Ive been quietly working away at my Pup and what I did was glue the floor, unthinned, to the lower wing and with test fitting of the side frames etc and the fuselage sides fitted onto the wing, there doesnt seem to be a gap. It all fits fine. As I say, its all dry fitting so when it comes to glue time I have no options other than filler if a gap arises. We'll see. 

Steve

After some work on the tripe I tend to think that assembling the kit per directions doesn't allow one to "seat the floor" properly in the lower wing. Maybe I am wrong but I think your method may work. All in all I am thinning and test fitting. Chris. Looks fantastic so far and I think your weathering is great. As for the tripes themselves it seems they were traded back and forth from Naval Squadron to Squadron. Surely this must have been a maintenance nightmare!
RAGIII

[kinnies]

That wood looks great Chris as does the PC. I also like the fittings on the struts. I have a hell of a time painting those.
Cheers,
John

[Ernie]

Great job on your Tripe, Chris.  I really like your woodgrain.  Was that done with a brush
or sponge or something else?  Being new at this, I'm trying to pick-up as much knowledge
as I can from you masters.  Thanks for sharing your terrific work!

Best Regards,
Ernie

[Chris Johnson]

Great job on your Tripe, Chris.  I really like your woodgrain.  Was that done with a brush
or sponge or something else?  Being new at this, I'm trying to pick-up as much knowledge
as I can from you masters.  Thanks for sharing your terrific work!

I just used a fairly stiff brush Ernie, employing long strokes to represent the grain. I'm no master by any stretch of the imagination. It really is a pretty simple technique so you'll end up with great results almost immediately. I really like it because of its simplicity.

Cheers,

Chris