Revell 1/72 Sopwith Triplane

[Brad Cancian]

Minor update... in figuring out how best to attach the wings without ruining any future paint job, I figured the best chance of success would be to glue and align the struts to the middle wing and clean up the joints before painting. Revell supply the interplane struts as one single piece which slot through the middle wing. The slot is much much bigger than the struts, so will need some filling and clean up (another reason why this is best done before painting).  The cabane struts are also singe piece which butt up against the fuselage, so I strengthened the attachment to the fuselage with fuse wire.  Careful alignment of the struts against the data file drawings and against the lower wings helps to make sure everything is square from side on, above and in front.  The alignment is not perfect, but some dry fitting shows it's good enough and I should be able to reach a happy medium once it comes to gluing... it at least will look like a triplane 






Now to fill and clean the strut slots in the middle wings, and continue with clean up of the rest of the fuselage before another coat of primer.  Then maybe some undercarriage struts will be in order....

BC

[RAGIII]

Your wings look perfect! Well done as always Brad!
RAGIII

[Flip Hendrickx]

wow, outstanding work indeed.  Great details, and in such a small scale!
Going to follow this one for sure!

All the best

Flip

[Zabu]

Great work there!  The wings are looking fine.


Cheers

[mgunns]

Hello Brad:

Very inspiring work on this ancient kit.  I have always admired your work and this is no exception.  Outstanding work.

Best

Mark

[Adam]

Lately, don't have much time for modeling, so I not look in here too often. Just now I found yours interesting account of the construction, this beautiful model. 99% of my models are made in 1:72, but never decided on such a big modification.
I'll be looking in here , congratulations.

Adam.

[Des]

Looking very good Brad, your exceptional modeling skills are certainly shining through with this build, can't wait to see more.

Des.

[IFF1418]

Brad your model is looking so clean and neat. Congratulations! How do you manage this in this scale?!

Kind regards

Patrick

[lone modeller]

Only just seen this - outstanding modelling. I could only ever dream of making a cockpit like yours - I only work in 1/72 scale but that looked like 1/32 scale. The standard of the rest of the model is also exceptional - very many congratulations on a wonderful build. Cannot wait to see the finished item.

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks guys

Progress is painfully slow, but now she's got some legs.... the kit legs are awful, so these were scratch built from some airfoil shaped strips. I simulated the characteristic split axle with plastic rod (hard to see in the photos here).  Still need to add the "T" braces at the bottom end of the legs.



You can also see here the amount of filler I needed to fill in those holes for the wing struts.  Looks like they have come up ok though.  Still need to fix and clean up a few areas and add some more details here and there (things like brackets onto the end of the struts, for example), then another coat of primer and hopefully I can start on some topcoats.  Need to look at the engine and gun at some stage too.....

Cheers,

BC

[Ernie]

She's really taking shape nicely, Brad.  Great job on the undercarriage.
  It's going to be a little jewel when you are done.  Thanks for the
update. Very enjoyable build...at least on this end!

Cheers,
Ernie

[IanB]

Lovely job, Brad - those are obviously not the kit wheels, where do they come from? I use Aeroclub wheels, guns, and props almost exclusively but my stash of those is dwindling fast...since these are the main items that make 1:72 kits look "clunky", it's well worth the effort finding good replacements.

Ian

[Jacek]

It looks nice will be fit my Fokker 

[Brad Cancian]

hi Ian - the wheels are from the spares box - I think they came from a 1/48 Fokker B.II from Special Hobby (which I recall were very undersized for 1/48), but not sure. Still debating whether I will use these (they are the correct size) or try and replace them with the fabric covered "spoked" wheels characteristic of Sopwith aircraft... I just don't have any of these in the spares box, so I may have to try and cast some copies from another kit.

More slow progress - this time the gun and engine, as I wanted to get these out of the way before major painting started. I modified a spare Roden Vickers gun using Tom's Modelworks etched British Guns set, as well as scratching together the characteristic windscreen mount seen on the 'Tripe and Pup. The gun was fiddly and came out a bit blobby, but it'll do....




 

Once my eyeballs stopped bleeding from doing the gun, I borrowed a spare Clerget from the Roden Camel for this build. Not much will be seen other than the front face of the engine, so all I did was add some ignition wires.  It's quite a nicely moulded engine in 1/72, I must say. Hats off to Roden in this case.



...getting there...!   

BC

[Vladimir Ziska]

Hi Brad,

Longer time watching your models and I write, I like very much. High quality building, attention to detail, great finish.

Cheers,

Vladimir