Revell 1/72 Sopwith Triplane

[Pete Nottingham]

Hats off to you Brad, you're doing a brilliant job in this microscopic scale, too small for me.

Cheers

Pete.

[RAGIII]

Brad,
That Vickers is OUTSTANDING! The engine looks like it could be 1/48th or 1/32nd, and of course the Airframe is lovely!
RAGIII

[Ernie]

My eyes hurt just looking at that amazing Vickers gun, Brad.
Between that and that beautiful engine, I can only
shake my head.  Hats off to you! So, being Sunday,
are you busy inscribing the Lord's prayer on pin heads?
  You are some modeller!

Cheers,
Ernie

[Chris Johnson]

Incredible attention to detail, superbly executed, and all in such a small scale. Amazing. I can't do that in 1/32 scale!

Cheers,

Chris

[Zabu]

Hi Brad.

Your vickers gun it's fantastic and so is the engine. So much detail in this small scale it's quite amazing to see and very hard to make.

Trully amazing!

Cheers

[Jacek]

Beautiful engine!
I see that sometimes it is worth to buy something from Roden, even for the same engine.

[pepperman42]

Fantastic detail parts!!!!!!

Steve

[lone modeller]

The detail on this model is utterly amazing. "The gun came out a bit blobby....." I just wish my guns could come out half as good!! The engine is a work of art in itself too - this is just one exceptional model.

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks folks

No progress piccies this time, but I have finally finished all of the clean up and priming (and re-clean up and re-priming...) to the point where I am happy to start laying down some colour coats.  I am thinking of painting the Tripehound in the colours of R.A Little; a bit unimaginative I know, but he was the highest scoring Australian pilot of the war, and I am Australian, plus some of his artifacts were found recently so he has received some recent publicity... so it all seems fitting.  There seems to be a number of schemes that his aircraft (N5493) wore while in Little's charge - are these schemes still considered correct?  I am leaning to the scheme on the left, probably the first scheme the aircraft wore with Little at the helm (and far less modeled that the more 'known' scheme on the right).



Also, one other question - I cannot see in any of the photos of this aircraft a wind driven pump on the starboard cabane strut - photos of some 8RNAS aircraft show these clearly removed, some fitted (the lineup photo in the inside cover of the Datafile, where the aircraft is wearing the left most scheme above, is not clear enough to see. The one clear photo in the datafile of this area on N5493 shows no pump, but this was well after Little's time with the aircraft. Another front angle photo of the aircraft in the scheme to the right above has this area obscured due to the angle of the photo.... I think it is possible either way).  Anyone have anything definitive here?

Thanks,

BC

[Rob Hart]

I have seen this kit in the flesh and you have worked wonders with it. I can't help with the R.A.Little markings, but any of the profiles you posted should look great on the finished model.

[David]

Hi Brad,

The triplane is looking great!  You are going an absolutely magnificent job, particularly given the scale! 

I know it's basic information, and I should know the answer to this but I don't have full access to my collection of books, magazines, publications etc.  Which Squadron was Little with when he flew this triplane?  I will see if I have a photo of his aeroplane in my collection.  A good number of them, probably the vast majority of them have not been published.

Best regards and congratulations on your magnificent achievement!

David.

[Brad Cancian]

Still very very slow going....

I decided to pre-shade the model.  So much masking....



Here's  a shot of CDL over the top.  I think they key in 1/72 is to keep the shading very subtle....



Next I will apply the PC12 (yep, PC12... will probably be quite brown...).

Cheers

BC

[Ernie]

Brad, first let me say you are a master of pre-shading! You are so right
about the amount of masking, but the way you are progressing, it will be
worth it!
  I was snooping around google regarding the little airscrew pump setup
and about all I could find was a bit on it in the write-up about the tripe on
the flight global website.  Basically it said that the fuel was pumped to the
engine by the little propeller mounted on the right side fuselage strut.
  Sorry I couldn't help more.

Cheers,
Ernie

[mike in calif]

Nice work, and clear explanations. You must have some serious magnification going on, very nice detail. It looks like the main spar going thru the wing, or do my eyes fool me in this small scale?

[pepperman42]

Beautiful work. For the spar did you paint the area black, mask it before painting the light colour then mask the ribs etc before painting the black pre shading?

Steve