1/32 Sopwith Tabloid, RNAS No. 168, Lt. Marix, Oct. 1914

[bobs_buckles]

All looking rather splendid, Bob 
Keep up the great work.

Von B

[ALBATROS1234]

hell yea man, this will be another fun one. should be easier than the lloyd due to the simpler modified box fuselage and more conventional wing setup. great one man.

[IFF1418]

Great work again Bob. How I admire that!

Kind regards
Patrick

[rhallinger]

I have made some progress with this build, but have spent a good deal of time just thinking things through the past week.  I have decided to build the fuselage as a frame of styrene strip to be covered with thin sheet styrene,  I considered vacuforming the fuselage, but decided that the frame method wood look better, although it will be a bit tedious to construct.  However, I will likely vacuform or push mold the engine cowling in two pieces. 

I have completed the rough forming and sanding of the wings and tailplanes, along with one side frame for the fuselage:



My contemporary drawings of the airframe show the cabane struts incorporated as part of the side frame.  Although the fuselage will be covered entirely, I have added gussets in the frame and will rig the frame for added strength, as Des did with the Taube. 



Here is the rudder and fin, with fittings to be added later.



I originally intended to install the bottom wings as one piece, fitting up into a notch in the fuselage, for added strength.  However, this would have presented its own set of design and construction problems for the fuselage, so I will cut out the center section and attach the bottom wings to the fuselage with brass rod representing wing spars.  This will be more prototypical and easier in the long run, I think.   



Although there is a gap in the wings between the center section and the outer wings, I do not think it is visible at scale viewing distances.  If I cut the wings I foresee problems with strength and alignment.  I think the abutting rib tapes will be sufficient to establish this joint without cutting the wings.  Speaking of which, I need some advice.  I will prime the wings with Mr. Surfacer followed by auto primer.  Should the Von Buckler vinyl stripper rib tapes go on first, after the Mr. Surfacer, or after the first coat of auto primer?  Thoughts?

Thanks for looking in.  I will start the second side frame and the get to the rigging.  This will take some time.

Regards,

Bob

[ALBATROS1234]

on the gaps in the wings you are probably right, perhaps just scribe all the way around alongside a ruler and voila. as far as the buckle strippers i am not sure how thick they are. i have scratched a few wings recently and what i did after i got the shape,cord and cambre right i marked and glued evergreen strip. then i held the wing port tip up at a steep angle and sprayed with auto filler primer which has talc or some other sandable filler to make the paint thick. it puddled up to the evergreen strip. then i did the same with the starboard tip up so that i had puddling on the other side of the rib tape. this took 2 coats to achieve what i wanted and then i used sanding sticks to expose the white of the rib strip stock and use swizzle stiks(which are sanding sticks that are only half a cm wide) to sand btw the ribs cord wise. i like the look of a slight belly in btw the rib tapes. and i imagine it was diff on diff craft because there are some guys who swear up and down that the wings should be flat, no bellies with tapes slightly proud. but i have seen many photos that show there was a slight dip, at least on certain planes. so its artistic licence and to me at scale it looks better. to me more like a fabric covered frame which the fabric has been shrunk to fit tight. only my humble opinion from what i have seen.

as for the fuselage and splitting the bottom wing i agree here too. but i have an idea for the nose. what if you make a balsa nose from a squareish stick and did like harry woodman made cowls for rotaries. he would cut a hole in balsa sheet , heat styrene sheet on top and plunge a rounded dowl down thru the hole from above which would keep the plastic tight to the male portion and give you what amounts to a vac looking cowl. do you get me? i dont know if it will work but thats what i would try first.

glad you started this one and i will be checking in regularly like i did on the lloyd, damn i wish i coulda got a copy of your vac fuselage for that one. oh well. cheers to your progress.

[Des]

She is shaping up really well Bob, I like your idea with the fuselage structure, it will make it look more authentic. Not cutting the wings to simulate the joins is a good idea, at 1:32 scale the small gap visible on the original would be hardly noticeable. I sprayed my wings with a few coats of auto primer after I had finished all the shaping and sanding, once they were nice and smooth I added Bob's strippers, I used the 0.5mm wide strips. Once all fitted I sprayed the entire wings with two coats of auto primer, then I finished off with 0000 steel wool which resulted in a very glossy finish ready for the top coat.

Des.

[rhallinger]

Thanks Alby and Des!  Your insights are very helpful.  For the wings, the photos of the prototype show a slightly concave dishing between the wing ribs, so I will sand a little to represent that.  I have used .005 strips of cut sheet styrene to represent wing rib tapes previously, and it works well.  In this case though, I want to try the self-adhesive strippers, since they seemed to work well for Des on the Bleriot.  Just an experiment with a new technique.   If I botch it, I can always scrape them off and go back to styrene.   I have the 0.5mm wide strippers, and they are very thin material, which should be perfect for rib tapes.  I just have to be careful handling them so they don't fold up.  We'll see how it works out.

Alby, I believe the process you described for molding the cowl is what I referred to as "push molding."  Lone Modeler used and described it in his scratch Sopwith Gunbus thread, and I'm not surprised at all to learn that it was a technique used by Harry Woodman.   It looks like it's a good way to make smaller parts with compound curves that need to be formed from styrene.  It will be perfect for these engine cowling pieces, so I will try it here, even though I have the vac machine available.  This is a good opportunity to try something new.  The vacuform is great for larger pieces like a fuselage, but probably not necessary for a cowling panel.

Speaking of vac fuselages, sorry I can't send you a Lloyd fuselage.  You may recall that as part of my vac learning process, I foolishly sprayed my fuselage masters with black enamel paint in an effort to reduce the wood grain of the balsa (I should have used bass wood coated with CA).  The paint coating fused to the hot styrene during the vac process, giving me nice plastic forms, but I had to chisel out the wood masters to free the plastic molded fuselage halves!   Alas, the masters were sacrificed.   Fortunately, the parts were good enough for the Lloyd fuselage, and the rest, as they say, is history . . .   

Take care guys!  I'll be back as soon as I have the fuselage frame complete.  Again, thanks for your help!

Regards,

Bob   

[Ernie]

Great update, Bob.  I admire your obvious talent in this project. Well done!

Cheers,
Ernie

[lcarroll]

  A very impressive sequence you've got going, Bob, and your problem solving skills are getting a good (and successful) workout. Fascinating stuff, keep those updates coming!
Cheers,
Lance

[radio]

That is a very good update Bob. I will see more.
Martin

[lone modeller]

This is a fascinating build and I especially like your fuselage frame which looks very realistic. I agree with the others on the wings - too many gaps and they become weak and as Des has written the gap in the upper wing would not be visible in the scale in which you are working. Please keep us posted on progress - this is really good and you are clearly a master modeller.

PS It was the FE 2 where I described the push moulding technique for the nacelle - the Gunbus was made from card on a simple frame. The method you described from Woodman seems the same as the one that I used.

[ALBATROS1234]

yes i remember because i asked you back then if you would part with a fuselage vac shell and i heard the to my horror as well as yours the incident. which is fine. but its always good to have a headstart. a 1/32 lloyd would be quite nice. my plan is to cast my scratchs as i go. in case i want to build another at the very least. i dont post photos of my stuff for a few reasons. 1. i dont have a decent camera that would take clear pics. 2. i think it would take up alot of my modelling time to document and post my builds in a thread. 3. i am too easily distracted, ie i start something and a week or 2 into it i get a wild hair for something else. all of my build threads would end up closeing before i finished anything. although i have a few that are ending soon. perhaps i post some ready for inspections soon.

[coyotemagic]

Brilliant work, as usual, Bob, and incorporating the cabane struts into the framing is genius!
Cheers,
Bud

[rhallinger]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.   Bud, I guess Tommy Sopwith was the genius, as I'm just following his lead.   There are period sketches of the fuselage construction detail in the mini datafile, and they show that the prototype incorporated the cabanes into the fuselage framing, similar to the way the tripelane is designed.  It makes lots of sense from a modeling perspective also, as it creates perfect alignment and substantial strength for the cabanes.   Thank you, Sir Thomas!

LM, thanks for the correction.  Your pusher builds are all inspiring to me, but I'm glad to have the FE 2 build reference for when I need to look at your tutorial on push molding again. I am looking forward to trying it.   Thanks for your help.

I am currently fabricating and installing the rigging gussets for the second fuselage side frame.  They are tiny and there are many of them.  As Des has noted, this step is a bit tedious.  I'll then rig the side frames and then assemble the fuselage frame with cross members.  This will probably take several days.  Until then,

Cheers,

Bob

[xmald]

Looks like another magnificent build is taking place at your workshop. Everything looks so refined!