Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe - Major W. Barker

[radio]

Fantastic work, Lance.
Looks very wonderful.
Cheers
Martin

[lcarroll]

Thanks Martin and Rick, it's getting close to being completed but the rigging is going very slowly at this point.
Cheers,
Lance

[Chris Johnson]

Great update Lance. This is the first time where I'll be employing a jig to line up my Snipe's cabanes so your photos are very instructive. Is the long piece of plastic rod there to align the jig with the bottom wing? My jig doesn't have that feature . . . yet.    I've been thinking that rigging the cabanes would be a bit of a challenge but I see that you've gone ahead and done the job with the jig in place. Brilliant idea, and not something I would've thought of! Is that your usual practice when using a jig?

. . . Once the upper wing was attached to the cabanes the inner bay interplane struts were attached. They'll be cross rigged next before the process gets repeated on the outer bays.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds.   

Cheers,

Chris

[lcarroll]

Chris,
     The long piece on the template is for top/bottom wing alignment as you said. Kind of a Mark One Eyeball precision tool! The cabanes were rigged with the jig removed, but snapped back on several times to ensure nothing's moved as the lines are installed.
   As you know from my PM of this morning, the cross rigging on the main spars has unfolded like a movie called "Mr. Bean rigs a Bi-plane", more of which I'll confess to here if I ever recover! I didn't see that big train coming before I crossed the tracks...........!!
Cheers,
Lance

[lcarroll]

   I can't believe it's been more then three weeks since my last update. Two weeks of travel and a holiday in Ottawa, our national capital, sort of put this project well back on the priority list. In addition to a great meeting with four fellow Forumites, tours of the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, and a great IPMS Convention and contest and opportunity to get "Hands on" to William Barker's Snipe at the War Museum it turned out to be a truly great memory.
     Here's our group in front of the original fuselage of E8102 in which William barker flew his truly "Homeric" Victoria Cross Mission in October of 1918, and myself "feeling the vibes" from this incredible artifact......a truly moving experience.





    I've completed the Main wing rigging which, other then the cross rigging of the main spars was fairly routine. The former task proved a real challenge as getting in between the main planes called for about three fingers more then I have! The longitudinal cabanes had benn  completed prior to mounting of the upper wing leaving only the front lateral cross braces to do.





A few places to do some paint touch-ups evedent here......





A very tight fit on these next two attachments, and fairly time consuming.







    The viewing of the real thing made me wish I'd done better on this one, she's grown more then several "warts" already and is far from complete. The aft fuselage as displayed has not, to my knowledge, been refinished and the application of markings, especially the white stripes on the fuselage is very "rough"; not, I'd speculate, unlike most other field applied personal markings of the era. I do wonder at the PC10 painted "turtle deck" and forward upper metal cowlings, if I do another I'd consider foregoing the Battleship Grey and doing it per this pattern. A few examples in the references have PC10 vs. grey on these components but, then again, the photo of the aircraft after recovery from the crash site (#29 in the Data File) shows a very vivid contrast between the (Grey?) metal panels and PC10 Fabric. 
   Now it's on with the rudder and the tail rigging, aileron rigging and more weathering.
Cheers,
Lance

[Des]

You have done a superb job with the wing and undercarriage rigging Lance, looking forward to seeing the tail rigging next.

Des.

[Chris Johnson]

She's really coming along nicely now Lance and you have the end of the project firmly in your sights now. Your rigging looks clean and taut. Isn't that Aldis Sight a lot of fun to mount? I can hardly wait to do it again. I'm looking forward to your next update.

Cheers,

Chris

[uncletony]

I like the distressed paint on the fuselage underside! Nicely done.

[bobs_buckles]

Up to your usual high standards, Lance!
Excellent work 

vB

[coyotemagic]

Even with full blown macro, I still don't see any warts, Lance.  All I see is first rate modeling and top notch rigging.
Cheers,
Bud
PS- I looked in my Canadian-American dictionary to see If "wart" meant something else in Canadian.  It doesn't.

[lcarroll]

   Thanks Des and Chris, much appreciate positive comments from Guys that model at your levels. Same on your part, Bo, I still have thoughts that I may have taken my penchant for a well used look too far on this one. Not hard to get great rigging results with your supplies von Buckle, many thanks! Much appreciate your comments as well, Bud. There's very few different meanings in our national dictionaries, you guys have got almost all of it right! After 2 days in company with MGunns it was a short trip down memory lane to the good old days working closely with the Regulars, Guard, and Reserve folks in my former life, and nothing but great memories at that!
Cheers,
Lance

[GAJouette]

 Lance,
Outstanding rigging and paint my old friend. Seeing the real article must have been something else. Not to mention an awesome reference for your project. Keep up the excellence .
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[RAGIII]

Lance,
Your rigging is exceptional and has answered a few questions I had when building my first Snipe! I love the weathering on the undersurfaces. Really OUTSTANDING Modeling!
RAGIII

[lcarroll]

Thanks Greg, and yes, the chance to see the real thing up close was a truly thrilling experience. They also had Bishop's Nieuport 17 prop, spinner, Lewis Gun and windscreen complete with bullet hole on display, all in a glass case. I had seen the windscreen on a previous visit, the rest was a pleasant surprise. The blue (LVG??) spinner finally confirmed the colour for me, much darker then I had thought, almost black in the typically poor museum lighting.
   Rick, the rigging can be a bit of a puzzle for the attachments to the landing gear struts; Jamo's photos were very helpful to unravel the puzzle. Thanks for the positive comments, I guess I hid the warts well!
Cheers,
Lance

[xmald]

I do envy you Lance to have an opportunity to see and touch the Barker`s plane!!!
Your model is coming along up to your usual standards of awesomeness 
I really like the cowling mount.