Sopwith 1A2 No 6 of Sgt Gabriel Herbert and Adj Charles Borzecki, N62, 1916

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Finally getting started in this GB.  Better late than never, I reckon.  This aeroplane is featured in Osprey's Reconnaissance and Bomber Aces of World War 1 and the moment I saw it I knew I had to model it.  When the subject of the next Group Build came up, I wanted to do either Sopwith aircraft or aircraft of 1916.  This French GB became the perfect vehicle for both.
Soon after coming back to this hobby after an 18 year hiatus, I sold off all of my WWII stuff and started acquiring WWI kits.  This Roden Sopwith Strutter was among the first, along with the Part of Poland PE set.


I was pretty put off when I saw that all of the major components were molded in brittle, clear styrene, so I immediately gave everything a coat of grey primer and that somehow made it all better.
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In order to use the PE frame work and make it all fit, more than half of the bottom wing center section had to be filed away...


...and all of the fuselage interior detail had to be sanded off.


I wasn't happy with the clear aileron pulley inspection windows, so I decided to cut them out and box in a place for the pulleys.

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Since I had the saw out, I separated and pinned the ailerons.




Now the wings are primed and ready for pre-shading.


I also painted the PE frame work and glued it to the fuselage sides.


Next, a lot more interior detail.  I'm determined to use as much of this two fret pe set as possible, so this may take a while.
Cheers,
Bud

[xmald]

Bud, you have chosen an extremely interesting subject. The work you`ve performed so far looks great. I think adding the pulleys is a very good idea. I`m going to follow this thread very closely since I`m thinking about starting the Strutter too;)

[GAJouette]

 Bud,
Man am I glad to see you're working your magic on a Strutter my old friend. Outstanding progress to date. Looking forward to following this thread. All the best of luck to you in the GB.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[Borsos]

A French Strutter! Great! Your Interior work looks awesome! I'll follow your masterbuild closely.
Best wishes
Borsos

[Des]

You have made a great start with this kit Bud, what you have done so far is excellent.

Des.

[xan]

Heello Bud!
what a great new! il you are talking about this plane, we have the same project!


http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/escadrille062.htm
N62 had three sopwith and the picture shows clearly they were 1916 camouflage painted, when almost all french strutter were painted in aluminium colour.

exiting ! I take an armchair, go on!

by the way, nice beginning!

Xan

[RAGIII]

Well Amigo, as usual you are not wasting any time in starting another beauty! Excellent work on the pulley inspection panels. The Part PE should go a long way to improving the kit interior! I am looking forward to following your build as always!
RAGIII

[Ernie]

Now this is a bonus!  It's great to see you starting the Strutter, Bud.
It promises to be an interesting build with the PART PE set.  Nice
work on the inspection windows!  It will be fun to follow along
with this one, my friend.

Cheers,
Ernie

[lcarroll]

    Great subject Bud, I'm really looking forward to following along on this one. The French scheme will really add a spectacular presentation to this old "work horse"!
Cheers,
Lance

[iwik]

Hi!
Great project.
It should be easier than the single seat version as you won't have to worry about matching the two part top decking. It was a nightmare to redo everthing.
The Part pe set is great, though you should know that the top wing hides everything in the pilot opening.
I know I won't bother detailing that part much when I come around to build the two seater version.
Great work!
Hopefully we'll see the next step soon!
cioa
Iiwk

[radio]

Great beginning Bud.
Cheers
Martin

[coyotemagic]

Thank you all for your warm encouragement and support.  It's always greatly appreciated.

Heello Bud!
what a great new! il you are talking about this plane, we have the same project!


http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/escadrille062.htm
N62 had three sopwith and the picture shows clearly they were 1916 camouflage painted, when almost all french strutter were painted in aluminium colour.

exiting ! I take an armchair, go on!

by the way, nice beginning!

Xan

That's a great photo, Xan!  Now you've got me reconsidering the scheme I plan on doing.  I'm basing my build on the photo on page 13 in Osprey's Reconnaissance and Bomber Aces of World War 1 depicting number 6, one of six Strutters built by Sopwith for the Aviation Militaire, before Hanriot began building them under license.  It is shown in overall CDL with upper surfaces and rear decking doped in khaki with a number 6 on the rudder.  The top photo on page 16 of Datafile 34 shows the same scheme on number 2 of the same Sopwith batch.  I'd love to do a Strutter in two color camo, but where would I find the white cockerel?  What markings would have been on the rudder?  Any other markings that you know of?

Hi!
Great project.
It should be easier than the single seat version as you won't have to worry about matching the two part top decking. It was a nightmare to redo everthing.
The Part pe set is great, though you should know that the top wing hides everything in the pilot opening.
I know I won't bother detailing that part much when I come around to build the two seater version.
Great work!
Hopefully we'll see the next step soon!
cioa
Iiwk

I still had to modify the top decking, Iwik, since the plane I'm building didn't have a Vickers gun, but a forward firing Lewis over the wing.


Dirtied up the insides and added the air brake control system.


I closed up the fuselage at this point and now all additional detail will be added from the top.  Kind of a challenge, but it will prepare me for detailing my Jager and Legato kits.


I glued the bottom wing in place and now I'm cleaning up the seams.  More photos later, once I get the rest of the innards completed.  I'm using interior photos from the Datafiles and from Memorial Flights stunning reproduction to detail the interior, although my metal fittings will be black instead of the French blue since my ship was built by Sopwith.  I'm also going with a Sopwith instrument panel rather than the more spartan French style.
Xan, if you have any more info on this particular kite could you please share it with me?
Cheers,
Bud

[Borsos]

Great progress! Regarding the camouflage have a look at these colour pics of Strutters in French service here:
http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/escadrille023_2.htm
It seems that of the first six Strutters the French airforce receeived from no. 3 Naval Wing RNAS three went to N62 and three to N23.

[coyotemagic]

Thank you, Borsos, and thank you for the link!  I've seen the photos of "Ariel" and "Yen a Bon" in Cross and Cockade and was very tempted to do either of the two, but was swayed towards N62 by the Aces book.  I also want to model a plane with the older Nieuport style Eteve Lewis mount as opposed to a Scarf ring. (I'll do a British plane at a later date with that.)  This build is proving to be more complex than I had originally anticipated, yet even for a notoriously poor fitting Roden with dodgy decals, It's going together much easier than my previous three projects.
Cheers,
Bud