Sopwith Tabloid (Classic Planes) and Baby (Eduard), another 1:72 double build

[WarrenD]

Great progress Ian.

Warren

[IanB]

Thanks Warren.
 I got a little more done over the last couple of days, slowly but surely starting to get some details in the cockpits. Eduard made this relatively simple by providing some PE (actually quite a lot) so that was painted and CA'd in. The instrument panel has a printed backing which was painted white on the reverse side and looks pretty good!



 I still have the rudder bar and control column/wheel to add, plus the seatbelts.

The Tabloid had nothing but the seat so that has been fabricated with reference to pics of a replica. It may not be 100% accurate but it's good enough!



Again, the controls and seatbelts have still to be added.
 
 I had a little "moment" with the Tabloid engine too....I'd already allocated an Aeroclub engine and prop to this kit when I first bought it so never looked at it again until I came to think about mounting it - after it had been painted. Then I realised I had a bit of a problem - too many cylinders! I'd just gone with the 9 cyl (100hp) version that was included with the kit, not realising that it should have had a 7 cylinder Gnome (80hp). Fortunately I had one left in the spares box so that's been painted up and is now ready to install. All that trouble and only the ends of 2, maybe 3 cylinders will be visible anyway!

Oh well, at least it's correct!

Thanks for looking in,

Ian

[IanB]

The first big hurdle cleared today....

I fitted PE seatbelts in both aircraft and the rest of the interior parts in the Baby, which meant I could close that one up!



The next step on that one will be to fit a new underside, and cut a new upper front panel to correct the nose and cockpit opening.

 The Tabloid has also seen some progress. After the seatbelts were added I bit the bullet and went ahead and made a control wheel for it, Fairly simple, but fiddly!
 First a piece of .33mm nickel silver rod was gently heated, then it was wrapped around a piece of 3.2mm plastic rod



 The ends were pulled with pliers to tighten it around the rod, then it was cut at a point where the two ends overlapped



The result:



Then the really fiddly bit - adding the cross pieces. the hard part being not gluing it to the cutting mat.
Finally, all done - one control wheel



 The last job today was to attach the engine (the correct one) to the bulkhead, and a dry fit of the fuselage halves to make sure it is positioned correctly.




 The halves are only placed together and won't be glued until the rest of the interior is done. I may also add some extra strips inside the fuselage where rigging lines attach, to give a little extra plastic for the attachment points - I've not built a vacform before so I'm not sure if it's necessary, but it seems a good plan to me...any advice from those experienced in vacs would be welcomed!

Ian

[WarrenD]

Excellent!

Warren

[IanB]

Thanks Warren!
 More progress today, first the easy one...the controls were added to the Tabloid and it is now buttoned up!



A lot more was needed on the Baby, so I started by cutting out the upper front fuselage from the plans and taping it to a piece of .005" sheet. The cockpit opening was carefully cutout, then widened slightly to allow for the curve (remembering that the plan is flat but the top of the fuselage isn't. It was then attached to the fuselage with PlasticWeld. Unfortunately, a little too much in one spot.....





 Nothing that can't be sorted with a little filler, but annoying......
 I also needed a new fuselage underside so I cut a piece of .015" card and added it. After that was on, I thought I might as well add the lower wing too!





Filler was then applied where needed - thankfully not too much - and left to dry.

So,what to do next...I knew the cowling would need some work, so......



 That is actually the 2 halves of the cowling, held together with flash - so much flash in fact, that I had to use a saw to separate the 2 parts!

There's nothing like a nice, thin, scale cowling.....and this is definitely nothing like a nice, thin, scale cowling!



so, out with the files, sanding sticks, and sharp knife blade, to scrape out a reasonable cowl from that lump of plastic... here's how it turned out



Not too shabby, though I do say so myself! The other half was similarly dealt with, and the 2 were attached to the front end. Here's how they fit (I use the word "fit" in its loosest possible meaning).....







Of course, to be fair, I have changed the profile of the nose, so a not-too-good fit was to be expected....  Once that is properly dry I'll attach a piece of plastic strip inside the upper part, covering the joint, to provide a little more strength and also some extra plastic so I can sand the top down to match the new profile, then sand back the lower edges to match the bottom of the fuselage. Hopefully it will be that easy....

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[lcarroll]

    That's some very impressive "real" modelling you've done on her Ian. Nicely done so far, and it's looking mighty fine!
Cheers,
Lance

[WarrenD]

Ian, I've got a couple of these in the stash, bought in the 90's when I decided that I wanted to get back to modeling, and WWI a/c in particular. Watching you on this build has me vacillating between trying to build mine using your build as a guide for improvements, or just selling them, LOL!

Great progress brother.

Warren

[steveb]

I really enjoy seeing the modifications to get things corrected. Both of these are progressing very nicely!

Steve

[IanB]

Lance & Steve,thanks, much appreciated!
Warren - go on, build them - you know you want to!

Another good day at the bench, although a lot of it has been just sanding and filling. The Tabloid fuselage seams were treated to a few doses of Mr Dissolved Putty and seem to be good - obviously I won't know for certain until I get some primer on.....





 The first job on the Baby was to get that cowling sorted out, so out came the sanding sticks, then the putty, then the sanding sticks....you know the story....

I'm pretty pleased with it now!





 Then I tackled something that is not on any of the plans, but is definitely on the aircraft! I have no idea what it is, but there is a small bulge (fairing?) under the fuselage, just aft of the engine. It may be just a shield for something under there to keep the oil off it, or maybe it's supposed to help the oil run outwards and not along the underside of the aircraft - any thoughts? Whatever it is, it's now on the model...



Finally I finished off filling the upper wing cutout, which isn't on the machine I'm modeling.



Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[WarrenD]

Great progress Ian. That fairing is very interesting, I wonder what it is?

Warren

[RAGIII]

    That's some very impressive "real" modelling you've done on her Ian. Nicely done so far, and it's looking mighty fine!
Cheers,
Lance

I agree with Lance completely! Very well done and a great tutorial on using Modeling skills to fix all of the various issues with both kits!
RAGIII

[IanB]

Thanks Rick, Warren. I'm still not certain that the item under the cowl is a fairing and not just a single sheet of metal as a screen for something, but I'm going to leave it as it is.
 
 I got some primer on them both to see where more work was needed. That showed up pretty much what was expected: along the spine and a small area on the cowling of the Baby, and the spine and underside of the Tabloid. Those have now been attended to and they're ready for another coat to see if any further work is needed:





After that I decided I might as well make up the nw tail feathers, so those were cut from .020" sheet and are now ready for final detailing. Here is a look at how bad the kit parts were in comparison:

The Tabloid: The horizontal stabiliser wasn't too far off, but it would have needed a lot of thinning so I thought it easier to just make a new one anyway...



The Baby: The horizontal stabiliser was not even close on this one, and the rudder was too big....



so next up will be another primer coat to see what else needs further attention.

Ian

[GAJouette]

 Ian,
Holy cow two of my favorite Sopwiths in on build. Best yet one a vac kit in 1/72 scale. BRAVO!! Outstanding progress to date my old friend. Keep up the excellence.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[IanB]

Thank you Gregory, we try to please!

 The woodwork has now been painted. For anyone wanting an easy way to do it in small scale here is how i went about it:
 First step is a coat of either interior Tan or radome Tan, one is a little darker, but t really makes no differance. This time around I used Interior Tan (enamel).



 Once dry, I use a flat brush and Model Master Leather (acrylic). I dip the brush in thinner then brush it on, finishing with one long stroke covering the whole panel to get the continuous grain effect. It can be reworked a few times, and since it's acrylic, it can always be removed completely from the enamel base and done again if it looks really bad...



Once that's dry, a coat of Tamiya Clear Orange, again thinned a little. The last 2 steps can be repeated if darker tones are required.

Here are the floats...



and the cockpit area of the Baby..



I'm happy with those, so next up will be some CDL......

Thanks for looking in,

Ian

[RAGIII]

Very nicely done wood grain on the floats and cockpit coaming!
RAGIII