Lebed VII (Sopwith Tabloid), Special Hobby 1/48, Upd 23.1.18 100% scratch floats

[Bughunter]

Lebed VII  
 


Bang - my holiday is over, and other things, which kept my busy. But I was able to find some time to start a new project.
During hiking I had contact and smelled a lot of wood, so I wanted to do somethings with wood immediately!

The new projekt is a "Lebed VII", that is the russian variant of the Sopwith Tabloid. As far as I know the story is nice: The russion aircraft engineer Vladimir A Lebedev bought a Sopwith Tabloid for evaluation in 1914 and a possible licence built. The biplane was delivered, but a licence aggreement is not known. At least a small series was built in Russia, at least they have ordered 16 tachometers from Sopwith

A kit is available from Special Hobby in 1/48 in plastic, with decals, PE and some resin.

Source: modelimex.com

My reference will be a  Windsock Mini Datafile 9 "Sopwith Tabloid"!

Source: windsockdatafilespecials.co.uk


Lets start with wooden airscrew!
Found some darker (compared to me veneer) pear, but I had to cut it before by hand until it is flat enough to cut veneer from it.
I really like the dark red of this wood.



Six layers and a lot of sanding has this result:



View from behind:



The drawing seems to be wrong, all pictures show a opposite direction:



Now its primed and varnished. I want to add some clear red brown:



I hope you will like my new project!

I have also a small teaser of the next update, still something with wood


Cheers,
Frank

[Borsos]

Awesome, Frank, a wonderful start!!
Andreas

[Des]

Beautiful work on the propeller Frank and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what you do with the interior.

Des.

[Juan]

Another fantastic start Frank.  Lovely job using real wood.  Looking forward to your progress.

[coyotemagic]

Spectacular work on the prop, Frank!
Cheers,
Bud

[lcarroll]

    Beautiful work on the prop  Frank. The interior wood work is a real touch of ingenuity, first example I've seen and I like the idea a lot! An acquaintance I made years ago won the Michael Fitz Award for Best WWI Aircraft Model some time ago and he told me that he always tries to use the same materials on his models as was used on the real aircraft when he can, thus thin aluminum sheet from disposable kitchen plates and wood figure a lot into his Builds as an example. You've done the same here and it's a nice touch; I'll be following your progress closely!
Cheers,
Lance

[RAGIII]

Excellent prop Frank. I am looking forward to the next update!
RAGIII

[andonio64]

Beautiful woodwork, Frank, I'll keep watching !

Antonio

[davec]

Beautiful propeller.  Great contrast between the laminates. Are both colored wood pear?  It is a great wood to work with- I use it on my ships all the time.  Tight grain so it looks good in scale, holds an edge, hard but not impossible to shape.  Looking forward to watching your progress.

Dave

[xmald]

Beautiful prop mate! And a great start to an extremely interesting subject. I`ll follow your WiP thread with a great interest!

[Bughunter]

Wow my friends, what a fantastic feedback! Thank you very much!

Great contrast between the laminates. Are both colored wood pear?

Dave, I don't know. One is pear veneer, the other one was a block as on the picture.

Prepare now the next update ...

Cheers,
Frank

[Bughunter]

Cockpit with wood


Next I have done the cockpit, tried to use wood, because I had to replace many parts anyway. Let's see ...

The kit contains resin parts:



But the floor plate should be positioned at half height? The fuselage is not bigger as other 1/48 aircrafts. The floor has also not much related to the drawings in the Datafile.



Removed the holder ... oops, the rest too. The back part painted in linen, the front with dark alu:



Started to create a new floor - my metal rule matches coincidentally to start in a right angel.



Finished glueing:



The next picture you know already ...



Oops, the middle strut should have been added after the rigging!
The rigging was done from 0,1mm nickel silver with 0,3mm brass pipes.



I wanted to test the bending properties of pear. Just showed some steam - works great! So it was easy to create a wooden seat:



All painted with some small parts:



There was also a resin part for the instrument board, but with a huge sprue bush. I was really easier to replace it by wood. A decal from Airscale, PE of Eduard and frames from a HGW set are mounted and glazed with Kristal Klear. Still a bit empty ...



So I scratched a pulsometer and fuel shut-off from brass:



Done with wood? not yet! I wanted to try a very small part ...
The kit has a control stick - that's "curd cheese" (german), since the Tabloid was equipped with a control wheel!
I crosswise glued two veneer plates and sanded a thin and small wheel.



A PE would have been nice, but with cutting and filing I made my own brass part. Soldered to a 0,4mm axle and glued it to the wheel.



So, all wooden parts are prepared.

Cheers,
Frank

[lcarroll]

   That's all pretty unique, Frank, and brilliant work! I'm particularly impressed with your wood seat, I've filed that trick away for use in future.
   Great Build Log thus far.
Cheers,
Lance

[KiwiZac]

Frank, this is beautiful! The seat took my breath away, but so did everything else! That wheel, wow!

Eagerly awaiting your next update.

[xmald]

Amazing thread my friend! The seat just looks great as the rest of your build.