Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin, CSM 1:48, Upd 15.5.2020 Finished, done, over!

[Bughunter]

Thank you Lance!
You will have fun in the new year, even if I find the Sopwith Dolphin a bit ugly with the stagger wings (compared to other Sopwith), the WNW kit is great! At least the manual promised it,  shows much more detail and take advantage of the big scale compare to mine.

Cheers,
Frank

[Dekenba1]

Good work!

You've chosen your AM very well, it makes a big difference. Many times I've huffed, puffed and folded bits of AM that turned out to be exactly the same as the kit parts, only 10 times the price. Your Gaspatch guns in particular make a huge difference, it's stunning especially considering it's 1/48.

I love the Sopwith Dolphin, it's one of my favourite WWI aeroplanes. It may look a bit clunky, but I just think it looks stuffed full of character, like the RE.8 and BE.2c. I've bought three of the WNW Dolphin kits, together with both Pheon decal sets.

If I can get them looking half as good as your build, I'll be a happy man indeed.

[Bughunter]

Thank you for your extensive answer!
The Gaspatch are great and do not need big work. The PE of Part I mentioned looks great too, especially with the cut out in the cooling jackets.
But needs a huge amount of effort, my pictures here are a good explanation:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=9172.msg170089#msg170089

Another nice thing about the Part PE are the optional parts, different cooling jackets, different handles, even different fronts (see parts 15 and 16).
But as explained in this case I stay with the Gaspatch.

Cheers,
Frank

[Bughunter]

Landing gear


So my friends of the micro mechanics - after a long period of silence due to family and X-mas I now able to continue my work on this project.

I started to handle the gear.
Axle is bended outside to get tilted wheels and the diameter in the wheels is bigger.
That is not very original, but there are moulding limits.



Some problems:
1. Axle
- prepared for metal half axle,
2. to wide
- shortened the middle part removes details, still to wide on the picture,
3. struts are now to long due to new angle



So I made a new , mainly  for struts. The lowest part is a tube!
With all the nice drawings and pictures in the Datafile and especially in the "Cross & Cockades" book I will made a new brass construction from scratch.
- lowest part is a 0.9mm tube,
- soldered struts (1.4mm squezzed pipe to 0.8 x 1.8mm) to it.
- connected with a 0.6mm brass pin (suspension limit and stabilising)
- from outside 0.7mm pins for suspension soledered into drilled hole.



Inside 0.4mm brass pins to hold the middle part. Looks shorter in drawing due to the angle.



What about the middle part? may be the plastic part, but ...
The drawing in "Cross & Cockades" book showed a closed (no axles visible) underside?
Found this pictures on the WNW pages:

Soruce: wingnutwings.com


So a new plan: wooden part, here in a raw form. Thinner at all and thinned on the back side.



The Hendon restauration pictures shows a metal part,  so I covered it with thin brass 0.05mm and soldered on the back side. Opened the cut outs only on upper side.



Plugged together, the 0,8mm nickel-silver axles needed to be cutted to real size.



Compared to the original - the suspension will be made from stretched sprue.



Sorry Edgar - but is is still a great kit!!!

Cheers,
Frank

[lcarroll]

Magic Frank! Again your superb skills with solder take your work well out of the ordinary, and to a much higher level. The detail you add to your Builds is incredible, and enjoyable to follow.
Cheers,
Lance

[hiddeous1973]

I know this will sound strange, but sometimes I feel bad looking at a build like this... I have this kit in my stash, planning for a while to do it, but other yell or scream for atention harder so far.

On the one hand, amazing build so far, love totally what you do and it will come out another masterpiece.
At the same time though, now I know that I will a: never reach your level (my eyesight and dexterity and slowing going downhill) and b: that there are faults/mistakes in the kit. Offcourse I know that no kit will ever be perfect, but will knowing that these faults are there and my inability to correct them take the fun out of building it?

I hope not, but we wil see. Nevertheless, please keep on showing what can be done with this great kit, love absolutely what you are doing.
good luck, Hidde

[Bughunter]

Thank you Lance, you always find so nice words for my work!
You will have fun with your WNW kit, that manual and reference pictures are helpful for me too.

I know this will sound strange, but sometimes I feel bad looking at a build like this...

Thank you Hidde for your  thoughts! I can fully understand your problem. I really wanted to use the kit gear, in my picture you can see the first modifications and the added pins.
I do not want to see my posting as critic to the kit. The new "C&C" book was not available at creation time. Often there are many variants due to different companies producing the same type, and even within the batches on the same factory. The "C&C" book talks about Dolphin I, II and III. The prototypes not calculated, so may be the kit is also correct for one of the 2072 Dolphins 

Nevertheless, please keep on showing what can be done with this great kit, love absolutely what you are doing.

Thank you for such great compliment!

Since I really like to solder brass,
and I'm an engineer and want to understand technical solutions,
and if there are great drawings and pictures available (which is often not the case),
then sometimes my temper got the better of me and I try to find out, what is possible
This was done in a step-by-step approach, during starting with the struts I had now idea about the middle part.

Thanks again and a good start into the new year!

Cheers,
Frank

[Borsos]

It’s a pity that such superfluous things like X-Mas or family keeps us away from the bench!
Great detailing on the undercarriage. Impressive metalworks as usual, Frank!
Best regards
Andreas

[Bughunter]

Thank you Andreas!

It’s a pity that such superfluous things like X-Mas or family keeps us away from the bench!

And if I had some free hours in December, no motivation

Einen guten Rutsch,
Frank

[Gisbod]

Very advanced modelling Frank!

Guy

[gbrivio]

Very advanced modelling Frank!

Guy

Totally agree.
Giuseppe

[dr 1 ace]

Very advanced modelling Frank!

Guy

Totally agree.
Giuseppe

Likewise, 100% agreement to all the above comments on the quality of your work !

Ed

[RAGIII]

Very advanced modelling Frank!

Guy

Totally agree.
Giuseppe

Likewise, 100% agreement to all the above comments on the quality of your work !

Ed

No disagreement from this Amigo! Just your usual Brilliant work Frank!
RAGIII

[Bughunter]

Oh, thank you for your chorus Guy, Giuseppe, Ed and Rick!


Suspension


For finishing I tinned the struts:



Primed with Gunze Mr. Metal Primer, painted with MrPaint "PC10 Late" and glued together.



The 0.8mm nickel silver half axles with added limit stops ...



so that the suspension do not touch the wheel. The holders in the middle are 0.3mm nickel silver.



Straight position ...



... and deflected.



Added suspension made from streched sprue in deflected position:



My landing gear matches nearly the drawing:



For dry fitting plugged to the fuselage. After mounting I need to add the rigging.



Nice, if somthing is done.

Cheers,
Frank

[Borsos]

Simply amazing! Thumbs up, Frank!
Andreas