THE (SOPWITH) CAMELS ARE COMING

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THE CAMELS ARE COMING

No, not the Biggles book of the same name (another rattlingly good yarn!), but the completion of my next World War 1 mini-project – the Airfix 1/72 Sopwith Camel (A76508).

Although the version that I bought was in relatively modern packaging (part of the ‘Airfix Challenge’) and purports to have been produced in India, I suspect that the original moulds have not been altered or improved, to judge from the amount of flash, ejection marks and badly shaped bits.

I had to scratch build a replacement propellor and the undercarriage supplied was far too spindly to be any use, and anyway had a broken leg.

The “Vickers” machine gun supplied was simply a bit of extra sprue with no real detail or shaping, and although according to the painting guide, it should have had twin Vickers MGs, there was just this pathetic little stump, so I scratch-built twin Vickers MGs, and cut away the top of the ‘hump’ (from which the Camel got its name) to accommodate them. I also added a few ‘lumps and bumps’ to the side of the cowling based on pictures in the book referred to below.

I was pleased with way both the Vickers guns and the scratch-built undercarriage legs and hubs worked out.

I decided to build my version as the aircraft flown by Captains G Gates and R Sykes of no 201 Squadron, as featured in the excellent Osprey Aircraft of the Aces Sopwith Camel Aces of World War 1 – not least because it gave me an excuse to add a bit of red paint here and there, and also some fuselage markings.

Those of you who have read my previous WW1 aircraft posts will know how much I enjoy rigging… With each model built, I’m trying to be a little more adventurous, and so for this one (even though it’s only very small and very fiddly) I decided to try and add not only the cross-bracing but also the control wires on the main planes, and to the tail-plane. I used AK Thin for all of the rigging.

Following an excellent suggestion made in a reply to a previous post, I used brush applied Vallejo Model Air Brown Violet RLM81 which seems to be very close to PC10, with the undersides being painted with 71075 Sand Ivory. The bare-metal parts of the cowling were painted with Vallejo Steel, and the wooden part of the fuselage, the undercarriage and the propellor were painted using a variety of Vallejo browns and yellows to get a wood-grain effect, and then gloss varnished. After applying the decals, I sealed the decals in with Vallejo Matt acrylic, again brush-applied.

And so here are three views of the completed Sopwith Camel.

Thanks for taking a look, and the next one on the bench is going to be the 1957 moulding of the Bristol F2B – that’ll be fun!

[Dominic Thomas]

I think you have made a good job of what, these days, is in my mind a terrible kit. Still that’s a mark of the progress manufacturers have made over the years.

Anyway, a few observations if I may.

• I’m always keen to see approaches to wood laminations on WWI propellers. They seem to be variations on the complicated, which I cannot master. So well done on your attempt.
• PC10 options. Thanks for the details behind your attempt. I have tried several variations and…. to my surprise, they all look like yours. I should try to show my attempts some time perhaps.
• Rigging. I too use[d] AK Thin. I did this because I was so pleased that it seemed to look right and that the rigging could be seen from a distance that I continued with this version. When I ran out of AK Thin and then tried Infini Model Fine 1/48 Aero Black - boy! That WAS thin. Obviously, I now had an option for Control Wires, with AK Thin for Bracing Wires. Real shame when I mixed them up - that looked ridiculous.

Anyway, as I said, well done on producing a credible result. Looking forward to the Bristol Fighter.

[Hurricane Boy]

NN98. Very nice job on this old kit. I vaguely remember building it about 60 years ago and received some Biggles Books (Biggles of the Camel Squadron & Biggles of 266) about the same time. Brings back great memories

Your work is very good and I am inspired by the lovely job with the rigging, contro wires and improvised parts.

Thank you for sharing this with us

Tim

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Thanks for your kind words and input. I guess one of the enjoyable things about tackling these rather 'bad' old-mould models is that they encourage expansion and enhancement of modelling skills in a way that more modern, beautifully engineered kits don't necessarily provide.

As far as wood effect is concerned Dominic, it's very much a matter of experimenting with different colours, although it would be nice not to have scratch build a propeller to replace the spindly, weedy ones that came with the three kits so far. I note that the one in the Bristol kit is much better!

And Tim, I'm glad someone else enjoyed the Biggles books years ago - and I've got to say, I still do - most of them have been reprinted!

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Hi Rod (aka GOM) - glad you've decided to come back to the Forum. Thanks for the comments on the Camel. I did think about rounding off the front of the cowling, but it was so badly moulded that part of it was missing anyway and had to be reconstructed with filler, so I didn't dare risk filing it away elsewhere. As already mentioned, whilst I'm not at the moment interested in radical conversions (cf one of your threads) it seemed logical to tweak the Camel to a more representative one. What puzzled me was that the painting guide reflected the twin Vickers that I installed, whilst the kit didn't.

And I suspect you might be correct about the Bristol being a better kit - certainly the moulding seems to be better and apart from a completely missing undercarriage leg which I shall have to replicate, there's not a huge amount of scratching to be done.

But there's the still the rigging to anticipate - and the Bristol is double-bay!

[SD45elect2000]

I think you did an extraordinary job! Very nice looking model.

I must admit I am not looking forward to building the Walrus because of all the rigging. Been putting it off for ages .

Randall

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Your recollection regarding aircrew is correct - Douglas Bader had more leg! I did think of replacing them with PJ productions figures (which I used on the Fokker Dr1 and the Albatros) but I've got a Roden SE5 (shame Airfix didn't produce one) to build sometime, which has no pilot, so I was saving the figures I've got left - don't want the expense of ordering more...