[THE (SOPWITH) CAMELS ARE COMING]

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!

[THE (SOPWITH) CAMELS ARE COMING]

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!

[Wish List 2023]

My WWI mini-project is making slow but steady progress. I'd like to confine my builds to Airfix kits, but although there are plenty of Hannovers, Halberstadts etc etc out there (at a price naturally...) why did Airfix never produce a Sopwith Triplane or the S.E.5?

So that would be my current wishlist - in 1/72 scale incidentally.

[1/72 Albatros DV completed]

Thanks for your replies and kind words Tim, Matt, Dominic and PB. Collishaw is a good shout - until I read about him in one of the Vanguard books (Empire Aces), I had no idea that he went on to be involved during WW2 in 12 Group - so a distinct possibility for the Camel.

As for rigging - I'm gradually getting the hang of it. I've found by trial and error that very thin, fast-setting CA is part of the answer. Obviously going up to 1/48th scale (at least!) would make life even easier, but lack of space for display (and cost...) keeps me in 1/72-land.

Anyway, as PB so correctly points out, having fun is the whole point - and if the finished model is pleasing to all and sundry, that's a real bonus.

So thank you everyone for your replies.

[1/72 Albatros DV completed]

Many thanks Randall. I think it was worth all the time and effort. I just wish sometimes that my fingers were a little bit smaller!

[1/72 Albatros DV completed]

1/72 ALBATROS DV 1917 COMPLETED!

Stage 2 of the World War I mini-project has now been completed, with the Albatros DV (as flown by the Baron von Richthofen in 1917) joining the previously posted Fokker Triplane on the metaphorical  runway.

It wasn’t nearly such a straightforward build as the Fokker DrI, not least because I decided to impose a few scratched ‘improvements’ (well, in my opinion they were improvements anyway) on the kit. As with Fokker, this started with needing to do something about the propeller – which was far too small and spindly, so I cut the blades off, glued in and sculpted some spares, and painted it to give a wood effect, adding the propeller logos from the WW1 German Crosses produced by Almark Decals (from Hannants).

I was not overly impressed by the rather badly and indistinctly moulded pilot provided either, so I substituted a suitably attired (and painted) one from the PJ Productions World War I pilots pack.

Put into the cockpit – the walls of which were given some detail and a varnished wood finish – along with a rudimentary instrumental panel made from plasticard and a ‘wooden’ finish, with a couple of instrument decals from the spares box and also a seat, I think it was worth the effort.

Other non-OOB additions were the windshield, and also the pipe leading from the engine up to the wing-mounted radiator.

The main part of the fuselage was quite a challenge to get a resemblance to natural varnished wood. The first step was to sandpaper off all the raised panel lines, and then lightly scribe some 'joins'. I use a variety of brushes to apply mainly Vallejo Model Air paints for my models (I don’t have an air-brush!), and to get the natural wood finish I built up a series of different colours using a sparsely bristled brush to get a streaky, grainy effect, masking off some sections to give an impression of different pieces of birch-wood. Colours used included Yellow, Ivory, Cream, Sand Beige, Nato Brown and Leather Brown, finished with a coat of Vallejo Satin varnish to give a slight gloss.

The paint call-outs with the kit were of course for old Airfix (pre-Humbrol) enamels. The red was easy enough to replicate, and I ended up using Vallejo 71.007 Olive Green and 71.271 German Red Brown on the upper wing surfaces, with RLM65 Light Blue on the underwing surfaces. When it came to putting the decals on, the ones that came with the kit either curled up completely or disintegrated, so I used some more from the WW1 German Crosses produced by Almark Decals. Painted surfaces (and decals) were sealed using Vallejo Matt varnish.

Then it was time for rigging… The rigging on the Albatros was far more complex than on the Fokker DrI, and I used AK Thin elastic fastened with tiny drops of Rocket ‘Hot’ CA glue applied using very fine nozzled plastic extensions which I found on a modelling site.

For a little kit, I probably made it more of a challenge for myself than I needed to, but I enjoyed the build, and so next my attention will turn to the RFC/RNAS, with a Sopwith Camel (also the Airfix 1/72 scale version) making its way on to the bench.

Thanks for taking the trouble to have a look at this one!

[WWI aircraft - gloss or matt finish?]

Hi John

Thanks for your very useful and informative reply. For RFC machines, I think your Vallejo Brown Violet suggestion is a very good call. Now that autumn is well and truly here in the UK, a retarder is definitely not required!

The Albatros DV is coming along quite satisfactorily. I've finished the 'bare plywood' on the fuselage, and I've varnished it with Vallejo satin - which accords with your suggestion. As it's all done with brushes, I'm quite pleased with the effect.

I'll post some more pictures when it's completed.

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

At only £2.00 it would have been rude not to buy it! Mind you, I imagine that if I thought that rigging WWI biplanes was fiddly, this is going to be even more of a challenge! Not sure when I'll get round to it, but it'll be a nostalgia trip as I think I remember building it with my grandfather one winter half-term when I was significantly younger....

[1/48 Buccaneer ~ build review]

Thanks Ratch - food for thought - especially in terms of colour matching.

[1/48 Buccaneer ~ build review]

I've been following your three build reviews with interest - this one, and the two Jaguar cars. Thanks for sharing insights, techniques and tips! My only question is how on earth do you manage to build three such different kits at the same time? I struggle to sort out some of the difficulties that I encounter doing only one build at a time. Perhaps I need to be more organised...

[Fokker Dr.1 finished!]

Not really a 'collection' - just talking a break from my preferred theme of WW2 fighter aircraft mostly single seaters - so lots of Spitfires, a few less Hurricanes, Gladiators, then Mustangs, P38s, P47s, a couple of Airacobras, then various Dewoitines and Moranes and a few Zeros, Me109s, 110s, Fw190s etc - the list, as you can imagine, gets longer and longer.

To add to the completed Fokker Dr.1, I've made a start on the Albatros D.V, then it'll be the turn of the old mould Airfix Sopwith Camel, and then a rebox (so hopefully with good decals) of a Be2c - by which time I shall be totally rigged-out.

[Fokker Dr.1 finished!]

Thanks for your kind words. I guess it's kits like this that require building and/or modelling rather than merely assembling which makes this hobby (obsession?) so absorbing and enjoyable (and occasionally frustrating!).

And I've decided that the Albatros is going to be next. Largely varnished natural wood exterior on the fuselage will be novel, especially once I've dealt with the raised panel lines.

[Fokker Dr.1 finished!]

Having given you a little taster of my Fokker Dr.1 build (along with queries about paint and doping finishes), I’ve now completed the model, so here are a few more details and images. The Airfix 1/72 Dr.1 (of Red Baron fame) is almost as old as the original! The kit that I purchased was in the blister pack with fold-out card ‘instructions’ (aka artist’s impressions…) but fortunately it’s a fairly straightforward kit. According to the packaging, mine was made in 1973, but I suspect it is somewhat older than that, which might account for the interior being totally devoid of any detail, save for a spike to sit the pilot on.

I added some cockpit side framework, a floor and an instrument panel, along with a seat for the pilot – all made from bits of stretched sprue and plasticard.

The propeller was totally inaccurate and totally mangled anyway, so I scratch-built another one, using some of the thick kit’s sprue as the hub, and a couple of spare blades from the bits box, shaped to size and fit.

The front was embellished with a ring punched out of plasticard, with bolts added (from tiny little slices of stretched sprue). I was quite pleased with the wood-effect using various shades of brown and yellow streaked on, and with the addition of the decals from the set I had to purchase (more on that later), with a coat of Vallejo gloss varnish, it looks quite reasonable, I think.

The pilot was weirdly the standard WW2 BoB era version (if you looked past the flash), so a PJ Production WW1 pilot figure was substituted, painted using various Vallejo paints. The flying suit was, as far as I can glean, fairly generic to both sides in the conflict.

The only fiddly bit of the build was getting the angle of the cabane struts correct so that the four meeting points with the upper-most wing all aligned. The Fokker Dr.1 had fairly minimal rigging wires, and the pictures that I looked at suggested that they were fairly substantial, so some black bristles were cut from a scrubbing brush – much easier to superglue in place than the stretchy stuff!

Thanks to the helpful replies to my query on appropriate finish, the Vallejo Red that was brush-painted received a final coat of Vallejo matt varnish after the decals had been applied.

The decals that came with the kit were totally yellowed and very brittle. I did try to bleach them back to a semblance of white by taping them against a window that gets plenty of sunlight, but to no avail – and one that I did try just fell apart, although I did manage to use the ID stencils on the sides just below the cockpit.

In the end, and emboldened by a snippet that I read that the full white background stripes were not always used, I found a sheet of varying sizes of WW1 German Crosses produced by Almark Decals (from Hannants).

So that’s the first of the four scheduled First World War builds completed. Now I’ve got to decide whether to build the Albatros D.V or the Sopwith Camel next.

Thanks for taking a look.

[WWI aircraft - gloss or matt finish?]

And in answer to Rod's closing comment, here's a quick snap of current status! You can just make out some of the inner cockpit detail that I added, like a 'wicker' chair and some inner struts and framing.

The decals weren't the original ones - they were very badly yellowed and no amount of sunlight exposure rectified the problem. And according to several of the books, only the tail fin cross had a white background.

Next stage is to add the guns, then the pilot, then the top wing, then the wheels...and then a bit of rigging (oh, joy!)

But as Dominic quite correctly points out - it's my model, and I think I'm fairly happy with it...

[WWI aircraft - gloss or matt finish?]

Some very helpful replies gentlemen - many thanks.

[WWI aircraft - gloss or matt finish?]

My First World War mini-project is making some progress and I’m now at the painting and finishing stage of the first model – a very old-mould Fokker Dr.1. But I’ve now got a question that might provoke a variety of responses – should the final finish be matt or satin, or even gloss? The colour call-out on the rather yellowed fold-out instructions for the Fokker is M19 which is of course (in old nomenclature) Matt Red. But surely – and in a couple of the books that I have read - the linen would be painted with dope (in this case with red colour added), which would then be varnished to weather-proof it. But if varnished, would this have remained glossy, or would it have rapidly weathered on the Western Front to a satin – or even matt – finish?

At the moment, I’m inclined to seal in the decals with a coat of Vallejo matt varnish, which is somewhere between matt and satin when it eventually dries. Anyone got any cogent, and preferably fact-based thoughts?

The next one off the production line is going to be an Albatros DV, which has a mainly bare-wood fuselage, which is generally discernible in pictures as gloss varnished, so that’s quite an easy decision (although I’ll probably use satin varnish to give the correct scale-effect). Then after that, it’ll be the Sopwith Camel, which again raises the question of varnished dope finishes.

Still, I’m enjoying trying to turn these rather creaky old-moulds into something reasonably good. I’ll post some pictures as I finish (in every sense of the word…) each one!

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

Thank goodness other people suffer from the same affliction - knowing that my 'condition' has a label (SKAS-1) makes it all the more enjoyable!

So I won't worry about it any more...

Have you seen the offer of the six 1/48 Spitfires (you know you want to....I do). https://uk.airfix.com/products/148-spitfire-collection-bundlea14

Thank goodness I only model in 1/72 scale (shortage of funds and display space) otherwise I'd be sorely tempted...

[P51 Tuskegee Mustang]

Nice one. I did the 1/24 Mustang in this scheme some years ago.

Love the open panels and completed internals Ratch. I guess it would be possible in 1./72 scale - but perhaps beyond my competence! Interesting though to see how the two widely differing scales nevertheless off more or less the same level of surface detail. If only I had room for 1/24 scale models!

[P51 Tuskegee Mustang]

Nice neat job !! I like it.

Randall

Thanks Randall - praise indeed having seen some of your completed aircraft!

[P51 Tuskegee Mustang]

Before I start on my World War I project, I thought I’d dig a P51-D Mustang out of the pile and enjoy building a tribute to the astonishing Tuskegee airmen who defied all the odds to be so successful.

As it’s a relatively newish mould, it was the usual well engineered product that we’ve recently come to expect and enjoy from Airfix.

Building starts of course with the cockpit. I decided after looking at various web pages to go for US Interior Green for the cockpit, with a blackish floor (as I understand that was the case with the wooden floor of the Mustang). I added some HT leads to the battery, but otherwise what was there built up nicely.

The underside detail is nice too – with the wheel-well structure being intricately moulded.

I like to produce my models ‘wheels down’, hence the droopy aileron flaps (which again is a well-engineered option).

And of course the pilot – in this case Lt Spurgeon Ellington – is in the cockpit ready to take off from the base at Ramitelli.

The decals were the usual excellent quality that we can now expect from Airfix – although getting the red surround just behind the spinner to conform required quite a soaking in Microsol. I did add a couple of 'kill' markings, and I used most of the myriad stencils supplied.

Before I started the build, I got hold of a copy of the Osprey publication which is an excellent and inspiring read. The difficulties faced by these very brave men before they even got to the conflict in Europe were extraordinary. There are lots of details of the major air battles fought by the Tuskegee airmen, and there is even a picture of Lt Spurgeon Ellington in the book.

So it was an enjoyable build, made all the more interesting by having the book beside me. I don’t think brush painting is the best way of representing bare-metal finish, but in my defence, lots of the pictures in the book suggest that the aircraft weren’t always pristine and shiny!

Thanks for taking a look...

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

When I've finished my current build (a P51 Mustang) I'm going to be time-travelling back from my usual WW2 to WW1. I recently posted the acquisition of the Airfix 1/72 Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.1 - to which I've now added these two:

I'm especially pleased with the Albatros - it's still in the original shrink-wrap! It'll be interesting to see how the much newer technology and engineering if the BE2c makes my modelling life easier than the much simpler (in terms of parts count at least) rather older technology models.

My first decision will be over whether to take the time to scratch build anything inside the cockpits of the three vintage models....

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

Thank goodness other people suffer from the same affliction - knowing that my 'condition' has a label (SKAS-1) makes it all the more enjoyable!

So I won't worry about it any more...

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

I must stop buying Spitfires and get with building the ones I've got - but I couldn't resist this new paint-scheme version.

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

Before I start the Fokker DR1 and the Camel, I've also just picked up a p-51 Mustang, which I intend building as the Tuskegee Airmen version.

Couldn't wait to get started on it, so I've already got going on the 'office'. My research suggests that Interior Green is correct for the side walls of the cockpit, but that the floor was black painted plywood.

I've also added some HT leads from the battery.

I'll probably post some more in due course, but on the Aircraft forum!

[Airfix - What's your Latest Acquisition?]

That's all very comforting Rod. Many thanks.