8 Sopwiths in 1/72

[VickersVandal]

A while back I started an Eastern Express 1 1/2 Strutter, then lost the front end decking. So I put it away. Then I started a Roden Ship's Camel....then lost the oil channel under the cowling. So I put it away. Then I bought another Strutter to use to build a new deck. Then I stopped modelling for 3 years.

Fast forward..... I dredged them up from the stash along with an Airfix Pup and Airfix Camel and a Revell Triplane. I used the new strutter deck to resin cast a replacement. Then I bought two Roden Camels. Then I decided that building 8 Sopwiths at once was a good idea, since each stage of the build uses more or less the same paints and methods. I'm sure I'll regret this....

Anyway, this was the bench a few weeks ago:

(You can see my white silicone rubber mould used to make the spare Strutter deck and my mini spares stash including dead old Airfix Albatros)

The Airfix camel has been heavily modified and is using spare Roden parts. Cockpit detail was scratchbuilt using the Rodens as a guide.



Front deck was hacked off and Roden spare added in its place.

Currently the strutters and camels are sitting waiting for the others to catch up so they can all be primed with Tamiya white spray primer:
(Can you spot the Airfix?)

[VickersVandal]

Also, I'm not too precious about the Triplane (I'll probably build a more fussy one later) so it got a rough and ready interior scratchbuild to replace the peg-and-seated-zombie supplied:

[PaulBradley]

Brave man!!

[VickersVandal]

Brave man!!

I'm never one to bite off more than I can Felixstowe-in-a-group-build chew, so I can't imagine anything could go wrong here......like for example getting to the point of having to rig 8 tiny fragile biplanes concurrently and throwing myself under a bus. That would never happen.

[VickersVandal]

All the Camels are Biggles aircraft for dioramas - one for the man himself, then Algy and "the Professor". All Bentley engined, of course!
The Airfix will be done as J-9982, the captured camel flown by a dirty Hun who goes about shooting down allied pilots with it (until, of course, he gets his just desserts at the hands of Biggles).

The other Sopwiths will just be generic RFC or RNAS builds.

[Stamford]

Great stuff! Are you going to rig all eight at the same time or is that when the bus incident you refered to is scheduled?

[VickersVandal]

Great stuff! Are you going to rig all eight at the same time or is that when the bus incident you refered to is scheduled?

One or the other....

[Stuart]

Brave man indeed, I almost threw myself under a bus after trying to do one camel in 1/72..

I love the biggles idea, i can't wait to see the dios

[AndrewR]

Plenty of style and finesse (and plastic butchering!) going on here

Wait until you get to the rigging stage on all 8 though

Cheers

Andrew

[JamesPerrin]

I hope you've bought enough string to rig that little lot

[VickersVandal]

I hope you've bought enough string to rig that little lot

Local cheapie shop sells black invisible thread for $2 a reel, so no worries there.

I'm also looking to use a new rigging method I've come up with that involves making micro turnbuckle loops from guitar string so as to avoid lots of through-holes in the wings (the post cleanup of which is killing me in the Felixstowe) but still maintain tension. Whether my sanity will be gone after attempting that on 8 biplanes is probably not in doubt....

[Chris]

I would have trouble with one let alone 8.

[JohnRatzenberger]

And here I thought you had 8 Sopwith Cuckoos on the bench

[VickersVandal]

And here I thought you had 8 Sopwith Cuckoos on the bench

Don't even joke about that!!

Although I have to say this one is pretty inspirational!

[Chris]

And here I thought you had 8 Sopwith Cuckoos on the bench

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXuSWUXDnuo;