kkarlsen

Thank you Pete, I appreciate your kind words. I'm struggling with the builds lately. I have become much, much slower. So much so, that I'm very reluctant to begin anything big and complicated. And there are so many big projects that I want to do! But for now I will have to settle with smaller projects that are more manageable, in order not to completely lose my Mojo... My unfinished projects here on Large Scale Planes have started piling up and I'm not at all happy with having too much lying on the "shelf of doome" - But you allready knew that.. Cheers: Kent

The inspiration for the subject: Sopwith Baby with four bladed propeller & top wing twin Lewis machine gun..

The finished Sopwith Baby... (Lukgraph resin kit with some alterations) Thanks for looking: Cheers: Kent...

Both builds are coming together... Sopwith Scheider... Thanks for looking... Cheers: Kent

The wings are done with styrene/resin core, sanded to the shape needed. Thin strips of tape have been used to get the structure and ribs. It's been coated with several layers of primer to get the smoother finish. Cheers: Kent

Thank you Hans, you are right, perhaps the 'littlest' plane I have build in 1/32 scale? Kent

Finally some progress... Floats on and rigged + Cockpit Instrument panel. Cheers: Kent

Thank you Paul. I used multiple drawings, all that I could get my hands on. Windsock, Mike Roach etc. All the drawings have been used for 'interpolating' or an 'average' of the different drawings. The replica build for the Brooklands Museum has also been of great help... Cheers: Kent

Update on the Sopwith builds... The 'sorry' looking fuselage of th 'Schneider. Photoetched stitching (Eduard) Basecoat of the Schneider.. Basecoat of the 'Baby'.. Shading of the wings.. I decided on a new approach for the linen of the fuselage. Dark first incl. the wires. And then covering it with thinned 'linen' color for a transparent look. The cowling has been reworked, I didn't like the 'square' looks of the kit cowlings.. It took some time, but now I'm happy with it. Base colors are down on the 'Baby' some of the decals. Same with the 'Schneider' the text is printed on transparent decal paper. I've started the weathering with some of the characteristic castor oil pattern. Thank for looking: Kent

I found something regarding why the Schneider Cup was a seaplane Cup: "Jacques Schneider was a French industrialist, from the Schneider family, himself an airplane pilot and balloonist. He was a long time holder of the balloon altitude record : 10,081 m. Banned from flying following a serious accident, he began to financially support many competitions. Impressed by the performance of seaplanes at a 1912 meeting in Monaco, he mistakenly believed seaplanes were the future of commercial aviation." Cheers: Kent

I'm back with another build... When I learned Lukgraph models launched the Sopwith Baby, I was thinking maybe it would be possible to convert it into the Sopwith Schneider Trophy winner of Monaco 1914. So I started my research into the to the versions of the little Sopwith's. When I compared the two types Sopwith Schneider, Tabloid etc. vs the Sopwith Baby there were more differences than similarities. The Cowling is the most prominent difference. But the wings didn't have flaps, the floats have a different shape incl. the rear float, the rudder/elevator etc. The cockpit was different and lastly the engine was a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape (Sopwith Baby had a Clerget 9Z). At most I could use the Lukgraph kit as a guide for the Sopwith Schneider. But I couldn't shake the idea of building Howard Pixton's Schneider winner of 1914. I started slowly what it would take scratch building the Sopwith Schneider. It is a relatively manageable build, being the smallest plane I have build. The cowling of the Tabloid/Schneider is whole different story. I first made a balsa 'plug' to make a rough cowling. And after some work I had a 90 % fitting cowling. I' used 0.3 mm styrene sheets in order to have the sides of the fuselage 'sagging' a bit for subtle visual details. At this point I decided to build the Sopwith Baby kit back to back with the scratched Scheider. Some small modifications to the frame. The finished 'Baby' cockpit. The 'Baby' fuselage and the 'Scheider' fuselage. Clerget engine vs. Gnome Monosoupape (Roden) Paint scheme will be dark top sides and lower part linen surfaces. The 'subject' of the Sopwith Baby build will be like this 'Baby' which had i different configuration than most. This one had a double Lewis gun and a four bladed propeller! To bad the serial number is obscured... Cheers: Kent

Yes Ray, thank you! Kent

I did, I have some builds that I'm working on and off. Maybe the will finish at some point, who knows. But the scratch building in it self is very rewarding in developing new tricks! Cheers: Kent

Thanks gentlemen, for giving this build 'artificial respiration' Kent

Thank you very much Richard, you are too kind! Kent

Well the photo was kind of inviting to do that, the only one thing that's missing is the photographer Thank you very much, all! It was the first time I ever did a Japanese plane, and if it wasn't for Ondrej at Special Hobby, I still hadn't. Now on to other adventures... or the shelf of doom? Cheers: Kent

I've tried to recreate a vignette, based this photo of one of the planes of Matsuo Hagiri together with some of his 'colleagues' on board the carrier Soryo. The Special Hobby kit is 'High tech' in the sense that it's including resin details of the engine and cockpit, as well as fret of photoetched details. https://www.specialhobby.eu/en/1/1/a5m4-claude-hi-tech-1-32.html?&listtype=search&searchparam=A5M4 Build thread is here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/94082-mitsubishi-a5m4-the-father-of-the-zero/ Thanks for looking.... Cheers: Kent

The A5M4 is finished, a couple of preliminary shot's of the finished build.. As usual the markings are a mix of kit decals, Berna decals and some 'in-house' printed decals. Cheers: Kent

I already got those IJN tie downs Cheers: Kent

A mixture of duraluminium & Exhaust manifold Cheers: Kent

Further progress... Preparations for the painting. The A5M4 is assembled. Then I took a brake from the A5M4 to start working on the carrier deck display base. 4 mm strips of balsa wood stained in different tones to make a natural wood deck. I couldn't resist to try the arrangement for the base. Next the weathering: There are photos that suggest at least some of the A5M4 had some weathering.. These photos gave me the courage to start the weathering process. I didn't want to do another A5M4 which came right of the factory. Continuing on with the salt weathering... It's a mess but it does the job... The result of the salt weathering... Next I used some diluted clear orange with a mask, to add the shade of the lacquer at least used by some of the carrier based A5M4. The engine has been fitted. And the landing gear. I like the 'battered' worn look of the aircraft. After all I didn't want to do another 'shiny' A5M4 coming right out of the factory. Cheers: Kent

Thank you Paolo, if I can be any assistance to your build, just ask! Cheers: Kent

Not at all, here you go: Kent

This weekend I managed to finish the riveting, fix the cockpit in place and to begin the assembly of the fuselage and wings.. The riveting of the fuselage halves.. Top wings.. And elevators.. View of the cockpit in place.. The cockpit with some extra detailing... Fuselage assembly with a closer look of the riveting... Notice the slot for the scratched wing spar... I had to do some work to get the wings to fit the fuselage. In the end I resorted to building a 'wing spar' firstly to keep the alignment right of the middle wing. It has to be horizontal and also because the top wings doesn't have the same thickness as the wing root, it's sagging. In this way I solved both problems Almost there! Cheers: Kent

Thank you Paolo! Yes I know about the 'golden varnish' and I will try to find a way to make this work. The last thing I want to do is a nice shiny new aircraft. I'm hoping to achieve some kind of weathering, blending different tones. Maybe my preferred weathering method will be applied in some way, salt-weathering. Cheers: Kent