WNW Sopwith Camel "BR"

[Furie]

Hello Ernest.
Very interesting work concerning a lot of techniques I don't master: figurines, wood imitation, oil paints... 
I'll keep an eye on it!

[Greif8]

On 6/30/2024 at 12:29 PM, Furie said:

Hello Ernest.
Very interesting work concerning a lot of techniques I don't master: figurines, wood imitation, oil paints... 
I'll keep an eye on it!

 

On 6/30/2024 at 11:16 AM, MikeMaben said:

What's a cold tone highlight ?

Excellent detail work Ernie .

 

On 6/29/2024 at 9:50 PM, Archimedes said:

Lovely work Ernest!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

 

Thank you friends, it is nice to use some techniques again after the pause for my other build.

 

Mike - a cold tone highlight refers to the color used for the tone.  Blues, greens and greys are generally considered to be cold colors in art, while reds, yellows and oranges come from the "warm" side of the color wheel.  For shades black is considered warm and white cold. 

 

Ernest 

Edited July 6, 2024 by Greif8

[Greif8]

A small bit of progress to share as most of the previous bench sessions have been devoted to parts prep, not the most interesting thing to photograph!

 

The interior of the fuselage halves and the top cover for the cockpit are painted.  I first primed everything black to help with shadows and give the subsequent paint work some depth.  I then airbrushed the basr colors of dull aluminium and doped canvas.  The dull aluminium was left as is and taped off along with the section of the fuselage that was to remain doped canvas.  I handpainted the "strakes" a darker wood color and oversprayed thinned Tamiya clear orange once that was dry to give the area a varnished wood look.  I used the same technique for the cockpit cover.

 

All three parts.  I did not bother to remove/fill ejector pin marks as test fitting showed none of them can be seen once everything is buttoned up.  I also did not bother to spray the entire surface of fuselage halves or the cockpit cover for the same reason.  The leather around the cockpit top opening will be handpainted in a future step.

 

Though only the tiniest amount will be seen due to the pilot being seated I gave the lower part of the "wall" that divides the cockpit from the fuel tank a wood

grain effect. 

 

Not much this time, but the next update should have more to show.

 

Ernest

[MikeMaben]

[Greif8]

I chose the "B" painting and marking option for the Camel as I think it is pretty cool, and for a British aircraft pretty colorful.  The blue color on the actual aircraft was painted over metal, canvas and wooden surfaces and the tone of the blue would very likely have been very slightly different for each surface.  In an attempt to replicate that I first primed the parts in black and then I sprayed them with the appropriate type of undelying color.  After that had cured for several hours I then airbrushed the blue on.  Below is the result of that work.

 

The parts primed and with their base colors sprayed.  I realized that I shoud have airbrushed the center of the lower wing metal, but I decided to leave it 

as is because that area is going to get some fairly heavy castor oil and dirt weathering later on and the look of the blue will change as a result of that.  

 

The blue color has been sprayed on.  There does not appear to be very much, if any, varience in the tone.  I'll have to see what things look like once the parts

are assembled.  

 

 

I combined two techniques to paint the leather padding arounf the cockpit opening.  First I painted a dark leather base color using acrylic paints and then layered

two different lighter shades on top of that using very thinned acrylic colors.  After those had dried for a few hours I added a wash of burnt sienna oil paint to give 

the color some depth and richness, as well as adding a bit of sheen.  Finally, I did a very light dry brush of a cold highlight to make the high points stand out.  As a

side note, I managed to slightly chip some of the blue paint while handling the part.  As it looks fairly realistic, and the area could well have gotten chipped while

installing/removing the MGs I may just leave it as is.

 

Another angle of the padding under different lighting conditions.  The brighter lighting brings out some of the color depth and varing tone.  I see I have to do

a small touch up as that slight bleed over can be seen under brighter lighting.  That said, I feel pretty good about the end result of this mixed paint media work.

 

Left side of the painted fuselage.  The next step will be to prep that surfaces for decaling.  I have found with bi-planes it is better to do any decaling of the 

fuselage and wings before those parts are joined.  The fit of the lower wing to the fuselage is excellent and I am pretty certain that I will not have to do any

trimming/puttying/etc. to the join.

 

Ernest

[scvrobeson]

Using different varnishes over the different materials could help bring out the difference in material and shade. It looks really good, the cockpit padding especially

 

 

 

Matt 

[themongoose]

Looking great, love the intricate details you’ve done!

[Greif8]

On 7/8/2024 at 6:08 PM, scvrobeson said:

Using different varnishes over the different materials could help bring out the difference in material and shade. It looks really good, the cockpit padding especially

 

 

 

Matt 

 

18 hours ago, themongoose said:

Looking great, love the intricate details you’ve done!

 

Thank you guys!

 

Matt, I was a bit surprised at how well the cockpit padding turned out as I was not sure how mixing different types of paint would work.

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

I plan to put most, and perhaps all, the decals on the fuselage prior to installing the wings.  Before I can do that though I have to build and install the rotary engine so I that I can glue the cowling in place.  The past couple of bench sessions were focused on painting, constructing and weathering the engine; below is how it turned out.

 

The parts after the completion of base painting.  Like all rotary engines there are not a lot of parts.  I used a mix of Mr. Color metallic paints, and MRP Super Silver for the metallic sections and ATOM paints for the white on the spark plugs.

 

The assembled engine prior to weathering.

 

I wanted to show a lot of castor oil build up/staining so I went pretty heavy with Tamiya Transparent Yellow.  It is hard to make out, but the heat bluing of the exhausts was done using a combination of MRP Exhaust Bluing and Tamiya pastels.  The exhausts also got a heavy coat of "castor oil"; I have read that castor oil really stuck to heated metal and the engine certainly looks like it is drenched with the stuff.  Once under the cowling though not a whole lot will be seen.

 

The final step will be to add the spark plug wires and the engine will be readx to install.

 

Ernest 

Edited July 10, 2024 by Greif8

[monthebiff]

Exquisite work Ernest, coming along very nicely indeed. 

 

Regards. Andy 

[Archimedes]

That looks incredibly neat! Great work. Spot on with the ‘castor oil’ wash.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[europapete]

Hi Ernest, just a technical point. Those are intake tubes, not exhausts. Rotorary engines vented exhaust gases directly out of the valve opening in the cylinder head. 

Great job so far, following with interest. Regards, Pete in RI

 

Edited July 11, 2024 by europapete

[Greif8]

On 7/10/2024 at 10:00 PM, monthebiff said:

Exquisite work Ernest, coming along very nicely indeed. 

 

Regards. Andy 

 

On 7/11/2024 at 2:50 AM, Archimedes said:

That looks incredibly neat! Great work. Spot on with the ‘castor oil’ wash.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

 

On 7/11/2024 at 3:54 AM, europapete said:

Hi Ernest, just a technical point. Those are intake tubes, not exhausts. Rotorary engines vented exhaust gases directly out of the valve opening in the cylinder head. 

Great job so far, following with interest. Regards, Pete in RI

 

 

Thank you guys!

 

Pete, thank you for educating me!  It is good info to know.

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

The engine is finished, installed and the cowling has been placed.  I am in the process of decaling the areas of the fuselage that are easier to do now and I should have some progess to show on the front in a day or two.

 

Not the best photos but you can make out the spark plug wires; unfortunately only a couple will be seen once everything is in place.

 

The engine in place and the firewall and inside of the cowling have had castor oil staining added.

 

With the cowl in place not much of the engine details can be seen, but I knew that going in.  The fit of the parts were very good.

 

You can see that I have already placed a couple of the decals.  While very subtle you can just see that the blue has a slightly different shade based on what it's undercoat of paint is.  Given the shapes involved I am sure placing some of the decals, and getting them to conform, will be a challenge.

 

Ernest

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work, Ernest!

 

Kev