WNW Sopwith Camel "BR"

[MikeMaben]

That's some beautiful work Ern.  Shaping up to be a real excellent finish.

[Greif8]

9 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

That's some beautiful work Ern.  Shaping up to be a real excellent finish.

 

Thank you Mike!

 

[Greif8]

Got a lot of unexpected time at the bench today as the weather in my part of Bavaria was poor for most of the day and a planned work event was cancelled.  Below is what I got done; the build is looking like a Sopwith Camel now.

 

The rigging lines are tied off on the bottom of the top wing.  I normally tie off the rigging for the wings before I install the top wing as, for me, it is easier to rig once the wings are in position.

 

I chose to rig the strut support lines before joining the wings as it is easier to do this kind of rigging without the top wing in place.

 

I also installed the MG barrels, the windshields and the ejection chute prior to putting the top wing in place.

 

Ok, that was a mistake!  Below is the right picture.

Installing the upper wing is always a tense part of WWI aircraft builds for me, but everything went smoothly.

 

 A poor photo due to the sun coming out late in the day, but it does make for a somewhat cool effect!  You can see that I have completed a fair amount of the wing rigging.

 

The "X" rigging in the center was a little tricky to do and I did not manage to get the little part in the center to align perfectly as the nose dips, but it is centered at least.

 

 

I think I'll complete assembling the Camel this weekend and may even finish the weathering.  

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

General assembly is finished, before I start weathering the aircraft I decided to work on the two figures.  Below are several shots of both the Camel and the figures.  I'll probably finish the pilot's head today and should be done with the mechanic in a day or two.

 

There was a time when I would have considered rigging the Camel to be somewhat complex - after building the Constitution though, bi-plane rigging is not daunting.  The control lines and support wires on the tail area were somewhat involved to rig but it all turned out well.  I used a slightly smaller diameter for the control lines.

 

The finished construction.  I plan to do light to moderate weathering once I have completed the figures.

 

I have not worked on a figure in nearly 18 months, so it will be interesting to see how much my skill in that area has atrophied.  I airbrushed most of the base colors and will 

be adding shadows and highlights with artist's oils this time.  

 

I opted to spray the mechanic's coverall a blue-grey color.  The pilot's head cover will be leather with, khaki googles.  The mechanic's hat will be British khaki.  As you can see both have VERY pronouced moustaches!

 

I did a combination wash/filter of the coveralls using Winsor&Newton Payne's Grey.  This slightly stained the base color and gave the shadow areas a nice subtle

shaded look.

 

 

 

Next I lightened the Payne's Grey with some white to lay in the intermediate highlights and then added nearly straight white to the highest areas and

blended them.  This gives the coveralls a nice subtle combo of light and shadows.

 

 

 

While that drys I painted the pilot's leather head gear using my usual technique to simulate leather.

 

And worked on the mechanic's hat to give it some contrast.

 

 

 

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed the photo series.

 

Ernest

[scvrobeson]

Great looking Camel Ernest. Yes, rigging that little bullet in the center was a heck of a challenge. You pulled off the rigging really well.

 

Not sure if I missed it, but who made the figures? They're really nice looking, and your paint brought them out well

 

 

Matt

[Archimedes]

…not only does the Camel look spectacularly good, your ‘usual technique to simulate leather’ is one of the best I have seen! 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[Greif8]

16 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

Great looking Camel Ernest. Yes, rigging that little bullet in the center was a heck of a challenge. You pulled off the rigging really well.

 

Not sure if I missed it, but who made the figures? They're really nice looking, and your paint brought them out well

 

 

Matt

 

Hi Matt, the figures are from Copper State Models.  I agree that they are very nice; as you will see they painted up very well and the mechanic's face is especially expressive.  Thank you for the kind words!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

13 hours ago, Archimedes said:

…not only does the Camel look spectacularly good, your ‘usual technique to simulate leather’ is one of the best I have seen! 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

 

Thank you Paul!  I have managed to develop a technique that gives good results simulating leather, and it is pretty easy to do.  When I build the SE5a last year I explained how the technique is executed, and I think I also did so in a figure painting tutorial I did in the Modeling Techniques sub-forum.

 

Ernest 

[Furie]

What precision work Ernest!
And with all these cables, I wouldn't even know where to start!

 

Start by laying all these cables?
Yes, but painting's going to be difficult...
Start with the painting?
Yes, but laying all the cables is going to be terribly difficult...

 

[Greif8]

8 hours ago, Furie said:

What precision work Ernest!
And with all these cables, I wouldn't even know where to start!

 

Start by laying all these cables?
Yes, but painting's going to be difficult...
Start with the painting?
Yes, but laying all the cables is going to be terribly difficult...

 

 

Thank you Denis!  Rigging is really not that hard to do if you plan ahead to help make the process easier and more efficient, break the job down into sections so you can focus on one line at a time and pause when things get tense <grin>.  As I said above, I will never again look at rigging WWI bi-planes with any sort of trepidation now that I have rigged the Constitution under "fighting sail".

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

I finished the figures last night and let them dry for about 24 hours, below is how they turned out.  Come to think of it, I still need to paint what looks like a cap badge on the mechanic's field cap, but I have not yet found any information as to what colors that might be - any help in that area would be greatly appreciated.  

 

First up is the mechanic.  I like how the coveralls turned out and I think the face is full of character.  The direct light at my bench really takes away from some

of the facial details, but enough remain to give a good impression of how "expressive" the figure is.  The second shot shows the hair which turned out well

and you can see that cap badge I mentioned above.  The third shot shows the back; I am happy with how the highlights and shadows turned out.

 

I photographed the pilots head before placing it on the figure as I'll not be able to get a close up once the head is in place due to how the figure is positioned in the cockpit.  The face reminds me of a character from the movie "In Search of the Holy Grail"; beware the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!  HaHaHa!

 

The head and body together.  The leather look turned out well, and there is the slightest amount of difference between the flight helmet and the jacket, as well as the cockpit padding, to look convincing to my eyes.

 

From the front.  "What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?" Ok, I'll stop with the movie references!!

 

I snapped a couple of quick shots of my test positioning for the vignette that I will be making for this build.

 

So now it is on to weathering the plane and making the simple base for the vignette.  I think this build will be ready for the RFI section in a few days.

 

Ernest

Edited August 5 by Greif8
Spelling

[Dpgsbody55]

Looks great.  I figure if I keep looking at your work, one day I might pluck up the courage to do one of the  WW1 planes I have in my stash.

 

I have one question, though.  The engine on the Camel appears to rotate clockwise, yet your mechanic is pulling it counter clockwise.  My knowledge of these planes is limited, so I'm wondering if there a reason for this?

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Greif8]

15 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

Looks great.  I figure if I keep looking at your work, one day I might pluck up the courage to do one of the  WW1 planes I have in my stash.

 

I have one question, though.  The engine on the Camel appears to rotate clockwise, yet your mechanic is pulling it counter clockwise.  My knowledge of these planes is limited, so I'm wondering if there a reason for this?

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

Hi Mike thank you for the compliment.  Also a big thank you for pointing out that the mechanic figure is not grabbing the prop in the correct position.  The reason - pure cluelessness on my part! After you pointed out that props on rotary engines rotated in the opposite direction, I researched to see if the Bentley was an exception; unfortunately it is not.  That puts paid to my plan for the vignette, though I can use the mechanic in that vein for a SPAD XIII build, as I confirmed that the prop of a Hispano-Suiza engine can rotate clockwise (counter-clockwise from the pilot's view).

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

I started weathering the aircraft adding some dirt/dust and castor oil staining to the underside.

 

Dirt and dust prior to applying the castor oil staining.  I am going to keep the weathering on the light to moderate side with this build.

 

And after the castor oil staining.  I went heavier along the seam of the fuselage and wings because the castor oil really soaked in the canvas in this area and 

most photos of actual WW1 aircraft equipped with rotary engines show significant staining as the canvas really soaked up the castor oil.  It is much harder to

see in the blue painted areas.

 

I hope to have the upper surfaces weathered today which will complete the build.  As I will not be able to make the vignette I planned to do, I am going to 

have to go with an alternate plan, more to follow with that.

 

Ernest

[denders]

That's look very nice, Ernest!