Sopwith Triplanes fuselage

[Fred Jack]

I noticed that the WnW fuselage is the proper length, but the Roden is shorter. Actually there were two different fuselage lengths. The tripes with the older large tail planes were 8" shorter than those with the later smaller tail planes, yet neither WnWs mentioned it but Pheon Decals for the Tripe show it. I did get the longer fuselage correction from Brian L Fawcett Models and Patterns. Now I will make a two gun version from my WnWs model and make a later stabilizer version using the longer correction fuselage and an older stabilizer version with the supplied Roden shorter fuselage.

[LSP_Ray]

I thought it was the Sopwith prototype that had the original pup fuselage length, but after testing production aircraft had the longer fuselage for stability reasons?

[Fred Jack]

I don't know Ray. Two Tripes on the Pheon decal sheet are mentioned as having the shorter fuselage.

[Fred Jack]

I don't know Ray. Two Tripes on the Pheon decal sheet are mentioned as having the shorter fuselage and the larger old style tail planes.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Fred Jack

[DeanKB]

I thought it was the Sopwith prototype that had the original pup fuselage length, but after testing production aircraft had the longer fuselage for stability reasons?

 

This is what I thought?

 

Roden modelled the prototype with the Pup fuselage, but it was subsequently found to be too unstable & as a result, lengthened.

[LSP_Ray]

I don't know Ray. Two Tripes on the Pheon decal sheet are mentioned as having the shorter fuselage and the larger old style tail planes.

Totally possible we are both right. Might have been more than one prototype, and they may have all been used. Waste not, want not, right? Not the same as modern craft...

[Fred Jack]

I'd have to search my Windsock mags, but I'm almost sure that they mentioned that even one of the Black Flight Tripes had the larger tail plane.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Fred Jack

[Fred Jack]

At the time I got the Windsock Magazine's article about Black Flight, Tom's Modelworks released a 1/32 Sopwith Tripe in Vacuform with tons of metal parts. It didn't come with decals and had both tail planes. But until I got the Pheon decals, never knew that the large tail plane Tripes had a shorter fuselage. It wasn't even mentioned in the Windsock article. I am going to replace the vac fuselage with the one I just got and will get a Roden model and fit the larger tail plane and use the Pheon decals.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Fred Jack

[LSP_Ray]

Will make an interesting pair!

[vince14]

There's some confusion going on here. The only Triplanes with the short (18' 10") fuselage were the two prototypes, N500 and N504. N500 was powered by a 110hp Clerget for all of it's life, whereas N504 started with the 110hp but was later upgraded to the 130hp version in September 1916, which resulted in the fuselage being strengthened, but not increased in length.

 

Apart from the two prototypes, all other Triplanes had a fuselage length of 19' 6". The size of the tailplane does not correspond at all with a different fuselage length.

 

I don't have the Pheon set, so I can't comment on the instructions, but I suspect they refer to options 25a and 25b which show N500.

Edited March 26, 2016 by vince14

[Fred Jack]

Thanks, Vince.

[Fred Jack]

I was curious about the fuselage lengths, because even WnWs had two versions with the large older tail plane, but no mention of any fuselage length differences.

[Rowan]

I agree with Vince' view of the fuselage length. Nowhere in our decal booklet did I link tailplane/elevator area to fuselage length. Not sure where that came from, as I've never seen any such link in print. N500 appears twice on our decal sheet, once as the natural finished prototype with transparent upper wing centre section and also as "Brown Bread" in later squadron service. A point not mentioned above is the longer length of the ply covering aft of the cockpit on N500 - that will need to be added to the Roden fuselage for an accurate portrayal. I also note that earlier in the thread, it was suggested that the Pup fuselage was used in the prototype Triplane; I've never seen this in any of the published accounts and regard it as highly unlikely. The Pup was designed for the power output of 80hp from its Le Rhone, not the 110 of the prototype Triplane's Clerget, let alone the 130hp of the production Triplane's motor and would have been grossly overstressed.

 

By the way,  I'm using the Roden fuselage, cowling and one wing in a Alcock (Sopwith) Mouse conversion.... just an alternative idea using a spare WNW Sopwith Pup top wing and some tail bits from a scrapped Hobbycraft Camel.

[Fred Jack]

Thanks, Rowen. By the way your decals are beautiful. Any chance of the very large fuselage Lozenges used on some German two seaters?

[Fred Jack]

I've seen pics of the Alcock Mouse. It'd be nice to see yours when it's done. It looks like Alcock liked the way the lower wing was fitted onto the Bristol F.2b and how low the upper wing sat on an Albatros Fighter.