Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Bishop Hobbies

Scale Model Builder

Sopwith Camel

Posted by Paul On December - 3 - 2002

11/21/2017  I purchased this a few months ago on Ebay.  It's made by Hasegawa and is no longer in production.  This is what the Hasegawa web site says about the model:

The Sopwith Camel was first flown by the Royal Naval Air Service's No. 4 Squadron in June 1917. A late addition to Britain's World War I arsenal, the Camel proved to be a formidable foe against Germany's Albatros. It was highly maneuverable and incredibly fast, so it was a perfect choice for nighttime air raids. Today, the Sopwith Camel remains one of WWI's most iconic aircraft. This structure model kit features new tooling, museum-quality details, all-plastic construction, silver metal-plated cowl parts, functional rudder and flap parts and realistic rubber tires.

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Following the instructions I've first built the Clerget 130 HP 9B rotary engine.  Painted as follows:

Model Master Metalizer Laquer aluminum plate and burnt metal

Spark Plug cables – EZ line

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12/3/2017 Here are some new updated pictures of the build.

Wood Frame: Tamiya XF-57 buff followed by Tamiya X-24 to give a varnished look.

Metal parts:  Model Master Metalizer Laquer aluminum plate & Tamiya XF-1 flat black and X-11 crome silver

Instrument Panel: Model Master leather, Tamiya XF-1 flat black and X-12 gold.

Landing Gear Legs: Tamiya XF-5 green

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12/4/2017 Horizontal and vertical stabilizer is finished and rigged.  The control stick and rudder bar now actuate the rudder and horiontal stablizer.  The decals for the rudder just stuck together – that just wouldn't do so I printed the decals on paper and cut them out and glued them on with Microscale clear adjeasive.  The tail skid shaft also broke so I replace that with thin brass rod.

Wood parts painted as listed above

Metal parts: Tamiya XF-63, German grey

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5/21/2018 Well – it's been a long time since I last posted.  I spent 3 weeks in Brazil over Christmas and New Years, and on March 3rd I got remarried – yeeeaa!!  I'm now back to work.  I've finished all of the rigging and was able to sorce some 1/32 scale turnbuckles – wrong scale but they look ok here, they are available online on GasPatch Models.  I'm using their "Metal Turnbuckles Type C".  Here are a few pictures…

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4/22/2018 Here are a few more pictures.  The engine and cowling are just fitted and not glued here.  I still need to attach the wheels, add more rigging and tough up the paint here and there.

_FPB9648 _FPB9650 _FPB9651 _FPB9652 _FPB9653 _FPB9654 _FPB9655 _FPB9656 _FPB9657 _FPB9658 _FPB96595/27/2018 Finally finished.  This is just a remarkable model and was a very fun build of a really historic aircraft.  Here are the final photos:

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