About to start my first biplane

[Arkonbey]

Hey, everyone, I'm a first time poster, but then again, I'm a first time biplane builder.

Long story long, I started building models again in Nov. after a 15 year hiatus (all WW2 props). My dad saw my stuff on my blog and was, for some reason, impressed. So, since he's the kind of guy who's hard to shop for, I thought I'd build him a vignette of his favorite airplane, a Camel. I ordered an Eduard RFC Camel and plan on taking a very long time (at least 'till Xmas) to get it right.

I'd be grateful if any of you guys could offer any advice on the best way to proceed. Aside from the fear of rigging, I'm certain that the order of construction is different than on a WW2 fighter. Sure, it's not a WingNuts kit, but I don't want to waste it.

Thanks in advance!

[charlie bucket]

Hello. Welcome! This is perhaps the friendliest and most helpful forum I've ever seen about any subject, and there are some real pros here to help show us the way.

I'm building this same kit at the moment, from the combo kit version. I'll be making one of the Billy Barker planes.

I'm no competition winner and these pics are by no means close to a complete product, but I can tell you what I'm doing with it, and maybe that will help after all.

EDIT: Order of construction will I think be fairly obvious to you once you get going. It's really pretty much common sense. You've got an extra wing to put up, which is usually a serious pain if you've never done it. Sorting out the rigging before putting the wings together is smart: That is, where it's going to go, drilling the holes for either straight-through rigging or turnbuckles, etcetera...usually the very last thing I ever do is the undercarriage.

There are a few things to detail in the cockpit. If you can find it, PART from Poland makes an excellent and incredibly detailed photoetch Camel set. I did not buy this myself, but I did quite a few other things with the interior that were not part of the kit instructions. I've still not entirely sewn it up, so I can take some pictures and show you.

I know that Stephen, one of our resident superexperts, said something about the seatbelt harness being incorrect, but I used the kit version anyway, not being quite that much of a stickler on that point.

There is interior rigging that you'll want to pay attention to, particularly the diagonal criss-crossing on the inner fuselage (2nd pic below). Obviously you'll want to do this before gluing the halves together. I merely drilled out holes and put in some gray EZ line in the .003 gauge (link at bottom of text). Also, if you decide to add rigging that goes from the rudder pedal to the back end of the plane, you'll want to replace the plastic that extends from the rear of the instrument panel down to the pedal in the kit with brass rod, as the plastic is not strong enough to hold the tension. (Visible in blurry 4th pic, below).

I also drilled out the instruments on the panel, sanded down the backside, and took flat bits from the PE sprue to apply the decals to, so that they look like recessed instruments, then covered the front with Microscale Krystal Klear to make it look like little windows (1st pic below). Not sure if I'm describing this well. I'm afraid my model needs a bit of a dusting in the pics too (oops), as I let it sit out for a few weeks like a dummy while I went on vacay from it, but the pics should be clear enough for a fair idea of what I'm doing here. I also haven't quite finished the weathering yet.

For the faux wood finish, I hand-paint using a light tan acrylic base. The initial base will give it grain texture if hand-painted. Then when that is dry, I take artist oils (in this case, Windsor & Newton burnt sienna and raw umber mixed together until it's the shade I want) and carefully drybrush them on in the same direction that I've done the initial tan coat, using something called a rake brush. The effect is quite nice, I think. After this is thoroughly dry (oils take a loooong time), I spray clear yellow mixed with a drop of clear orange for a varnish effect. Very, very easy, and it's convincing enough, I think.

Hope this all helps. If you want updated pics of this work in progress, reply to this thread periodically and I'll see what I can do.

Elastic rigging material: This can be stretched much better than the pic in the link: BOBE'S HOBBY HOUSE-EZ Line

[Doug Baumann]

welcome Arkonbey Charlie has some good tips .. do not be afraid of the rigging, there is many people here to help you Doug

[StephenLawson]

You said the RFC version so I assume it will be the basic kit and not the Profipack or Dual combo version.

You could follow along here. or you could check out a completed build on this thread.

The RFC kits are a bit easier as you can used the kit Clerget without any modifications if you will. The RNAS versions usually had either the Clerget or the Bentley rotary (just a bit different). Eduard only provides the Clerget.

[Arkonbey]

Lots of good advice. I'm going to check out EZ Line, that stuff looks promising.

@Charlie: That's sweet. I may take your advice about acrylics instead of oils for woodgrain. My wife is a painter and she cringed a bit when I told her about using oils.

@Doug: Thanks!

@Stephen: You're correct. I figured I'd get the less expensive one for my first I'm not that much of a stickler yet to notice the engine. I'm sort of a modified OOB guy.

I would like to know what seatbelts looked like on the Camel, though...

[charlie bucket]

Originally Posted by Arkonbey

Lots of good advice. I'm going to check out EZ Line, that stuff looks promising.

@Charlie: That's sweet. I may take your advice about acrylics instead of oils for woodgrain. My wife is a painter and she cringed a bit when I told her about using oils.

Happy to help. I only use the acrylics for the base tan. The rest is oils. The oils are just easier to work with. You have to be careful to drybrush them, though, with almost no paint on the brush instead of laying it on impasto. I wish my pics were better, because with the flash it looks waaaay glossier and less grainy/wood-like than it does in real life. Pictures really do lie, particularly when the photographer is no good!

In addition to Stephen's excellent link, check out Ken Foran's scratch-built Camel:

Ken Foran : Sopwith Camel F1

Using the navigation/search features of that site, as well as the search feature for this one, you should be able to pull up probably 100 different renditions of this type of aircraft, as it's not exactly one of the more obscure WWI subjects.

Final word of advice, if you're willing to stomach the process. I now do this with all my biplanes. With the wing and undercarriage struts, it's smart to drill tiny holes where they are going to attach to the wings, as well as in the center of the very tip of the struts, then take a piece of copper wire and CA-glue it into the hole in the struts so that they insert/slot directly into their proper places in the wing. Wojtek Faga's thread on this very page should give a good idea, although he uses sturdier stuff than copper. I just have this big bit of electrical wire with the copper that I use for this and other modeling applications and it does the trick fine. It also adds some solidity.

Search this site for all sorts of other things. I won't do a WWI subject without turnbuckles on the wing rigging anymore, for instance, and there are tons of different ways to do them, some very convincing (hats off again to Wojtek), some less so (hats on to me!).

Good luck!

[Arkonbey]

Holy crap, that is astounding!

What are you trying to do, daunt me? It was bad enough looking at your Eduard Camel