JeroenPeters

Loving that engine!

And here we are! Today I was at Cees' place. He surprised me last week with the news that he was able to get his hands on parts /relics of the NN660 Spiteful prototype. Some RAF/aviation enthusiasts might know Tony Dyer. He has a nice collection of cockpits / parts of various RAF planes. In his collection is a Spiteful canopy and parts of the wreck site if the NN660. He was kind enough to Cees to send him some bits and Cees was kind enough to donate them to my next build. Since the NN660 was basically a modified Spit, I will build the NN664 prototype. What you see here is a piece of all skin, small part of the engine, a pice of rotol prop skin, instrument wiring and electrical wiring cover. Stay tuned!

Hi Guys I bet you didn't expect me to tackle this subject... but I am! As you may know I always try to incorporate a piece of the original airplane to my builds. 'Fat chance!' I hear you say.... Stay tuned. A review done by Cees Broere and me of this Resin kit can be found here.

I use CA and Future. Depends on how strong the bond needs to be.

Just too cool! Right up my alley!!! Congrats Laurent, on subject, creativity and execution.

Lovely!

Tickle me!

1:32 Sopwith F.1 Camel “Le Rhône” Wingnut Wings Kit No. 32071 Available from Wingnut Wings for $79,- Introduction Today we look at our fourth Sopwith Camel, being the Le Rhône engine version. Now you may think: big deal. It’s the Camel sprues with a Le Rhône engine thrown in for variation. Yes and no. But in order to really assess this is to take a look at our other reviews too: F.1 Camel ‘BR.1’ F1 Camel ‘Clerget’ 2F.1 ‘Ship’s Camel’ Stay tuned for the USAS Camel review on LSM soon. As I have done with the Ship’s Camel review, I will try to help you choose from 5 equally great Sopwith Camel kits. Why should I choose the Sopwith F.1 Camel “Le Rhône”? To the untrained eye the WW1 era rotary engines are pretty hard to discern. But when you look closely you start to spot a lot of obvious differences. Even between this Le Rhône 9J 110HP and it’s predecessor the Le Rhône 9C 80HP. The 9J has round copper intake manifold tubing on the back of the engine, whereas the 9C has square shaped manifolds which are seen from the front. This French origin little engine (100cm in diameter) was pretty interesting. It was built under license in Britain and Germany. The latter being named the Overursel UR.II. The 110HP addition to the name ofcourse indicates the amount of power it could whip up, but this engine was known to produce higher output depending on make, circumstances and ‘tuning’. Is this why you should choose this kit? Nah… I mean: the Clerget and Bentley engines had nominated output of 140HP and 150HP. The Le Rhône engine. Not the round shaped copper manifolds running to the back: One of the pro’s the Le Rhône engines had was the hydraulic Constantinesco interrupter gear for the guns, while the Clerget Camels had the less efficient Sopwith-Kauper No. 3 mechanical synchronizing gear. The hydraulic system was way more reliable and used impulses transmitted by a column of liquid to enable the gun trigger. Quite intricate for the day! This is all cool, but not visible on your model, so still no real good reason to choose this kit So let’s take a look at the schemes included in this kit (I usually do this at the end of my review). The Le Rhône Camels were used pretty late in the war, which means you can beat them up a little and you’ll find some colourful schemes. Scheme A gives you Camel B5417 ‘11’, flown by GAC Manley. “B” Flight 54 Squadron RFC, February 1918. This plane was forced to land behind enemy lines during an offensive patrol flight and photo’s were taken while it was on the ground. No cowling, stressed skin, broken tail skid. This could be a cool dio… Here it is on the ground. This is a different photo than shown in the booklet. Here the ailerons are still up and the fuselage looks less damaged: Scheme B shows Camel B5423 “6”, flown by FM Ohrt. “A” Flight 54 Squadron RFC, January 1918. Another Camel that was forced to land behind enemy lines while on offensive patrol after being hit by ground fire. The photo’s in the booklet show a pretty battered Camel. Chipped paint on the wheel covers. Even one cover missing (so you can replace it with a spoked wheel from Steven Robson). Both scheme A and B give you a chance to build a captured Camel that went through a rough landing. Scheme C is F.1 Camel C1555, dubbed “Suds”, flown by Francis L Luxmoore & Sydney P Gamon. 78(Home Defense) Squadron RFC, January-February 1918. Now here is a colourful scheme! It was equipped for night flying missions in the form of Holt lights and flares. The fuselage and wheel covers are thought to be light blue, but this however is not 100% certain. Still it would make for a nice change of all the green fabric! Scheme D shows F.1 Camel F2137 “U”, flown by Donald R MacLaren. “C” Flight 46 Squadron RAF, September-October 1918. We’ve got a real Ace on our hands here! The Canadian Donald Roderick MacLaren had 54 victories on his name. His last 9 victories were achieved in this particular plane. Red wheel covers, red pointy spinner and red/white stripes along the fuselage. When celebrating his last victory he broke his leg, after which he was sent back to the UK from the battlefields in France. After the war he assisted in setting up the Royal Canadian Air Force. He died at the age of 95 in 1988. You can find his medals today in the Canadian War Museum. So in short: if you’re from Canada… you HAVE to build this scheme! Take a look at MacLaren in wartime: And here later on in his life, after making a name in the Canadian Air Force and civilian aviation: Scheme E shows F.1 Camel F2141 “L”, flown by H Burdick. “B” Flight 17th Aero Squadron USAS, August – October 1918. This is a tricky one. This United States unit flew under the command of the RAF. Therefor you see RAF markings (like the white dumbbell on the fuselage). To make things more confusing this white dumbbell was also used by 45 Sqn in Italy at about the same time… Howard Burdick was born in Brooklyn, New York and had 8 victories to his name. Pretty cool detail: Howard’s son became a P-51 Ace in ww2. Howard died in 1975. Why you should build his plane? He was awarded the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). Here’s why: The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Howard Burdick, Second Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action northwest of Cambrai, France, September 28, 1918. Attacked by two Fokker biplanes, Lieutenant Burdick outmaneuvered both machines, shot one into flames and routed the other one. Later, seeing three Fokkers attacking an American aviator, he at once dove into the combat to his assistance, shooting down one and driving off the other two. His quick and unhesitating attack, single-handed, on the three Fokkers save the life of his fellow pilot. And here's the man himself: Survivors As far as I could trace there is only one ‘air worthy’ Sopwith F.1 Camel with a Le Rhone engine left today. It changed hands a couple of times and is now for sale. It’s over 90 years old, has it’s original data plate and is overall original. If you want it, you can own it. For a mere 2.8 million dollars on the Vintage Aviation website: Link. All in all there are about 8 original Camels left in Museums worldwide, but many are restored and have many parts reproduction parts, new fabric and non original engines. Here's the B6291 as it was in 1993. Beautiful. The kit The kit itself is pretty comprehensible when you open the box. Five plastic sprues, some photo etch and decals. The A, B, C and D sprues are the same for the Clerget, Bentley and USAS kits. You can tell this by the four cowlings included on the A sprues and the separate engine sprue E. Sprue D shows a bit of warping in the sprue itself. The parts however are not affected. I have seen this on both my kits and read about it on some forums, but don’t sweat it: the parts are fine. The kit consists of: • 165 plastic parts • 17 plastic parts that make up the Le Rhone 9J 110HP engine • Optional cut down cockpit section (for scheme E), Holt Lights & Flares (for scheme C), Cooper bombs and optional small and large cut out top wing sections. • 10 photo etched parts • Cartograf decals Sprue A (containing cowlings, cockpit, wheels, struts...) Vickers guns: The middle cowling in this pic. That's the one you need... Sprue B. Wings parts, fuselage, instrument panel... Cockpit combing: Delicate fuselage surface detail: Inside fuselage. Ejector marks well out of way: Instrument panel with nice depth and detail: Lower wing detail. Not the control pulley and stitching detail: Upper wing with small cut out. A version with large cut out opening is included as well. C Sprue (transparencies): D Sprue (with wings, tail, rudder, prop, etc..) This is the only prop you'll need for this kit: Control stick and rudder controls: Looks at the delicate fabric over the ribs. Not overdone. just right: Sprue E. The Le Rhone 9J engine! Only 17 parts but a gem once assembled: Manifolds and push rods: Photo etch parts: Cartograf decals. Thin. 100% Registered. Great colours and detail. As always. Verdict Yes. This is the perfect kit of a great plane. Nothing more you can wish for. 5 late war schemes of the Le Rhone powered version. Really well researched as we have come to expect from Wingnut Wings. Superbly detailed and complete. The little Le Rhone engine is crisp and delicate. Really nothing more you could wish for… VERY highly recommended. My sincere thanks to Wingnut Wings for this review sample. Jeroen Peters

The size and part count make me dizzy. But I will get the V2 without the truck & trailer. Lovely review of an obviously lovely kit..

Sweet! And not just because it's Dutch.. The 3W I is the Tamiya kit righT?

This is an amazing walk around too: http://flyingheritage.com/TemplatePlane.aspx?contentId=88

Nice one!

Jim sent me his Schlepper to make this ensemble complete! Cheers! Another daunting and intricate multi media kit, making this build more extensive than I planned This schlepper needs to mate with the Anhanger. For some reason two of these four rods were missing from the Anhanger kit, so I did some scratching, robbing from other kits and tingling. All in all this model will be pretty long and needs a long piece of plint to display it on.

Lovely setup! And great case too..

What a beast!!

Sweet... remembering seeing this first at the Stampe & Vertongen museum in Antwerp. A Tigermoth but slightly more elegant. Nice one!

LOVE IT! Love the rivets, paint job, scheme. Supercool.

Loving those streaking decals!

Godspeed!

Nice work!

Oooh... I seriously love this... I've always had a thing for mini subs....

Beautiful!!

Nice! I heard Mr Paint will also release water based paints. You might want to try those too!

1:32 Sopwith 2F.1 “Ship’s Camel” Wingnut Wings Kit No. 32076 Available from Wingnut Wings for $79,- Introduction ‘Wingnut Wings will never do a Camel’. A bold statement that was often heard amongst WW1 aviation enthusiast modellers… Reason being that Wingnut Wings plotted their own course and the Camel had been done before by the likes of Hobbycraft and Academy. Italeri very recently even did a re-pop of the rather mediocre Academy kit. Why no other brand (Roden for instance) ever tackeled the Camel before I really don’t know and is beyond me. At one time I bought an Academy kit and the Part Photo etch set (very nice by the way) with the intention of building it. Man… am I glad I didn’t, because now we have no less than 5(!!) amazing Wingnut Wings Camels to choose from! Since James Hatch already wrote thorough in box reviews of the F.1 Camel ‘BR.1’ and the F1 Camel ‘Clerget’ I will steer my review in a different course. Where he zooms in on engineering excellence, I will try to approach this kit a little bit differently. What I will do is try to answer a question for you. Being: Why should I choose the Sopwith 2F.1 “Ship’s Camel”? To answer this question, I will start by addressing the changes between a ‘normal’ Camel and the ‘Camel’ that was hoisted on board Naval ships and slung of them. Changes were: It had a rear fuselage that was detachable (cool for diorama’s and transport scenes).The separation point was right behind the pilot’s position. This feature was introduced to make transportation and stowing on board easier / possible. See the photo below for an example of both. The armament setup was different too. Instead of the usual 2 nose mounted Vickers guns, the Ship’s Camel only had one nose mounted Vickers, and in addition had one Lewis gun mounted to the top wing center section. This setup was called the Admirality Top Place Mounting. The Ship’s Camel also had a narrower wingspan (13 inches, or 33cm). The rear fuselage contained floatation bags. The cabane struts were made of steel tube. The control column featured external control levers for the elevator cables. All Ship Camels were Bentley BR.1 powered. So now that we’ve covered most of the differences, let’s see what reason’s I can come up with to promote the Ship’s Camel to you. Survivors There are 2 original 2F.1 Ship’s Camel on display today! You’ll find the RAF N8156 in the Canadian Aviation Museum. The other one is the N6812 on display in the Imperial War Museum in London. This particular plane has some history. It was flown by Flight Sub-Lieutenant Stuart Culley who shot down Zeppelin LZ100 with it in august 1918. So why is the above cool? Because this means there is plenty of walkaround reference available. Culley's N6812 suspended in the Imperial War Museum London. Diorama opportunities This rugged little fighter was flung of ships in several different ways. Either from a platform mounted on top the huge guns of a destroyer, or from a small naval vessel consisting of only a small hull and a platform to match in size. Fellow forum member Michael Scarborough did an amazing diorama of a Sopwith Pup. Michael Scarborough's amazing Sopwith Pup diorama. Here's another fine diorama example with a Sopwith Pup. This time by modeller Oefag_153 from Sweden. The figure is from Wings. Enough Pup's... Here's a Camel taking off! One more cool inspiration pic... Another way to go is do a ‘transport scene’. Since the Ship Camel was transported with the rear fuselage separated, you can hang half a Camel dangling from a crane (see photo) or place both parts on a WW1 lorry. Wingnut Wings provides us with a great reference photo in the instructions. The forward part of the Camel hanging from a crane. I can see myself building this... Or like this... Not the rear part of the fuselage on the back of the lorry. As described above under ‘survivors’, the N6812 is heavily documented and photographed. I suddenly see an in-flight diorama with a part of Zeppelin hull in an angle below it! And, not surprisingly, the N6812 is included in the schemes provided in this kit… And here's some inspiration for the cockpit figure (not sure what brand. I believe Wings Cockpit figures) done by David Parker: The kit So let’s take a look at the sprues! As said: the Ship Camel has a slightly different fuselage, a shorter wingspan and different weapons layout. The kit consists of: • 170 plastic parts • 16 plastic parts that make up the Bentley BR.1 engine • Optional wheels, propellors (2 types) and bomb rack • 7 photo etched parts • Cartograf decals Sprue A: Wheels, Cowlings, gear, cockpit parts, bombs and struts... Four cowlings! But we only need the bottom/left one for this kit... Two types of wheels are provided. The difference is the pronounced spokes showing through the linen. See below. Yes you can replace this whicker seat for a resin one. But why? Gorgeous. The cushion of the whicker seat. Lovely wrinkles... These Vickers guns keep getting better and better. Shame we only need one for this plane 4x 20lb Cooper bombs... Great for the N6823 during the Tondern Raid. This are the gear struts to use. They were metal and stronger than the ones' normal Camels had. Cockpit sidewall. Sprue B Ship's Camel fuselage, lower wings, Lewis gun, upper deck and instrument panel. Note the hole for one Vickers gun, instead of two. I just love that inspection window for the controls. Also note the small attachment points, for hoisting this baby onboard! Lovely surface detail... Look at those twist-fasteners... Inside shown below, with the sink marks well out of the way: A crisp instrument panel. A little bit of sinkage on two dials, but that's an easy fix. Apply decal and use a drop of Micro Crystal. Here she is! The Lewis gun. A prominent feature on the Ship's Camel. This setup was called the Admirality Top Place Mounting Sprue C That's clear The only parts we need are 5 inspection windows and the windshield. Crisp and transparent as always... Part 9 (top right) is the windshield we'll use. Sprue D Wings, props, control surfaces, skid and stick! This prop is used on A, B, C and E schemes. Scheme D however can also be finished with this prop. Lovely ribbing detail on the rudder. Subtle, not overdone. The same goes for the ribbing on the main wings... Stitching and ribbing is done just right. Sprue E The Bentley BR.1 engine. I can imagine someone using a Taurus engine for a DH.2 or Fokker E3, where the engine is clearly visible. With the Camel most is enclosed. For this purpose this little gem is more than detailed on it's own. See what I mean? The photo-etch The decals Done by usual suspects: Cartograf. Instruction booklet With some of the most obvious differences for the Ship's Camel. Schemes A –Sopwith 2F.1 Camel N6602, HMS Furious, April 1918 This plane also flew from the HMS Narnia, HMS Lion, HMS Glorious and HMS Caroline. B –Sopwith 2F.1 Camel N6764, HMS Lion, April to June 1918 This plane had it’s fuselage and wings re-covered with linen, giving it the rare light appearance. C –Sopwith 2F.1 Camel N6812, flown by Stuart Douglas Culley, 1 victory over Felixstowe, 11 August 1918 This is the plane on display in the Imperial War Museum in London that show down Zeppelin L.53. D –Sopwith 2F.1 Camel N6822, HMAS Sydney, July to October 1918 Also served on the HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Australia. E –Sopwith 2F.1 Camel N6823, flown by Samuel Dawson, HMS Furious, 17 to 19 July 1918 Now this scheme has my name written all over it. It actually was a camouflage scheme, applied to take part in the first recorded aircraft carrier strike on a Zeppelin base. This mission was called the Tondern Raid. Curious about this mission? Check this link! Verdict Yup, Wingnut Wings has another winner on their hands and this time it’s not just a matter of quality, but moreover… subject! The Camel is the Allied epitome of WW1 aviation and will speak to a wider audience than just WW1 aviation enthusiasts. Come to think of it: this will even speak to Naval enthusiasts. I think it’s amazing WnW held out for as long as they did with this subject, but man, when they deliver,.. they deliver! Now all I want is to see a whole bunch of these built! Preferably by the people asking, begging, screaming, moaning about a proper 32nd scale Camel. VERY highly recommended. My sincere thanks to Wingnut Wings for this review sample. Jeroen Peters

Nice call. And indeed. What a time that must have been to live... The piece you see is the fairing behind the cockpit, that connects the engine to the fuselage, of a Reichenberg. The manned V1.... Very rare....