WnW Sopwith Pup RNAS - "Betty"

[Moses Prahn]

Hi All,

 

I have been following everybody's work on this forum for quite a while now and would like to start by saying thank you to all of you for sharing your talent and techniques with everyone on this forum. I can honestly say I wouldn't be stepping into this if I concerns about you as a group of modelers being supportive and accepting of my humble attempts at this hobby.

 

I decided to start my foray into the scale model world of posting a work in progress on a forum with an entry in 'The Great War' Group Build. I picked up a couple of WnW kits a little while back and was looking for the right motivation to undertake one of these WWI kits regularly regarded as the ultimate tour de force for WWI subjects. After leafing through teh schemes provided, "Betty" stood out to me as the most compelling, which is convenielty the box art of this kit as well.

 

 

Being a fair bit intimidated with this build I decided to go all in and make this an epic build of "firsts" for me as a modeler. This list includes, but is not limited to:

• First WnW build
• First WWI build
• First bi-plane build
• First build with rigging
• FIrst attempt at woodgrain
• First time posting a work in progress on a forum
• First time taking my model photography "seriously" (feedback and suggestions welcome)

I am sure there are others that will come up, but either way, I am excited to be tackling this fantastic kit.

 

I started working on the Pup about one month ago. I am a little slow on getting this thread started, but I wanted to make sure I had some progress before starting a post that wouldn't see its way to completion. As I am working towards a deadline (wife is expecting our first child mid-March) I think I will be able to stay on track and get this wrapped up before he gets here, and my bench time slows down.

 

With that introduction, let's get down to business!

[Moses Prahn]

First step is like most airplane builds - the office. However, this is not the typical WWII fighter I am used to. WnW does an excellent job constructing a kit that has superb detail and practically falls together - especially helpful for someone venturing into this genre for the first time!

 

I decided to bite the bullet and start with something very new to me - wood grain. Admittedly I was very intimidated by this technique. I scoured this forum for tips and tutorials, hints and helpful posts that would help me navigate this new skill. After I had layed my base coat of Tamyia XF-59 Desert Yellow, I found myself procrastinating the next step of fully committing and layering the oil. When I finally gave it a shot, I found I actually loved it. Yes it was intimidating, but the degree of artistic creativity you have lisence to operate under is quite liberating. When the oil was down and drying, I found myself wishing I still had more to work on! What a joy, and one I don't know I would have ever undertaken on my own, and once again I have to say thank you to everyone on this forum who has shared their talent on this subject. 

 

Overall I am very pleased with the results. By no means are they perfect, but I didn't expect them to be. I did find a way to put a couple of knots in the wood behind the cockpit that I was really happy with. I realize it may not be the most accurate representation out there, but it fits the bill for what I wanted to accomplish, and I am happy with the outcome. The woodgrain doesn't come out as well in the pictures as it does in person. This first shot is after the oils, but before the "varnish" coat of clear yellow and orange.

 

 

I think this shot gives an idea of the final product. The brass fuel caps look a little odd because they have liquid frisket on them. The points jutting up on the caps make it difficult to tape, and the friskit fills in nicely with the quick application of a toothpick. I finished off the leather trim with the oils while working on the woodgrain. Once I had worked the oils in to a color I was happy with I stippled it with a brush to give it an appearance of texture and a little wear. Once everything was sealed with a mixture of Tamiya clear orange and yellow I treated the buttons to a light drop of Tamiya gold leaf using a toothpick. Overall, not perfect, but I am happy with the results!

 

[Moses Prahn]

Once the woodgrain was underway I looked to maximize my time by working on a coupld of the subassemblies at the same time. I found that I was working on a handful of items that required woodgrain and time for the oil to dry before the "varnish" coat, so I started work on the engine, the cowling, the seat, and the vicker's gun to keep my bench time moving along nicely. The prop called for a dark woodgrain that is subtle in person, and nearly impossible (at least for me) to get to show up in my photos. 

 

The Le Rhone engine was a fun project. It went together nicely with only a little fuss (mostly my fault) and built up into a really nice piece. I was going to include the ignition wires, but after I saw how visible (or should I say how invisible) all of my work on it would be due to the fact that they are aft of the cylinder heads, I decided to opt out. The cylinder intake pipes are fairly bright with the copper finish on them, and I am still debating adding some more weathering to knock the shine down a notch or two. Still to be determined at this point, but there is a chance I may still work on this. Considering this is substantially covered by the cowl and the prop, I am not too concerned about putting a large amount of time into this area of the kit - let's not forget I am working with a deadline, and still have the fun task of rigging this plane up before I am done!

 

Picture of the Le Rhone and prop are below:

 

 

To wrap this post up I will include the pilot's seat. Using a base of Tamiya XF-59 I applied and stippled with burnt sienna artist oils until pleased with the texture. I then added some more oil in the creases of the buttons to give some depth and the appearance of wear. For my first time attempting leather using this technique, I am pleased with the results! (a little dust I need to wipe away from the seatback). Looking forward to the HGW seatbelts (another first) to include with this seat. Once I have the belts installed I will secure the seat in the cockpit assembly and seal up the fuselage!

 

 

Will post more tomorrow on the buildup and rigging of the cockpit.

[guitarlute101]

Really looking good Moses! thanks for explaining how you are doing the painting, it is very helpful. Looking forward to more.

 

Mark

[GUY5Y]

Brilliant start,and I love how you have described taking on your 1st post owing to the amazingly friendly and helpful outlook of this group.I too am doing the same as you(with a Trumpy Avenger) getting something "to show" before launching my 1st....all because of these guys attitude,and how much I have learned here Hat off to you!

[Moses Prahn]

Thanks everyone for your kind posts. It really is because of the friendly group here that I have decided to share my progress. While I don't see this as me sharing my ability (there are far better modelers on here than me), I do see this as my way of letting others know that I have learned from what they have shared, and that it has helped me to explore new techniques as I get back into this hobby. If anything, I hope this is encouragement for others to continue to share, as I can say it has been very well received on my end and I thank you for taking the time to do so.

 

With that, back to the Pup.

 

Once the woodgrain was completed I decided it would be good to test out a couple of techniques I would be implementing in a more visible way later on in the build - rigging. As this was a first for me, I decided to try my hand at the bracing wires found in the cockpit. Looking at other people's work I decided I would try and drill holes into the corners of the frame and run the wire, or eyelet into the hole. As others have found and shared, the most effective tool for this work is an old airbrush needle. The tough thing with the pin vice was getting the right angle - considering the fact that you are drilling on the inside of the frame and there simply isn't a pin vice thin enough to get you close to the frame like the airbrush needle can. There really isn't much room for the pin vice to be perpendicular to the corner. For the holes in the bottom of the frame I drilled straight through with the airbrush needle, but for the holes in the top, I used the airbrush needle to start the hole, a pilot hole per se, and then came back with the pin vice to carefully widen the opening without going through the top, or side, of the frame. While this was a little tedious, I did find the results to be quite good.

 

To replicate the actual wire I used ez line. If anything, this whole excercise was worth learning how to work with this stuff. It is fantastic (keep in mind I have no base of camparison on this), but if I can use it and be happy with my results my first time out of the gate, I think that speaks volumes about this product. As this was a learning experience, I was not as focused on the accuracy of the wires having turnbuckles, or the proper linkage in the frame. Since this will be buried inside the fuselage, and not as prominent a feature of the plane, I am ok with the results.

 

I used the eyelets from Gas Patch Turnbuckles on the top of the frame. I first ran the ez line through the eyelet, looped it around and glued it to itself as close to the eyelet as possible. One thing about ez line that I found a little surprising (I didn't really know what to expect) and quite nice, once I had learned how to work with it, is that it will glue to itself very easily. Once I had the eyelets threaded I secured them in the frame with a touch of cyano. When gluing I found it easiest to put a dab of cyano glue on some aluminum foil, then dip the tip of the eyelet to be secured in the glue, then to secure it into the frame. Very simple approach, but I found that the cyano on the aluminum foil dried quite slowly, and when I secured the eyelet, the glue dried quite quickly. Once the threaded eyelets were in place, I pulled the lines through the holes in the bottom of the frame, starting with the corners that had two lines running through the same hole, and secured the taught lines with a touch of cyano. Tedious work, but well worth the effort. Simple photo of the frame is below, better pics of the mostly assembled cockpit show the results better further below.

 

 

Once the bracing was completed, I put the kit decals on the instrument panel. Very happy with them. I then put a few drops and coats of future on top of the dials to give the appearance of glass over the instruments. Simple application, that has a very effective result.

 

The WnW instruction booklet has a very nice reference picture of the handle on the control stick. I quickly noticed that it was wrapped in some sort of rope - while the kit piece is nice and smooth. In an effort to add a touch of detail I decided to try and wrap it with a very thin copper wire which I found from an old antenna wire of some sort. After 45 min I was pleased with the result, and decided to finish the other two sides using the same technique. While this was probably the most time consuming thing I have done for one small detail, I am happy with the result. Is it to scale? I have no idea! But, I think it could be much furhter off, and anything smaller than the wire I worked with must be an absolute bear to try and wrap - so this is perfect for me!

 

With the cockpit starting to take form I looked at the wiring diagram for the control lines running through the cockpit. I quickly realized this would need to be completed before the cockpit was assembled. I drilled holes through the rudder pedals, and control stick as indicated, and ran the lines before attaching the side braces to the floor. If you look at the picture that is head on of the cockpit you can see how these were attached. With the control wires in place and secured, it was time to attach the sides, as well as the instrument panel and expended cartridge shoot for the vickers. After test fitting the sides I realized the fit was very tight up front where the base of the frame met the wood that held the floorboards. With some careful gluing I was able to secure the sides, and drop everything else into place with relative ease. I had really anticipated a little fight on this, but in truth it went together as simple as could be. Very impressed with this kit.

 

As of now the cockpit just needs to have the seat installed, and the back wood spanner (I have no idea what this is actually called, but you can see the notches where this will fit). I am waiting on the HGW seatbelts before installing the seat - as I don't think I will be able to properly fit the belts once the seat has been secured. A touch of weathering was applied on the linnen floor as well as the floorboards, and with that the office is almost ready to be installed!

 

 

[Moses Prahn]

With the cockpit almost completed, I focused on wrapping up what small sub assemblies I could while I wait for the seatbelts. The vicker's machine gun, and its attached windscreen. I masked off the clear bits and sprayed alclad aluminum (no base coat, as it would be visible from the pilot's side of the glass. Once cured I masked that and applied a base for the leather padding wrapping the frame of the glass. This was then worked with artists oils (same as the leather seat pad) to get the desired result. To seal in the oils for the leather pad on the seat and around the glass frame, I still used the mix of tamiya orange and yellow. After it was applied it left a very shiny gloss coat. In hindsight I will mix in a touch of tamiya base to step some of the gloss effect back from the topcoat if I take the same route to seal in the leather in the future. In this case I pulled out some light sheen gloss and sprayed that over the leather, and seat to get the right look. Once completed I removed the masks and inspected my work, only to find I had sprayed the center section thinking it would be metal because the vickers attaches right on the other side of it. Oops. Should have studied those reference photos a little more carefully. Oh well, still happy with the way this has turned out.

 

 

The only other items I havent mentioned thus far are the wood struts for the wings. These were painted at the same time as the rest of the items receiving the wood grain effect. I painted the brackets black (after drilling out the holes for the rigging wiring, thanks for the tip Doogs!), the pitot tube, and applied the decals. "Betty" has these wrapping the front of the strut, and with a small amount of patience, the decals went on quite easily. A couple of shots of the currently completed items are below. If the hub on the prop looks a little odd it is because I have it masked with liquid frisket - trying to decide if I want to seal in the decals with a gloss coat (these decals are so great I almost don't have to!). The tail skid is also a mixture of woodgrain and metal pieces bolted to the skid for the contact plate as well as the bracing where the skid was bolted into the plane.

 

 

[Moses Prahn]

Thats all looking fantastic, love the cockpit detail. Must say i am also impressed with your quality of photos, nice set up ;-)

 

Martin.

 

Thanks Martin! I definitely referenced your posts to get some insight on how you detailed your cockpits when building WnW kits. As for the photos, it seems that photography has been a hot topic in my local IPMS chapter and somewhat on this forum. I decided that if I was going to get more active and post photos on this forum I should get a quality setup. I will start a separate thread about my bench and photo setup. Thanks for noticing!

 

Dave

[Grant]

Fabulous !!  The wood work and the propeller look absolutely stunning!

[JonathanReed]

Looking very good indeed!  Keep up the nice work!  

[One-Oh-Four]

Wow, Moses! I like the fine detailing of your work and painting! As noted above; your photography is indeed good. Relaxing to look at with no distracting things in the background etc. Keep up the good work!

 

Cheers,

Erik.

[Flip]

Beautiful work indeed, Moses! 

Thanks for sharing those pictures!

Best regards

Flip

[lawman56]

Absolutely stunning work! Had you not mentioned it, I never would believe this is your first!

[Moses Prahn]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. It is encouraging to receive such positive feedback!

 

Made a little progress this week, and still have a couple of small items to post to get this WIP up-to-date.

 

First, the inside of the fuselage halves have raised ribbing for the wood frame. This is a nice detail, and one that will be slightly visible once completed. There is a section around the cockpit, and one at the back, where the tail comes together. I unintentionally took the two opposite approaches to painting these raised wood beams for each section.

 

In the tail I painted the base color for wood over everything, and then focused the oils on the wood sections. Once "lacquered" and cured, I masked the sections I wanted to be woodgrain, took a new xacto blade, and cut out a mask that protected the thin wood sections. Once complete, I sprayed the canvas color, and unmasked.

 

 

This worked well, and with the ecxeption of one small mask coming off and not applying woodgrain to the next section in the fuselage (still not sure how much of it will really be visible once the two halves are joined), it will work for how visible (or maybe I should say, un-visible) this part of the final plane will be.

 

For the cockpit section I sprayed the canvas color, and then decided I should woodgrain the framing - not so much a concious decision as it was a realization: "oh yeah, I should paint that woodgrain in there!" Since the canvas was already sprayed I opted for the reverse approach I took for the tail. I masked the canvas backdrop, leaving the frame exposed, and then tackled the woodgrain. While this approach worked, I don't think the end results came out quite as nice as I would have liked. The cockpit framing will cover the grooves (where there is some smudging due to not masking) but, I still feel like this isn't as "crisp: as the results I was able to achiueve in the tail of the fuselage. I guess I will see where it all shakes out once the weathering is completed, but the next time I face this with a WnW kit I know which approach I will chose.

 

 

With the inside of the fuselage painted, it was time to move to the exterior.

 

WIth a normal airplane build I would normally assemble the fuselage, and then paint the exterior. However, with this kit that woodgrain surrounding the cockpit opening freaks me out a little (ok, maybe a lot). What happens if I mask it and the paint pulls up! I don't think I could handle having to re-do it all. So, in an effort to avoid such a catastrophe, I will paint the fuselage halves, and then join together. At that point I can tackle any seamwork, and try and aviod having to do a full mask job - still thinking of ways I can creatively mask around it. Will post what I do when I get through that quandry.

 

In looking at the WnW paint guide, it appears that the canvas that was tightly pulled over the internal frame, wore differently from the rest of the canvas.

I was expecting that for the ribbing on the wings, but hadn't thought too much of how that would be visible in the main fuselage of the plane. WnW does a fantastic job of slightly raising this internal framing on the exterior of the fuselage halves, nice touch, that. And, while it does match the interior framing on one half of the cockpit, it doesn't quite match the framing on the other half...interesting (see the internal framing halves have two different layouts for the vertical lengths of wood framing, yet the external detail is exactly the same on each half). But, this is a small thing to quibble about, and to be honest, it really doesn't bother me. They got so many other things right on this kit, I really couldn't care less obout this small detail.

 

So, on to the framing. On a whim, I decided to get creative with how the framing would effect the way the exterior canvas would wear. I threw together a quick mix of tamiya khaki and brown until it looked about right (prbably 5:1 khaki to brown) and sprayed where the frames would show. I didn't want to just blast the whole section - I wanted to use the black primer as a backdrop to add some variation in the olive drab color, plus, once my mix went down I felt it was almost impossible to see where the slight rise for the frames was. Aft of the fuselage I picked some spots to add framing based on the panting scheme. Is it accurate? Probably not, but two of them look close, and the others, well, I am going for the effect here, not accuracy. I was able to grab an in-progress shot of this, not the same quality as throwing it on the photo table (sorry for the lack of quality), but it gives you an idea.

 

 

With these exploratory lines down I cut some thin stips of tape and masked off where I wanted the effect to show. The goal is to preserve this color in a specific section to aviod accidentially blowing it out with a careless pass of the airbrush. Once my initial coat of the olive drab goes down, I will pull off the masks and go back with a very thin coat to blend it in to my liking. Or, I will simply fill it in with olive drab if it looks terrible and doesn't work out. Either way, worth expiriminting with to see if I can get what I am aiming for. Now, I am sure that someone somewhere has tried for the same effect, and has successfully accomplished this with amazing results. I, on the other hand, decided to try this in the spur of the moment, and probably should have done a little research first. Oh well, if it turns out for me, maybe it will work for someone else, or they can improve on my amateur approach and make something more of it. If it doesn't work - well, then you know what to not waste your time with!

 

Ok - with the mask on, I sprayed the olive drab. Really striaghtforward here. I am not an exact paint color extremist (nothing wrong with that) so I just went with what the instructions called for. Layed down some thinned layers and built it up as I saw fit.

 

 

Once this had a little time to setup, I removed the masking. To reiterate, I am not looking for a perfect mask here. I want to have these strips to work with to try and add some variation to the way the canvas would have weathered in the elements over time. I will use the over masking on the ends to test how I want to blend everything together. Once I have acheived my desired effect I will apply to the rest of the frames. It looks terrible right now, but I am hoping with some steady and light blending I will be able to acheive a subtle, but noticeable effect.

 

I pulled these over to the table and took some better shots. However, I played with the white balance on my camera, and am now seeing some very green coloring. Time to get the photo booth operating the way I want so I can get the pictures to come out right. You can see the second photo below is much more green than the first photo. If anyone has experience with adjusting the white balance on a Nikon D7000 to work with flourescent light bulbs in a softbox and a translucent plexiglass table I am all ears. Not that I don't mind figuring it out, but I would rather spend my time on the bench instead of playing with the camera!

 

 

 

Once I have this sorted out I will post more on the wings and the progress I have made painting the tops the same olive drab as the fuselage.

[Moses Prahn]

Made some progress on the fuselage this weekend. With a very thin mix of olive drab I blended in the lines I had previously masked until it was just noticeable enough for what I was trying to achieve. A couple of lessons learned with this, but overall I like the effect and would apply it in future applications as called for.

 

 

 

Next order of business will be to catch up on the progress I have made on the upper surfaces of the wings. Things have been progressing nicely, I will try and post my progress over the next couple of days.

[Moses Prahn]

Quick post on progress this weekend. Was away for business this week, and wasn't able to add as much detail from the previous weekend as I had hoped - posting from the iPad was not as easy as from the computer, and work kept be very busy (literally 8 am to midnight). Needless to say I am happy to be home, and I was able to spend some much enjoyed time at the bench this weekend. On to the progress!

 

Once I had the exterior wear that highlighted the cockpit ribs worked out, I only needed the seatbelts to wrap up the cockpit. The silver lining about traveling this week - the seatbelts came on Friday (thanks Grant!!!!), and I was able to spend my first bit of bench time back, getting them installed.

 

To add to the list of firsts in this build: First time using HGW seatbelts. Results - absolutely fantastic! Was able to get them installed, and weathered with a light touch of thinned artitst's oils. I am not sure that my selection of where to attach the belts to the seat is entirely accurate. My decision was driven by the length of the belt - if I mounted them further back, it wasn't long enough to drape over the seat. But when mounted where they currently are - I am able to get them to rest in the seat the way I wanted. In the end, you won't be able to see the mounting point without some deliberate effort, so I am satisfied with the outcome.

 

With the seatbelts in place it was time to install the seat into the cockpit. I was so excited to do so I didn't take a picture of the seat with the belts installed all by itself. That wrapped up the cockpit, and I have the pictures below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was able to secure the cockpit assembly to the fuselage, and join the two halves. More on that once the seam has been cleaned and repainted, but overall, very good fit and join on the seam - top quality engineering on WnW's part with this kit (again)!

[JonathanReed]

Looking fantastic!  They had some wide belts back then eh?

 

Very nice!

[Dave J]

Looking great! Love to know how you painted your interior cockpit ribbing so neatly!

[Moses Prahn]

Looking great! Love to know how you painted your interior cockpit ribbing so neatly!

 

Hi Dave - thanks for the compliment!

 

I briefly touched on the interior cockpit ribbing in one of my earlier posts, but I am not sure it fully answers your question. The quick version is that I sprayed the base canvas color, and then masked it off so only the ribbing was exposed. I lined up the tape with either side of the horizontal ribbing to avoid needing to cut the mask for one of the ribs, and then used a new xacto blade to cut the tape to cut the masking away and expose the other ribs. Once masked I painted the ribs for woodgrain effect (I definitely referenced your post on painting woodgrain in the hints and tips section, thanks!). Because the ribs are raised this approach can tend to leave a little excess oil paint in the corners where the canvas and ribbing meet, but I think it came out alright because I had a very close mask. I should probably look to add a little more weathering effect to the fuselage sides to get a more authentic look to match the rest of the wear on the plane.

 

Hope you are enjoying the progress!

 

Dave

[Moses Prahn]

WWI biplanes (or any other multi-wing planes with struts and rigging for that matter) usually call for finishing the wings prior to securing them to the model. As such, I have been working on painting the upper surfaces as I painted the exterior halves of the fueslage. I started by applying a base primer of black, using Mr. Surfacing primer 1500. Picked up this tip from Doogs, and man, I love this stuff! Goes down great, and is perfect for adding some depth when adding thinned layers of the top color.

 

 

With the primer down I focused on adding color to the canvas over the ribbing on the wing surface. To get a solid color down for these sections I started by focusing strong color concentration on the ribbing.

 

 

Once I had the base color layered up, I filled in the rest of the wing with a thinned coat until coverage was good - but not uniform, letting the black primer coat provide the color variation I was looking for. First picture shows the difference between the two stages, second picture shows the final product at this step (very green, thanks to playing with the white balance on the camera).

 

 

 

With the base color down, I masked the ribs.

 

 

Once masked I mixed a thinned cup of Tamiya smoke, and sprayed around the ribs. Not having tried this before, there was a bit of spray, lift the tape, assess, and spray some more, until I found the right balance. Still have one or two ribs I will go back and touch up, but overall, very nice effect.

 

 

 

On the photo table the color goes a little green and light in order to pick up the effect of this step. Below is a shot at the desk with the iPhone. Not as great photo quality as the Nikon at the table, but gives a differnt feel for how this effect comes across on the upper surfaces.

 

 

The result isn't 100% uniform, but that is what I wanted to achieve, variation in the wear, and highlighting the ribbing. It is also quite subtle in person. On the photo table I am able to picture it under ideal lighting conditions to maximize the result. I saved the mask strips to reuse on the undersides of the wings.

 

 

Overall, very basic stuff, nothing new for this forum, but a first for me, and doubles as a quick update on my progress. For me, I am very happy with the result.

 

Quick shot of the test fit with cockpit and fuselage attached to the base wing (also visible with the pulley in the wings - ready to have the glass installed to wrap it up).

 

 

Test fitting shows that the cockpit (which protrueds past the fuselage halves) is a very tight fit into the bottom wing, I will be sure it fits in smoothly when I attach the fuselage/cockpit assembly to the wing. Over the weekend I glued the cockpit and joined the fuselage halves. Looking forward to the upcoming three day weekend, and am focused on getting in some good bench time. I need to keep this moving along, as our first baby is due in four weeks! Hope he doesn't come early so I can be sure to get this wrapped up!

[Ssasho0]

looking excellent so far! I'm not much into british planes of the period as they are too similar in both colour and shape, but this one is shaping greatly

I'm also using the black surfacer 1500 and man its wonderfull product. Do you use the rattle can or the bottlled version sprayed with airbrush?

Best regards,

Sasho

[Moses Prahn]

looking excellent so far! I'm not much into british planes of the period as they are too similar in both colour and shape, but this one is shaping greatly

I'm also using the black surfacer 1500 and man its wonderfull product. Do you use the rattle can or the bottlled version sprayed with airbrush?

Best regards,

Sasho

Thanks Sasho!

 

I am definitely not an expert on planes of this period, but this has been a very fun and challenging build. I am using the bottled Mr. Surfacer 1500 - sprayed through an airbrush.

 

- Dave

[lawman56]

I absolutely love the shadow effect you've achieved! Each rib appears to have depth. As if the fabric has stretched as far as it's going to go. Fantastic work!

[Moses Prahn]

Quick update tonight with more to come tomorrow. Had a very productive three day weekend, with plenty of time at the bench. The cowl for the Sopwith PUP 'Betty" is a nice red tone. Knowing I wanted to add some chipping to the metal I painted the four kit parts with a base coat of Alclad Aluminum (over a base primer of black). Once down I used some liquid frisket to create the chipping pattern I was looking for. I did this by selecting an area, applying a small amount of frisket with a toothpick, and then pulling the toothpick through the frisket in quick random strokes to remove the excess, while leaving an almost scratch line, or pattern behind. I started to get the hang of this and was happy with how things were turning out - too happy, I think, because I feel I over did it with the frisket. That is what I am looking for some feedback on - how much did I over-do it? Any tips on how to touch this up without stripping and re-applying the red? In the below photo you can see the base aluminum with the frisket applied.

 

 

Here you can see the same parts once painted with Tamiya XF-7

 

 

A little more noticeable that we have gone too far.

 

And finally, once the frisket was removed, I knew I would need to go back and figure out how to tone it back. More to come on this, as I figure this out. Comments and feedback welcome at this point. I am pleased with this approach, and will use it again, but will definitely tone it back for the next application.

 

 

[Moses Prahn]

In dealing with the wingroot seam I decided to address the taught canvas over the internal cockpit framing. To the keen observer I am sure you noticed my original shading on the exterior to highlight this wear, didn't line up with the detail in the plastic. Part of that is because the slight indentations are very difficult (for me anyway) to pick out once painted in one flat tone. Here you can see in one of my test fits, that there are some "misalignments."

 

 

So while working on the seams, I also decided to address this small eyesore. See other side below.

 

 

Once I was satisfied with the seam work, I sprayed a fresh coat of olive drab, and mixed up a new batch of something "brownish and lighter than my olive drab." With the rib areas sprayed with this mix I went to work laying down some masking that was more in-line with what I was going for. It took some time, and once completed my eyes were seeing double, but I think I hit the mark much better than my first attempt. Sprayed around the mask, pulled it off, and blended with a very thin mix of the olive drab until I had the right hint of color showing through to indicate where the canvas had been stressed over the internal ribs. Much more pleased with this result!

 

 

 

Next up will be an update on the undersides of the wings, as well as progress on the rear stabilizer - which I hope to wrap up before posting about (just need to go back and blend back with some white). Goal is to get a gloss coat down and into some decal work over the weekend!