WnW RNAS Sopwith Pup

[Michaelscarborough]

This was my first WnW build, and my first WWI build in many years, and I sincerely enjoyed the whole process. Having wrestled with old Aurora kits, and even Revell and Airfix kits in the 60s and 70s, building a kit from WnW is an epiphany.

The turret mounted launching platforms for the Pups, and other aircraft, vary greatly from ship to ship so I created what I felt was a generic, but historically plausible, structure. Same deal with the tie downs, tail support, turret itself and personal markings. Figures are being worked on now.

I was thrilled when WnW announced the Ship's Camel and a similar project is now underway using that great kit.

Thanks for taking a look.

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

 

 

[JeroenPeters]

Oh my lord.... talk about creativity... a feast for the eyes!!

[Michaelscarborough]

Heel erg bedankt, Jeroen!

 

[crazypoet]

Love it!  This mounting tells an immediate "story" which is one of the greatest joys in modeling

[Rocat]

Amazing details to be seen! A masterpiece.

[GusMac]

Beautiful build and some lovely scratch work. 

[Michaelscarborough]

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys! Much appreciated!

[coolboxx]

Great build, would it of taken off from that platform? 

[ophthoidoug]

Just amazing!!!

My WNW Camel arrived this week & I've been thinking about a similar base to put alongside my Arado/Catapult...

Do you have any work-in-progress pics?

Awesome build - thanks for posting

Doug

California

[Michaelscarborough]

Thanks, Doug,

Interesting....I am planning to do the same with both the Camel and the Arado!  I also have the HB W.20 and want to do a scene of it on a U-Boat, as it was intended to be. All I need is for the days to be 25 hours and the weeks to be 8 days.

Here're some in progress shots for you:

The base is simply four sides of shaped oak with plywood bottom and top:

The turret and guns were turned on the lathe and then cut to size. I made the fastening rings out of styrene strip held in front of a boiling kettle. I am still not happy with the section that is made of fabric...it just looks like an old dried out condom. Ugh.

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

[Michaelscarborough]

Hi, Coolbox....re: the platform, the simple answer is yes. But, I am sure they did their best to have the ship, and the turret, as close to facing into a head wind, just as carriers do now. Only a Pup is so light, I'd think it wouldn't take much to have it life off on those short platforms. It is interesting to see that the heavier the plane, the longer the ramp...Pup, shortest; Camels, a bit longer; 1 1/2 Strutter, longest. I have just really gotten into this and want to do a lot more research on the whole subject. It's pretty fascinating.

 

 

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

[JonathanReed]

Thats gorgeous!!  Love the originality

 

[ophthoidoug]

 

 

Hear you about the weekends man! I have 2 toddlers & an old Jeep I'm trying to restore and we're in the middle of construction (not to mention my stash of unbuilt model aircraft that can probably be seen from space). Pasted the only pic of my Arado catapult I could find on Shutterfly. Can't take much credit though because it was shake-n-bake resin kit. I feel much more challenged by the turret. Just emailed shapeways to see if they could make me one in 1/32 (there is for example a large 1/48 USS Texas turret available on their site right now). Whatever your reservations about any small aspects of your build - its an inspiration! For anybody in Southern California - the Airforce is still planning on demonstrating the F35 at the Chino show this weekend :-)

Doug

[ophthoidoug]

*Hope nobody minds the lateral conversation/pics - never sure whether that should be strictly private but I'm always interested things others post?

[crazypoet]

Would that "Shake and Bake" resin kit be the one from HpH?

[Michaelscarborough]

Great looking build of the Arado, Doug! Do you have a build log?

I have just about everything I could possibly need for the Arado in the way of the HpH stuff and after mkt for the kit. (The catapult was my first HpH purchase and I liked it so much I got the Macchi.)

I'd be very interested to know what Shapeways would charge for a resin turret. I Plan to do the Camel on Texas but can't imagine doing the WHOLE turret....I live in a NYC house. If I ever get the Felixstowe built, I may have to move my wife out to the garden.

Cheers

[ophthoidoug]

Guess I'll keep replying in this forum in case others are interested? I'd also like to put a camel on this turret. The Shapeways turret in 1/48 is around $160 (roughly 23cm in length) . (I'm told that) rough guessing based on materials & cutting techniques would likely put a 1/32 turret at around $500 (roughly 35cm in length) but it could be done. Its exponentially more expensive based on a 1.5 size increase in all 3 dimensions as well as the associated material wastage... Not a cheap date (? wonder if we could knock it down by ordering more than one) but it would look spectacular. Going to keep chatting to him & see where it goes ...

[Guest Kagemusha]

That really is magnificent.

[Michaelscarborough]

(LOL!!..JUST REALISED THIS NEVER GOT POSTED! Damn!!)

So, are you talking about the whole turret and the guns at full length? As you can see on mine, I just wanted to focus on the Pup itself and so the turret is chopped down as are the guns. But doing a whle turret and guns in 1/32 is an interesting idea. I'm fortunate in having a lathe which I use in my business and all the detailing was scratched.

I'm probably repeating myself, but my next project (after the AEG)  is to do the Camel onboard HMS Calliope. It's on a specially built platform but there is a gun turret in the scene, albeit much smaller than the main gun turrets that ships like HMS Tiger or USS Texas had. There's definitely a Texas Camel in my future although I don't know if I'll do the whole turret.

(Damn, just seeing the picture makes me want to jump right in on the project!)

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

[rkranias]

great dio.  weathering and finish is spot on.