Modeling Hobbycraft's 1/32nd scale Sopwith F.1, the Camel!

The Hobbycraft Camel completed!

My next build is the Hobbycraft Sopwith F.1, the famous Camel! This kit is an old issue and is generally not viewed with a lot of respect anymore. Even Hobbycraft saw fit to retool the Camel and the result is a very nice kit indeed, (I lucked into one of those kits, too and will build that one someday!).

However, since this would be the first biplane model I have attempted in over 40 years, I wanted to work on something I wouldn't mind trashing if need be. As it is, this kit does make up into an attractive "Camel shaped object", so I didn't mind fiddling with it's less stellar qualities.

One of the main criticisms of this kit is the heavy handed ribbing effects on the wings and tail surfaces. This necessitated a little sanding on my part. With the sanding I lost the control horns for all the control surfaces, so that created a little extra work down the road.

The fun begins, HC's old tool Sopwith Camel!

The HC Camel's interior is a bit sparse, so I devoted some time to adding some detail to that area. I carved up the seat and built up the cockpit walls. I also drilled out the barrels of the twin Vickers.

A little detail work.

While I was at it, I worked on the Clerget rotary engine, too. I added spark plugs and connecting rods to the cylinders.

Work on interior details.

Here's a look at the interior after the fuselage alves have been cemented together. Note the seatbelts. British aircraft lacked shoulder straps at this stage, using only broad seatbelts and installing heavy padding on the butts of the machine guns!

I should mention that the Hobbycraft instructions are quite vague about the installation of some of the items in the interior, so I took some liberties with them!

Next up, it was time for exterior paint! I wanted to try to capture some of the translucence of the Clear Doped Linen (CDL) finish on the undersides of the wings and tail planes. Here's the method I tried:

Working on the shading effect. First I sprayed the wing a dark brown then masked the rib pattern. I then shot the wing with Tamiya "Deck Tan"

Here's the initial result. Next is an overspray of the Deck Tan.

Here's a shot of the completed lower wing undersurface. The shaded effect is quite faint. 

After the PC10 finish was applied to the fuselage, I attempted to create a wood grain effect on the plywood surfaces found around the cockpit. I started with a coat of Model Masters "Wood". After that was well cured, I gave it a wash of Tamiya's acrylic Flat Brown thinned with IPA. I played around with the brown until I found a result that looked decent. Later, I would give it a coat or two of Future to give it a sheen. I think it came out pretty well!

I captured the wood grain effect be using washes of Tamiya Flat Brown applied over model Master "Wood".

I did a similar technique for creating a wood effect on the propeller, too. Next time, I will try to give the prop more lamination layers.

The Clerget rotary engine and prop.

The decals were now applied. Fortunately the old HC decals have held up and I was able to use them. I'm doing the kit's representation of Barker's B6313 at a early stage.

Now the principal components of the aircraft were ready for assembly.

Paint done. Now the work begins.

My biggest concern was getting the wing alignment straight while ensuring that the whole wing assembly became a reasonably strong unit. Initially, I installed the cabane struts and then held the wings in place with jigs made from my grandkid's endless supply of Lego's!!

Improvised Lego jigs for aligning the wings!

Well, it did take some work and sweat, but eventually I got to the point where I could add the interplane struts. To ensure that these were held in place securely, I taped the top wing down, (while the lower wings were supported by a couple of Lego bricks.

Incidentally, all these struts were also painted to resemble wood grain using MM Wood followed by a wash of Tamiya Brown.

Holding down the top wing for cementing.

Things seem to be well secured now, (although I did find one loose interplane strut end later on). I then installed the landing gear struts. These looked very flimsy to me but in the end they seemed up to the job. The wheels were then glued and finished. I dirtied them up a little to better highlight the very nice detail molded on them.

Time for the rigging! HC actually makes rigging this bird pretty simple, with holes at various points on the fuselage and wings and on the ends of the struts. Some of this leads to points that are not strictly accurate, but I wasn't going to be quite that dogmatic about it. HC instructions have you installing some of the rigging thread before assembly but I decided not to do that. I used heavy white "EZ Line", stained with a silver Sharpie marker and secured with CA glue. For the most part, this worked out pretty well.

Rigging almost finished! You can see the control horns added to the elevator and ailerons.

With the rigging installed the kit was almost complete! I had to finish the two fuel hatches on the cockpit decking. Strictly speaking, the lower offset cap is on the wrong side! It should be on the right side of the decking. I wasn't going to try to fix that particular problem since this wasn't going to be a show model anyway. I'm pretty sure that most folks will not even notice!

Complete! With the fuel caps detailed and painted.

A look at the Clerget rotary engine and prop.

I tried to capture the cockpit detail with this shot, but it's still covered up!

Well, this was a fun build after all. I realize however, that I'll have to step up my game when I attempt the Roden kits in my stash. Still for anyone who wants to take a stab at these striking WWI birds, you can't go very wrong with either this kit of the HC Nieuport 17, both can be had fairly cheaply and they are pretty forgiving.