Roden Sopwith Triplane, 1/32.

Roden's 1/32 scale Sopwith Triplane

And here's the real thing, Colishaw's two gun Tripe, N533.

The Sopwith Triplane was a remarkable development of the more conventional Sopwith Pup. The three narrow cord wings gave the Tripehound great maneuverability and rate of climb. Used primarily by the Royal Navel Air Service, the Triplane enjoyed a brief but successful career  before being replaced by the Sopwith Camel. 

Canadian Raymond Colishaw was probably the most successful Triplane pilot. He actually flew two. My model represents his second, a rare two gun model. The weight of the two Vickers had a negative effect on the Triplane's performance although Colishaw seemed to be okay with it, he downed two EA's with it.

 I decided to try the Triplane as my second attempt at a Roden 1/32 scale kit. The Roden Triplane is a very nice kit. The fit and detail is excellent. The triplane configuration has been well designed and I had no difficulty in the assembly, for the most part.

The sprue!

As usual, I started off with the interior. I used an aftermarket pilot's seat, a resin part from Barracuda that is very nicely done. I tried out Kit's World 3-D printed seat belts this time. They are tricky to use, wanting to curl up badly. It took some effort to make them settle down. I had fun with the instrument panel, adding a few instrument decals leftover from other kits. The painting of the wood components, including the propeller and struts was done at this time as well.

Interior components and propeller and struts. Note two options for the cockpit decking, one for the single gun configuration the other for the rarer two gun option.

A peek at the Barracuda pilot's seat. Really nice looking item, with Kit's World printed belts.

Nicely done Clerget.

The main components primed.

...and painted.

Decals on! If you've ever built a Roden kit, you know this is a big deal!

Assembly started and the maddening rigging is begun!

Landing gear on! These seemed a little sturdier than the Albatros' landing gear, but I still got a little lean to port.

Rigging finished! Quite the chore.

A peek in the office.

Here are the glamor shots of the completed Triplane.

 To sum up; This kit went together nicely. Most of the problems I encountered were self-induced, nothing new there!  There is one minor problem which I did not address; There is a gaping void behind the pilot's seat! I should have come up with some sort of panel to fill it in but I had forgotten about it so the gap remains! It's not too noticeable for the most part.

One other major screw-up on my part was with the lovely molded-in inspection panels on the Triplane's wings. I thought I'd use a super glue to simulate glass over the sculpted pulleys but unfortunately the glue I used only resulted in an opaque mess that I had to cover with black paint! Too bad, because Roden had done a good job there.