Fiddlers Green

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this forum, and new to paper modeling. My interests are vintage aircraft (1914 - 1950). I'm starting by trying some of the models available to me as a newly registered user - one of them being Roy Brown's Sopwith F1 "Camel," but I have a question regarding how to build the fuselage.

I believe that the rear section (behind the cockpit) is tapered and rectangular, with the exception of the upper fuselage, with is slightly curved. Is the fore-section (ahead of the cockpit) rounded right up to the cowling, or does it curve gradually up to the circular cowling?

My Jane's Aircraft of WW I shows a somewhat "ballooning shape" starting at the cockpit area which then becomes circular at the cowling.

Thanks in advance,
Willie

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Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

That sounds right, the canvas starting just behind the fuselage is a flat sided, flat bottom and curved at the top from just behind the pilot to the tail. The front transitions from the flat sided to the round cowling.

Beard

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More Scotch and stogies for my wingman!

I haven't built the Camel yet but from the looks of the model itself, and from pictures of builds of the kits, it looks like the sides of the fuselage are basically flat right until the section above the wings, where it starts to balloon as you said. The main model page shows some pretty decent views of this.



BTW- Glad to have you here and can't wait to see what you can do with the Camel. Be sure to ask any questions you might have. Someone around here will answer it. I can guarantee that.

Thanks for the replies!

As suggested, I located the page which displays some models built by FG members and will follow your advice.

Thanks again for helping out a novice!

Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

Construction has proceeded to the point where it is time to attach the upper wing... any suggestions as to how to do this and maintain dihedral of the lower wing?

My thought is to attach the wing struts to the lower wing first, then attach the upper wing to the fuselage with the cabane struts, and finally lock in the dihedral of the lower wing by attaching the wing struts to the upper wing.



Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

Sounds like a plan to me! Biplanes scare me. I've built hundreds of plane models, but only 3 were biplanes. For this very reason. Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback / encouragement. I've built a few balsa stick-and-tissue biplanes over the years, and I think they are easier to assemble because one can build in the necessary "sockets" to accept the struts at prescribed angles and such.

With paper, I'm finding it a bit of a challenge. Hopefully I'll get the knack by trying a few of the simpler models.

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

I have never managed to get biplane wings to fit properly to the struts. I aways ended up slicing tiny holes in the wings for the struts otherwise some always seemed too long while others were too short.

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now repainting:
CF-100 (PM Download)
Mig-15

Tim, did you also reinforce / stiffen the struts when using the tiny holes? If so, what did you use?

Thanks,
Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

As it turns out I have built a few biplanes now. It is good to reinforce the struts, I usually use floral wire. To do this I "simply" cut one side of the strut out and score it with a blunt tool to leave a dent. Cut the straightened wire a little longer than the strut and glue it to the dented strut. Then if I have enough patience I wait until it is dry and glue the other side of the strut to it. I may note that I do not use folded struts as they never seem to line up properly for me. You can pre-poke holes in the wing at the proper position to accept the wire that sticks out from either end of the struts, if you plan ahead you can even laminate a little card stock to the wing to strengthen the area around the hole, though I have never found this necessary. Then assemble the model as you normally would.

I have been playing around with a new design for a strut. Imagine drum roll here....... The idea is to roll a small tube a with the inside diameter a little larger than the reinforcing wire, glue the tube and after it dries squeeze it so it has a strut shape. This would be stronger than the laminated strut you see on most kits and you can still slip some floral wire into it for reinforcement. I think it would also look better without the edges on either side. I have done some conventional tube landing gear and have found it strong enough by itself that it doesn't need reinforcement.

Beard

_________________
More Scotch and stogies for my wingman!

Sounds like an excellent idea!

As it turned out, I did use some scrap floral wire and folded the struts around it. the resulting structure is quite strong, and little "adjustable" but not by very much.

I first attached the cabane struts to the fuselage, attached and aligned the top wing when they were dry, and now I'm installing and aligning the wing struts.

I noticed that the fuselage has a very slight misalignment, probably due to the fact that I didn't remove the tabs (for an edge seam), and used 110 lb. cardstock. It appears that the minor additional thickness on one side is slightly noticeable.

Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

All that's needed now is to complete the propeller and rigging. Does anyone know of a pattern for a laminated 1/32 scale prop that I could access -- I think it would look nicer that the 2D pattern provided.

Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

If you are a member at the Papermodelers.com forum, there are a few different laminated prop templates in the downloads section. You have to have 10 posts I think before you can download files.

Thanks, Willy.

Yes, I found the pattern on PM ( joined a few weeks ago). The model is now complete, except for the rigging.

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein

I tried to upload some photos of the completed model sans rigging, but they appear to exceed the maximum file size (JPG format). Is there a trick to attaching photos to a post?

Thanks,
Willie

_________________
Everything should be made as simple as possible... but no simpler!
--Albert Einstein