One upper wing only!

1
September 5, 2023
This is my first build of the newer production batch from Small Stuff. The package and manual are different. The resin looks greenish now. So this is also a test how I can handle the new ones.
2
September 5, 2023
It works as before! The resin is as soft as before and can be cut with a razor blade.
Cylinders mounted to the case.
3
September 5, 2023
And painted - five Alclad shades are used, plus copper on the intake pipes.
4
September 5, 2023
Here in a closer look.
5
September 5, 2023
All the remaining little parts are mounted to the engine. Also a light wash was applied using oil paint.
6
September 5, 2023
From the back side (that will not be very visible on the model later) you can see the push rods and ignition wires.
7
September 5, 2023
The engine is finished and can be stored safely for later mount.
8
September 5, 2023
Luckily I have prepared more seats in the last build so I now simply add this to this new project.
So you know also that it will be a British plane 😉
9
September 1, 2023
I decided to go with the old Eduard Camel kit.
The SPIN conversion kit offers a new cockpit cover, but I do not like it. Bad shape and too many errors, like the hole for fuel cap in wrong position. As the seat was moved backwards I removed parts of the back of the halves. Note the SPIN cover is also too short.
10
September 1, 2023
In my spares box are many remaining optional parts from my 3 Camel builds of the new kit series. I modified the back part of a cover to fit here.
One fuel opening is cut away, one was closed and a new one drilled. Filled with a turned/milled brass cap for dry fit.
11
September 1, 2023
A ref pic shows a round grip on the stick, so I created a new stick (but it is not yet finished). I used a Eduard stick as size reference.
12
September 5, 2023
I decided to build up the cockpit internals based on remaining frames of the new Camel Comic (A toast to the common spues, so I have enough spares 😉 )
13
September 5, 2023
Some modifications and a lot of masking and painting there is now linen, wood and alu.
14
September 5, 2023
A view from a different angle shows some more details, e.g. the seat belts.
15
September 5, 2023
The next step was adding the internal rigging and some copper wires as fuel lines etc. The final step was an oil wash.
Please note, that the front plugin is not yet finished.
16
September 5, 2023
So the fuselage halves could be clued together. The back part of the cockpit decking and metal struts are also glued in place.
The front/lower part is only temporarily plugged in.
17
September 7, 2023
After a failed try to scratch a cockpit front cover from styrene I started again using thin brass sheet. That was one of the reasons to add the struts already.
18
September 7, 2023
The original Swallow used a really complicated shape which I tried to imitate here. With filing, cutting and a lot of dry fitting.
19
September 7, 2023
On the right the cover form the SPIN conversion kit: a total fail. To short, wrong openings for fuel and oil filler caps, and more.
In the middle my first try, but styrene do not hold the shape.
On the left my actual try with brass sheet.
20
September 7, 2023
Two Vickers MG from Gaspatch Models fits now.
21
September 7, 2023
It only lies loosely on top. With glue it will fit even better.
Now I can live with the outcome!
22
September 28, 2023
After a lot of work on the resin wing I applied thinned NATO Black as shading on white primer. Later I applied tapes cut with plotter between the ribs. Below the wing you can see the masking sheet.
23
September 28, 2023
So I can spray some layers of white primer to get enhanced bright rib tapes. The masks are removed.
Here the upper surface will be painted dark so not light is going through => the rib tapes needs to be bright.
24
September 28, 2023
On lower surface I sprayed MRP 257 Clear Doped Linen variant 1
25
September 28, 2023
On the upper surface I applied MRP-253 PC10 Late. But what the hell was this? I do not like the shade!
I found an older used bottle with the same number but much greener shade. So I added a thin layer of that paint on top. Be warned!
On the upper side you can also see my added tread strips made from real wood.
26
September 28, 2023
Due to the second PC10 layer a bit more paint is applied, but the ribs are still in a different shade.
27
September 28, 2023
The wing is plugged to the struts.
28
September 28, 2023
After seeing the previous pictures, I sanded the strips further.
29
November 18, 2023
For the window frame I bent a brass fret stripe in a PE holder. My "window glass" is 0.1mm so I feet in a Eduard STEEL fret, which is also 0.1mm thick. Then I filed in the window cutout. The brass is not yet cut to have a longer handle.
30
November 18, 2023
After the cut out is big enough I removed the handle. Used the steel fret to bring the brass in shape again. On the Cent the clear foil.
31
November 18, 2023
The foil slides in. Later I will use a fresh foil.
32
November 18, 2023
The frame was soldered from below to the cockpit cover.
33
November 18, 2023
That will be the look later.
34
November 22, 2023
The plastic tail skid of the Camel kit looks soo fragile, that I made a replacement made from real wood with metal fittings: 10 parts!
It is rotatable (can be articulated via rudder horns) and can be swivelled.
35
November 22, 2023
Axle fits into the fuselage. There is a metal sliding sho on the ground contact.
36
November 22, 2023
I soldered again landing gear legs from brass and nickel silver. 26 single parts.
37
November 22, 2023
Dry fitting is okay and it can hold the fuselage easily.
38
November 22, 2023
And because I was already soldering parts, I also soldered the over wing pylon cable support.
39
November 22, 2023
Later it will hold the rigging. It fits to the wing. Later it will hold the rigging.
40
November 22, 2023
The new parts are prepared to get some layers of paint later.
41
February 21, 2024
For the half axles I used 1mm, but the hole in the wheels was bigger. For easier and correct mounting later I drilled 1.2mm holes and added brass bushes.
I drilled into the wood and the axles in the rotation point, see the looong wires. Some plates to hold the suspension later are visible on the right axle but not yet soldered on.
42
February 21, 2024
Half axles finished. More parts prepared and/or modified.
43
February 21, 2024
I thought until now the cap in the middle between the guns is a fuel cap - wrong. There is a small oil tank below. A bigger fuel tank is below the oil tank between the frames and the filler cap in on the front left. I turned and milled the caps and scratched the faked tanks.
44
February 21, 2024
The cockpit cover is modified accordingly.
45
February 21, 2024
Here the removed lower Camel wing is visible. So the plywood cover of the Swallow has a different shape.
I filled the area with Tamiya's light-curing putty. I used this for the first time - great stuff!
46
February 21, 2024
After sanding I primed the fuselage once in grey and sanded it. Another layer is needed.
47
February 23, 2024
The metal parts are painted gray. Used a blueish gray H337 this time.
48
February 23, 2024
Finally primed. Shadows and a PE stitching applied.
49
February 23, 2024
The lower surfaces are linen now, the same paint as on wing.
50
February 23, 2024
The Eduard resin wheels are primed and painted linen inside.
51
February 23, 2024
After a day drying time is masked again and painted PC10. Not too much this time as the struts are still visible, depending on light.
52
February 23, 2024
The tail plane.
53
February 23, 2024
And plugged together. Note: the front of the fuselage is only primed.
54
February 29, 2024
That is the wing after applied cockades 🙁
After a mishap I had to remove all the paint layers. As the rib tapes were made with paint those are also gone.
55
February 29, 2024
Days and a lot of work later the actual state of the wing. The paints are RAF-Blue/Red (Drooling Bulldog) and White/Insignia White (Mr.Paint).
56
February 29, 2024
This time also with pitot pipes. There was no strut to mount them and they need to be outside of the air flow of the airscrew so mounted to the wing.
57
February 29, 2024
In the middle of the wing the wooden stripes, a pulley covered with inspection window and the rigging pylon. All scratched!
58
February 29, 2024
On the undersurface cockades without white outer circle. The first version of rib tapes was better.
59
February 29, 2024
The engine is mounted on the painted fuselage. The cowling got aluminium and a oil wash inside.
60
February 29, 2024
The cowling is finally on - please note the mounting stripe (recycled and modified PE part) 😉
The undercarriage in mounted to, but with plugged on wheels the deflection is much too high without the bungee suspension!
61
February 29, 2024
Bungee rubbers were wound up, so the axles have now a more realistic deflection.
The yellow thingy is a resin airscrew provided in the SPIN conversion set. But I will made of course again a wooden one, here in very early state.
62
February 29, 2024
The wing is only plugged to its struts for a teaser.
63
February 29, 2024
Much later the airscrew looks better. I believe it should have a length of 2,74m.
It is only primed and not yet finalized.
64
February 29, 2024
With a modified center cone, it now fits on the shaft of the rotary engine.
65
March 1, 2024
I made a box for the Vickers bullets. Plated with real aluminium so I don't need to paint it.
66
March 1, 2024
Decals applied.
67
March 1, 2024
Now it is really a Swallow also on the other side.
68
March 1, 2024
The instrument panel is made from real wood.
Sorry, the picture is bad. A lot of bad effects from the macro ring light in the instrument glasses 🙁
69
March 1, 2024
The instrument panel is mounted. From this angle it looks better.
Note: On the left white instrument the Kristal Klear glass is not yet dry completely.
70
March 9, 2024
The last pic of this build is the closed cockpit cover with Vickers MGs. I have no pics from the mounting and rigging process.

Comments

79 31 August 2023, 12:35

bughunter
With finished Ship's Camel and end of summer holiday I need something new on my bench! So I build a Small Stuff rotary - my first of the newer production batch. Even if the resin looks different, the product itself is great as before.
This is the first build log with the new requested picture width of 2160 pixels. That are merciless macros now!
I happy so far, it is only very hard to get the valve rockers mounted in the right angle (and I lost some). It will be hidden by the cowling later.
By the way, wild guesses about the type are welcome!

31 August 2023, 12:55

David Taylor
Just the one engine ?.

31 August 2023, 15:17

bughunter
Yes: one engine, one seat, but two Vickers.
The rest of the plane will follow soon.

31 August 2023, 15:46

bughunter
This was a new info in Feature requests, see here: SCM Newsfeed
But here I have still a gray border (with 4:3 pics). In the final Ship's Camel album not (with 3:2 pics). That is not yet completely clear to me. One day (after all has settled) it should be added to the FAQ. There is a Beta feature called "UI for large screens", but this seems to be not finished yet.

31 August 2023, 17:23

Marcel Klemmer
I will take a seat

31 August 2023, 19:54

bughunter
Oh, Marcel you are highly welcomed here - as you played an important role in preparations for this project 👍 Thanks for that!

31 August 2023, 20:05

Marcel Klemmer
😇😊

31 August 2023, 20:17

David Taylor
Hopefully Puppy love.

31 August 2023, 20:27

bughunter
The Pup is already done: Sopwith Pup, N6181, April 1917 | Project by bughunter (1:48)
But very close hit: the company is correct 👍

31 August 2023, 20:45

Bruce Huxtable
Watching from the sidelines, as the front row gets soo crowded 😉

31 August 2023, 21:06

Joshua Allfree
Beautiful work!

31 August 2023, 21:10

bughunter
Thank you mates!
And another hint: single engine, single seat, single wing!

31 August 2023, 21:15

Joshua Allfree
Bristol M.1

31 August 2023, 21:20

bughunter
Nope 😉 This will come later.
As David guessed above the Pup, I said the company is right. So we have: Sopwith, single engine Le Rhone 9J, single seat, single wing, two Vickers.

31 August 2023, 21:23

Alex K
Must be a Swallow?

31 August 2023, 21:43

bughunter
Bingo - full hit!

31 August 2023, 21:48

bughunter
For the Sopwith Swallow there is now a kit in 1:72, but in 1:32 and my 1:48 scale there are only rare resin conversions for Camel kits available.
That project will require a lot of real modeling and not glue-together-parts. In principle the Swallow uses a Camel fuselage, but with a lot of modifications. The seat is moved backwards as on the Comic. Many things in and around the cockpit are different, but there is no drawing for inner details. So I have to modify things according to a few bad ref pics.
I know a build report of a 1:32 model, but I will do things different, e.g. I decided to move the main tank to the front. With the seat moved to back it would be too far from the center of gravity. A ref pic shows a big fuel cap in the middle between the guns. This was also done on the Comic. Only the small header tank is still in the back here. The fuel cap is not shown in the ref drawing, but the photos shows it on the left side. So I added a opening and fuel cap there.

1 September 2023, 17:10

Robert Podkoński
Another Talent Show by Bughunter? Grabbing a seat, of course!

1 September 2023, 17:49

David Taylor
A rare bird indeed.

1 September 2023, 18:37

David R. Meizoso
Don't want to miss it!

1 September 2023, 19:56

Pepe
Another work of art!!!!.... What an engine!!!
Eagerly awaiting progress

1 September 2023, 20:00

bughunter
Thank you very much and Welcome mates!

2 September 2023, 09:29

bughunter
After some work on the cockpit parts the fuselage halves are closed now. Due to missing information a lot of details are pure guesses, based on information about the Camel.

5 September 2023, 17:22

bughunter
I spent a lot of time (mostly for dry fitting 🤔 ) to create a cover for the front fuselage. After a failed try using styrene a brass sheet works better.

7 September 2023, 17:22

David Taylor
The spin conversion looks shocking.Hope you did'nt pay over the odds for it.

8 September 2023, 17:53

bughunter
I don't know anymore what I paid long ago. The conversion kit is only a little letter with the cockpit cover and a new wing (both resin) and a drawing. I think I will use the wing. It has some bubbles and surface problems, but usable I hope.

8 September 2023, 19:43

Ludvík Kružík
I spent a few days on vacation, and in the meantime Frank started working on another great work in his "miracle factory". By the way, sheet metal is a great material, I like to use it too.
I wish you a successful and relaxing build. And I will follow its progress with great pleasure.

9 September 2023, 21:31

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

9 September 2023, 22:15

bughunter
The beginning of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel matches: "The regular crowd shuffles in " 👍 Welcome!

10 September 2023, 12:21

bughunter
For different reasons there was no progress for a while.
But now I can show the wing. It comes with the conversion set from SPIN Models and it needed a lot of filling holes and imperfections. Many priming/sanding cycles. It is ok now but far from perfect. On top side I applied wooden strips.

28 September 2023, 16:48

bughunter
After the Piper Cub is finished I'm back on this one.
I uploaded some pictures of some scratch work: a fine frame for the wind shield.

18 November 2023, 21:59

Bruce Huxtable
Liking your solutions for the windscreen. Very ingenious 👍

22 November 2023, 18:21

bughunter
Thank you Bruce!
The huge amount of scratch work and the modifications of used kit parts needs a lot of time. I have to think a lot about solutions and make frequent dry fittings once I have started making parts.

22 November 2023, 19:35

bughunter
The next batch of macro photos with some scratched metal parts has been uploaded.

22 November 2023, 20:29

bughunter
Ok, nothing has happened here for a few months. Thanks to Ethan, I can now get back to work. I have to change a few things, but the model will be a bit closer to the original.
Let's see if I can finish it this time without being distracted by other projects.

21 February, 09:38

Weizenbrot
wow I really need to follow this project!

21 February, 10:11

bughunter
Thank you and welcome!
I must admit that such heavy rework is not easy. I restarted this project 3 or 4 times since 2019 and put it aside after I run into trouble. But every time it goes some steps towards the end.
Later today I will upload some new pictures.

21 February, 18:26

bughunter
I uploaded a new set of pictures.

!!! Miracle cure alert !!!
I used Tamiya's light-curing putty for the first time - great stuff! It hardens quickly under UV light and adheres very well to the plastic surface. It can be sanded, but is relatively hard. It is therefore better to work in several thin layers and not to apply too much.

21 February, 20:13

Kyle DeHart
Here to watch again Frank!! Sorry I've missed the start of this as work and real life have been keeping offline. Trying to get caught up on things.

23 February, 14:30

gorby
I'll take a seat at the back as I'm late to the party as usual.
Interesting project, I've not heard of the Sopwith Swallow before.

23 February, 15:37

bughunter
Thank you very much and welcome mates!
@Kyle There is no need to say sorry. I found out due to a date a photo was taken that I have glued wooden strips to the wing 2019! That was a shelf queen for five years?! 😮
@gorby It is not unusual not to know this type of aircraft! It was only a single piece, and during testing 1918 the war was over. But the history is extremely interesting:
The Sopwith test pilot Harry Hawker had an aeroplane built for aerobatics and travelling. A Camel fuselage was used, but with a new wing as a high-wing monoplane. This was the Sopwith Scooter. Imagine that today: The chief test pilot gets his own modified Eurofighter or F-35 .... 😎
In any case, his flights with it impressed the military, and so Sopwith was commissioned to design the Swallow. The wing was mounted higher than on the Scooter so that two Vickers MGs could be installed and further modifications were necessary like a bigger wing. It was powered by a 110 hp Le Rhône engine (Scooter used a Clerget).

23 February, 19:48

bughunter
To make progress, the fuselage has been finally primed, shaded and the linen colour and PC10 have been painted.

23 February, 20:23

Kyle DeHart
2019. Well it'll be good to get that off the shelf of doom and onto the finished shelf!! The fuselage looks wonderful already. Love that linen color

24 February, 01:08

Ludvík Kružík
I agree with Kyle. The hull looks very good already. 👍
I wish you to make it to the shelf with finished models this time.

24 February, 09:25

bughunter
Thank you mates!
After a mishap all the work on the wing (pic 22-26) is lost 🙁 I had to remove the paint completely - again shortly before flying to the wall, into the bin or shelf of shame. The devil is involved in this project!

But I don't give up, let the plotter cut a new set of masks and did the work again.
Some more things are done too, but this is far from ready. Decals, Vickers mount, ... and even the instrument panel are still missing, not to mention the rigging ...

29 February, 20:44

Kyle DeHart
Sorry to hear about your mishap!! Glad you did not soar it into the wall. Everything is still looking wonderful. The prop looks lovely sitting in its spot. And the teaser with the lower wing is very tasty indeed.

1 March, 14:01

gorby
I don't believe any kit could defeat Bughunter. 😄
Some models are sent to try our patience. My current project is really pushing me to the limit....but I'm still enjoying it.

1 March, 17:01

bughunter
Thanks you Kyle and gorby! Made some small steps - this time in the right direction. Some new pics uploaded.
gorby, there are some special kits ... like the Curtiss Jenny from Lindberg. After looking into the box I quickly closed the lid and preordered the LukGraph kit 😉

1 March, 22:30

Kyle DeHart
Markings look excellent as does your instrument panel. Really great work

2 March, 05:20

bughunter
Thank you for your continued support, Kyle!

In case you want to see the finished model:
Sopwith Swallow | Album by bughunter (1:48)

20 March, 20:12

J35J
Amazing work! 👍🏻

20 March, 21:21

Kyle DeHart
Indeed Frank, a beautiful result. I am sorry I didn't see it sooner. Gorgeous photos as always too!

20 March, 23:39

Album info

That big in the title names my first build log with the new requested picture size of 2160 pixels. Now that are really macros!

Sopwith Swallow

79 images

1:48

Completed

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