Shuttleworth Collection

Hurricane.

NB - I've published this post despite lacking info on some of the planes pictured, just so as to get it online ASAP. I'll fill in the blanks when time allows! [Oh, and Blogger in Safari on my iPad is helping me lose pics!]

Although the weather wasn't the brightest, several of the Collection's planes were out flying, including this Hurricane (above), and a Fiesler Storch (below). The latter was the only complete Axis plane we saw at the collection. There are some oddments relating to two German late-war jets, and lots of models of German and other Axis planes, but very few of the real thing.

The Shuttleworth collection is understandably very proud that the vast majority of their exhibits are kept in working order, including some of the oldest planes still flying from the earliest years of manned flight.

Fiesler Storch.

Sopwith Camel

It was making my recent Revell 1/72 Sopwith Camel that got me thinking of a visit to Shuttleworth, which museum I'd visited once many, many moons ago, poss as far back as my childhood. I had vague but strong memories of having seen a Sopwith or two there, and fancied returning for a little recce.

I was a little sad to find that the planes I'd come to see - the Sopwith Camel (pictured above and below) and Sopwith Tri-plane - were both sans props, and indeed sans nose in the case of the Camel. Still, even in this form, she's a beauty, and it's good to get ref. at source. The four bombs pictured below, for example - a part of the Revell model I opted to leave out - were coloured altogether differently from how I thought they would be. 

What kind of Camel has no humps?

Rather attractively coloured instruments of death!

1918 Avro 504 K.

Museum visits are great for collecting ref. and inspiration. The prop and engine on this Avro 504 are terrific!

Sopwith Pup, plus rockets (and laminated Easter egg!).

The rocket arrays on this Sopwith Pup look positively primitive and bizarre - a bit Heath Robinson, really. But they make for a good pic. I'm less keen on the Easter-egg-trail laminated egg, slipped into the nose cowling! Would've removed it if I'd noticed it, but I only realised my mistake when I got home and reviewed the photos!

Oh, for the wings of a Sopwith Dove. Another beauty.

Phwoarrr... get a load of that nose. This'd be very tricky finish to replicate in miniature, I suspect.

I'm thinking of making up my Revell 1/72 Sopwith Tri-Plane along these lines. 

It's a kind of dark chocolate brown, with interesting markings.

Look at the conk on this 'un! But what manner of bird is she?

Sea-Hurricane.

This plane, which looks like a small slim Sopwith variant is actually a Bristol Scout, Type D.

A folding Yankee war-bird, for use on aircraft carriers. 

Most of the Shuttleworth collection, both civil and military, is British, but there are a few other nations represented, including the USA, Russia and (civil only, I think?) France. 'Check'er Tail' is a machine I've seen recently flying over Duxford, and has, both on the sexy fuselage pin-up and the planes rear end, a distinctive chequered tail... Geddit!? Boom, boom, eh?

Biplaneski.

Models galore!

The collection of planes and other vehicles is supplemented by lots of other stuff, including many propellers, engines and other components, and large numbers of nicely made models. Some model-makers have donated entire and often large collections, some made from kits, many converted, and plenty scratch-built.

Above is an amazing segment of a model of an aerial view of part of Bedfordshire, which, as can be seen in the lower of the two pics from an info-board below, was mounted on a flexible base that moved around two large rotary drums. A pre-computer-age flight simulator, this was a veritable moving diorama... the stuff of my childhood (and even adult) dreams!

The picture above is actually turned 90° clockwise. The model is displayed hanging vertically on the wall, like a painting. The stripes running vertically across my pic (actually horizontally, when viewed in situ) are where the strips of the model would separate, as it went around the rollers. Amazing! As the upper part of the pic below shows, the scale is tiny (somewhere around 1/700th, I think), and the quantity of miniature buildings and trees used is staggering.

What a cool job! They had all the gear, no mistake!

The Shuttleworth Collection also features lots of non-military stuff, including early flying machines, bikes, cars, carriages and agricultural machinery, such as the rather lovely Austin tractor above.

A very shiny beast! Forgot to snap the info board on this one, so can't identify it. Can anyone help?

And finally, in the restoration workshop, the ultimate 'big boys' model kit', an actual real life Spitfire. The Shuttleworth collection is great. I'd definitely recommend a visit. Its strongest, from a miniature wargamers' perspective, on British WWI planes, but there's loads more to enjoy, plus a restaurant and gardens, etc.

Kit Review: Sopwith Camel, Pt II

Up till today I had been adding new sections to my original Sopwith Camel post as I worked on it.  But doing so on my iPad is proving such a monumental pain in the arse, that I decided to post this update as a new and separate part.

Today was about touching up little paint details, and, more fundamentally, doing the 'rigging'. I looked at a lot of photographs of the real thing, and many gobsmackingly beautiful models. There's a lot of talented, patient, methodical people out there!

I opted to rig this bird with stretched sprue, as an experiment and learning process. I also chose to simplify the rigging, and only portray certain parts. I've probably got it wrong anyway. But I'm fairly pleased with the result. But, goodness me, it was fiddly and time consuming!

I took a couple of pics of the Camel perched on top of an MDF CD stand by IKEA, as shown above.  But I thought they looked rather dull, so I took some photos of her sitting on top of my iPad, over an image of some Sopwith Camel diagrams. These images, though not perfect (and the model itself needs cleaning up, weathering, and varnishing), do at least look a bit more interesting, I reckon.

Those familiar with  this Revell kit will notice that I have not used the decals as supplied. Instead, I have adapted them, to suit my own preferred more straightforward looking version of this very beautiful aircraft.

Kit Review: 1/72 Revell Sopwith Camel

WWI Fighter Fun!

DAY 1 

As I'm currently stumped by the rigging for my Langton 1/300 Dutch Gunboat, I was exploring methods for producing ropes and wires, etc. Although it's probably of no use re that particular kit, it being metal, resin and suchlike, I did watch some sprue-stretching videos on YouTube, as they came up when I googled various rigging related searches.

So, just for the fun of it I found some spare sprue and had a go. I've done it before, of course - WWII tank aerials, for example - but I wanted to see if I could replicate what this chap Hamilkar Barkas does, where he draws the thread of sprue to an arms fully outstretched length.

I managed this feat on a few occasions, which was gratifying. It then set me wondering what use I could make of the resultant styrene 'cabling'. I recalled I had two small Revell WWI aeroplane kits, originally bought to build with a Slovakian buddy (who moved to NZ before we got around to them), in my stash.

Fully aware I was going to be diverging from the path I'm supposedly following - as I so often do - I thought, 'So be it; whilst the ship's docked at Port Indecision, I shall build WWI fighters!'

As these two sprues show, this is very a simple minimal kit.

I started by hand-painting (i.e. using paintbrushes, not airbrush or aerosol) the cockpit interior and pilot. I like how the pilot turned out. And the mucky cockpit interior, whilst it looks like fresh-daubed clay, is fine, as it'll be almost invisible.

Next came the tail and twin machine guns. I painted the guns prior to cementing in place. This proved to be a redundant move, as you'll see in dew coarse.

Two pics of my various attempts to mask the pilot, ready for undercoating. Above, a portion of a plastic 'baggie'; below, some Tamiya masking tape. I went with the latter!

An aerosol base coat in Matt grey.

The airbrushing was a nightmare! I really must get properly kitted out. I'm still using my very basic Badger, with a canister of compressed air, rather than a compressor. Getting the paint consistency right - never mind the colours (my beige and green were both mixed in a very ad hoc manner, and simply judged by eye; I realise they probably aren't quite right, but they look ok to me!) - was only one of several fraught steps.

I've decided to start using acrylics, as modern Humbrol enamels aren't quite what they used to be. Or so it seems to me (perhaps it's just me that's changed?). The main reason for the change is the speed at which they dry; acrylics  are so much quicker. I do have a load of modelling acrylics, mostly Vallejo, but I couldn't find them, as pretty much everything's still boxed up from our recent move; partly 'cause we're supposedly only where we are now temporarily.

Once the paint is the consistency of single cream, I judge it to be about right. Perhaps part of my troubles with airbrushing is this? Ought the mix to be thinner, like full-cream milk? I currently have to mix the colours in the airbrush paint-reservoir, using artists acrylics, a palette-knife, and a pipette for the water.

I find that simply getting any paint to flow is tricky: the air supply is weak and temperamental (I have to continually shake the can, and the current one appears to be leaking propellant somewhere around the valve); the alignment of the paint-supply and air-supply nozzles has to be micron-perfect (and seems to change!); and the paint-supply channel continually clogs. Aaaaarrrgh!

The beige underside airbrushed. Prop and engine also block-painted (brush).

The main green areas blocked in with the airbrush.

The Camel at the end of Saturday night.

DAY 2

I didn't get very much done today - we were out mostly (& I bought an amazing book about building a model of HMS Victory at an antiques shop) - just painted the struts holding the wings together, and painted and assembled the landing gear. Still got decals, rigging, and detailing/weathering, etc. But she's looking like a proper WWI fighter now.

As the pic below shows, the underside of the model is quite rough! I did try and file smooth the main seam along the centre of the lower fuselage. And I also removed some plastic from the underside of the engine area behind the nose cowling. 

You can also see two 'female' holes, which look like they're for some other running-gear assembly! Also visible are the bits where the struts sit and glue into the wings. I'm not sure that I'll go as far as trying to fill/smooth these areas. But I'll probably touch the paint up by hand, at a later stage. Colour matching may be an issue!

The underneath is darker than I'd intended it to be, approaching the ubiquitous dunkelgelb of mid- late-war German WWII armour.

At the stage pictured above I had to remove four redundant male 'nipples' from the landing gear, as there are no corresponding female parts into which to insert them. Trying to brush paint this area with the green acrylic I'd mixed for the body and wings was a no-go, as it was water thin. So I mixed some Humbrol enamels. It's not an exact match, but it'll do for this model.

I decided to hand paint the inner part of the wheels in red and white, and turn them round - drilling holes all the way through so I could reverse them. This allows me to use the decals on what would have been the inner face.  I can't quite recall why I did this, but there was some rational reason! I think it had to do with the part intended as the outer face being easier to hand-paint in the red and white ring patterns. 

Above, the running gear seen from underneath. Below, seen with the plane on her feet.

DAY III

First off, happy birthday dad! 

It's both a monday, the day we used to regularly make models together, and his 66th b'day. He's at home recuperating from a triple heart-bypass, and apparently not feeling too well.

Chin up pops, and get well soon!

I found a use for a couple of the 'nipples' I removed from the running gear frame, re-inserting them into the axle-holes, as pictured above.

Oops, I think this pilot's been at the gin!

Today was mostly about decals. I went to Ely City Cycle Centre, and bought some Humbrol Decal-Fix liquid. I really want get Micro Set and Micro Sol. The Humbrol stuff doesn't seem that great. It helps attach the decals, but doesn't really help make them follow the contours of the model.

Nevertheless, as basic a job as I've thus far done, the decals do take it to another place. As these pics show, the decals and paintwork need some finessing - there's the sprue rigging, general tidying up, some detailing, weathering, etc. - and then the whole lot needs varnishing. 

But as my first 'serious' model aeroplane build (the Hasegawa Egg plane, funn as it is/was, doesn't count, somehow) since childhood, I'm happy. I also have a Revell 1/72 Sopwith Tri-plane. Might try and make that as well, before my next teaching term starts.

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NOTES:

[1] I also find the relatively recent decision of some manufacturers, Revell amongst them, not to print swastikas, equally annoying. I can understand the issue with the swastika, it's connotations having been so profoundly tainted. Even so, I think it's an unwelcome form of over-sensitive historical Bowdlerisation. But I really can't see why they would do what they've done with the RAF roundel at all. Is there a reason?