Sopwith Snipe(s)-WNW 1/32 9/3 A pair of completions

Looking real good, Marc, great wood simulation.

Got to take my hat off to WNW's quality. Their stuff is just incredible.  Bob Ross was an amazing unconventional painter who could produce paintings with tons of trees, leaves etc in just a few minutes using a 2 or 4 inch brush. Too bad he is not with us any more.

Great wood simulation and fantastic work!  

John, PJ... thanks guys.

yeah I gotta say It was great watching him take a blank canvas and turn it into a cabin in the forest on on a lake or a mountain in 30 minutes. I want to buy one of his all in one sets and see if I can get close.

I've been to Smyrna Beach a couple of times where the Bob Ross Gallery is at but it's been closed. I'm about a little over an hour away and just got to time it right with their schedule.

Looking great Marc!  I'll certainly enjoy watching your thread since I am plugging along on my pre-WWI GB Snipe as well.  I've got almost everything painted (need to deal with the struts and a few small bits still) and decals on the fuselage as of last night.  Love your interior so far.

Thanks Blue.  Got a WIP thread going?  Love to see some pics.

I have a few pictures I have taken along the way, but I don't want to hijack your thread.  I have threatened to show them over on the GB page, so perhaps I'll put up a quick post there.

B.t.w.... I couldn't agree more with your statement recommending the WNW kits.  In addition to being my first WNW kit, this Snipe is also my first WWI aircraft,  and my first 1/32 scale model.  It is an absolutely beautiful model, and has been an extremely enjoyable process to build (rigging to come still!).  I have a long queue of WNW kits I want to get to next!  

great work so far Marc

That looks just amazing Marc.  The paintwork is really top shelf, not to mention your usual attention to detail.  Watching this one come together is going to be fun! 

Anthony, Mike... thanks guys.  Glad you're liking t so far.

And Mike, maybe this will influences you on seeing some "Sinageage" coming our way from you too.  Hmm?

Blue, that is a list of firsts to be sure.   And not to be lasts I am sure

The daylight may be lasting longer but it sure feels like the day are getting shorter.  Falling asleep early then waking up at 11 or so and being wide awake seems to be the best bench time for me these days.  Whatever... I'll take it.

Cockpit is nearly done.  Still 1 instrument to add to the IP.  Guns are a dry fit at the moment and the ammo chutes are still to come. 

The BR2 engines are really nice looking with some great detail.  I cut off the molded spark plugs and added some .5 mm tubing with a some .040” wire inserted for the new plugs.  They were washed with some AK Engine Oil and then some bits were picked out with a black oil paint wash.  I took some Hawkeye’s Polishing Powder on a finger tip to go over the highlights. 

Fuselage section almost ready to go, just need to do some work at the tail end for the skid.  A couple of mock up pics of the fuselage so the upper deck is not in its final spot yet.  Another modeler said that masking the gun barrels at the front was a real girlie dog.  They don’t really fit under the deck when it’s in place so the plan is to cut off the barrels at the back of the cooling jacket with a JLC saw and feed the barrel in from the front.  With a blade just .005” thick the difference in length won’t be noticeable. 

Wowsers Marc, that certainly is impressive, I'll have to consider getting one of the WnW's someday

Hey Josiah... thanks .  Get one. you won't be disappointed.

I particularly like your treatment of the engines.

Thanks Don.

Looking very tasty!

regards,

Jack

Thanks Jack.   But I think you have some sort of eating disorder

Oh that's just great!  Now I'm hungry! 

Really good stuff Marc! 

Thanks Mike.  Need a little A-1 for the Snipe?

Nah, I'll just whip up a nice rub for it and pop it on the grill. 

Seriously Marc,  you are becoming the bipe master.  They look awesome! 

Howdy yous guys.  Trying to go forward on these birds has been a challenge.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I have a problem with a WNW kits it is of my own doing.  Well 99 % my fault this time.

 As I was fitting the horizontal tail feathers the instructions were vague compared to their usual perfection.  There was a funny little gap at the front edge at the notch in the fuselage. 

 I tried finding some pics of the 1:1 and other models but none showed this very clearly.  So I glued the part in and with a just minor pressure the gap was almost gone.

 Then I grab the 2^nd horizontal stabs and I look and see a pin that was not on the other.  Must have broken off.  But Now as I fit the part I see there is a HUGE gap that runs the length of the “join”.  Finally remembering there are period pics on the WNW site I find one that clearly shows this gap supposed to be there. 

So out comes the Xacto razor saw to cut the stabs off.  This left a couple of kerfs tat needed to be filled and the extensions at the back end, that hold the tail skid, cut from it .44” thickness down to .19”.  Some Evergreen strips were glued in place and contoured to the curve of the side of the fuselage.  To get the correct shape of the gap these needed to be sanded so the front end when down to nothing and the back end kept it full thickness.

One of the rib tapes was scraped off by the saw.  I pushed a micro chisel in the surface and covered that with a strip of bare metal foil.  I think it will look fine once it’s painted and weathered.

The engine has been wired and the props painted.  The mock up in the last pic show the incredible fit on the parts in this kit.  So far this has been easier then the Albatros D.Va.

Marc

Your work as always is great. On the wing root issue, we've all been there and missed something which became obvious 10 minutes later ( I lost a whole panel on my WnW Sopwith Pup for about a day when it was still on the sprue and in the instructions).

Its how we deal with the problems that make us better and a realisation that WW1 aircraft had just a few fit issues

Phil

Thanks Phil.  The WWI birds sure do have some things that area WAY outside conventional aerodynamics for sure.  If Mike the ruddrat hadn't mentioned the gap at the  lower wing root already that too would have driven me nuts.  But seeing the enormous opening at the front of the wings I am wondering now if that's what he meant and not the thin gap that goes to the back.

Marc,

Your first set of pictures, attaching the cabling, is very instructional, but to me, still missing a detail.  It looks like the cable sits in a recess in the framework, so _how_ did you get the line taut if it set down below the level of the framework, or is that an illusion?  

The building is looking great, and very informative.  I've done 'wiring' before, back when I was a kid.  I just did it, but now, that kind of work gives me the heebie-jeebies.  :-)

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

Marc,

Great recovery work; that would set me back far worse than you.  I accidentally snipped a bit too much off of the wing tip (to fit the late style ailerons) and had to fuse a piece of styrene rod onto the end which I was able to sand down to fill the gap, but my repair skills are pretty ham-fisted compared to what you were able to to.

Gene,

I wouldn't normally answer for Marc, but since I am 75% of the way through the same model, I'll see if I can help.  The Snipe used flat aerodynamic wiring for the cockpit framing for which I have used Prym knit in elastic.  From the pictures it looks like the same material that Marc is using.  Similar to EZ-Line, the Prym stuff stretches, so it is a bit easier than fishing line to keep taught.  The easiest way, assuming that you can get the CA glue to hole, is to glue one end directly to the frame, cut the length a bit shorter than the span so that it stretches, and then glue the other end.  This is what I did for my internal framing since it is pretty hidden, and details are hard to see.  You could also drill holes in the framing, and pull the rigging through, tighten and glue.

For the exterior rigging, I preferred to glue tiny eyelets at the attachment points, and loop the rigging material through those.  Pass the line through a piece of brass tubing, then the eyelet, then back through the tubing. You can tension the line by pulling the tag end taught, and put a drop of glue on the tube end to set it.

With non-strecthy material (fishing line, for example), its either eyelets & tubes, or drill and pull as far as I know.

Blue

1st to Gene... thanks to you sir for the compilemtns

2nd to Blue... thanks to you too sir.

3rd and back to Gene re. the cabling... What Blue said

By the way Marc,

Assuming that is the Prym elastic, I don't know about you, but I had a devil of a time feeding it through my tubing (especially coming back through for the second pass).  I am using the .5mm  x .3 mm inside diameter nickel silver tube from Albion, and think it looks about the right size.  Between the wade/flat profile of the elastic, and its having the stiffness of overcooked noodles, I was quite frustrated. (The mono I used for control cables posed no problems.)

I came up with a technique that was time consuming, but works.  I fed a loop of very fine monofilament through the tube, and used that to pull the elastic through.  Because I needed another loop of mono to pull the elastic back through after going through the eyelet, i also pulled a second piece of mono through with it.  The second piece of mono was long enough that the tag ends stayed on the other side of the tube, thereby creating a mono loop to pull the tag end of the elastic through when ready.

I'm not sure that was clear, and perhaps there is a much easier solution (larger tubing, for example), but I can put up a better post showing what I am talking about in a separate thread if people would find it helpful.

Blue

Hey Marc, your first impression of what I mentioned about the wing root gap is correct.  It was the gap at the trailing edge I was referring to.  What is this other gap you talked about?

More than a gap really.  It's the opening in the fuselage at the bottom of the 1st side panel between the wing leading edge and the back edge of the engine cowl.  When I did a testy it of the bottom wing my 1st thought was, "CRAP! What did I do?"  Then I went to the sprues to see if there was a part that goes there.  Then I went to some finished pics and knew all was right with the world.