Sopwith Aircraft

[Mossie]

I'm starting this thread for two reasons, one, I know next to nothing about WWI aircraft & it'll be good to learn something, two, the missus bought me a Revell 1/72 Sopwith Camel as a pressie & I haven't got a single clue what to do with it!

So how can we whiff the various Sopwith aircraft?  And what can I do with my Camel???

[sotoolslinger]

My first thoughts on any bi plane make it a mono plane , make it a triplane.

[Daryl J.]

Mossie,

Check out the Sopwith Scooter and Sopwith Swallow.    Variants of the Scooter are already underway here as the Eduard Weekend Sopwith Camel lends itself to conversion rather well.


I think the Camel 2F.1 would be awesome on floats with squared up wing tips too.    The dorsal bulge over the cowling seems to add mass to an already stocky machine, putting floats styled after the Baby and the square wings would make for a very powerful looking machine.    Gotta use one of those Whiff cliches y'know.   


,
Daryl J., leaving in a few minutes for another week in the desert

[GTX]

Do it up in modern low viz grey scheme and enter it in the Grey Pride GB.

Regards,

Greg

[jcf]

I think the Camel 2F.1 would be awesome on floats with squared up wing tips too.    The dorsal bulge over the cowling seems to add mass to an already stocky machine, putting floats styled after the Baby and the square wings would make for a very powerful looking machine.    Gotta use one of those Whiff cliches y'know.   

,
Daryl J., leaving in a few minutes for another week in the desert

On the way to developing the 2.F1 (Ship's Camel) for the RN "... Sopwith designed the FS.1, a Camel-type aircraft having having two unstepped main floats of pontoon form and a faired tail float."
"The link between the two familiar forms of the Camel (F.1 and 2F.1)  and the Baby was seemingly the aeroplane numbered N4, which crashed in March 1917 and which was otherwise called 'Improved Baby', 'Floatplane Scout' or 'Camel Seaplane'."
Passages quoted from page 167 of 'Sopwith Aircraft 1912-1920', H. F. King, Putnam 1980.

Major differences between the 2F.1 compared to the F.1 are:
1) shorter-wingspan
2) thinner center-section struts
3) two-part fuselage joined behind the lower wings to allow splitting the aircraft in half for shipboard stowage, aircraft was also called 'Split Camel'.
4) single Vickers mounted on the port side of the cowl (no 'hump' over the cowl gun), Lewis gun mounted over center section of upper wing.
5) external elevator-control cables
6) ground adjustable tailplane
7) bottom wing dihedral increased to 5.5 degrees.

Jon

[jcf]

Camel nightfighters and a two-seater.

Note that on the B-P built Home Defence Camel nightfighter the twin-Vickers cowl guns were removed, the cockpit was moved aft and a head-rest fairing added.

Jon

[Mossie]

Thanks guys!  I like the idea of the swallow, but to look right it'd need rigging & there's a hell of a lot of it for a first time attempt.  I might be able to scratch some floats from blasa & a bit of plastic strut.

One idea I had was for an interim to the Dolphin, my favourite Sopwith fighter.  Reverse the wings, maybe even lower them like the Dolphin for a test bird or an in-field conversion?

[Brian da Basher]

Don't be intimidated by the rigging, Mossie. If you cut thin wire (like guitar strings) and attach them with white glue, it's not too hard. If you make a strut for under the tailplanes, you can get away with only 16 pieces of rigging (8 between the wings, 4 between the struts, 2 between the landing gear and 2 between the tailfin and fuselage).

Here are a couple of whiffs I made from Sopwith Camels.

Brian da Basher

[jcf]

The reverse stagger wings were also used on the 3F.2 Hippo two-seat fighter and the 8F.1 Snail single seat fighter C4284.
There were two Snails; C4284 with reverse stagger and conventional fuselage construction and C2488 with positive stagger and monocoque fuselage. The Snail used the A.B.C Wasp 7-cylinder radial engine rather than a rotary.

Replacing the rotary of the Camel with a radial is a definite possibility, the Sopwith Dragon was a development of the Snipe (the Camel replacement) re-engined with a 9-cylinder A.B.C. Dragonfly radial.

So you wouldn't be that much out in Whiffland if you modded the Camel with Dolphinesque wings and a radial engine. 
Perhaps add the twin upper Lewis guns of the Dolphin and/or the downward angled Lewis guns of the Camel based TF.1 'trench-fighter'.

Jon

[Daryl J.]

JCF:  The Sopwith you described above existed? (FS.1)  Very cool!    Some time back yours truely bought a HD.2 kit from Eduard with the thought in mind to make a floating Camel.

Mossie:
How about sandwiching together a pair of Roden 1 1/2 Strutters to make a Sopwith Siamese.    It'd have better proportions than a twin Camel.
Speaking of the Strutter, one could move the wings a bit forward and sweep them back like a Loehner B.II, hook on an external supercharger with intercooler all jury rigged to look cobbled up and/or old fashioned and one has the Sopwith Swift (or some fast sounding S. word in case they really had a Swift).
If one is really good at modeling water, the signature tail empennage could be left out of the water of a sinking machine and gets the title Sopwith Splash......

AFN,
Daryl J.

[Daryl J.]

The Sopwith Striper was used in the very first Tiger Meet according to some rumors........PC-10 and Extra Dark PC-10 for the striping.


Daryl J.