Wingnut Wings Sopwith Pup

[KiwiZac]

I've been going through a really rough patch financially. My wife had to leave her job late last year due to health issues and, while she's had some part time stuff, we're really hard up. As in I'm selling my car to help pay hers off and so we have a cushion for bills/food.

Anyway.

I caught up with an old friend at a recent airshow and we got talking about models. He's moved onto bigger stuff - has an Airdrome Aeroplanes Fokker Eindecker coming together in his garage and flies a DH.89a for passengers at weekends - but was interested to hear my views on Wingnut Wings kits. I sang their praises and he asked how many I've built - none, due to aforementioned issues. Jump forward to couple of weeks ago when a WNW Pup kit turns up at my door with a touching, encouraging letter from him enclosed.



There's a lot of small parts to paint before you put anything together and unfortunately I only had half the colours required, so I did what I could while I waited for some more paint to arrive (sold my wargaming figures to finance a couple of treat models, some paint and power bills). Now everything's here except the rigging material - here soon - so it's well underway.



I followed the paint callouts in the instructions - they give Tamiya and a few others, Tamiya being their and my primary - but I'm not 100% satisfied. I'll play around a bit.

More soon   

[zenrat]

Life's a bugger isn't it?
Things will improve i'm sure and until they do you've got this amazing kit to distract you.
I still think you should heavily whiff it though.  Tuboprop?

[Rick Lowe]

Sorry to hear about that, Zac - hope things improve rapidly.
Never fun having to sell one's stash to pay bills... voice of experience. 
(and it's always the best favourites that sell well, never the 'I can live without this')

The WNW kits are (apparently) a blast - the folk at the club who've built them rave over them (but then as we're all pretty much Raving Loonies anyway, how could one tell?!) 

Keep smiling. 

[sykotik]

what a great friend  you have to give you such a nice kit.
As the song goes, things can only get better...
Will enjoy watching you bring this to life

[NARSES2]

Great friend to have Zac  Hopefully life will start getting better for you and the other half.

Looking forward to this build

[KiwiZac]

Adam is without a doubt the most positive and encouraging person I've ever known. When he asked for my address via Facebook I thought he was sending a magazine or book to read. I intend to do him proud. Here's us in a Tiger Moth over the central North Island of NZ in October 2007:


Thanks also for all your kind wishes. Sam doesn't want me to sell the stash as she says it's not my fault, my retort is that marriage is a partnership  I had wanted to sell the wargaming stuff - WH40K - anyway as I didn't enjoy the games as much as I thought, and it meant I could splash out on the Endeavour and Sheffield kits without spending money we needed for other stuff. Another friend may be interested in the car, so here's hoping! The flipside of not being able to afford food is that I should lose weight...

The engine paint is bothering me, because there are two different "metal" colours used there - the cylinders aren't the same colour as the other grey bits, but you can't see a difference even in person! I'll be seeking guidance from the blokes over at the WW1 Aircraft Models forum.

Two spools of elastic thread for rigging should arrive direct from Wingnut Wings today or tomorrow arrived this morning, now I can get into assembling the cockpit! I did a rough wood treatment of those bits yesterday so keep an eye out for photos soon.

[DogfighterZen]

Things will get better, stay strong! Looking forward for more on this beauty.

[NARSES2]

I think you'll find with the engines that the cylinders were left as was whilst the centre bit (crankcase ? I'm a bit of a technophobe  ) was often painted grey or similar.  Best to seek guidance from the guys who specialise though, good call. 

[KiwiZac]

They say Mr Metal Colour #213 is a great one to use, so I'll keep an eye out for that. Preserved and restored examples definitely have different colours, so they must be made from different material.

[Steel Penguin]

it may also be "weathering" were the metal has heated and cooled to different degrees, plus the typical oil , gunges and wipe clean, polish, fit a new one, so they are different ages so have different amounts of surface corrosion.

[KiwiZac]

Thanks gents!

Not much to report except that late yesterday I rigged the first bay of the starboard cockpit wall:


It's a big learning curve (for example: when hungry and cold your hand shakes!) and I now know that CA accelerator would be a big help. I'm sure that the more I do, the better my system will be.

Annoyingly when trimming the sprue gates I cut off one of the tabs on this piece (you can just see the remnant I left on there, at lower right) and both on the port. That made for a very frustrating moment, but I don't think it'll be a major problem.

[NARSES2]

It's a big learning curve (for example: when hungry and cold your hand shakes!) and I now know that CA accelerator would be a big help. I'm sure that the more I do, the better my system will be.

Yup. I think with a project like this you do need to get a system that you are happy and comfortable with. Really enjoying watching you find your 

[KiwiZac]

Thanks Chris, I got there in the end! The cockpit sides are all rigged - mostly from behind, as I had big problems with stuff sticking in the corners - and I'm excited to get back into it over the weekend. Expect photos!

[KiwiZac]

Here's the state of play after a lovely day at the bench:


The next headscratcher will be finding a way to string up the rudder and elevator cables...

[zenrat]

How much of all this internal rigging is visible when its all buttoned up?