Sopwith Dolphin - rigging finished

Phew, that's the rigging done.

Sopwith Dolphin - rigging continues

Rigging continues very slowly. I'd forgotten how fiddly it is. Anyway, I've settled into a routine where I do a few lengths per session and then, every so often, when I can summon up the courage, bring up the soldering iron and wave it over the ones I've done to tauten them up, like a big scary magic wand.

Sopwith Dolphin - rigging started

Well, sorry about the long silence. About 6 months ago, I seem to remember saying something to the effect that it was all over bar the rigging. Then I actually started doing the rigging, and suddenly I seemed to hit a brick wall. It's quite simple in principle, the technique I use, and I've used it on two previous projects (my only two previous projects, actually). You just prepaint some stretched sprue (see earlier post), cut lengths of it and stick the lengths into place. And that, in previous projects, was that.

Sopwith Dolphin - cabane struts

I've added the cabane struts, with a bit of cross-bracing, and here is how they look. This was an unbelievably fiddly job - the sort where you have to get up and walk about after every strut and bracing wire. But done now. Phew!

Sopwith Dolphin - Fuselage nearly finished

I've nearly got the fuselage finished at last. Here's what it looks like with the engine fairings.

Stretched Sprue

So, stretched sprue.

One way that you might use stretched sprue: from an abortive SE5A project.

Actually, there's probably not much new to say about stretched sprue, but this is how I do it: