Sopwith Dolphin - nearly finished

I've made a bit more progress this evening and suddenly it's nearly finished.

Sopwith Dolphin - Propeller

It's the last scratchbuilt detail. But it wasn't meant to be. I had assumed that I would find a suitable propeller in the spares box, but at the last minute I had a closer look at the plans and realised that whereas most British aircraft used a right-handed propeller, the Dolphin I, with its geared Hispano engine, needed a left-handed one. And would you believe it, there was not a single left-handed propeller in the spares box. Even when the search included not only two different kits of the SE5A (Revell and Roden), but also the early SE5 (Pegasus).

Sopwith Dolphin - Wheels

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've made a bit more progress since the last once, as you can see. I've had another go at pinning the tail on the Dolphin, and I've added the undercarriage. Now that it's sitting up properly it's looking a bit more lively.

Sopwith Dolphin - upper wings on again

I haven't made much progress over the last couple of months because of family matters. But I've finally managed to get the upper wings on again.

Sopwith Dolphin - not much progress

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've been working on getting the upper wings into place, but in such a slow and cack-handed manner that I'm still not quite there yet.

Sopwith Dolphin - radiators

I've spent the last few days making radiators. I wasn't going to originally. I've got a resin kit of the Dolphin, and my original intention was that the radiators were the only bits I was going to use from it. But when I looked at them closely, I saw that they were, to be honest, little more than blobs. So, as I said to myself more than two years ago when I first got the resin kit, I can do better.

Sopwith Dolphin - looking a bit more like a Sopwith Dolphin now

You can probably tell what it is by now

I've made some real progress over the last few days and it's all looking quite promising, I think.

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 - cockpit nearly finished

I've nearly finished the cockpit at last. The new details are the joystick and a tiny instrument mounted between the Vickers guns.

Sopwith Dolphin - seat finished

At last, I've got the seat finished, and here it is:

Sopwith Dolphin - Vickers guns in place

I've finally got the Vickers guns into place and I'm quite pleased with how they look.

Sopwith Dolphin - Vickers guns

I seem to have drifted into the doldrums again in the last week. After getting the paintwork done, I was really looking forward to getting started on all the interior detail. But as it happened, I found it very difficult to muster any motivation. And when I did fight past the lethargy and get down to work, it seemed to go slowly and badly. Still, I think I'm over the worst now; not only out of the doldrums but proceeding under all plain sail, is how I'd put it.

Sopwith Dolphin - final coat of varnish

I've got the final coat of varnish on at last, and here's how it's all looking:

Sopwith Dolphin - decals finished

I've got the decals finished at last. The next job is to do a final coat of varnish. I was going to do a satin finish, but after looking at what other people have done, I've started to think that a near-matt finish might be more convincing. Anyway, I'm going to think about it for a day or two.

Sopwith Dolphin C4056

Just added the serial number. So that's that decided. It was flown by Lt C E Worthington, according to Osprey 48. Just the roundels on the lower wings to do now.

Sopwith Dolphin - brainwave put into action

So here's the brainwave: do a marking scheme that doesn't include the lazy S and includes only simple stencils that I can easily cut out. So my Dolphin now represents C4056, from about April 1918. I got the scheme from Dolphin and Snipe Aces of World War 1 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No. 48). Apparently, the horizontal S was not specified for 87 Sqn until that date. A different squadron marking had been specified in December 1917, but there's no sign of it on the Osprey profiles. So it was just a question of choosing the individual identification marking. I had a choice of C, S (with a shamrock), L, G and Q. Can you guess why I chose the "L"?

Sopwith Dolphin - not giving up

I've had a brainwave about the Dolphin. As you will have seen from a recent post, I've started work on the decals, using a mixture of techniques, and it's looking reasonably promising, up to a point. But the trouble comes with the lazy S insignia. All the other markings are fine: I can print them out on the laser printer or cut them out of white decal film, or (for the "lift here" stencils) use decals from the spares box. But the lazy S has me stumped. I just can't make a decent job of it, but it was the insignia of 87 Squadron and I want to do a machine from 87 squadron. So what's the answer? Here's where the brainwave comes in. It's sort of like giving up, but not really. It's actually more like the realisation, after several months of hitting oneself on the head with a cricket bat, that there is no need to hit oneself on the head with a cricket bat.

More tomorrow.

Sopwith Dolphin - armament procured

Armament programme under way

My Mini World guns have arrived from Hannants and they look superb. The detail is amazing, and the Lewis guns even have etched brass parts for the sights etc. (this is 1/72nd scale, remember). Mini World is a Ukrainian company, I see, from their instruction leaflet. I don't know what drives the Ukraine to produce so many high-quality WWI scale models, but I hope it continues.

I won't be able to use a lot of these bits, unfortunately. It's a pity, but according to my photographic sources (Windsock 54, конечно, and Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 48)  the sights weren't fitted on the wing-mounted guns, and that's pretty much that. Fair enough, though. You can understand the thinking of 87 Sqn on this point. So the only etched bits I'll be using are the ones representing the little leather handles on the magazines; but this is a nice detail itself. On your typical injection-moulded Lewis at this scale, this feature is represented by what you could only call a blob.

As for the Vickers, they come with a belt of ammo each. Fantastic! I'm definitely going to use those, and have them feeding into the guns from the ammo boxes. And I won't even need to paint them. A bit of fudging will be needed, because the ammo feeds won't quite be wide enough for them (what with the overscale thickness of the plastic card). But I think it should just about work.

Just got to finish those decals first...

Sopwith Dolphin - decals started

Well, I've made a start.

Sopwith Dolphin - some definite progress on markings

Here are the decals for the roundels, which I've printed out myself, and I think they look pretty good.

Sopwith Dolphin - no news

This project is likely to go into hibernation for a bit now. I've had no luck finding suppliers for my custom transfers and so I'm starting to think I'll have to get hold of an ALPS printer. Or maybe in the interim someone will do a commercial set of transfers for the Dolphin. Or Roden will do a Dolphin that I can pinch the transfers from. Or the Vulcans will come and demonstrate advanced and yet accessible decal technology to us. Or something. More news in due course, hopefully.

Sopwith Dolphin - artwork for markings

Didn't make much progress with the Dolphin over Christmas. All I can show for my efforts over the whole period is this screen capture of the artwork for the markings. And I've still got to find someone that can turn them into transfers.