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).

That strikes me as odd. But perhaps it was only the direct-drive version of the SE5A that used a two-blade propeller. The four-bladed version (Revell and Roden) is left-handed.

Anyway, there was no choice but to make my own. So here's how I did it:

First of all, make up a basic block (I had to laminate it, not having plastic strip the right size). Then glue a plan onto it as a sanding guide:

Carve to the basic shape:

Finally, carve the blades, using a sharp knife:

Actually, I had a bit of trouble here trying to get the hub the right shape, and ended up taking too much off. I corrected with little discs of plastic and Milliput.

Here it is with an undercoat:

As a kind of test of the shape I ended up with, I tried mounting it on a pin and improvising a wind tunnel (i.e. blowing on it). It spins beautifully (not that it's going to be in any way functional once in place):

I'm doing the front plate separately. This avoids demanding too much of my very poor brush skills:

The worst is over now, I think. Over the next few days, I will do a few coats of paint and varnish - it's worth getting this right because the propeller is quite a feature in itself. Then I've just got to glue the remaining details in place (the Lewis guns and tail skid as well as the propeller), then I'm nearly ready to start on the rigging.

More soon.