Sopwith Dolphin - scenic base

After a bit of a break, I've finally got round to making the scenic base for my Dolphin.

Display Case

At last, I've got round to ordering a display case, and here it is, made to order and delivered pretty promptly by Acrylic Display Cases. You could argue it's a bit roomy at the top, but I thought that if I made it any lower it would start to look squashed. Anyway, the green baize looks so smart that it's almost a pity to cover it up. But I can do the scenic base as a separate very thin sheet of MDF and then drop it in and see how it looks before making a final decision. Nearly finished, then. Have I said that before?

Maybe one day I'll make something else.

Sopwith Dolphin - finished

There!

I never really thought I'd say this, but the Dolphin is finished. A bit of mud on the undercarriage, the Mini World Lewis gun painted and installed, and the pitot tube glued on again (twice), and there you are. I'm now going to find a display case for it, then do the scenic base. Matt from the Wargames Table has kindly lent me some static grass and Vallejo acrylics, so I'm going to be studying his blog closely to see how he does it.

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 - 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.