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 - 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 - further cackhandedness

I was nearly ready to do the decals, but I've mucked it up again. The picture shows the upper wings after their coat of Gloss Cote, and somehow I've managed to get a kind of discoloured rectangle right in the middle of each one.

Sopwith Dolphin - progress of a kind

Well, that's the main paintwork done. I was hoping to have started doing the decals by now, but there have been a few setbacks and I've started recognising a certain reckless tendency in my recent efforts. This tendency probably arises from boredom and pressure, and has on previous occasions led to disaster. So I'm calling a halt now for a few weeks, before the quality of my work goes into a steep dive that can end only in the wastebasket.

Sopwith Dolphin - more paint being splashed about

Pope surrenders to half-built model aeroplane

More progress on the paintwork. The picture shows the first coat of battleship grey on the plywood and aluminium panels. It's been quite a job to get this far, though. I've spent most of the day applying various types of masking. I suppose it's a bit easy to criticise a design 94 years after the event, but the Dolphin did seem to have rather a lot of apertures of one sort or another.

Sopwith Dolphin - Lower wings added

This is what a regency biplane would have looked like

At last, I've got the lower wings in place. You will also see that I've done the rib effect. So now everything's ready for painting.