A Pair of Pups!

For my Build of the Year 2017 entry I’m going to try something completely different – Paper Modelling! I was fascinated by the paper model of the Dutch Light Cruiser “Scaldis de Ruyter” constructed by Glued Fingers some time ago and then, when there was a posting a short while ago about a huge paper model B29 Super Fortress I had a really good look through the pages on Ebay and was astounded by not just how many and how varied these models are, but just how detailed and realistic they can look.
I’ve never tried a paper/card model before (not since I made a hover tank out of a kids sci-fi cut and glue book many years ago) so I’ve decided to give it a go.
I’ve gone for a lovely little kit of the Sopwith Pup WW1 fighter in 1/33 scale produced by the Polish company of Kartonowa Kolekcja, which I think means ‘Cardboard Collection’? Paper modelling dates back far longer than the modern plastic kit era and is especially popular in Eastern Europe, and especially, especially Poland! Having received this kit, No 23 in their series, and struggling to comprehend the instructions I’ve decided to make not just one Pup, but two! The first one will be built following the exact instructions of the kit with no enhancements other than those suggested in the text. The second version will be made from the kit again, partly alongside the first build, but this time up-grading as much as I can which will lead me on to the second new skill I hope to acquire with this build – creating and casting replacement parts, not in white metal as I was doing on the Victory, but this time in resin! This will hopefully include such items as a new rotary engine, a set of wheels and the pilot’s seat among other items.
Photo 1 illustrates the cover of the Kartonowa book in which all the parts and instructions are provided. This particular aircraft is perhaps the most famous of all the Sopwith Pups, the machine of Flight Commander Edwin H. Dunning who, in 1917 performed the first ever landing of an aircraft onto a moving ship, and therefore, the world’s first Aircraft Carrier HMS Furious. Cmdr. Dunning made two successful landings in his Pup N6453 but was tragically killed on his third landing when the aircraft was caught in a strong gust of wind and toppled over the side of the deck, Dunning was drowned before any help could reach him.
Photos 2 and 3 show the actual parts of the model, four sheets of A4 card (140gm weight). On the bottom left page you can see a set of alternative parts (fuselage, wheels and front cowling), which allows you to make either Dunning’s aircraft or a Home Defence fighter. Kartonowa actually produce this kit in a variety of finishes – these two Royal Naval Air Service machines, a couple of Royal Flying Corps Western Front fighters and even an all white Imperial Japanese Navy fighter and a captured aircraft flown by the Communists in the Russian Civil War (we supplied Pups to the Japanese and White Russians after the war).
The difficulty in understanding the instructions is made easier by the excellent drawings provided in the book as shown in Photo 4, these explain most of the ‘stick what where?’ problems caused by the on line translators running back to Polish when they encounter a term specific to airplanes or modelling! There is also a page of photographs showing the main sub assemblies being built and coming together which helps a lot too.
In the next installment, a short history of the Sopwith Pup and the tragic death of Cmdr. Edwin Dunning.

Until then, Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

A very different build type for you.

Good luck with your entry.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Looking forward to seeing how you handle this one as i cannot even begin to think how this would go together.

I have made up some model railroad buildings for friends were you overlay the printed sheets onto thick card.

Not sure how something as fine as an aircraft would be done so really interested in following along with you on this one.

Good luck with the build Robin. I saw similar to this at the model show in London, couldn't believe how realistic they look.

Mark

Very interesting kits, a nice scale to use for a dio too as there lots of figures available

Steve

Many thanks indeed to all of the above for their comments!
This is a departure from my usual modelling techniques I must admit I couldn't believe how lifelike some of the paper models out there look either, if you have a search through ebay there are some cracking kits available - the model of Rommel's 'Grief' command halftrack is incredible. I especially like the 1:1 scale Aliens M41 Pulse Rifle (maybe one day! )
You're right Tony, thicker cardboard plays a big part in this model too as you'll see later. I've been proceeding along with the builds with the basic model having just finished the fuselage 'carcase', the reason I haven't started posting yet is because I'm building the much more detailed No.2 alongside it and needed to take lots of comparison photos between the two (which you can't do if No.1 is all 'glued up'!)
Hopefully the build diary proper will begin next week. Until then here's a short history of the Sopwith Pup and the heroic Flt Cmdr. E H Dunning.

First of all, there is actually no such aircraft as the Sopwith Pup! The ‘Official’ designation of this plane is the Sopwith Scout. The name ‘Pup’ came about because the previous machine from the Sopwith firm was the larger two seater Scout/Fighter called the “Sopwith One and a Half Strutter” (usually known by its crews as “The Strutter”, see Photo 1. When the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service pilots saw the new smaller Scout, they immediately joked that the old Strutter had had a pup! Although the top brass tried to suppress the name as they regarded it as derogatory to a fighter aircraft, the name stuck and in fact began a tradition of Sopwith naming all their subsequent designs after animals or birds – with one exception – the Sopwith Triplane (there’s no animal or bird with three legs or wings I suppose!) All through the war however, every official plan and drawing from Sopwith (with one or two unofficial exceptions) only referred to the Scout, never the Pup!
The origins of the Sopwith Pup began with a single un-named biplane built specially for the Sopwith Company’s chief test pilot the Australian flier Harry Hawker (guess which aircraft manufacturer he went on to co-found!). Harry’s ‘run-about’ was essentially the same as the Pup except for having ‘Wing-warping’ instead of separate ailerons. It was possessing four of these, one on each wing and all connected by a single control cable that gave the Pup its superb handling characteristics (it was widely reported that the Pup could turn twice in the time it took the German Albatross to turn once.) The Red Baron, when first encountering the Pup in combat reported that ‘It was clear that the enemy’s machines were superior to our own!’ The Pup’s front line operational life was less than a year! Aviation design was perhaps the fastest growing of all the war technologies (apart from the entirely new tank concept) and within twelve months the Pups were superceded by the new Camels and Triplanes from the Sopwith stable. (The much vaunted and far more famous Fokker Triplane, forever linked to the Red Baron, was nothing more than a back-engineered Sopwith Triplane which had been captured intact. Even the Fokker’s engine was a direct copy of the Sopwith’s up-graded Le Rhone 110 Hp rotary mentioned below!) The main drawback to the Pup was its 80 Hp Le Rhone Rotary Engine, which was really underpowered for a front line fighter. When the Pup was redesigned into the Sopwith Camel, the Le Rhone was also redesigned and improved into a 110 Hp version with which both the Camel and the Triplane were fitted.
Photo 2 shows the actual historic first landing of an aircraft onto a moving ship at sea by Edwin Dunning. This was horrendously difficult and dangerous as at this point in time, the HMS Furious only possessed a flat deck forward of the superstructure, the rest of the ship still being in Heavy Cruiser configuration. This meant that to land back on the ship Dunning had to fly alongside the ship, passing the rear turret, smoke stack and bridge before performing a tight swerve or yaw to come across the deck and then shut everything down to almost literally drop onto the launching deck. If you look closely at the photo you can see leather straps attached to the underside of the lower wings, the junior officer on the extreme left is in the process of grabbing onto one of them to drag the aircraft out of the air and onto the deck. You can also see that Dunning has his starboard ailerons down as he tries to fight against the strong air currents blowing around the superstructure just behind the cameraman. On this first landing the Pup is fully armed with its single Lewis gun. However, on the fatal third landing the aircraft was unarmed. As I mentioned in the first installment, Dunning was tragically killed on his third attempt, his lightweight Pup was caught in a strong side wind as he touched down and the aircraft skidded across the deck and toppled over the side, unable to free himself from the seat belt he was drowned by Furious’ side wake before help could reach him. E H Dunning had proved though that recovering aircraft back onto the launching vessel was possible, and despite his death, ultimately led to the classic aircraft carrier design so well known today – and his ship, the HMS Furious was to lead the way throughout that evolution – accomplishing many more ‘Firsts’ along the way.
Photo 3 was taken at the very moment that Dunning’s third landing turned into the disaster that took his life. Caught in a strong gust of wind, the Pup veered sideways and overshot the landing area on the wooden decking. Despite the valiant efforts of the junior officers waiting to grab the straps, Dunning was pitched over the starboard side of the launching platform and into the sea.
The final Photo 4 shows what happens to a wood and fabric biplane when things go horribly wrong! Although the original photograph has no mention of when and where this was taken, I have a nasty suspicion that this is in fact poor Dunning’s Pup being recovered after his fatal crash. The two things which point me in this direction are firstly the aircraft number on the fuselage – it’s very fuzzy here, but on the original you can just make out N64 – these were the first three components of Dunning’s aircraft number. Secondly, looking at the centre of the upper wing you can clearly make out the tripod stand for the Lewis Gun – but no gun. This may have been torn off in the crash of course, but the Lewis was removed on Dunning’s fatal landing as you can see in Photo 3. I found this photo before the preceeding one and wrongly thought he must have gone over the port side of Furious and either the bow wake or the actual hull has demolished the starboard side of the Pup’s wings and engine cowling. As the other photo proves however, he went over the starboard bow and must have either gone in starboard wing first or even upside down, which would explain why he was unable to free himself from his seat belt. A sad end for an heroic pilot.
In the next instalment, a quick look at the new tools and materials I’ve acquired for this build.

Until then, Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

Many thanks for that Tony! It's going well so far, Number One is currently waiting impatiently for Number Two to catch up with all her added internals being fitted in!
Before the actual construction starts, a quick mention of the main source of reference material that I’ll be using to build Pup number 3 and a few new tools which I have bought for Pups 1 and 2.
The first picture shows the cover of a photo cd produced by Traplet Publications in their “Full Size Focus” series. I’d never heard of either until I began looking up the Sopwith Pup on the web but I came across their website and found this brilliant source of material. The cd consists of a series of photographs of a fully airworthy and original (well mostly) Sopwith Pup, registration number G-EBKY. The pictures on the cover show the aircraft in all its glory BUT, this is how it looks after a complete strip down and re-build so, (and this is what I really need for number 2) we also get a full set of photos of the Pup stripped right down to its bare essentials, ie, fuselage frame, wings reduced to ribs and spars, engine exposed etc, etc. I don’t know what other aircraft they have in the series but if you’re doing an in-depth model it might be well worth checking them out.
On the right are the new extra tools I bought specially for this build. I already had a selection of modelling knives but I decided to get hold of one of these nice rubber padded ones to help reduce ‘cutters fatigue’ whilst producing the bits and pieces for the build. This one cost a whacking £2.75 on Ebay plus (and this is the ridiculous part) another £2.90 for a set of five blades. Now the knife packaging states “with two blades” but for some absolutely stupid reason we can’t buy craft knives WITH blades on Ebay! So the seller has to remove the blades which should have come with the knife (and are still included if you buy the knife in a shop) and I have to purchase a set of blades on their own – but still from Ebay! Where’s the logic? The other new item is the little bottle of Deluxe Materials ‘Roket’ Card Glue. This I bought from my local Antics store in Plymouth where, surprise, surprise, it was actually about a pound cheaper than any on-line supplier! Roket card glue is the super glue of the paper and card world. It will grip and ‘grab’ much quicker than normal PVA and will stick card or paper to itself and also plastic and wood. For sticking together small sections and details this glue is fantastic, but you need to be very careful when gluing larger bits together such as covering the wing ribs with the ‘skin’ for example, you have to get it right first time as it won’t allow much movement once the two parts come together. The only other item you need for this model is a sheet of 1mm grey card, this is the type of cardboard you find at the back of calendars and note pads and is really cheap to buy on Ebay – my pack of A4’s was £2.99 and for this kit you only need about three quarters of a single sheet. Confusingly, this card is known as ‘Chipboard’ in the US – you try gluing the paper parts onto UK Chipboard and then cut them out with a craft knife! The rest of the materials for paper modelling I already have – sand paper for shaping certain parts, acrylic paint to touch in the edges of small details and a selection of brass wire rods to go inside the struts and landing gear.
The big ‘Family Portrait’ photo shows the supplies I’ve bought to try out resin casting. My first purchase was the American “Alumilite” kit as seen in the Hobbies catalogue and on the far right of the photo. I bought this set because, frankly I didn’t know what else to try! It’s quite a sizable kit – about a kilo of resin consisting of half a kilo each of A and B which is mixed together at 1:1 to produce the solid resin. This is a good all purpose resin which has a very short setting time – the chemical reaction begins 90 seconds after you began mixing it together! The casting can be removed from the rubber mould after about ten to fifteen minutes. The downside is it’s really expensive! Alumilite also do a silicon rubber to make the moulds and I almost sent off for some of that too (costs over £30, the same price as the resin in fact) Luckily I discovered a British company on Ebay called DWR Plastics who produce a home grown silicone rubber substitute which is shown in the big white tub on the left. Not only is their rubber exactly the same, property wise, but it costs way less than half the price (£12.50). What I forgot to include here was the little bottle of purple catalyst which is added to the white rubber to begin the RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanisation) which sets the liquid rubber into the solid mould. After looking through the DWR on-line shop I also discovered that they manufacture the resins as well. Their resins are less than half the price of the American product but it allows more mixing time (3 minutes as opposed to 90 seconds) and it is also more ‘watery’ when mixed which means it is easier to pour into the mould and also produces finer detail. On top of that, the British resin is non-toxic too which helps with any sanding down afterwards! I bought a half kilo set for £9.00, which is shown in the centre of the photo along with a bottle of liquid wax release agent which is applied to the first half of the rubber mould before pouring in the second half. This was just £4.50.
Finally at the bottom are some of the plastic mixing cups (40 for £2.99) and disposable pipettes (50 for £2.34) both obtained on ebay again. The cups are for mixing the resin, the pipettes are for adding catalyst to the rubber. My first experiments with resin casting have been quite successful I'm relieved to say, and I’ll have a full description of this fascinating aid to modelling in the diary later.
In the next instalment, beginning the construction of Pup No.1.

Until then, Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

Ah poop! How on earth did I leave that out of the text? You're spot on Tony, that is indeed a set of scales! In fact its proved to be one of the most useful of all the resin related items. Its a diddy little set of digital scales measuring just 5 inches by 3. It will weigh up to 200gm at increments of 0.01gm! I use it to weigh out equal amounts of the A and B resins and also to weigh out the much smaller quantities of silicone rubber catalyst. This is added in at the rate of just 3% so I pour out enough white rubber, use the calculator to work out 3% of that weight then use the Tare function to reset the scale to zero and drip the catalyst in from the pipette until I reach the required amount - simples!
This brilliant little tool was also from Ebay - just £4.99 incl postage!
The Alumilite is a good resin, but so far I've found the much cheaper DWR Plastics resin to be superior in both quality and use. DWR also has a range of metallic powder additives to create various finishes too. Although DWR doesn't produce one, you can also get transparent resin on Ebay as well which I'd like to try later - maybe transparent instrument panels and windshields in the future?

Robin.

Lovely work Robin, all looking great....

Regards

Alan

Some very neat cutting Robin.

When i put together a few model railway buildings using similar techniques of print glued to card i found the card quite difficult to cut through easily.

Looking really good what you have done so far.