Sopwith Dove for CO2

[Squirrelnet]

Thanks John, Now doped and looking good

Made a start on the wings this afternoon. They needed very minimal sanding having ribs cut from a template, balsa dowel leading edge and sheet trailing edge. Most of the work was round the tips to thin the 1/32 x 1/16" basswood laminated tips and blend them into the LE

I'm keen to fit the bamboo wing hoops (is that what they are called) if it does indeed fly as they are so much a character of the aircraft.

To fit them I have added some cocktail stick mounts at 12 deg to the wing ready to accept them using some heat shrink tubing to give a flexible mount...if it gets that far

Still got to cover the top but down the tips in separate small section 

[Squirrelnet]

A bit more covering this afternoon.

Lower wings now drying having been water shrunk . Just the top of the top wings to cover now

[Squirrelnet]

Slowly doing the covering. Top wing water shrinking. The centre section will be left open so I can fit it once the fuselage is pinted

[Squirrelnet]

First a screw up or oversight if you're being kind. Having rushed on with the covering it was only when looking at the photo's for which bits to paint that I realised I have missed out the open section in centre section  . Luckily I had only covered the underside so a bit of correction was possible .This proved quite easy adding the curved rear sections front and rear and gluing them to the spars and the covering. Once dry I could cut out, the cut out part

[Squirrelnet]

So I'm now at the point I can paint it before the final assembly and finishing. Before that I did one last trial assembly to check I haven't forgotten anything else. At the moment the CG is slightly ahead of where it should be but I think even the lighest coat of paint will sort that out

[Squirrelnet]

 First up - this is the new recruit to fly this model courtesy of Pete Fardell who kindly released him from his duties and dispatched him down to me. Thanks Pete

He does look a bit daunted by the prospect now he's painted but then most of my pilots from the Dave Banks School of Flying look terrified   

It was out with the cardboard box spray booth today to spray the doped linen surfaces with some Xtracolor enamel. I've tried using Xtracolor thinners this time and it seems to work well but there are couple of spots where didn't like the doped finish and left a large pinhole so I think for the blue I'll use cellulose to thin . I've gone for a very light coat just enough to colour it and still have some translucency, I know the fullsize is very much opaque but I think it looks good on small models . The top blue will be a more solid coat though

[Squirrelnet]

I've also painted the cowling. This was just brush painted as the plan is cover the painted surface with a decal to represent the engine turned finish on clear film so the silver shows through.

I did a small test section which looks OK I think so I now need to repeat that pattern to form a sheet I can cut the decal panels from

[OZPAF]

He does look a bit daunted by the prospect now he's painted but then most of my pilots from the Dave Banks School of Flying look terrified   

Actually he looks like the worried farmer from "Shaun the Sheep" 

Very close to the flying/trimming stages now Chris. Interesting way of showing engine turning.

John

[Squirrelnet]

Well I got the most important part of the blue done but then when thinning the next batch of paint I accidentally added way too much thinners so I gave up . I'll have to get some more paint but they don't open until thursday ..oh well should have bought more than 1 tiny tin

There's other things I can do on the fuselage before I fit the top wing anyway so I'll get on with that. I have a Dashboard which I'll just do as a print out. It's one I got for a past Pup resized to fit...not quite right but close enough

[gravitywell]

Its just looking so beautiful.  Absolutely lovely.

[Lastwoodsman]

Sun April 19 2026

Hi Chris.    Your paint job on your very real looking Banks pilot,  for your Sopwith Dove,  is quite well done.        Banks pilots are my favorite scale pilots also.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Squirrelnet]

Thanks Richard

Not a huge amount of progress but I got the white panels painted and some of the fiddly bits brush painted

[Lastwoodsman]

Wow Chris!  Those colors look great great!   

Lastwoodsman
Ricahrd

[Squirrelnet]

Cheers Richard. G-EAGA is a very pretty aeroplane

Some decals today - I had run out of decal paper sprayed black for the registration letters to be cut from so sprayed up some more. The first didn't really work. I used some Revell matt black with Humbrol enamel thinners and it really pin holed and refused even after some drying time to fill them. In desperation I chucked that paint and mixed up some with cellulose thinners which happily covered over everything. Not sure what happen there the decal paper was some of the last of my Sunnyscopa straight from the packet so should be contamination???

Next stage was the engine turned cowling which I have produced an a4 shhet of the pattern which i printed onto clear decal paper. This was then applied to the sliver painted cowling. I did give the matt silver a light coat of gloss acrylic varnish as decal paper doesn't really like matt surfaces

[Squirrelnet]

Once the black decal sheet had dried I cut the reg letters out and applied those.

The cockpits now have the dashboards which are just printouts onto photo paper given a coat of acrylic spray both sides to waterproof them

Getting the decal to conform to the front edge of the cowling is the main challenge now. I have gone for small strips attempting to continue the lines from the side part.

I'm not sure about it but I'll let it dry and see how it looks. It could be the whole thing is given a very light coat of silver over the top to soften the effect ... as I say not sure at the moment